Re:Tune My Heart to Sing Your Praise: Symposium Audio
Here’s a timely resource that might be a fitting follow-up to my “Open Letter to Praise Bands” (and the P.S.):
At the Calvin Worship Institute’s 2012 Symposium, I had the privilege of being part of a panel discussion (and hymn-sing!) on the “re-tuned” hymn movement. I was really just an interloper, since the panel, hosted by Greg Scheer, included luminaries such as Kevin Twit, Bruce Benedict, Isaac Wardell, Sandra McCracken, and Eelco Vos. They represented creative collectives like Indelible Grace (home to the fabled RUF Hymnbook), BiFrost Arts, Cardiphonia, and The Psalm Project.
The “re-tuned” hymn movement names a return to hymnody (especially among young, restless, Reformed folk), mining the theological riches of hymns for worship, but setting the hymns to different tunes, often played with different instruments. The discussion about this phenomenon gets at some core issues about what worship is–what worship is for.
The whole symposium is worth listening to, and you might be introduced to new hymns and settings. My own opening contribution (from about 2:00-20:00) attempts to give a “theologically-attuned sociology” of the re:tuned hymn movement and thus gets into some fundamental issues about the nature of worship, the significance of musical form, and raises questions of culture and race.
