Contrafactum: Your Favourite Old School Hymns are Mashups and Need More Mashing
Photo by Wouter Supardi Salari. Unsplash.
Back in the day, Contrafactum was a thing with church music. Contr-whatta-what? Yeah, you heard me. Contrafactum.
Basically, it’s where you get a well-known melody and then slip in your own lyrics.
And guess what: as a result, many of your favourite old-school banger hymns did it. Contrafactum.
Be Thou My Vision?
Contrafactum. Reckon those lyrics were originally composed to that melody? Nope! The original Irish hymn was called Rop tú mo Baile, and was written sometime between the 6th and 11th centuries.
And the tune that you love so much? The tune is called “Slane” and has been around for centuries. It was first applied to an English translation of the hymn in 1919. Like a millennium later.
The tune is an old Irish tune, and over the past 100 years has been regularly used for hymns like Lord of Creation, to You Be All Praise (J.C. Winslow), God, in the Planning and Purpose of Life (John L. Bell and Graham Maule), and Lord of all Hopefulness” (Jan Struther). Don’t believe me on that last one? Ask Harry and Meghan.
So, Be Thou My Vision and Slane are only new-ish friends.
Come Thou Fount?
Contrafactum. The words were composed back in 1758 by an English dissenter named Robert Robinson.
And the tune that you love so much? It’s actually an old American melody called Nettleton, which originated sometime in the early 19th century, probably 50 years after Robinson composed Come Thou Fount.
Several other hymns have been used with the melody, Nettleton, including Praise the One Who Breaks the Darkness and God the Spirit, Guide and Guardian.
Several other melodies have been used for Come Thou Fount as well, including Warrenton, Normandy and Prospect.
So What?
The point I’m trying to establish: some of the hymns we love are not as closely bound to the melodies we love as we think they are.
Why does this matter?
Confused Dog by charlesdeluvio. Unsplash.
The Intelligibility Factor
Now to intelligibility. Intelligibility is a big deal. The Apostle Paul writes:
Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying?
1 Corinthians 14:9 (NIV)
I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.
The words we use in church, including the words we sing, need to be understood by the members of our churches.
This point is made more intensely in Article XXIV of the Anglican Thirty-Nine Articles:
It is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of God, and the custom of the Primitive Church, to have publick Prayer in the Church, or to minister the Sacraments in a tongue not understanded of the people.
Admittedly, our hymns are not always “prayers”. But could it be a problem if we’re singing words that we don’t understand in church?
You have to admit that some of our hymns, like Be Thou My Vision and Come Thou Fount, are kind of confusing. At least for some people. I suspect most.
Does the average church member understand what they’re saying when they sing:
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art;
Or:
Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
Or:
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
My suspicion is that most people don’t have a clue what these lyrics mean. Maybe you do. But most others don’t.
Why So Popular?
But if lots of people don’t understand these hymns, why do they love them so much?
Part of it is just that we love tradition. Whether it’s a tradition from 1662, 1919, 1997, 2004 or 2018, we all love tradition. We love what we’re familiar with.
The other factor? The melodies are banger melodies.
Ever noticed that people don’t sing as loud when the melody isn’t as good? It’s a thing. People like good melodies. And don’t like less good melodies.
But if we’re honest, we have to admit that the lyrics to some of the hymns we love aren’t that great.
Failed Attempts at Modernising
Over the years, people have tried to modernise some of our old cherished hymns. For example, the Jubilate guys from the 1980s tried to recast Be Thou My Vision as Lord Be My Vision and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing as Come O Fount of Every Blessing. Some people appreciated it. Other people felt like it just didn’t work. I’m not aware of many churches that still use these modernised versions today.
Photo by Quino Al. Unsplash.
My Idea
My plan? Given that:
a) Contrafactum is a thing and has been taking place for ages;
b) Intelligibility matters;
c) A lot of our favourite hymns are unintelligible, but;
d) People like their favourite hymns because they have good melodies;
e) Attempts to modernise the lyrics have largely failed to catch on;
I, therefore, want to try and reappropriate some of these popular melodies using completely different lyrics. Or, in other words, I want to have a go at the whole Contrafactum thing.
Am I optimistic that my attempts will catch on? Not really. But I think I’ll give it a go anyway.
Check out my next few posts and see what you think.
