G is for Glee

Julie Rowan-Zoch

G is for glee: music and poetry. I have a confession to make. I am a Glee Geek (Glee is a show on TV). I love that show partly because I get to spend an entire hour listening to fantastic songs and the other part is because once upon a time I wrote songs. I even gave one of my songs to a local band when I was 13 and the singer encouraged me to continue to write. For me, writing and singing are among my greatest joys. So when I learned that fellow 12x12er Beth Stillborn writes hymns, I just had to have her come on my blog and talk about it. Thanks Beth! Thanks again to Julie (I'm loving your illustrations)!

How long have you been writing hymns?

I wrote my first hymn text in the summer of 1972, when I was 15. Doing the math on that astonishes me. Forty years? Really?

 What attracted you to writing hymns?

I was at a week-long live-in workshop called "Music in the Context of Worship" and one of the electives was hymn-writing. I can still remember sitting in a big old armchair in the lounge, hymnbook on my lap (for the tune), writing those first words. I wrote occasionally after that. When I was music director for my church, I was asked to write a hymn text for the church's anniversary. A few years later, I noticed in the paper that the church Jimmy Carter attends was celebrating an anniversary, and got out my hymn, reworked a couple of awkward passages, and sent it to the pastor of the church. Their choir sang it in a worship service, which meant a great deal to me. That reawakened my interest in hymnody, and I wrote quite a few hymns in the years that followed, until my focus turned more to writing fiction.

Is music playing in your head when you write a hymn or do you create music to go along with the words?

If I don't already have a tune in mind, I make up one when the words start to form in my thoughts. I seem to need to sing the words onto a tune. Usually, after I get enough of the words thought out to have a good idea of the meter (the number of syllables in each line combined with where the emphasis falls on the syllables) I go through a hymnbook and try out tunes with that meter until I find one that works well. Once I've chosen the tune, then I sing the words in my mind as I'm writing.

 Can you tell us a little bit about your process of a creating a hymn?

My ideas come from many places. Sometimes a phrase will trigger an idea, sometimes searching for a hymn on a particular topic has made me think "I'll write one myself!" I often start out with a phrase or two, not necessarily ones that fit one after the other, and start singing them in my head. There are times when the whole thing simply spills forth, and I find myself writing frantically on scraps of paper wherever I am, there are other times when the initial image intrigues me, but the actual writing is a drawn-out, difficult process. Interestingly, the two texts that have been published thus far represent both those ends of the spectrum. One just flowed out, demanding to be written, the other took a couple of years of struggling with images. I find it an intriguing challenge to express and develop an idea within the confines of the necessary meter and rhyme of a hymn text. Most of my hymns are three verses, which comprise an introduction to the theme in the first verse, a development of the theme in the second, and a call to action in the third.

Is writing a poem similar to writing a hymn?  

I can't speak to anyone else's process, but for me, although there are certain similarities, there is much more leeway in a poem. For one thing, poetry doesn' always have to rhyme or have a distinct meter. A hymn must be singable, or there's not much point to it. In writing lyrics for a popular song or stage/screen musical one can have a less metrical structure and tune, a hymn must be easily singable by a group of varying abilities. There's also a lot more leeway in subject matter in poetry than in hymnody. Hymns, by definition, are religious songs meant to be sung and to have meaning for a specific religious group. Mine happen to be Christian. 

Have you been formally trained in hymn writing?  (How did you learn to write hymns?)

Besides the initial workshop I attended at age 15, for which the hymn-writing was taught by a wonderful Saskatchewan hymnist, Walter Farquharson, I've attended other workshops over the years, but I haven't formally studied hymn writing. I do have extensive experience as both choir member and organist/choir director, which has exposed me to many different hymns and hymn styles over the years. Other than that, it's been a process of working at my craft and honing my skills. I used to be in 4-H, and have embraced wholeheartedly the motto "Learn to Do by Doing."

 Anything else you would like to share?

I'd just like to say, if anyone would like to see the hymns I have published thus far, they are "By The Well, A Thirsty Woman" and "Great Sorrow Prodded Jairus" (published under my full name Elizabeth Stilborn) in "More Voices," a supplement to the current hymnbook of the United Church of Canada, "Voices United." It is a compilation of about 200 hymns and songs from many different viewpoints and ethnicities. I submitted eleven texts to their search, and was honored that they chose two of them to be published. New tunes were commissioned for both texts, and I was amazed at how well the composer in Ontario -- whom I have never met -- expressed my thoughts through her music. (In that, it was rather like the process in which a publisher matches picture book author with illustrator.) For information about the book "More Voices", you can check this website:http://www.morevoices.ca/

Thanks, Rena, for inviting me to do this interview. I've never had a chance to talk specifically about my hymn writing. 

Challenge

--Imagine that you are member of the Glee club who has to write a song for sectionals. Write a poem that can be sung. Or

--Using today's prompt "geek" write a poem. Or
--Write a poem about something that makes you gleeful. 

Resources 

--For a brief bio of Walter Farquharson, the man whose writing inspired me (Beth) to begin writing hymns, check out http://www.musiklus.com/people/walter-farquharson/

--If anyone is interested in learning more about hymns and hymnody, there is an organization in the United States called The Hymn Society. Their website is http://www.thehymnsociety.org/

If you liked this post please let others know. Tomorrow, I will post all the poems I wrote this week and offer a tip or two for revising your poems. There will not be a poetry challenge tomorrow. On Monday writer and poet Cindy Perrault, will join us to talk about haikus. I hope you come back for that. 

Beth Stillborn

I am a published writer of hymn texts, and a pre-published writer of fiction for children and adults. I have lived most of my life on the Canadian prairie. Much of my fiction includes a focus on the arts, as I believe so strongly in the power of the arts to enhance the lives of young and old. You can find my blog by clicking here , my facebook author page - click here , and my twitter account - click here

Julie Rowan-Zoch is a graphic designer morphed by motherhood into a super-volunteer, spun into a pre-pubbie cocoon, soon to emerge writer and illustrator of children’s books! To learn more about Julie check out her fabulous blog by clicking here, or find her on Facebook by clicking here. Stay tuned to see more illustrations from Julie.