The Church Hymn as a Kind of Literature

Abstract

In its essence a hymn may be regarded as an integrated unit of language, music and theology. To study any one aspect, one must always be aware of the other aspects as well. Most missionaries came with ready tunes for most hymns, and the vernacular words had to be fitted into these songs. Our languages have intonation, and the tonology of the tune usually affects the word tone, which in turn affects the meaning. The fixed tunes also have a fixed counting per line, which would not necessarily accommodate a black language.