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HYMNAL HISTORY FROM THE INTERNET VIA JORGENSEN MUSIC:
Frydetoner (Joyful Songs) is a collection of choral music that first appeared in Ungdommens Ven in the early 1890's.
There
were numerous contributors who enriched the choir literature with
single compositions or larger groups, now and then with a collection of
hymns or songs. The Holter Publishing Company did a very worthy service
by publishing singable music as a regular department of Ungdommens ven, later the Friend. All this material was collected and issued in several volumes under the name Frydetoner (Songs
of Joy). The bulk of the work done up to 1900 was in the Norwegian
language. Now and then a small contribution was made in English.
The
Norwegian Americans, like Lutherans everywhere, set a high value on the
function of music in the life of the church. Sunday morning worship in
the nineteenth century consisted, apart from the sermon, mainly of
congregational singing. Musical emphasis, consequently, was almost
exclusively on hymns, and pastors deplored the quality of the singing
and exhorted the people to do better. From time to time, articles
appeared in the church press on the subject of kirkesangen (singing in
the church) and how it might be improved. The number of church hymnals
in regular use was about as great as the number of Lutheran synods.
Worship
services were conducted in Norwegian, and the standard hymnals were
Landstad’s Salmebog, which had been authorized for general use in the
United Church and in Hauge’s Synod, and the hymnal published expressly
for the Norwegian Synod, which was commonly known as Synodens salmebog.
In addition, a few congregations still used Guldberg’s Salmebog. These
books, although generally satisfying to the older people, failed to
meet the needs of the young, who thought the Lutheran hymns stodgy and
uninteresting and who, furthermore, were becoming bilingual and wanted
to sing hymns in English as well as in Norwegian.
From
1878 until 1914 a proliferation of books appeared containing songs
designed to express Christian beliefs and aspirations in a less formal
way than did the congregational hymnal. Many were issued specifically
for young people. Most of the older Lutheran hymns dealt with doctrines
fundamental to the faith. These the people were accustomed to singing in
church, and many were dear to them. But toward the end of the
nineteenth century there was an insistent demand for a new type of
expression. It sprang from religious revivals, which emphasized
individual experience as essential to Christian faith.
These
songbooks, though widely used, met with serious opposition. In a
typically forthright statement, the Norwegian Synod passed a resolution
in 1896 which read, "Books such as Harpen, by Hoyme and Lund, and
Frydetoner, by B. B. Haugan, ought not to be distributed by the Lutheran
Publishing House in Decorah." In 1901 the United Church also passed a
resolution, but mentioned no names. It read, "The assembled delegates
deplore the fact that there are congregations in our synod that prefer
‘gospel hymns’ to our Lutheran church music, because most of the
so-called ‘gospel hymns’ are not suited either musically or textually
for use in Lutheran services or Sunday schools. The delegates see it as
the duty of the Sunday schools to teach the children to sing the
congregational hymns and to take part in the service. Therefore, they
hold that the contents of congregational and Sunday school hymnas should
be of a similar nature."