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The Road Full of Challenges – When Hymns Are to Be Sung in Cantonese

I shared in previous blogs that hymn lyrics are worth retranslating for Cantonese-speaking Christians, even though we already have Chinese versions of those hymns (people of different dialects read the same Chinese characters). I have proposed biblical foundations for singing tone-matching lyrics, which is crucial if we care for the dissemination and transmission of hymns (non-believers are more familiar with Cantopops, which are in Cantonese with tone-matching lyrics). They naturally find dissonant lyrics with melody unfamiliar, even comical. More importantly, they may not be able to fully grasp the meaning of the lyrics by merely singing or listening to the hymns, and it is not easy to memorize these lyrics. However, retranslating these hymns also brings numerous challenges. Not everyone will accept and embrace it entirely, or even consider it a positive thing.

The New Youth Hymns

Several years ago, I was involved in translating the New Youth Hymns, a project by the Christian & Missionary Alliance Church Union Hong Kong. This project aimed to retranslate the lyrics to tone-matching Cantonese and rearrange the accompaniment of 60 classic hymns for the praise teams to pass on the hymn singing tradition to the newer generations within our denomination. The 60 hymns were selected and published in four songbooks and CDs within a few years. When the retranslated hymns were distributed for singing, some pastors and brothers and sisters commented that the new lyrics were not as literary as the old ones. This may have been partly because their familiar versions had been replaced. They felt a complete overhaul that caused emotional distress. In fact, because of the need to follow the melodic design and the meaning of the original lyrics, the translated lyrics could not be as easily expressed as free writing. However, dedicated colleagues still painstakingly translated the original meaning while also fitting the lyric’s tones with the music’s melodies. Achieving this would be a win-win-win situation: melody, lyrics, and tone could work together seamlessly.

In the Congregational Setting

During my pastoral work more than 10 years ago, I occasionally tried to introduce the congregation to sing some of the retranslated hymns. Some brothers and sisters expressed that any alterations to the Hymns of Life, our denominational hymnal, were unacceptable, as if someone had damaged the Mona Lisa by adding a stroke to it. Some song leaders even stated that they would not lead singing if they had to sing newly translated lyrics (and I did not force them to sing the new lyrics). However, no single translation can be considered the only version on this planet, because it’s not original: it is simply a translation. I can understand that, since the brothers and sisters have long sung the Hymn of Life version as their only version, it will be very hard for them to sing any other version of it. The case is much like the introduction of newer Bible translations when people have memorized a typical version for a long time. So, the brothers and sisters’ inability to accept the re-translation is more based on subjective emotional factors than rational and objective analysis. Of course, it is also true that not every new translation is of equally high quality, but time will tell.

Original “And Can It Be” text and tune

In the past week, I encountered a rather serious problem when my church chose the retranslated version of “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” (lyrics by Charles Wesley, tune by Thomas Campbell) as our opening hymn. The original version had multiple musical notes per syllable, but in Cantonese, with its tones, this is not the ideal way to express the lyrics. Therefore, the translator of this hymn decided to assign each character to a single note, much like how we handle Cantopops in our culture. While remaining faithful to the original lyrics, this approach does significantly differ from the original version in terms of singing. The organist suggested that the congregation should have some prior rehearsal of singing this hymn version, at least to let them know it was a different version. However, the pastor felt it was not necessary; the choir could sing the first verse once and the congregation would get it. As a result, most people were unable to sing the hymn.

Coincidentally, I was teaching Sunday school on topics relating to hymns and spiritual growth during this period at my church. After class, a student told me that she could not sing “And Can It Be That I Should Gain” at all during worship that day. She felt very frustrated and confused and asked me if there was something wrong with her. I replied that I understood this was a common experience for many people. The original hymn is so deeply ingrained in people’s minds that they have memorized it thoroughly. So, without any warning, a completely new version is introduced—not just different in the lyrics, but also in the singing style. In the phrase before the refrain, each musical note has a different Chinese character, which can indeed leave some people familiar with the original hymn feeling helpless. In particular, since the projection only shows the lyrics without any melody cues, people may wonder how they can sing the melody with so many words. It is truly difficult to master. Of course, I also told her why this version existed. I said that it was possible that in our community, when singing the old version before, the lack of harmonies meant the lyrics were not deeply understood or were even just parroted. However, because of this tone-fitting version, the lyrics could finally be heard by the singers, and our brothers and sisters could clearly and vividly hear the truths of imprisonment, the liberation from the chains, etc., and may therefore felt moved and grateful. This shows the diversity in our community. Because of mutual love and consideration for edifying others, even if we have a version we are already very familiar with, can we also wholeheartedly learn how to sing the new version, and even treating it as a new song to learn, so that the next time we have the opportunity to sing it, we will be more engaged and able to appreciate the communion, inclusion, and richness it brings?

Conclusion

Compared to our brothers and sisters in the English-speaking world, we do indeed encounter more complex situations when it comes to singing hymns. The church music pastors and leaders can surely help in this process by carefully attending to the congregation’s expectations and capacity, tailoring the needed preparation for specific hymns, and thoughtfully explaining the purpose of the new version to the congregation. This understanding and acceptance will reflect the beautiful sentiment of putting aside our own comfort zone and preferences for others, singing God’s glory in the most natural and meaningful way in the language God has given us. Even if it comes at a high price, it is worth it. May God receive the highest glory and praise because of what we sing and do!

In case you have missed my previous blogs on Cantonese Hymn Singing, you can find them here: Part I of V, and Part II of V, and Part III of V, and Part IV of V, and Part V of V.

Blogger Yvette Lau has bachelor degrees in Chinese and Translation, and Music, a Master in Worship, and a Doctor of Pastoral Music. She has served as one of the executive committee members of the Hong Kong Hymn Society from 2011-2017. Her passion lies in choral conducting, song writing, hymn translation from English to Cantonese (main translator for New Youth Hymns), event organization, translation of books on worship including The Art of Worship, Beyond the Worship Wars, The Worship Architect, and Glory to God, and training and teaching on worship.

Blogger Shannan Baker is a postdoctoral fellow in music and digital humanities at Baylor University, where she recently finished her Ph.D. in Church Music (2022).

What is “showing off”?: The Musical Layers of Congregational Singing – PART I

I recently came back from a mission trip with a group of Baylor students to Malaysia and Indonesia. The trip was an encouraging reminder of the vastness of the body of Christ. I heard stories of God’s faithfulness and had opportunities to equip and encourage them in their ministry. Because of the timing, I was only able to attend one church service on a Sunday. I realized later that what occurred at this one service was not exclusive to this church. In a conversation with some students later that day, one of them asked me if I knew why they didn’t sing harmonies. It took me a moment to realize that, though the students attended a different church that morning, the service that I attended also only sang the melody.

As a researcher and a generally curious person, I found one of our hosts and asked him. Two things occurred in his response. 1) He was surprised by the question. It was as if the thought hadn’t occurred to him that there would be another way. This signaled to me that only singing melody is the common practice whether in a hymn singing or contemporary worship singing church. 2) He did provide me with an answer. He stated that singing harmonies would be considered “showy,” meaning it would draw attention to those who were singing instead of God.

While I knew that what is considered “showing off” is subjective, his response really got me thinking about how subjective it really is. Culturally, singing harmonies is “showy” in Indonesia, but expected practice in the United States (at least for the churches I’ve attended). Again, as a researcher and overall curious person, I began to wonder how many layers of what we do in American congregational singing is considered “additional.” If we understand singing the melody as the essential act in worship, what else have we added?

Now, those who have studied music have taken the history courses that trace how music has developed over time. People have explained the process from Gregorian chant to the common era to atonal music to the plurality of styles we have now. What I hope to do in this short prose is to unpack all the layers to our congregational singing practices, many of which apply to both traditional and contemporary contexts (even if actually performed differently).

Culturally, singing harmonies is “showy” in Indonesia, but expected practice in the United States

The Layers of Singing in Worship

The Melody

The melody is the most memorable and, some would argue, most important element when it comes to congregational singing. This is the tune that everyone should, theoretically, be able to sing. However, that phrase “should be able to sing” has led to conversations about range. One of the roles of a worship pastor is to determine what key to use for each song. For contemporary worship songs, this can be challenging since many of the songs have a wide range, spanning an octave or more. While this decision is predetermined for the hymn singing church, in some cases, the key selected by the hymnal committee puts the melody in a higher placement. As an alto, I am singing high D’s, E’s or on occasion F’s. The solution I have found during the first verse (when the accepted practice is for everyone to sing the melody the first time through) is to sing an octave below when it gets too high, or to sing the entire melody in the lower octave. In contemporary worship contexts, one of the solutions (often reflected in the original recordings) is to have the person singing switch from the male vocalist to the female vocalist for different sections such as the bridge.

Now, if melody is the primary element for singing in worship, could this ever be “showy”? What comes to mind initially are impressive moments in secular songs. In spaces where the attention is intended to be drawn to the talent of the performer, I think of songs that have high notes and are placed in keys that place the melody higher. Some incredible vocalists that come to mind include Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, and of course, Whitney Houston. These female vocalists are renowned for their ability to hit really high notes. If church songs were put in ranges where only a handful of the congregation could sing the top notes, that would probably also be considered “showy” (even though everyone may be singing the melody).

So, does “showy” indicate any time when the congregation is not able to sing the melody? Or rather, when the congregation is not able to join in the singing at all?

What most people would consider a solution to the problem would be to put the melody within a range for every voice part to sing. For a melody to be in a comfortable range for basses, tenors, altos, and sopranos it would need to be in a very small area of the staff. According to the New Harvard Dictionary of Music, these are the ranges for each voice part:

Immediately, the range for everyone to sing in the same octave is taken away because it’s too high for the basses or too low for the sopranos. If the tenors/basses and altos/sopranos sing in octaves, the range widens a bit from C4-C5. However, the closer it gets to C5, the higher it feels for the altos and the basses. The complexity of different voice ranges explains why some people have concluded to have a male vocalist and female vocalist sing the melody for different sections in a song.

In summary, finding a song that fits the range of every vocal part is difficult. This leads to one possible solution (and our next musical layer): harmonies.

While singing harmonies is considered “showy” in some cultures because it draws attention to those vocalists, it can serve a practical function in helping people join in singing.

Harmonies

If you enter a church on Sunday in the United States, you will likely hear people singing in harmonies. In hymnal churches, those harmonies are provided for the congregation. Each voice part will find their note on the staff and sing that. If we define “showy” as something that people cannot join in singing, then in this context, harmonies provide a way by which people can continue to sing even if the melody extends beyond their comfortable range.

In contemporary worship spaces, the words are displayed on the screen and people learn the melody by repetition and singing along. Often, these harmonies are created spontaneously, and the congregation learns by following someone who is singing that part on stage or in a recording. If “showy” is defined as the congregation not being able to sing, then contemporary worship spaces might initially be considered “showy.” However, after enough repetitions many people in the congregation can hear these parts and sing them instead of the melody.

While harmonies are offered as a solution to the melodic range problem, when they become more complex, they move back into the category of showing off. Many contemporary worship songs and hymns do not often include non-diatonic chords. They typically stick to the typical I, ii, iii, IV, V, and vi. In some instances, there might be a major II or III chord or a bVII chord that sneaks in; though, these chords are not that common. In other styles of music, other chords and additional notes in the harmonies are more complex. These complex chords lead to complex harmonies, since the harmony parts are drawn from the chords that accompany the melody. These complex chords are often considered more performative because they are difficult for untrained singers or choir members to figure out.

While singing harmonies is considered “showy” in some cultures because it draws attention to those vocalists, it can serve a practical function in helping people join in singing. Whether read in music or learned by ear, harmonies offer a way for people to continue singing when the melody may not be comfortable as long as the harmonies are not too complex.

PART II with topics “Ad-libs” and “Free/Spontaneous Worship” will drop next week! Stay Tuned…