#059: Hymns from Yesterday for Tomorrow (ft. Dr. Don Saliers) - a podcast by National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM)

At the end of each episode every week, I make a general ask for your suggestions of topics for future episodes. It’s been interesting to see what issues are on your minds, and I’ve done my best to incorporate the needs you’ve shared into the conversations we host. Often, the topics shared with me have to do in one way or another with repertoire development. So, today we’re going to open the repertoire conversation, but know that we’ll be picking up more repertoire-related topics in future episodes and NPM content. In fact, as coincidence would have it, the upcoming May issue of Pastoral Musicmagazine will focus on building repertoire.

So, let’s begin with hymnody. Hymns – both in reference to text and to tune – are so very important in the congregational life of the Church. Often, however, some communities think of hymns as artifacts rather than possibilities. Today we’ll challenge this assumption. To do so, we’ll hear from an article written by Dr. Don Saliers. Originally published in the April 1981 issue of Pastoral Music, Don helps break open what constitutes a “good” hymn and shares insight into the importance of hymn singing and the development of new hymns.

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