Posted on 08/19/2017 7:15:07 PM PDT by hiho hiho
No, the melodies of our beloved hymns weren’t borrowed from drinking songs, bar tunes, and tavern music. I’ve had about ten comments on my blog posts this week alone trying to use the bar song myth as their smoking gun in the case for commercial worship. It’s an argument many love to make, but it didn’t happen.
Those most often implicated in this myth are Martin Luther and the Wesleys. Luther did use German Bar form, a musical style in an AAB pattern having nothing to do with the suds. There is no indication John John and Charlie ever suggested such a thing, and knowing their position on imbibing and the importance placed on proper text/tune pairing, it’s unlikely the would have even considered the idea. Tunes were occasionally borrowed from existing folk songs, but they weren’t simply extracted from whatever people were singing at the local watering hole and paired with jesusy poetry. And even if they were, it was not, as commercial worship apologists are wont to say, in an effort to borrow from culture for the purpose of evangelism or getting butts on the stools…er…in the pews.
This rumor has been thoroughly debunked by both scholars and laypeople. So why do people still believe it? I’m not entirely sure, but it seems like the “Grassy Knoll” theory of Christian hymnody. There’s no evidence for it, but dang it, it’s just more interesting than the truth.
Irresponsible? Yes, absolutely.
Difficult to suppress? You bet.
This is why I’ve decided to take to Twitter with a more active and annoying approach. I searched for tweets containing “hymns,” “drinking songs,” and “bar songs,” and left some drive-by education for those who perpetuate this dumb myth. The results are…interesting, to say the least.
I suspect many drinking songs were ribald parody of hymns.
A pastor at our church used to claim that the Methodist hymn “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” was set to a tune that was the equivalent to “Ninety-Nine Bottles of Beer on the Wall.” But I doubt it. The tune to which it is usually sung was composed by a German composer of sacred tunes and arranged by Lowell Mason, who composed a whole slew of hymn tunes including song that probably every American knows, “Joy to the World” (the gospel song, not the rock and roll song).
The hobo anthem Hallelujah, I'm a Bum (1928) uses the melody of the old Scottish hymn "Revive Us Again." The singer, Harry McClintock, aka Haywire Mac or simply Mac, makes reference to my favorite robber baron, James J. Hill.
Joe Hill's 1911 rant The Preacher and the Slave, aka "Pie in the Sky," performed here by Comrade Pete Seeger, is a parody of the popular nineteenth century hymn "In the Sweet By and By." Incidentally, Hill was executed for murder in 1915.
And long may the sons of Anacreon intwine
The myrtle of Venus and Bacchus's vine.
bttt
I see that they are raising glasses and acting drunk. Forgive the repeat information from a while back, but our national anthem was not based on a drinking song. I had this out with the Smithsonian (not that I love them either) when I was on a different user list a long time ago. I thought it was. They adamantly assured me that it wasn’t.
They hymns may not have, but the “Star Spangled Banner” did. The original melody was a bar tune titled “To Anacreon in Heaven.”
Bump....
Those old hymns generally came from funeral dirges. Medieval times were all about funerals.
I also understand that for some people a steady diet of manna causes cravings for melons, leeks and meat.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/3320880/posts
Yep. "The Star-Spangled Banner" is both set to a bar song and in bar form.
Misunderstanding aside, I'll wager that many hymns are set to old popular tunes and drinking songs. William Booth and Ira Sankey both set gospel lyrics to melodies from the theater, for example. Wouldn't surprise me that the practice went back farther than the 19th century.
Let’s assume for a moment that the allegations is correct, what difference does it make? The music itself is spiritually neutral IMO. This is particularly true when dealing with an old tune that no one remembers as a drinking or ribald song of the past. Maybe instead of considering the tunes as forever contaminated, perhaps we should be thankful that this secular creation can be made God-honoring.
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