Abstract
Historically, hymns are the bedrock of Christian church music, with their melodies echoing through time, shaping the very nature of music as we know it. These tuneful melodies often provide common patterns that shape musical understanding, teaching concepts such as scales, phrasing, and intervals, or the foundations of song. The text paired with these melodies served the utilitarian purpose of teaching basic Christian doctrines since the hymn’s inception. Together, hymn tunes (melodies) and written words work in tandem to create the beauty of the Christian hymn. Alice Parker once wrote: “I sometimes think of song as an invisible presence always around us, an ever-present possibility hovering like a cloud above us.” Indeed, it seems that Christian hymns always find their way into the musical canon. How do our hymns pervade the musical landscape? One reason is the melody (tune). The purpose of this philosophical paper is to substantiate hymn tunes as a resource for teaching musical concepts, specifically melody, and provide an example for instructional application. The philosophical concepts and proposed application operate within a systematic framework based on the Kodály method, Music Learning Theory, and Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP), and Alice Parker’s writings.
Keywords: hymns, melody, Kodály, Music Learning Theory, Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP), Alice Parker
