Classical, Bluegrass, and Hymns

As I was driving to work the other morning, I realized I’d forgotten to update my iPhone with podcasts, so I turned on the radio. I decided I didn’t want talking heads, so after flipping through several stations that were on “morning commute” breaks from music, I ended up on KDB, a local classical station, and caught the beginning of Brahms’ “Variations on a Theme by Haydn.” I thought to myself, “That sounds familiar.”

When I started singing along, I realized why. The “theme by Haydn” is the Saint Anthony Chorale, which is the tune for Hymn #67 in the United Methodist Hymnal, “We, Thy People, Praise Thee.”

This is not the first time something like this has happened; there are fair number of hymns that I grew up with that are based on Baroque (usually Bach) or Classical tunes. I hadn’t realized that until I started digging into music history in the last several years. Learning more about musicology has not only given me a sense for what happened when, it’s made me realize how deeply ingrained certain harmony structures are in my musical sense. I think one of the reasons I’m enjoying getting into bluegrass right now is because it draws on some of those same sensibilities. Certain kinds of music just resonate with me, and I’m slowly getting a better and better understanding of why.

Update

Fitness: Ran 6 miles
Sun, Moon, and Stars: 338 words, 366 seven-day average, 279 average, 47757 total, 243 to go for the week; 11-day streak