What Wondrous Love is this, comes from the early American, shape-note tradition. In a few weeks, you’ll hear another example of this kind of music on Easter Sunday, when we sing William Billings’ Easter Anthem.

Music education in The United States began in Sunday School. People learned to read music for congregational and social singing, through a simplified, five-note system that used shapes to teach music literacy. This system allowed them to sing in harmony, which is a big deal for people who worked the land, and who had no formal music training. The result of this simplified, and “unrefined” system, was a body of music that contains a different kind of “soul” than the music that was occurring in Western Europe. These hymns were not “high art” and certainly incomparable with the music that was coming from across the Atlantic, filling concert halls, opera houses, and cathedrals with some of the world’s most ornate and sophisticated compositions.   

Wondrous Love comes from a hymnal called Southern Harmony (1835). Nowadays there are groups that get together and have old-fashioned, shape-note hymn sings. They gather around a room (usually in a barn or similar structure), segmented into parts (Soprano, Alto, Tenor, Bass), and sing hymns together, a cappella, and in perfect harmony. If you’ve never had the pleasure of hearing such a sound, I encourage you to YouTube it, and to see and hear how marvelous it is. It’s not the most elegant thing your ears will ever hear, but it’s rustic, organic, and full of gusto!

What I hear in shape-note singing is a can-do attitude, and a purified sense of unashamed praise and thanksgiving. Although life in the 18^th century may have been arguably more difficult, the people were working with simple tools, not many resources, and no education; but they were working towards a singular purpose –  to make this country better. Why else would they want to learn to sing in harmony together if not to make the world a better, more cooperative place? Little did they know that what they dreamed about, making the land of the free stronger and better, would be something that we would benefit from. In other words, we are the inheritors of the pioneering, adventuresome spirit that paved the way for a better future, which is now our current reality. The question is, what dreams are we having, for the benefit of those who will come after we’re gone?

When we know that our lives are greater than just ourselves, we pave the way for those who come after, to have it better off than we do. Our job is to be adventuresome, productive, and to create things that leave the world better off than when we found it. That’s what the pioneers did for us, and they sang songs of thanks, even if times seemed apocalyptic. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that when your time is up, you will have made it out, just in time – that you will have dodged doomsday. Your destiny isn’t to escape before the world implodes, your job is to contribute, to do wonderful things with your gifts, before you implode. The world has plenty of room for your pioneering contribution, so don’t keep it a secret, and don’t wait to give of your time, talent, and treasure. You cannot take those things with you to the grave. The early Americans gave all they had, and they understood the importance of sacrifice and gratitude. It’s the least we can do to return the favor, and to make the world safer, better, and more abundant for those who will remember us, once from death we are free. I hope this anthem invigorates your pioneering spirit to give, to create, and to make the world better. Soli deo Gloria!