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Transforming Congregational Singing
This book deals with every aspect of congregational singing.
It begins with a practical study on Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 as the model of exactly what God says we are to be doing. It has an extensive history of congregational singing with lots of practical things, covering the Bohemian Brethren, Huguenots, Moravians, Luther, Calvin, Anabaptists, Welsh hymn singing, Scottish Presbyterians, old British Baptists, First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, Shape-note Singing, and the Fundamentalist-Revivalist era.
There are chapters on weighing the music and weighing the lyrics. There is an extensive study on song leading and there are chapters on choosing hymnals and expanding the church’s hymn repertoire and analyzing hymns.
There are sample statements on standards for music personnel and standards of church music for church constitutions or covenants.
There is an extensive list of recommendations of little known hymns and practical lessons on how to study hymns. Example studies are provided.
The book has biographical sketches on Cecil Francis Alexander, Charitie Bancroft, Frances Bevan, Philip Bliss, Horatius Bonar, William Bradbury, J. Wilbur Chapman, William Cowper, Fanny Crosby, James Deck, William Doane, Philip Doddridge, Charlotte Elliott, Charles Gabriel, Frances Havergal, Reginald Heber, Elisha Hoffman, Benjamin Keach, Thomas Kelly, John Leland, Robert Lowry, Martin Luther, Samuel Medley, John Rippon, John Roberts, Homer Rodeheaver, Ira Sankey, George Stebbins, Cecil Anne Stelle, Samuel Stennett, Will Thompson, Augustus Toplady, William Walford, Isaac Watts, Charles Weigle, Charles Wesley, Frances Williams, William Williams, Daniel Whittle, and Nicolaus Zinzindorf.
It begins with a practical study on Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 as the model of exactly what God says we are to be doing. It has an extensive history of congregational singing with lots of practical things, covering the Bohemian Brethren, Huguenots, Moravians, Luther, Calvin, Anabaptists, Welsh hymn singing, Scottish Presbyterians, old British Baptists, First Great Awakening, Second Great Awakening, Shape-note Singing, and the Fundamentalist-Revivalist era.
There are chapters on weighing the music and weighing the lyrics. There is an extensive study on song leading and there are chapters on choosing hymnals and expanding the church’s hymn repertoire and analyzing hymns.
There are sample statements on standards for music personnel and standards of church music for church constitutions or covenants.
There is an extensive list of recommendations of little known hymns and practical lessons on how to study hymns. Example studies are provided.
The book has biographical sketches on Cecil Francis Alexander, Charitie Bancroft, Frances Bevan, Philip Bliss, Horatius Bonar, William Bradbury, J. Wilbur Chapman, William Cowper, Fanny Crosby, James Deck, William Doane, Philip Doddridge, Charlotte Elliott, Charles Gabriel, Frances Havergal, Reginald Heber, Elisha Hoffman, Benjamin Keach, Thomas Kelly, John Leland, Robert Lowry, Martin Luther, Samuel Medley, John Rippon, John Roberts, Homer Rodeheaver, Ira Sankey, George Stebbins, Cecil Anne Stelle, Samuel Stennett, Will Thompson, Augustus Toplady, William Walford, Isaac Watts, Charles Weigle, Charles Wesley, Frances Williams, William Williams, Daniel Whittle, and Nicolaus Zinzindorf.
549 pages, ebook
Published February 1, 2024
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
May 5, 2025
Finally finished. I read a lot of hymn stories since our Sunday bulletin includes one with each hymn (helps us sing with understanding), and roughly half of this book is either hymn studies or author studies through the centuries.
I take a month per year to teach/preach on music, specifically congregational singing, and we have no music practices, no choir, and no special music in the services—just congregational singing. We typically learn some new songs and create our own songbook, and we've even done some ear-training in services to help the whole congregation learn to sing better.
I liked both the practical and philosophical aspects of this book. Love him or hate him, Cloud at least addresses things that few others do. Whether you agree or disagree with his reasons, and least you know where he stands, and I appreciate that.
As a musician myself, I remained unconvinced by some of the musical arguments, and there were a few gaps in the logic. But, again, I respect the effort!
I enjoyed much about the book:
1) Emphasis on Psalm singing. I'm preaching from the Psalms on Sunday nights right now, and I've found music to go along with several of the Psalms so far. I love it, and for several years I've been wanting to incorporate the Psalms better. He has a whole chapter on it, and the history of Psalters was interesting. I also appreciated the various philosophies of Psalters (rewritten for Christians or literal wording of Scripture? I lean toward the Christianized versions).
2) The emphasis on Spiritual songs. Songs that feed the spirit and not the body, which means they're saturated in truth. This leads to the next:
3) Weighing our "beloved" hymns by the same measure as CCM. Many revivalist hymns fall victim to the very same arguments we sling against CCM, and no one says that out loud. I appreciated what I felt was a fair balance to this book in that regard—he left room to use the revivalist songs, but warned that if we use them exclusively, we're not using spiritual songs as a tool of teaching and admonition as we ought.
4) I found many new songs I would like to teach our congregation. Such TREASURES are out there—FAR better (in my opinion) than a majority of the newer stuff and better than some of what we're currently singing! :)
5) I appreciated the effort to put objective criteria for how to weigh the music. While music is inherently emotional and therefore much more of a subjective discussion, and since music is largely a reflection of culture, this is a difficult topic to articulate well. Vocal fry, vocal slides, breathiness, improvisation, syncopation, unresolved chords... he addresses many, many different aspects of music. Again, some of it is convincing, but as I'm reading it from the lens of someone who would disagree with him, I found some of the arguments less than convincing. Taken as a whole, I'm with him. We are careful about all the showiness of the world's music and try to guard against it making its way into our church music, but to try to write broadly about it is a tough task.
It wasn't perfect, and I marked a LOT in my book, but I like a book that makes me wrestle a bit.
From his other writings on music, I actually expected a bit more combative material, but this book was comparatively toned down. If this is the ONLY thing of his you read, you won't think so, but when you compare it to what HAS been said, this was calm! Haha!
All in all, it's a good book we're using at our church's Resource Desk to try to provide a Baptist perspective on congregational singing. 4 stars is a bit high, but I'd put it above 3 stars in my brain's rating system.
I take a month per year to teach/preach on music, specifically congregational singing, and we have no music practices, no choir, and no special music in the services—just congregational singing. We typically learn some new songs and create our own songbook, and we've even done some ear-training in services to help the whole congregation learn to sing better.
I liked both the practical and philosophical aspects of this book. Love him or hate him, Cloud at least addresses things that few others do. Whether you agree or disagree with his reasons, and least you know where he stands, and I appreciate that.
As a musician myself, I remained unconvinced by some of the musical arguments, and there were a few gaps in the logic. But, again, I respect the effort!
I enjoyed much about the book:
1) Emphasis on Psalm singing. I'm preaching from the Psalms on Sunday nights right now, and I've found music to go along with several of the Psalms so far. I love it, and for several years I've been wanting to incorporate the Psalms better. He has a whole chapter on it, and the history of Psalters was interesting. I also appreciated the various philosophies of Psalters (rewritten for Christians or literal wording of Scripture? I lean toward the Christianized versions).
2) The emphasis on Spiritual songs. Songs that feed the spirit and not the body, which means they're saturated in truth. This leads to the next:
3) Weighing our "beloved" hymns by the same measure as CCM. Many revivalist hymns fall victim to the very same arguments we sling against CCM, and no one says that out loud. I appreciated what I felt was a fair balance to this book in that regard—he left room to use the revivalist songs, but warned that if we use them exclusively, we're not using spiritual songs as a tool of teaching and admonition as we ought.
4) I found many new songs I would like to teach our congregation. Such TREASURES are out there—FAR better (in my opinion) than a majority of the newer stuff and better than some of what we're currently singing! :)
5) I appreciated the effort to put objective criteria for how to weigh the music. While music is inherently emotional and therefore much more of a subjective discussion, and since music is largely a reflection of culture, this is a difficult topic to articulate well. Vocal fry, vocal slides, breathiness, improvisation, syncopation, unresolved chords... he addresses many, many different aspects of music. Again, some of it is convincing, but as I'm reading it from the lens of someone who would disagree with him, I found some of the arguments less than convincing. Taken as a whole, I'm with him. We are careful about all the showiness of the world's music and try to guard against it making its way into our church music, but to try to write broadly about it is a tough task.
It wasn't perfect, and I marked a LOT in my book, but I like a book that makes me wrestle a bit.
From his other writings on music, I actually expected a bit more combative material, but this book was comparatively toned down. If this is the ONLY thing of his you read, you won't think so, but when you compare it to what HAS been said, this was calm! Haha!
All in all, it's a good book we're using at our church's Resource Desk to try to provide a Baptist perspective on congregational singing. 4 stars is a bit high, but I'd put it above 3 stars in my brain's rating system.
Displaying 1 of 1 review