Center For Church Music, Songs & Hymns
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Music & Worship
Church Music: A Comparative Evaluation
| Hymnody | 'Praise & Worship' (CCM) Music |
|---|---|
| Written for congregational singing. | Written for performance. |
| Words (hymn) and music (hymn tune) are interchangeable, yet the music submits to the words. | No such flexibility, as the words are subsumed into the music. |
| Long shelf life: Good hymns last for centuries and are passed on for generations. | Short shelf life: The most popular praise songs last a few years, rarely more than a generation. |
| Four-part harmony and wide musical range, contributing to vibrant congregational singing. | Limited musical range; sung in unison style that does not lend itself to strong congregational singing. |
| Contains varying degrees of structure complexity derived from its strong musical heritage. | Structurally weak ans the music is derived from simplistic popular form. |
| Values the interrelationship of melody, rhythm, and harmony | Melody dominates the structure of the music |
| Represents the liturigical heritage and choral tradition of generations: In this way, hymns are incarnational. | Reflects an attempt to escape or reject that heritage: In this way, choruses are Gnostic. |
| Reflects a normative understanding of culture; sees music as having inherent value and beauty, something good in and of itself. | Reflects a relative understanding of culture; reduces musical forms to a utility, as means to 'reaching people.' |
| Pipe organ friendly | Guitar based |
| Natural acoustics work best | Electronic amplification a necessity |
| Uses poetic meters | Poetry and meter not a concern |
| Masculine & robust | Feminine |
| Maintains aesthetic standards | Lowers aesthetic standards |
| Antidote to the current cultural disorder | Reinforces the current cultural disorder |
| Favored by churches with origins in the Protestant Reformation | Favored by churches of more recent origin--"non-Reformation Protestant" churches. |