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

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.

 

 

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

(Part III of V: The Myths)

 

 

 

The Myths

As we have discussed in the previous two blogs, our brothers and sisters may be puzzled by the phenomenon of hymns with non-matching tones between lyrics and music. Re-translation efforts for these hymns have been hindered by some myths that should be challenged; I will ponder and reflect on the related issues below.

 

Myth #1

The hymns passed to us are “holy.” If we re-translate those hymns, the holiness of the hymns will be vastly diminished.

In times past, different editors of hymnals may have edited or revised the same hymn text in different ways. Therefore, we do not have to regard any version of a hymn text “holy.” If we make any person or thing holy, we can easily fall into the trap of idolatry in its broadest sense. For many years, the Chinese Union Version of the Bible was the only version available to us. When a new translation launched, some brothers and sisters resisted the change. Since then, more and more translations have been published, with different considerations made in each version. We are grateful for the complementary contribution of these various versions and how they bless us with a richer understanding of the Word of God. In the same way, I am sure that newly translated lyrics faithful to the original text can bring forth similar blessings to believers.

 

Myth #2

It is normal for the hymns not to match the tones.

Some people get so accustomed to what they have originally learned and resist any changes. They may even regard Christian songs with the same tone-matching quality as pop songs as worldly, profane, and unspiritual. The problem with this point of view is that for those who speak a non-tonal language (e.g. native English speakers), whenever they sing a pop song or a Christian song, it will be all the same. Therefore, whether it is spiritual or earthly, a song should not be judged by whether it tone-matching or not. Rather, we urgently need to identify what values are only formed by our habits, and what are critical issues for us.

On the contrary, some people think that the non-tone-matching songs have unintentionally blasphemed the great name of God. Since the tonal nature of the lyrics has not been properly considered in translation, there will be times when we have sung unintended meanings, including foul language at times. Classic examples include Jesus is “Lord” (sounds like “pig”), God is “love” (sounds like “having dementia”), the Lord is “able” (sounds like some foul language), “Holy” Spirit (sounds like “star”), etc. Sometimes, a salesperson on the phone will call me “Mr. Lau Ying Wai” (劉英偉lau4 jing1 wai5), because when they see my English name (Lau Ying Wai) on the call list and try to speak my Chinese name (劉凝慧lau4 jing4 wai6), they do not know the actual tones, so it will sound like a man’s name. When this happens, I usually feel offended and disrespected because they have just wrongly pronounced my name. Considering this, should we not correctly sing out the great name of our God? Regarding the foul language, some people may think we will be fine if we just subjectively make sure that we are not singing the foul language in our hearts; however, the objective fact is that we have sung out the foul language! If singing Christian songs is regarded as a way to be a witness for God to unbelievers, we should re-think what impact this fact will have on singers and listeners.

 

Myth #3

The characteristic of the rising tone in Cantonese does not favor the requirements of singing techniques, and may even damage the vocal aesthetics.

Some people who embrace this thought will deliberately not pronounce the word with the required rising tones. Sometimes one cannot pronounce the rising tone of the word properly because the tone of the musical note does not match the tone of the lyrics. Therefore, at a certain level of tones, the word “Lord” (zyu2) becomes “zyu1” (one of the possible words of this tone is “pig”) or “zyu3,” etc. I believe that what we have embraced until this day is the standard of the Western aesthetic of music, and is the standard for singing in foreign languages. So, is it our natural inclination to sing to God with songs using twisted tones to express our praise, or to feel annoyed when singing lyrics with rising tones?

 

Myth #4

In the past, most of the hymns have been with lyrics presented in non-matching tones. Is it that we have been all wrong?

Some people resist newly translated hymns and think that this insults their beloved hymns because it seems to say that the older versions have been wrong. However, this is not true; consider moon-cake packaging as an analogy. We all love to eat moon-cakes during the mid-autumn festival. In the past, all moon-cakes were packaged in the same way: in a square box made with iron with four standard sized moon-cakes. This is well-known. However, in recent decades, we can find various types of moon-cakes with different appearances, and this does not mean that the original moon-cake is wrong in any sense. Besides, the traditional moon-cake still has many fans today! Therefore, the launch of a newly translated version does not mean we have been wrong with the older version, only that we are now offered another option fueled and developed by the consideration of the contextualization of our faith.

 

Myth #5

I know the songs with twisted tones may not be ideal; why don’t we just sing more Mandarin hymns and songs to replace them?

One can sing in a non-mother-tongue language, but that does not mean the singing will be without barriers. For many years, I have been working as an interpreter for the applied music exams organized by an overseas institution. Some candidates have thought that they would get higher scores by orally answering the questions in English; however, quite often, it was very exhausting for them to answer. Sometimes, upon seeing their distressed faces, the examiners would ask them to answer in Cantonese with me translating their answers, and they could then answer the questions without any delay. Articulating a non-mother-tongue language can rarely be barrier-free and singing in a non-mother-tongue language is similar. Even though on the technical level one may be able to manage singing in the non-mother-tongue language, one’s heart may not be able to resonate with the meaning as much as is expected.

 

Myth #6

Translating hymns with matching tones will encounter various difficulties. It can be a strenuous and unrewarding task, so should we stop this work?

This is a difficult, strenuous and unrewarding task, for sure. However, exploration and trials on the road to the contextualization of faith in one’s own context is a naturally progressive move that promises profound values and impacts. It is something we must do. Therefore, even though it is difficult, challenging, and slow, the labor is worth the while. It is all for the glory of God.

 

(In case you have missed Parts I & II, you can find them here: Click for Part I and Click for Part II

 

Blogger Yvette Lau has bachelor degrees in Chinese Translation and Music, a Masters in Worship, and is now pursuing 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 II of V: The Technical Problems)

 

Changes in Time

In recent missiology, in the context of presenting the gospel message or implementing liturgical actions for a tribe or group of people, the term “heart language” refers to a group’s mother tongue or the dialect closest to their hearts. For us Cantonese speakers, our mother tongue language, spoken by the vast majority of the Hong Kong people, is a tonal language.[i] In the early years of the last century, missionaries served primarily in the mainland, and their serving partners and target groups were mainly people speaking Mandarin and other dialects. Therefore, it was not surprising to find that honoring the tonal nature of Cantonese was not a main concern for early hymn translation work. In spite of this, the Holy Spirit has continually blessed the hymns translated by the missionaries, and generations of believers have been nourished spiritually by those translated hymns.

Undoubtedly, those missionaries who came in those early days had given great effort to share their beautiful and life-enriching hymns to the Chinese churches. When Cantopop began to flourish in the 1970s, the new generation became “Cantopop natives”–that is, the first generation who had never experienced a time when there was no Cantopop in their lives.[ii] This is important because all Cantopop songs honor the tonal changes in the lyrics when they are being put into the melody. Cantopop natives (and also other non-church-goers) may perceive the older translated hymns as different from local music, and even strange or funny to listen to. In some extreme cases, the lyrics may even sound like foul language. In addition, waves of Praise and Worship music washed all over this generation in the 80s and 90s. In time, all these tides converged into a river. Now is an optimal time for us to seriously reflect on the present situation and the opportunity of congregational singing, and rethink what mission God has given to this generation of Cantonese-speaking believers.

 

Cantonese Tones and Musical Melody

When a musical melody meets Cantonese tones, usually conflicting situations will arise between the music and the text. This is because the music itself already has a melody. However, Cantonese text with definite meaning also has its own “melody.” For example, if you want to say “旋律遇上粵音” (when a melody meets Cantonese tones), you are already naturally singing in the melody of “do so mi fa mi so.” Most Cantonese songs are composed with the melody first, followed by the lyrics; seldom would one find the lyrics written first, followed by the melody. Translating songs is in fact more difficult than writing lyrics for a melody because both the musical melody and the meaning of the lyrics have already been determined. If, at the same time, one also needs to deal with the Cantonese tones, it means that he or she will need to consider all three aspects simultaneously: melody of the music, meaning of the lyrics, and Cantonese tones and to achieve harmony between the two melodies. This is like dancing with chains indeed.

For those of us whose mother tongue is Cantonese, if we want to follow the practice of the music serving the lyrics, we would unquestionably encounter some difficulties. Hymns translated without being aware of the conflicting nature of the “two melodies” could be subject to ridicule from unbelievers (and possibly believers), as this is not what is found in Cantonese songs in our culture. However, sometimes it is not the translation that causes the difficulty, but the fact that we have sung hymns or praise and worship songs originally written for Mandarin. If we sing these songs in Cantonese, the tones and melodies largely conflict with each other. Strangely enough, since songs with non-matching Cantonese tones have been used for so many years in the churches, church songs that do not reflect or honor the Cantonese tones have defined the style of local church music in the minds of many even in the wider culture.

 

(In case you have missed Part I, you can find it here: https://congregationalsong.org/a-tale-of-two-melodies-part-i/)

 

Blogger Yvette Lau has bachelor degrees in Chinese Translation and Music, a Masters in Worship, and is now pursuing 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. 

 

[i] Cantonese is a tonal language with six phonetic tones. The relationship of the tones is relative but not absolute and to certain extent, the tonal quality is crucial for speaking Cantonese accurately. For more information on Cantonese, please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese

[ii] Cantopop (or HK-pop) is a genre of pop music written in standard Chinese and sung in Cantonese. For more information of Cantopop, please see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantopop

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

(Part I of V: The Meeting of Two Melodies)

Being a native speaker of Cantonese, singing in my mother tongue language has been a fascinating experience since I was small.[i] It took me some years to figure out the issues involved and how others react to this “tale of two melodies.” I will be writing in five consecutive blogs relating to the meeting of the two melodies, the technical problems, the myths when it comes to hymn singing, my theological reflections on the issue, and also the renewal movements possible. Below will be the first part introducing my own experiences of three astonishing occasions when I was impressed and inspired when this tale was unveiled to me.

The first one goes back to my primary school days. Created by Wong Sze-ma, a comic artist, ‘’Cowboy” was one of my favorite readers to kill time. An unforgettable 4-panel manga showed that Cowboy (the kid character) was singing these lyrics: “笑笑顧娘,清租希創…” (literally translated as: “smile smile look lady, clear rent hope create…” When I first “recited” these lyrics word by word in Cantonese, I was astonished to find myself actually “singing” a well-known Cantonese kids’ song: “小小姑娘,清早起床…” (translated as: “Little maiden, getting up early…”[ii] That means when I was speaking some seemingly unrelated words in Cantonese, I was simultaneously singing a song with meaning! The four-panel manga indescribably impacted me unnoticeably since that day. That was the first time in my life when I could intensely feel the intricate relationship or even tension between the musical melody and the Cantonese lyrics.

Another time, I was listening in shuffle mode from my iPod to an unfamiliar hymn in Cantonese. I pulled my best effort into listening to it, however, I was surprised for I could not decode even the meaning of a single word from the hymn! How could it be so? Therefore, I repeatedly listened to it but still had no clues. My heart was discouraged and depressed. I could not believe that I was unable to figure out the meaning of the lyrics at all. That was the first time in my life when I felt deeply the helplessness in understanding a hymn in my mother tongue language and the distance a song of ‘unmatched tones’ could create.

Mark Charles

The third occasion was when I was studying at Calvin Theological Seminary for worship more than 10 years ago. In a class on music and arts in worship, I met a special guest speaker, Mark Charles, a Native American Christian.[iii] He shared about his contextualization journey on hymn translation for his people who speak a tonal language.[iv] He recalled how the earliest missionaries brought them the gospel and also translated different hymns for their use. However, the missionaries, who probably spoke non-tonal languages, might not have noticed that the language of these native people was tonal, and therefore the tones of the translated hymn lyrics and the musical melody did not match each other. This resulted in ‘unmatched tones’ when singing the hymns. Mark, therefore, initiated a project of the re-translation of the hymns. However, since the senior members and leaders in the church had already been accustomed to the original versions, asking them to sing the re-translated versions might be offensive to them or they could barely be engaged in the singing. Mark patiently promoted the new lyrics to the brothers and sisters through informal gatherings and accumulated the singing experiences of the re-translated hymns over time. That was the first time in my life that I knew that there was another tribe in this world facing the same problem as we Cantonese people did, and most importantly, he is facing the same struggle of the dissonance between the musical melody and the tonal lyrics when singing hymns for worship.

These three distinctive occasions have become the milestones in my journey of contextualization in hymn translation. The first one introduces me to the tale of the two melodies; the second one confirms the need for contextualization of hymn translation; and the third one sheds light on the channels and challenges to execute the project of hymn retranslation in my context. What exactly are the technical problems when Cantonese Christians sing hymns and songs? I will analyze the issue in more detail in the next blog. The tale will continue.

 

Blogger Yvette Lau has bachelor degrees in Chinese Translation and Music, a Masters in Worship, and is now pursuing 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. 

 

[i] Cantonese is a tonal language with six phonetic tones in modern linguistics. (See more for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantonese)

[ii] The tune is the same as the traditional American Western folk ballad “Oh My Darling, Clementine.”

[iii] Mark R. Charles is a Native American activist, public speaker, consultant, and author on Native American issues, as well as a journalist, blogger, Reformed pastor, and computer programmer. (Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Charles ) (assessed July 4, 2023)

[iv] A tonal language uses tones to distinguish words or their inflections. (See more for this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_(linguistics) )