God Glorified in Our Music
I was first introduced to the hymn, “When, in Our Music, God is Glorified,” as a freshman music major at Anderson College in South Carolina. Each Wednesday afternoon, music majors from various concentrations would present a piece of music on their particular instrument. As we opened our weekly “recital hour,” we would begin by singing the first stanza of this hymn. I always appreciated how appropriate this hymn was for Christian music majors to sing as they prepared to share their musical abilities, without pride, but in service to God. The first stanza says:
When, in our music, God is glorified,
And adoration leaves no room for pride,
It is as though the whole creation cried,
“Alleluia”
The writer of this hymn, Fred Pratt Green, was a British Methodist minister and hymn writer associated with the New English Renaissance hymn movement. This movement was made up of individuals who sought to write hymns that balanced traditional and popular musical styles, while also addressing significant social issues of the times. In his hymn, “When, in Our Music, God is Glorified,” Rev. Pratt Green addresses the subject of music in the worship of the church and what its true goal and purpose should be: not prideful music-making, but adoration and glorification of God. He wrote this text in 1971 to be sung at a London conference of the Methodist Church Music Society. It is paired with the tune ENGLEBERG, which was originally written by Charles Stanford as a setting for William How’s text “For All the Saints.”
Each stanza of the hymn highlights a different aspect of the music we offer in personal and corporate worship:
Stanza 1 — adoration of God, not self-promotion
Stanza 2 — the effect that new sounds and styles can have on us as we worship
Stanza 3 — the historical use of music by the church
Stanza 4 — Jesus’ singing of psalms the night He was betrayed
Stanza 5 — praising and rejoicing through music
At the end of each of the first four stanzas, an “alleluia” is sung, with two sung after the fifth and final stanza. The unresolved sound of the “alleluia” melody leads naturally to the start of the following stanza. The closing “alleluia” resolves downward in a stepwise melody and brings the hymn to a pleasant melodic conclusion.
“When, in Our Music, God is Glorified” is a unison hymn with a melodic range of an octave. The melody moves mostly in steps with a few instances of simple interval leaps. These factors, as well as its short length, help make the hymn very singable for congregations. It is in 10.10.10 hymnic meter with “alleluias” added to each stanza as somewhat of a brief refrain (really more of an antiphon). Poetically, the hymn is in iambic meter and features rhyming triplets in each stanza — each line ends with the same rhyming sound (with the exception of the third line of the third stanza, “tongue”).
This relatively new hymn has been published in 68 publications (hymnals and supplements) ranging from Evangelical Protestant groups, to Catholic groups, and even global hymnals (according to hymnary.org). It was included in the 1991 Baptist Hymnal and in the recently published Celebrating Grace Hymnal.
“When, in Our Music, God is Glorified,” is a beautiful hymn that can be used not only to praise and worship God, but also to teach those in our congregations what it means to truly bring Him glory through the gift of music.
