JoyfulSingingBook

Telling the story of one group of Lutherans and their sacred music.

This is the tenth in a series of monographs—Shaping American Lutheran Church Music—published by the Center for Church Music, Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Illinois, highlighting people, movements, and events that have helped to shape the course of church music among Lutherans in North America.

In this volume, Benjamin A. Kolodziej uncovers and records the story of the Lutherans who undertook the daunting and uncertain work of carving out a new life in a new land, and of the music that accompanied them. Although the topic is centered around the history of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, the book is rich in historical and contextual detail. Kolodziej overcomes the difficulty of delineating different Lutheran sects—immigrants aligned to whatever iteration of the Lutheran church was available, —to tell the stories of the church’s past in clear and compelling prose.

The book will be a great help to scholars, historians, and musicians alike.

Endorsements:

The song of the church comes to us in many and various ways. Benjamin Kolodziej deserves deep thanks for his account of a faithful way among Texas Lutherans. Lutherans and others will benefit from this history and its insights.  Rev. Dr. Paul Westermeyer, Emeritus Professor of Church Music at Luther Seminary and MSM Director with St. Olaf College.

Joyfully Singing is an engaging, extensively documented history of church music in Lutheranism in Texas, especially as it has unfolded in churches associated with the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and its Concordia College in Austin.  Dr. Donald Rotermund, Minister of Music Emeritus, Zion Lutheran Church, Dallas, Texas.

Kolodziej’s Joyful Singing takes the reader deep into the heart of Texas’ music-making among Lutherans, especially its beginnings in the mid-nineteenth century. His examination of primary sources provides a rare glimpse into the challenges that the Wendish and German immigrants faced, and how those early struggles would blossom into a rich and varied practice today. Rev. Dr. Paul Grime, Dean of the Chapel, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, Indiana

Benjamin Kolodziej has skillfully woven the pieces of an engaging narrative of LCMS origins and life in Texas. He achieves the rare feat of providing a monograph that is both meticulously documented and enjoyable reading. Kolodziej’s research reminds us that the unique Texas landscape provided ample space not just for the larger Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic faith communities but a refuge for the smaller, sturdy, and resilient Lutherans seeking religious freedom. The author puts a face on the Lutheran presence through copious photographs of key figures, churches, organs, and musical collections. This monograph is a study not just for Lutheran pastors and church musicians but for anyone who enjoys a beautifully written history of how faith sprang up in the Texas soil. Rev. Dr. C. Michael Hawn, University Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Church Music, Southern Methodist University

With writing that is winsome and witty, Kolodziej’s engaging work offers a wonderful glimpse into the life and work of Lutheran church musicians in Texas.  He offers us a true gift—focused, substantive historical insight and profound, applicable theological discernment.  Rev. Dr. James F. Marriott, Kreft Chair of Music Arts, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis

Benjamin Kolodziej can wring water from a stone. Early sources of Lutheran music in Texas are few, but Kolodziej nonetheless spins a convincing narrative from a paucity of information, filling in details through some clever deductions. This exemplary study of local music history should serve as a model for others in a similar vein. Dr. Joseph Herl, Professor of Music at Concordia University, Nebraska, and Research Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• YouTube