WB Stayin' Alive
While Charles Wesley wrote the hymns that sparked the fire of the Methodist movement, if you’re not a musician, you may be surprised to learn he did not compose the tunes we sing.
Charles wrote spiritual poems set to a particular meter, or pattern of beats. These poems could then be sung to popular tunes with the same metric pattern. The idea was if you sang theological words over a familiar tune, the theology would sink in better.
Many of the tunes we now have set for Charles Wesley’s hymns were written long after his death. Some of these tunes are great, super singable, and catchy.
Love Divine All Loves Excelling.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing.
Christ the Lord is Risen Today.
O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing.
I mean, you just name those titles and it's like an ear worm starts singing the catchy tune in your head.
But then the United Methodist Hymnal is full of other Charles Wesley hymns with great lyrics and snooze-fest tunes. When the pastor says, “Hey, why don’t we sing, Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose or A Charge to Keep I Have, it really goes with the theology for this service…” everyone else responds, “Um, because it is set to the most MEH TUNE EVER.”
Now I realize this is a matter of pure opinion. Popular opinion, but opinion nevertheless. All I’m saying is, the whole reason music was an essential trait of the early Methodist revivals was that it connected to the masses. It stirred something in them that made them believe prayer mattered. It awakened something in them that said, “Christ died even for me.”
This week’s comic was meant to be the first three panels of a much larger comic, one that I’ll bring to you next week (so this will just be a prologue). My point is not that every song in church needs to be super catchy. But I do think if the masses find our worship to be a snooze fest, chances are we’re not channeling our inner Charles.
So what are the sleepiest tunes in your hymnal?
Why are we still singing them?
New Charlie Baber
The Rev. Charlie Baber, author of Wesley Bros cartoon.
When not drawing the Wesley Bros cartoon, the Rev. Charlie Baber, a United Methodist deacon, serves as youth minister at University United Methodist Church in Chapel Hill, N.C. His cartoon appears on United Methodist Insight by special arrangement.