Treating hymn texts and musical tunes as distinct elements allows worshipers to experience sacred poetry in an entirely new light. Historically, early Latter-day Saints frequently paired texts with different melodies, a tradition that Sing a New Song expands by matching over 700 historical tunes—ranging from Shaker melodies to German chorales and classical themes—with familiar Latter-day Saint lyrics. These alternate settings offer ward choirs, soloists, and devotional singers a practical way to break out of “auto-pilot” singing and uncover fresh doctrinal insights. In this interview, hymnologist and BYU music theory professor Brent Yorgason shares the decades-long process of creating these new matches and offers practical guidance for integrating them into worship.
Don’t miss new insights on topics such as The Bells at Temple Square: The Tabernacle Choir’s World-Class Handbell Ensemble and Jenny Oaks Baker and the Sound of Music. Sign up to get them straight to your inbox.
The Anatomy of a Hymn: Separating Text and Tune
— Explore how separating hymn texts from tunes enriches Latter-day Saint worship, revealing the collaborative history and spiritual power of pairing sacred poetry with music.
When hymnologists study music, they often treat the text (the poetry) and the tune as two completely separate elements. How does understanding this distinction change the way Latter-day Saints approach congregational worship?
When hymnologists talk about hymns, they are generally referring to the hymn texts rather than the hymn tunes. These are most often created by two different people, perhaps widely separated by geography and time. Heavenly Father has blessed some of us with poetic abilities and others with musical talents, which means that we often need to collaborate with one another to create a meaningful and effective hymn. This is true even today with the new hymns now being released for Hymns for Home and Church. Many poets and composers (some identified and some anonymous) have worked side-by-side to create, compose, edit, and revise these new hymns for us. My own abilities lie on the musical side. I am thankful for the poets in our midst.
One way this might affect our worship is that we can consider the words of a hymn as inspired poetry, separate from the tune. We can read through the texts apart from singing them and contemplate their meanings, perhaps including them in talks or using them as a source of personal inspiration. We can also appreciate hymn tunes on their own as beautiful (small-scale) compositions, noticing their tuneful melodies, interesting harmonies, or unique metric structure.
When we sing hymns, the music should support and enhance the poetic meanings, inviting the spirit to testify of the truthfulness of the words. I believe that the Holy Ghost can communicate to us both through words and through music, but some of the strongest spiritual experiences come when both words and music are carefully wedded together.
How did early Latter-day Saints approach singing hymns from hymnals without music?
In Kirtland and Nauvoo, the early members of the Church relied on musical traditions they had learned from their experiences in other churches. But they also had the benefit of revelation to clarify how music should be used in their worship (see in particular the revelation to Emma Smith in Doctrine and Covenants 25). Among the decisions they needed to make were (a) whether music and singing should be allowed at all [yes]; (b) whether instruments other than the human voice were appropriate in worship [usually]; and (c) whether they should sing only God-given texts from the Bible (such as the Psalms) or if they could sing “manmade” hymn texts as well.
On this latter point, Doctrine and Covenants 25:11 clarifies that “it shall be given thee … to make a selection of sacred hymns … which is pleasing unto me, to be had in my church.” The Saints were thus encouraged to select from the best hymn texts that were circulating at the time. But there is no specification here of what they would sing. As was common at the time, our early Church hymnbooks included only texts with no indication of what tunes could be used.
American congregations in the nineteenth century were starting to learn how to read music, thanks to the growth of singing schools and their shape-note hymnals. But the most common practice for congregations at this time was to sing hymn texts to a small set of well-known hymn tunes (perhaps a dozen or so) from memory. This was possible due to the fact that many hymn texts were written in standardized poetic meters, allowing them to be paired with a handful of popular hymn tunes that could be reused with multiple texts. Presumably, the music leader would announce the hymn they would be singing and indicate which tune they would use by demonstration. Certain pairings would undoubtedly become standard practice in local congregations, making the specification of the tune unnecessary. But new hymn texts, which the Saints began creating in abundance after the revelation to Emma, would require decisions about which tune to use with the new words: ideally something that the congregation already knew how to sing.
There is not a lot of historical information about which tunes Latter-day Saints actually sang. Records from church meetings frequently list the hymns that were sung, but do not indicate which tunes were used. An exception to this can be found in the record kept for the dedication of the Kirtland Temple in 1836. For this important event, the first official church choir was formed, new hymns were presented, and the tunes that were sung were officially recorded. The first “Mormon” hymn tune was also premiered at this meeting, used by the choir for both “Now Let Us Rejoice” and “The Spirit of God” – hymns that had recently been penned by William W. Phelps.[1]
When did it become standard to include music with hymns in the Latter-day Saint tradition?
It took a surprisingly long time for music notation to be included in our Church’s hymnals. Emma’s A Collection of Sacred Hymns was printed in Nauvoo around January 1836. The first official Church hymnbook to include music notation, Latter-day Saints’ Psalmody, was published over a half-century later in 1889, long after the Saints had settled in the Salt Lake Valley. In the meantime, hundreds of new hymn texts had been published in the Manchester hymnal by Latter-day Saint poets such as W. W. Phelps, Parley P. Pratt, and Eliza R. Snow. We can’t really say with confidence what music members would have sung these hymns to until tunes began to appear in print in the 1870s, in magazines such as The Juvenile Instructor (published by the Deseret Sunday School Musical Union) and The Utah Musical Times.[2] The first official Church publication to include music was The Primary Tune Book, published by the Primary Association in 1880 (and including the tune we now sing with “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet”).
Even after hymn tunes began appearing in print, it is clear that the Saints had not settled on specific tunes for some of their hymns. A case in point is Eliza R. Snow’s “O My Father,” which has been set to six different tunes in official publications of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including Evan Stephens’s REVELATION in 1877, Lowell Mason’s HARWELL in 1880, John B. Dykes’s CHARITAS in 1892, and Haydn’s AUSTRIA in 1905 (now used for “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken”). James McGranahan’s tune MY REDEEMER, the tune that we sing now, was first introduced in the Deseret Sunday School Songbook in 1899 but was not included in an official LDS hymnal (Latter-day Saint Hymns) until 1927, when it was published beside an additional tune composed by Evan Stephens.[3] This illustrates clearly how the process of finding a definitive tune for a hymn text might take multiple attempts, and also how diverse the singing might have been in early Latter-day Saint congregations.
You point out that “All Creatures of our God and King” combines a 13th-century text by St. Francis of Assisi with a 17th-century German melody, ultimately arranged in 1906 by Ralph Vaughan Williams. How does this specific history illustrate the long Christian tradition of mixing and matching texts and tunes?
I chose this specific example to illustrate how vastly removed in time and place the creators of a hymn might be. Obviously, the distance between creators might not always be this stark. Poets and composers also collaborate together to create new hymns, such as the collaboration between poet Emma Lou Thayne and composer Joleen Meredition on “Where Can I Turn for Peace?” And sometimes the composer and poet are one and the same person, as with Leroy Robertson’s “On This Day of Joy and Gladness.” Normally, the text comes first, and a composer will later find that text and choose to set it to music. A recent example of this is Stephen Jones’s new tune for “Oh, the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus,” a hymn text that was penned back in 1898, but which had been set to the decidedly less-effective tune EBENEZER, and was unknown to Latter-day Saint congregations.
It is also possible for new hymn texts to be set to older, familiar tunes. One recent example is “Our Prayer to Thee,” a poem written in 2003 by President Russell M. Nelson and set (by Mack Wilberg) to the 1875 Welsh hymn tune MYFANWY, a tune previously associated with the text “O home beloved, where’er I wander.” The point is that poets and composers reach out across the centuries of Christian hymnody to find the best possible matches for texts and tunes. And this is an important endeavor, since some very moving and beautiful hymn texts can be unfairly neglected when the tune they are matched with does not, for some reason, “catch on.”
Within the 1985 Latter-day Saint hymnbook itself, texts like “While of These Emblems We Partake” are already set to multiple distinct tunes. What theological or emotional purposes do these existing alternate pairings serve?
Although I was not there when the 1985 Hymnbook Committee decided to include both tunes for “While of These Emblems We Partake,” I imagine that they simply found both tunes equally appealing, and realized that there was no need to eliminate either of them. Karen Lynn Davidson comments on this: “Our hymnbook offers a choice of two musical settings for this hymn text by John Nicholson. Both hymn tunes are masterful examples of the way in which the spiritual dimension of a text may be enhanced by just the right musical setting, and it would be a great loss to the hymnal if either were omitted.”[4]
If there were unlimited space in our hymnals (there is not!), I like to think that other hymn texts would have similarly been paired with multiple tune options. But I also know that our Church leaders want us to be united as Saints worldwide, which suggests that having fewer tunes that we all know how to sing might be the best strategy, at least for congregational singing.
Want More Scholar Interviews in Your Inbox?
Stay connected with fresh content and scholarly insights every week.
The Theology of Music: Familiarity vs. Variety
— Pairing familiar Latter-day Saint hymn texts with diverse, historic and new tunes revitalizes sacred poetry, balancing comforting musical traditions with fresh doctrinal insights and emotional depth.
You state that providing these alternate tunes makes “no comment on the suitability or effectiveness of the existing tunes.” Why is it important to view these new pairings as a supplement to, rather than a replacement for, our current musical tradition?
Michael D. Young and I both contributed to the new matches in this collection. It was important for me to communicate our motivation/intention in creating these alternate hymn matches. We created them for the love of variety and newness, rather than out of a belief that the existing tunes were dull or inappropriate. They are not!
Since our goal for this project was to create new matches for every hymn in the 1985 hymnbook, as sort of an homage to the hymnal we grew up with, there are inevitably cases where the original tune is much better than the alternates we were able to come up with. There are many fine tunes in the 1985 hymnal, and there are also many other fine hymn tunes that we as Saints have been unable to sing because they have not previously been matched with any of our LDS texts.
How do you balance the deep, emotional longing for familiarity with the “desire for variety that is inherent to music”?
I think we can all empathize with the desire to be comforted with solid, familiar doctrine at church each week; with things that we can rely on and depend on, such as the knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves us or that the Atonement is real. We feel this same comfort when we sing familiar hymns. Many congregations struggle with new hymns until they finally become familiar and we embrace them. We are experiencing this now with the paced rollout of new hymns from Hymns for Home and Church. Acceptance of the new can be slow, particularly with music, where nostalgia, memory, and emotional connections play a part.
Those who love music, by contrast, often seek variety– for new ways of hearing familiar things. This is why hymn arrangements are so common in the Church. We have gotten used to our hymns and want to find fresh ways of performing them. It is rare to hear a church choir sing a hymn as written nowadays, with perhaps the exception of the new hymns we are all learning together from the new hymnal.
Sing a New Song approaches this balance by using familiar texts, supported by new music. But this music is not really new – most of these tunes have been around for centuries. They might be familiar to us in connection with another text. Or they might be tunes that are well known in other churches but are entirely new to us. We have also included some rather obscure tunes that we are sure no one has sung for a very long time. In any case, the goal has been to find matches that effectively support the messages in the texts we are familiar with.
How can pairing a well-known, beloved text with a completely new tune alter the hymn’s character and place the original doctrinal message in a whole new light?
I have found that different hymn tunes can bring out different ideas and emotions latent within a particular hymn text. In other words, changing the tune brings out a different aspect of the text, causing us to see it in a new light, as if viewing it from a slightly different angle. When things are familiar, it is easy to overlook meanings. Sometimes we sing hymns on “auto-pilot.” As a musician, I unfortunately find myself singing the notes of a hymn without really thinking about the words. By changing the tune, it draws my attention anew to the text and its meaning: “I never noticed that word or idea before,” I might find myself saying. In other words, defamiliarization brings new understanding.
By changing the tune, it draws my attention anew to the text and its meaning.
Here is just one example. “‘Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love” is another hymn set to two separate tunes in the 1985 hymnbook: HANCOCK by Ebenezer Beesley and MEREDITH by Frank W. Asper. Beesley’s tune emphasizes the “sweet” part of the text, with a gentle, lyrical tune that reflects on the “matchless love” of the Savior. Asper’s tune is similarly optimistic, unrolling in brave melodic waves that emphasize particular words like “wondrous plan.” Two of the tunes I chose for this text are the American folk hymn PROSPECT and the British carol WEXFORD CAROL. I have a particular love for American folk hymns, and PROSPECT brings out more of the peaceful, contemplative side of this text, rather than its “sweetness,” with a particularly tender accent on “sing hosannas” in the last verse. WEXFORD CAROL is, by contrast, a much more confident and joyful tune, but with a surprising harmonic twist to emphasize the central phrase “For Jesus died on Calvary,” which I have set here as a recurring chorus.
Rather than composing entirely new melodies, you sourced your 700 alternate settings from existing American folk tunes, Lutheran chorales, British hymns, plainchant, and classical music. What was your methodology for pairing these diverse, historical melodies with our hymn texts?
The process of finding new matches was a labor of love that took place over two decades. This process mainly involved playing through my own collection of hymnbooks from various faiths, as well as scouring through hymnals and collections of carols and folk tunes in college libraries. More recently, I have also been able to find tunes using the advanced search tools at hymnary.org. My goal was to find great tunes: tunes that were melodically appealing and singable, tunes that were harmonized in interesting ways, or tunes that contained unexpected features that distinguished them from the general “sameness” of many hymn tunes.
Once I had identified favorite tunes, I examined their hymn meters and began the process of singing them with words from our Latter-day Saint hymnbook. For example, a tune in 8 7 8 7 meter alternates between 8 and 7 syllables per line of text. There are 15 tunes in the 1985 hymnal in 8 7 8 7 meter, and another 23 tunes in 8 7 8 7 D ( D = doubled, meaning eight lines of alternating 8s and 7s), as well as a handful of hymns that are basically in 8 7 8 7 meter with a repeated line or an added chorus. Although there are now many possibilities, probably only a few of these will be good matches. One issue is that hymns in the same meter might involve different poetic accent patterns. For instance, “They the Builders” has a trochaic (strong-weak) pattern, while “With Wondering Awe” has an iambic (weak-strong) pattern. Although both share the same 8 7 8 7 meter, it would clearly be wrong to sing “they THE buil-DERS of THE na-TIONS” or “WITH won- D’RING awe THE wise MEN saw.” A tune that begins with a pickup would work well for “With Wondering Awe,” but “They the Builders” needs to begin on a downbeat.
Even more important than this is the overall character of the hymn tune. A cheerful gospel song is not going to effectively support the message of “There is a Green Hill Far Away,” just as a solemn hymn tune would be inappropriate for “Today While the Sun Shines.” Additionally, hymn tunes naturally emphasize particular pitches through their unique melodic shapes, and it is important that those emphasized pitches correspond with important words in the text. Thus, finding the right “fit” can be complex. In some cases, I found myself making minor rhythmic adjustments to tunes so that they would fit more effectively with the texts, particularly when the overall character was a convincing match.
The resulting hymnal features tunes from a wide range of sources (including folk tunes, chorales, plainchant, and classical sources). I like the diversity that this allows. Our early Church hymnals included a large number of British / Welsh hymn tunes and 19th-century gospel songs. We have not sung as many German chorales or hymn tunes based on folk songs or plainchant. I am particularly fond of the over five dozen American folk hymns that are included in this collection, many of which have been newly harmonized.
What are some of your favorite pairings of hymns and hymn tunes in Sing a New Song?
Here is a list of some of my favorite pairings, along with brief descriptions. This list is intended as a jumping-off point into Sing a New Song, assuming that you have the book (or the digital equivalent) in front of you. If you are not ready to start playing and singing along with these hymns, you might want to skip over this part for now!
3c – A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief (set to WAYFARING): this tune is a harmonized version of the melody that John Taylor sang at the martyrdom of the prophet Joseph Smith, as recorded by Ebenezer Beesley (according to a recent discovery).
5b – Abide with Me; ‘Tis Eventide (set to THIRD MODE MELODY): this is a haunting melody by Thomas Tallis that creates a rather mysterious mood for an eventide setting.
24b – Away in a Manger (set to CRANHAM): this is a lovely carol by Gustav Holst, best known as “In the Deep Midwinter,” that also works very well as a cradle song.
32a – Behold the Great Redeemer Die (set to BOURBON ©): this heartfelt and solemn American folk hymn perfectly expresses the tragic setting of the Crucifixion.
50a – Come, Follow Me (set to TALLIS’ CANON): I was delighted to be able to set “Come, Follow Me” as a canon, in which one voice literally follows the other.
61b – Come, Ye Children of the Lord (to TRUST IN ME): This is a rather obscure Shaker hymn that quite effectively expresses the joy in the text.
67c – Dearest Children, God is Near You (to RIFTED ROCK): this is an American hymn tune that expresses the faith-filled message simply and directly.
76a – Father in Heaven (set to HERZLIEBSTER JESU): this well-known German chorale tune turns the text into a sincere prayer.
82a – For the Beauty of the Earth (set to GOTTES SOHN IST KOMMEN): although the tune originates in 1531, I’ve altered and re-harmonized it in a more contemporary way.
84b – From All That Dwell Below the Skies (set to SAINT-SAЁNS): this well-known melody from Saint-Saёns’s “Organ Symphony” will hopefully draw new attention to an excellent text by Isaac Watts.
94a – God Be With You Till We Meet Again (set to OLIVE’S BROW): this soothing tune is at least as good as the one sung by the Tabernacle Choir (which is hard to beat).
102a – God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand (set to CHARTERHOUSE): this hearty British tune features a delightful walking bass that supports a bold unison melody.
118c – Have I Done Any Good? (set to SAINTS BOUND FOR HEAVEN): This rugged American folk hymn provides a new, more hopeful perspective on this questioning text.
120a – He is Risen (set to HYMN TO JOY): Beethoven’s joyous “Ode to Joy” is a perfect match for this celebratory Easter text.
127b – How Beautiful Thy Temples, Lord © (set to EVANGELIST): Mendelssohn’s peaceful and lyrical tune aptly matches the beauty and serenity found in our temples.
129c – How Gentle God’s Commands (set to STATE STREET): the short-short-long-long rhythms used in this tune create an entirely new feeling for a familiar text.
135 – I Believe in Christ © (set to O WALY WALY): this tuneful British folk melody beautifully complements an apostle’s sincere testimony of Jesus Christ.
139a – I Know That My Redeemer Lives (set to BRADFORD): it is surprising to hear how effectively Handel’s “I Know that My Redeemer Liveth” (from The Messiah) works for this very similarly worded text by Samuel Medley.
142b – I Stand All Amazed (set to MOUNT WATSON): this powerful minor-mode American folk hymn expresses the text in a way that always affects me emotionally.
144b – I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go (set to GOSPEL LIBERTY): this is another tuneful Shaker hymn and has been sung at several family missionary farewells.
145a – I’m a Pilgrim, I’m a Stranger (set to BEACH SPRING ©): this is one of the finest arrangements of an American folk hymn, bringing fresh life to a hymn that we rarely sing due to its harmonic complexity.
148b – In Humility, Our Savior © (set to FREU DICH SEHR): one of the most beautiful German chorales with a simple melody supported by a masterful harmonization by J.S. Bach, for a beloved sacrament text.
149a – In Hymns of Praise (set to THAXTED): this tune from Holst’s The Planets nicely supports the text “beneath his hand, at his command, the shining planets move.”
157a – Jesus, Lover of My Soul (set to PEREGRINUS): one of a few tunes that I created myself for the collection, set to an introspective, prayerful text by Isaac Watts.
163a – Joseph Smith’s First Prayer (set to CHRISTIAN UNION): I like the idea that this text about Joseph Smith is set to a camp meeting hymn that would have been common in his day. I also used this tune for “Welcome, Welcome, Sabbath Morning.”
168 – Lead Me Into Life Eternal © (set to GLORY, GLORY, HALLELUJAH): set to an African-American spiritual before learning that we would be welcoming spirituals into our Church’s hymnody in Hymns for Home and Church.
188b – Love at Home (set to OASIS ©): this lovely contemporary tune by Brian Coleman beautifully expresses the joy of love at home (a favorite one for my siblings to sing).
192b – More Holiness Give Me (set to THE MORNING TRUMPET ©): this American folk hymn, often sung by the Tabernacle Choir men as “The Morning Trumpet,” lends more eagerness to the prayerful pleas in “More Holiness Give Me.”
198b – Nearer, My God, to Thee (set to SONG IN THE NIGHT): another prayerful text set to a pensive American folk tune that we use with the text “My Song in the Night.”
199b – Now Let Us Rejoice (set to ASH GROVE): this cheerful Welsh melody effectively supports the joyful mood of the text.
201c – Now The Day is Over (set to HOLY IS THE LORD): one of Schubert’s tenderest choral compositions works very well for this evening hymn.
218a – O My My Soul Commune with Thee © (set to LAND OF REST): Annabel Morris Buchanan’s setting of this American folk hymn perfectly fits this prayerful text.
222b – Once in Royal David’s City (set to DIVINUM MYSTERIUM): This simply harmonized, free-flowing plainchant melody creates a peaceful atmosphere for a well-loved carol.
230c – Praise to the Man (set to SHEPHERD’S STAR): A tune selected from the American folk hymnal Southern Harmony, harmonized with open fifths and “forbidden parallels” to evoke the sound of the shape-note hymnals used in Joseph’s day.
232c – Prayer is the Soul’s Sincere Desire (set to LYON 59): this forgotten tune by an obscure Renaissance composer, Philibert Jambe-de-Fer, turned out to be a great match for the definitive hymn about prayer.
234a – Precious Savior, Dear Redeemer (set to AUTUMN): this forgotten tune by a similarly obscure French composer, François-Hippolyte Barthélémon, has become one of my favorite hymn tunes.
239b – Redeemer of Israel, Our Only Delight (set to SAMANTHRA): this memorable folk hymn is harmonized here with somber, chromatically descending gestures, creating an entirely new mood for the text.
253a – Secret Prayer (set to BROTHER JAMES’ AIR): this is a solid tune that was recently introduced into our hymnody using the text “The Lord’s My Shepherd.”
259a – Sing We Now at Parting (set to KING’S WESTON): a parting song set to one of Ralph Vaughan William’s many excellent hymn tunes.
263a – The Spirit of God (set to CANDLER): one of the most iconic Latter-day Saint hymns is here set to a Scottish melody in flowing 6/8 meter, giving it a lighter, more joyful feeling.
267c – Sweet is the Work (set to SELENA): this profoundly simple tune by Isaac Woodbury provides the perfect setting for a beautifully worded text by Isaac Watts.
303a – We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet (set to ADAM): this is a newly composed tune that is rhythmically quite distinct from the tune we currently use.
313b – While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks (set to RESIGNATION): the tune that we now sing with “My Shepherd Will Supply My Need” is here set to a Christmas text.
317a – With Humble Heart © (set to DISTRESS): yet another American folk hymn, and a suitably somber tune for a text about humility and repentance.
Practical Application for Wards and Choirs
— Discover how Latter-day Saint ward choirs and soloists can practically integrate alternate hymn settings into worship, enriching sacred music programs while respecting official congregational hymnody.
You specifically mention that these new settings are appropriate for church choirs and vocal solos. How can ward music leaders practically integrate these arrangements into standard sacrament meeting worship?
The settings in Sing a New Song can effectively be used by choirs and soloists to provide beauty through variety for hymns that members are already familiar with. It is not intended that these hymns be sung by congregations in sacrament meeting, since the Church’s official hymnal should be the source of congregational singing. In no way do we intend to change that. Choirs and soloists frequently use arrangements of hymns, however, and we consider these alternate tunes to be a similar type of arrangement. Concerned bishoprics might note that the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square has frequently sung familiar texts with new tunes in Music and the Spoken Word and occasionally has done so in General Conference as well.
A good starting point for local music leaders would be to try a few new tunes for a Christmas program or an Easter program. Since the tunes themselves are new, it is not as important that the tunes be arranged, so they can be sung directly from the hymnal. We also encourage musicians to create new arrangements of these tunes if they so desire. The larger, spiral-bound version of the hymnal is ideal for pianists and conductors, while the digital version available online at https://www.singanewsong.org/hymnbook/ might be better for singers. There are also recordings online to help choir members learn their parts easily. Unless the match contains copyrighted text or music, any number of copies can be made for church and non-commercial purposes.
As the Church moves toward using Hymns for Home and Church, what lessons can everyday members and musicians learn from Sing a New Song, and how do you see it being used once the new hymnal is released?
Because of the announcement of Hymns for Home and Church, which I had the pleasure of working on as a service missionary for over four years, I had conflicted feelings about publishing Sing a New Song. I had been working on this passion project for many years and wanted to see it come to fruition. But I am simultaneously committed to promoting the new hymns and songs in the official Church hymnbook, which I know to be inspired and which will bless Church members in innumerable ways.
We are living in a time of great musical flowering.
Ultimately, I concluded that we are living in a time of great musical flowering, similar perhaps to the British “hymn explosion” of the eighteenth century (a second “explosion” occurred there in the 1960s and 70s). After the 2019 call for new hymns and songs, members all over the world have been writing new texts and tunes, and these new creations, whether or not they are included in the Church’s official hymnal, will bless the lives of many throughout the world. Sing a New Song is one such contribution that I hope will inspire for many years to come, as a repository of hymn tunes from generations of Christian hymnody.
Don’t Miss Our Latest Interviews!
Get new interviews and articles from leading scholars delivered straight to your inbox.
About the Scholar
Brent Yorgason is an Associate Professor of Music Theory in the School of Music at Brigham Young University. His research focuses on music theory, structural analysis, and hymnology. As co-creator of Sing a New Song, a comprehensive collection offering over 700 new text-tune pairings, he has contributed extensively to sacred music studies, drawing on historical melodies, chorales, and folk traditions. A dedicated hymnologist, he has also served on the Attributions Review Committee for the Church’s global hymnbook project and holds active memberships in The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada as well as the Society for Music Theory. His deep technical expertise in meter, poetic structure, and musical arranging offers readers a thoughtful, authoritative perspective on how alternate LDS hymn tunes can revitalize worship and illuminate sacred texts.
Further Reading
Explore more From the Desk articles about Latter-day Saint hymns and music
- How Did Tracy Y. Cannon Shape Latter-day Saint Hymnbooks?
- Emma Smith’s Role in Shaping the ‘Elect Lady’ Revelation (D&C 25)
- What Music Did Utah Pioneers Perform?
- Who Was Eduardo Balderas?
- Who Wrote, “Oh How Great is Our Joy”?
LDS Hymns and Tunes
Read what top scholars and publishers say about LDS Hymns and Tunes:
- Sing a New Song: New Tunes for Familiar Hymns (Book)
- Sing a New Song (Website)
- What Hymns Early Mormons Sang and How They Sang Them (BYU Religious Studies Center)
- The Mexican Mission Hymns Project (Times and Seasons)
Footnotes
[1] See Michael Hicks’s work in Mormonism and Music (1989) for more details about the Kirtland Temple dedication and his article in Spencer Kimball’s Record Collection: Essays on Mormon Music (2020) for information about the anonymously composed tune for “The Spirit of God.”
[2] Two earlier books with hymn tunes in them were published far from the center of the Church: the “Little & Gardner” hymnal (published in Bellows Falls, Vermont in 1844) includes two-part musical settings of several LDS hymns, including the tune that we now sing with “The Spirit of God”; and John Tullidge’s Latter-day Saints’ Psalmody, published in 1858 in Liverpool before Tullidge had even joined the Church, includes the tunes we now use for “An Angel from on HIgh” and “Come All Ye Sons of Zion.”
[3] To see hymn histories such as this one, I highly recommend Samuel Bradshaw’s singpraises.net, a tremendous resource for LDS hymnologists.
[4] Our Latter-day Hymns (2009), page 211.
