Thanks for the help

Filed in Music Philosophy on September 27, 2009



Last week, I asked you for help in my research of the history of Christian piano music.  I have been very pleasantly surprised that many of you have exactly what I need.  Several of the books I would like to read are rare and expensive, but I am grateful that many of you are loaning me your copies.  Two people offered me that rare course from Rudy Atwood.  I was amazed.

Someone kindly researched the subject for me at a college library and sent me a helpful paper that got me on the right track of building a list of relevant books.  They have already started arriving and I feel like it is Christmas.

I want to get into this more before I start writing so I can speak with a bit of authority, but I do plan to do a series on the history of piano in the church.  I have a feeling many church pianists would be interested in this subject which is not discussed very much.

But here are some teaser facts that most of you probably do not know.

1) Until around 1900, the piano was considered an inappropriate instrument for church.  The piano was used in the big revivals around the turn of the century, which brought about their eventual acceptance in church.  As late as 1930, there was criticism of the piano in the Methodist church.

2) The style of hymn playing still used today actually developed very early in the century and has remained practically unchanged until this day.  I received an old course this week published by Robert Harkness, who was probably considered the first good (great) church pianist.  In the course, Harkness teaches such methods as moving the tenor to the right hand, doubling the melody and playing chord, octave patterns in the left hand.  He also taught the left hand runs that were so prominent later on in Rudy Atwood's music.

In other words, he taught exactly the same things I was taught in my hymn playing classes in college almost a century later.

3) I am very interested in the relationship between jazz and church music from the early days and have wondered what those church pianists thought of jazz.  It is an interesting question because "stride" (the basic style of hymn playing) was the common style used in jazz during the same period Harkness was developing his methods.  I was thrilled to see that Harkness wrote a chapter on jazz in the book I received.  I am going to hold off on discussing it for the moment, but you will be most interested when I do.

Here is a quote from Harkness about popular music that you might enjoy:

Many of the requirements of a performer who merely executes what another has written.  But if he interprets successfully, he should not soil his hands on what is commonly called "popular music"--music devoid of natural expression, worthless stuff that should be buried. 
(From The Harkness Method of Evangelistic Hymn Playing, by Robert Harkness, page 52, copyright 1941)

As you can see, he was a man of strong opinions.




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Lenny
9/28/2009 12:52:55 PM

Fascinating Greg. I would have never thought the piano was only 100 years old inside the church.

By the way, I have been told that the style of piano you are calling stride actually comes from Chopin, not jazz. What do you think of that?

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Greg
9/28/2009 1:28:16 PM

Well, I have heard that before as well Lenny. I sort of doubt it though. It is far more likely that they picked it up from the era they were in. And when you add the walking bass lines, the music looks a lot more like stride than Chopin.

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