A Tale of Two Melodies – When Hymns Are to Be Sung in Cantonese Part V of V

A Tale of Two Melodies – When Hymns Are to Be Sung in Cantonese

(Part V of V: The Road Onwards)

In the previous four blogs, I have explained the phenomenon of non-matching tones of translated hymns. I have also demonstrated how difficult it is to match or to compose lyrics for a melody using the tonal language of Cantonese. No wonder one Cantopop lyricist Wyman Wong has even advocated that Cantopop should be enlisted in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity due to the challenging creative process to keep both the pitches of the lyrics and the melody in tune. Therefore, it is imaginable that when one is translating a hymn from English to Chinese (with lyrics to be sung in Cantonese), the level of difficulty is further stretched since the meaning of the lyrics is pre-determined and only limited words can be used to a certain extent. I have also explained why there have been obstacles and myths relating to this issue and offered my two cents with theological reflections on why it is worthy to translate western hymns or songs into pitch-fitting Cantonese versions.

From Infancy to Maturity

Undoubtedly, each cultural movement will go through different periods, including infancy, development and forming etc. I suppose that all the familiar hymns we can find in our hymnals have stood against the test of time to exist until the present. Some people think that merely from the viewpoint of literature, the newly translated lyrics seem to have lesser literary value in terms of poetic beauty (which may not be true). However, if we add on the consideration of the matching of tones, the measurement of evaluation should not be only one-dimensional! After all, the re-translation of hymns with matching Cantonese tones is still in its infancy and thus the works we can find now may be varied in quality, either too heavily paraphrased or not up to standards. Nevertheless, we should not throw away the apple because of the core and see all newly translated hymns as zero-valued or second rate.

The Road Onwards

Looking forward, we expect more mature translated works. According to the characteristics of Cantonese tones, some hymns or songs are in fact untranslatable, so not every song in a foreign language can have a version of matching Cantonese tones. Even so, we still need to pay our best effort in the consideration of our own language features and contextualization of our faith to move forward in the translation of hymns. For the long run, besides translated works, the source of the congregational songs should also include new compositions by our own brothers and sisters. Of course, each church may design their biblically-based worship according to their own background, history, gifts and temperament, etc., to make decisions on the pace for the trial of singing songs with matching tones without being forced to do so. We do not want to provoke any more worship wars on top of different styles. What we should insist instead is moving towards the direction of true and barrier-free worship, but not only certain versions of hymns and songs. Today, when we honestly face the issue of singing songs with Cantonese tones, I believe that the Christians who speak Cantonese as their mother-tongue should continue to reflect and progress on the contextualization of our faith because this is not something that any foreigner can do for us. Maybe we are in the transformative stage of singing our congregational songs. And beyond all arguments, I believe for both believers and non-believers, we will all discover that we can sing the songs with more resonance in our hearts and be more enlivened than those who were before us.

May God raise up more gifted brothers and sisters to be willing to commit to the translation and composition of hymns and songs for the glory of God and the benefit for persons purchased for God from every tribe and language and people and nation!

And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll
    and to open its seals,
because you were slain,
    and with your blood you purchased for God
    persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Revelation 5:9, NIV)

In case you have missed Part I-III, you can find them here:

Part I of V

Part II of V

Part III of V

and Part IV 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.

A Tale of Two Melodies – When Hymns Are to Be Sung in Cantonese

(Part IV of V: Theological Reflection and Biblical Foundation of Singing Tone-matching Lyrics)

In the last blog, I have responded to the six myths relating to singing non-tonal lyrics. Let’s continue to reflect on the biblical foundation of singing tone-matching lyrics.

1. Worship of all nations and tongues

Our Lord was slain, and with His blood He purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev. 5:9) While there is only one Body of Christ, the depiction of every tribe and language and people and nation indicates a picture of multiplicity. Definitely, every language has its own characteristics and accents in its expression. Therefore, the worship of all nations and tongues is destined to express the kind of worship with all languages’ full capacities to the infinitely great God. In this sense, it should be the worship of multiplicity and unity. Cantonese has been created by God and thus, in this grand scenario, it should have its own place. God has given us Cantonese which has musical tones as our mother-tongue language. How does God want us to use it to worship and praise Him? And how can we learn to appreciate and utilize this gift from God?

2. Worship engaging the whole body and soul

In recent years, molecular gastronomy has gained in popularity in Hong Kong.  This novel kind of food calls for our faith and imagination to enjoy it. It is so because the taste, feel, texture and appearance of the raw ingredients are fully deconstructed and then recomposed into a new dish, e.g., a potato in the form of foam, or xiaolongbao (steamed dumpling) in the shape of an egg yolk, etc. When we enjoy the food of molecular gastronomy, we know what we are eating; however, what our eyes can see is something different. This experience is similar to what we experience when we sing hymns with twisted tones: we know what we are singing, however, our ears hear something very different. For example, when we sing the chorus of “How Great Thou Art,” we know that we are singing ‘我靈歌唱ngo5 ling4 go1 coeng3’ (Then sings my soul); however, our ears will hear something like ‘鵝靈個槍ngo4 ling4 go3 coeng1’ (one possible meaning will be ‘goose, soul, piece, gun’). We definitely need some imagination to convince ourselves that we are indeed singing “then sings my soul.” No wonder some brothers and sisters often feel that, although they have sung the hymn once and can manage the melody pretty well, they feel that they cannot grasp the meaning of the lyrics concretely. One of the possible reasons is that they actually cannot “hear” what they themselves and the community have sung. If we hope that we can sing hymns with both our understanding (1 Cor 14:15) and our hearts (Col 3:16), what I have presented above will hinder these two aspects. Therefore, if we can closely connect the minds, hearts, eyes, ears, and mouths of the people, I believe that we can then encourage the congregation to sing with more engagement and passion.

3. Worship embodying love for one another

Another dimension for reflection is the Great Commandment of “loving one another” (John 13:34-35). Our Lord Jesus was among those who were in need, and condescended for the weak and lowly. His model calls for our reflection and learning. From my experiences and conversations with different brothers and sisters, I have found out that in the situations mentioned below, they cannot be fully engaged in the singing of hymns or songs to a certain extent:

• Feeling distant and unfamiliar to the songs with non-matching tones, some “Cantopop Natives” mentioned in the previous blog cannot accept the songs or feel they are weird or funny.
• Some non-believers need more time to adjust to singing this kind of song.
• Some people who do not want to go to Church use this as an excuse to stay away.
• Some people, when they find that their singing encounters some difficulties, will switch to singing in English or will skip the embarrassing lyrics.
• Some people need to mark the final sounds in order to sing the songs. For example, when they see ‘我靈歌唱’, they need to mark ‘鵝靈個槍’ so that they can sing it correctly (to Cantonese readers, this may seem a bit exaggerating, but this is a real case!).

Although the above-mentioned situations may be individual cases, if the songs with lyrics matching the melodies can assist these brothers and sisters to praise and worship with fuller engagement, and help if the next generation and non-believers to accept it, this will definitely be a beautiful thing to start off the re-translation work.

4. Worship with our best gifts

Language, music, and translation skill are all gifts given to us by God. If we can fully utilize these gifts to translate some hymns with rich content and longstanding history into Cantonese hymns with matching tones, so that these hymns can be widely used to bless more brothers and sisters, or even non-believers, all these will demonstrate that we are ministering to each other with the gifts from God and are good stewards of the manifold grace of God (1 Peter 4:10).

5. Worship with the Word of Christ dwelling in the hearts richly

The disciples were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other tongues to share the good news to different people (Acts 2:4). If we have more Cantonese hymns with matching tones, I believe that its advantages will outnumber its disadvantages in both evangelism and spiritual formation of the believers. As mentioned previously, singing songs with one’s heart language can let the message be heard in the heart with resonance, thus fostering the Word of God steadfastly and richly dwelling in one’s heart (Col. 3:16). If the Word should be prioritized and be served in all that we do in our worship, then anything that can enhance this aspect should be tried out with effort and be encouraged. Furthermore, when we face up to the requirement that music should serve the lyrics, maybe we should look at the reality with fairness and objectivity, and see if the music is serving the lyrics, or if the lyrics have to kneel before the music, and thus cannot function well enough.

In case you have missed Part I-III, you can find them here: Part I of V, and Part II of V, and Part III 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.