The new Evangelical Hymnal by Jan Smelik

by Jan Smelik | Het ORGEL | Year 96 | (2000) | Issue 6

Jan Smelik The new Evangelical Hymnal
Het ORGEL 96 (2000), nr. 6, 37-40 [summary]

Recently, the Dutch ‘Evangelische Liedbundel’ (Evangelical Hymnal) waspublished by the ‘Evangelisch Werkverband’. Apart from repertoire in thetradition of the church hymn, the book contains a large number of gospel- andpraise-songs.

The editors present the Hymnal as a supplement to the official ‘Liedboek voor deKerken’ (Hymnal for the Churches). It is however questionable whether it willfunction as intended: it can very well be expected to take the place of the officialHymnal, since its repertoire is a part of evangelical spirituality and has consequently arather different background from that of the official Hymnal. As quite a few of the hymnsmeet the religious needs of evangelical groups in the churches, it may be expected thatonly these will be used by these groups.

With respect to the possible significance of the Hymnal for contemporary church musicalpractice in general and liturgical organ culture in particular, one may observe that thereexists an unbridgeable gap between the evangelical music scene and the conventional churchmusical world.
Consequently, it is questionable whether the evangelicals can extend their church musicalrepertoire substantially. Integrating elements of light music in conventional church musicmight be the preferable alternative.