So....

[conuly]

I like traditional songs. And, I like a lot of hymns. I really do. They're often quite lovely.

Of course, I don't, y'know, believe them - and somehow, I find it more uncomfortable to be singing words I don't believe than to be singing songs about murder and whatnot.

Is it ethically dubious for me to alter the words of hymns (those which aren't beautiful outside of the music, because I generally can't do as well as they do in making up words if I like them already) to be something... less wrong for me to sing? I don't mind singing general songs-about-God, so long as they're vague and don't really, uh, talk about God in anything other than an abstract sense. Or anything Biblical - stories are okay, commandments not so much. I don't know why some things pass my internal filters and others don't.

I'd just go ahead and change them, but some people (my mom) got on my case for singing Amazing Grace to the tune of Clementine, so....

(Her exact words were "You're gonna burn. Can you go sit over there? I don't want to get struck by lightning." She was being facetious. I think.)

In other news, I need to find me some sheet music for the piano. Some nice, affordable sheet music. I need to start practicing again - I forget how to read music if I don't do it often.

In other OTHER news, I need to find more people queueing up to make me icons. I have a lot of quotes, mostly LeGuin, but some not, that I want iconified, and I'm still to lazy to figure out how to do it myself.

Comments

[conuly]

In fairness, it seems to me that Christian denominations differ so much on theological matters that it's unlikely I'll pick words that are completely theologically incorrect for everyone. Unless I said something like 'Save me, Satan!" which is unlikely. And hymn changing, especially for older hymns, seems to be a bit of a contest - who can change it the most? (In fairness to *that*, any time you have an oral tradition, the words to the songs will change. That's life. So the older hymns, the older ballads, even the older nursery rhymes which I had believed crystallized, they all have dozens of variations.)

[cmarie14.livejournal.com]

You are right that denominations do differ, but the differences are usually also theologically insignificant - by that, I mean that what separates the Baptists from the others is that they immerse people in water rather than sprinkling, etc. It has absolutely nothing to do with the key points of Christianity, and people who think it does are rather wrapped up the religiosity of it rather than being involved in the actual faith.

However, most hymns we sing today were initially written down. Beyond that, any changes I have ever seen (and this is what I do for my part-time living) have either been one or two words that were changed to a modern version of the same meaning, or additional verses. I would argue that while these changes have been made, they have remained consistent with the general idea of the hymn.

:)