Last year I started writing hymns. It started innocently enough - I wrote a baptismal hymn for my two nieces. I struggled through it, but when all was said and done I was happy with what I had produced. Then came my brilliant idea. If I can write one hymn, I could write more. I decided that beginning in Advent, I was going to write one hymn a week. I allowed myself the option to set an existing hymn text to music, but I primarily wanted to write my own text and compose my own music. You may be asking yourself, "How has your idea panned out?" Well, here we are already in Lent and I have created a grand total of....(drum roll please).... one hymn. I also found a seventh century text that I like, but I still haven't set it to music. That brings me to a grand lifetime total of two and a half hymns. Yikes!
Today I started writing another hymn, which will be for the baptism of our first child in August. As I started writing I remembered why I only have two and a half hymns finished - it is not easy work. One of the hardest aspects of writing a hymn for me is the poetry. I am no poet. When I first thought of writing a hymn for our baby, I wanted to take one of Gerhardt's hymn texts and create a new setting. Somehow that idea lost steam. Nothing I write will be as masterful as Gerhardt (or anyone else's text for that matter), but I really want to give our little daughter something from myself. So here I am, trying to write half way decent poetry about my little peanut's baptism then set it to half way decent music. A tall order to be sure, but I am up for it. I just hope it isn't too terribly mediocre. I can hear my teacher and friend Carl Lenthe right now,” There is so much mediocrity in the world. Must you add to it?"
