The Development of Cantonese Christian Choral Music

1       The Development of CCCM

1.1       Origin in mainland China

The contextualization of Chinese hymn was long discussed and practiced and the CCCM develops from this trend. Although written Chinese has been unified since Qin Dynasty (秦朝), there are huge differences people’s dialects. Nowadays in China, there are eight systems of dialects and Cantonese is one of the dialects used in south-east China, especially in Hong Kong. Therefore in 1807, since Robert Morrison from London missionary launched the first Protestant mission to China[1], the hymns imported by missionaries were set in different dialects.

The first Chinese hymn book, “Yang Xin Shen Shi” (養心神詩) was published in 1818, which was translated from the English hymn book to Chinese (mandarin)[2]. Other than that, many different dialect hymn books were written. For example, the “Gospel Hymns” (福音聖詩，1903) written in Cantonese published by China Baptist Publication Society the “Sacred Songs with Tunes” (聖詩樂譜，1906) written in Fuzhou dialect published by the American Board of Missions[3]. Setting hymns in different dialects was common in this period.

However, due to the unification and modernization of China, the Mandarin movement was launched in the early 20^th century. The dialect hymns started to decline. Hymn books in mandarin like Hymns of Praise to the Lord (頌主聖詩, 1915),Hymns of universal Praises (普天頌讚 1922) and Heavenly People Choruses (天人短歌, 1937), were published and used by major churches. The church in Hong Kong seemed to follow the trend although people in Hong Kong speak different dialects like Cantonese, Fujian (福建話), Kejia (客家) under the colonial rule. For convenience, those churches like TsungTsin Mission (崇真會) of Hong Kong (Also known as Basal Mission, 巴色會) whose major language used to be Kejia[4], and the Methodist Church whose major language is Cantonese[5], sang the hymns with Mandarin texts in their own dialects.[6] Other than traditional hymn book, in Christian secondary schools, many of the students sang in English.[7] There is no great awareness for Christian composers and lyricists to fit Cantonese into Christian choral music.

1.2       Development of CCCM in Hong Kong

In late 1970s, Cantonese folk hymns started to spread in churches because of the Hong Kong popularity of Cantonese songs. However there was not any publication on CCCM. The first cassette on Cantonese Christian music “How can it be forgotten” was produced by Dr. Alvin Yee-shing Chan (陳以誠) and Wong Ming-chiu (黃明照) in 1980. In 1982 Hong Kong Association of Christian Music Ministry (ACM) was established and published “齊唱新歌”. It includes CCCM sung by Hong Kong Baptist University Christian Choir.

Since then, many organizations involved in CCCM like Hong Kong Sacred Music Service (香港聖樂服務社). In 1990s Chinese Christian Literature Council (文藝出版社) started publishing a series of anthems “A Selection of Anthems”. In 2000s, Hosanna Chanters (浩聲讚祂詠團) and Musicall (教會樂圃樂圃) under the support of Hong Kong Sacred Music Service were established. They translate, compose, published and perform CCCM frequently in Hong Kong.

Despite of the need of the churches, there is growing awareness of the CCCM as there are more and more people are willing to perform CCCM. It is a landmark that Intervarsity Music Ministry was launched in Hong Kong Baptist University ten years ago. Now there are over 400 university students in nine University Christian Choirs in each year^[8]. Their repertoire is mainly CCCM. They aim at serving the community and preaching in Hong Kong, so CCCM is an easier way to access to the community. It is a huge motivation for the translation, composition of CCCM. There are many Christian music groups established in Hong Kong nowadays but there are only a few Christian organization compose and translate CCCM.

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[1] Although Christianity had reached China since Tang, its influence declined after the ban of Christianity by Kangxi. Missionaries were not permitted to preach in China.

[2] 盛宣恩：《盛宣恩論文集 – 中國基督教會聖詩史》，（香港，浸信會出版社，2010年），頁6。David Sheng, A collection of Sheng Xuanen’s essay – History of Christian Hymns of China, (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Baptist Press, 2010), p6.

[3] Ditto, p.69-72.

[4] Website of TsungTsin Mission of Hong Kong, http://www.ttm.org.hk/ (accessed in 31^st March, 2011).

[5] Web site of Methodist Church of Hong Kong, http://www.methodist.org.hk/about/ (accessed in 31^st March, 2011).

[6] 蔣慧民，穎調致中華講座中語，2011年3月20日。Jiang Huimin, Lecture on Yindiao Zhi Zhonghua, 20^th March, 2011.

[7] Interview of Timothy Lam (林國璋), CantonCM Web site, http://video.neighbouronline.com/person/allensit/public_html/CantoCM-03.wmv, (accessed on 24^th April, 2011)

[8] Internal Statistics from the Intervarsity Music Ministy Concert in 2011. 

My Final Year Project on Cantonese Christian Choral Music (CCCM) Part 1

Values of Cantonese Christian Choral Music (CCCM) – contextualization

1.1       Theological and traditional Values

CCCM has strong values on theology, tradition and accessibility. It can be explained in a term in Chinese Christianity, “Contextualization”[1]. “Contextualization” means “the result of placing in / treating as a part of something”[2]. The first “Contextualization” of Christianity is “Word becomes flesh”[3] that Jesus as a God came to the earth. He was placed in human context and preached the message of heaven.[4] Therefore the “Holy Words” should be placed in Hong Kong community and it should be accessible and bring out theological messages.

Also, Christian choral music is a heritage of Christian tradition. It can be traced back for 3000 years^[5]. In Ecclesiastes 2:8 in the bible, the author describes an early choir, “I get me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.” Choir members are used to be a group of trained and devoted people^[6].

Choral music in Christianity has theological functional values. First of all, in congregation, music is the modus operanti (mode of operating) for praise, thanksgiving, adoration and exhortation^[7]. Secondly, lyrics and music in choral music is used for the teaching of doctrine so as the church members can be theologically and musically trained.

        In Colossians 3:16, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Music can be used to “teach and admonish” the others, and give thanks to the God. Christian music therefore delivers theological messages. Also, people should worship God with sincerity and understanding. As mentioned in Colossian 3:16, people praising God should sing in heart. CCCM in people’s mother tongue will help people directly sing in heart because it is the most accessible language for them.

Luther based on this theology and “contextualized” the Mass in Latin to German as one of his reformation of Church. The “contextualization” of music became a tradition of Protestant Churches. Luther composed “Deutches messes” (German mass) in 1526[8]. It was accessible to local German people because it was written in local vernacular language[9]. This tradition is still influencing the modern people and thus CCCM has traditional value, traced back to Luther’s theology and the Christian history.

1.2       Values of accessibility

CCCM is accessible to Hong Kong people and can deliver theological meaning in music to Hong Kong people more efficiently. Cantonese is the major dialect in Hong Kong. According to the census in 2006, more than 90.8% (over 6 million) of the citizens use Cantonese as their usual language^[10]. The Christian choral music set in foreign language or other Chinese dialect might not be accessible in Hong Kong church. It was found unpersuasive singing those hymns because the tones do not fit the music. There are more people criticizing the music “ng ngam yɐm” (唔啱音) because they are confused with the words and cannot perceive messages from music not set in Cantonese. Therefore, Cantonese is much accessible for local churches to hold Sunday Services in Cantonese and CCCM is much accessible in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong people gradually adapted to Cantonese music since late 1960s and CCCM become more accessible for Hong Kong people. In 1969, James Wong (黃霑) became aware about the Hong Kong voices, culture and identity in popular music^[11]. He as a lyricist, and some leading composers like Joseph Koo (顧家輝1933 - ), and also some famous singers like Teresa Cheung (張德蘭, 1959 - ), Josephine Siao (蕭芳芳, 1947 - ) started to work out “Hong Kong voices” in Cantonese popular music. In addition, the television broadcasting started to be more popular in this era and the Cantonese popular music became more wide spread. Cantonese theme song of “啼笑因緣” (1974) is one of the representative works composed by Joseph Koo was welcomed by Hong Kong people. The Hong Kong people are accustomed to the Cantonese songs and therefore Christian choral music set in Cantonese was more and more irresistible^[12].

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[1] 林治平編著：《中國基督教在中國本色化論文集》，（北京，今日中國出版社，1998），頁1。Lin Zhiping, The Essays on Chinese Christianity contextualized in China, (Beijing, Jinri Zhongguo Chubanshe, 1998), p1.

[2] Oxford online Dictionary, http://0-www.oed.com.hkbulib.hkbu.edu.hk/view/Entry/40215;jsessionid=3CEC8C19B836FBC9CA26EF1C3F983585?redirectedFrom=contextualization#eid8443358, (accessed in 30^th March, 2011)

[3] John 1:1 – 14.

[4] Son Ji Y, Forces of Contextualization and Decontextualization: A Look at symbols, experiences and language, Doctoral thesis Indiana University, 2007, pv.

[5] Edited by Carl Halter and Carl Schalk, A Handbook of Church Music, (Missouri, Concordia Publishing House 1978).

[6] Paul McCommon, Music in the bible, (Atlanta, Convention Press, 1956), p.98.

[7] Ditto, p8.

[8] Story of Christian music, p.60. However, Martin Luther did not meant to abandon the Latin Mass. He just observed that the ordinary people without Latin training would not understand the Latin text. Therefore he advocated and translated the “contextualized” German hymn.

[9] Ditto.

[10] Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, http://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hong_kong_statistics/statistical_tables/index.jsp?tableID=140, (accessed 10^th February).

[11] James Wong, Writing of Verses for Cantonese Popular Songs, Centre for Literature and Translation Lingnan College, 1997, p.4.

[12] 楊漢倫：＜粵語流行曲導論＞，（香港，香港特別行政區教育局，2009年），頁3-5。Yang Hon-lun, Helan, Introduction to Cantonese Popular Music, (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Education Bureau), p3-5.

聲樂短期課程

聲樂短期興趣課程

除長期課程外，本人還提供短期課期和工作坊，五人開班，詳情如下：

時期：每期共12課

時間：每課1小時

收費：每人$1800（即每課$150）

由導師預備教材。

國語時代曲班（分四期）

透過聆聽和仔細品味分析，學習和國語時代曲的國語語音和「韻味」，亦感受不同歌手演譯歌曲的風格特質。

歌曲：往事只能回味、玫瑰玫瑰我愛你、橄欖樹、春風吻上我的臉、南海姑娘…..

經典英文金曲班

英文金曲縱橫全球，不單是百老匯和迪士尼音樂，還有Beatles、Mariah Carey、Celine Dion, Josh Groban等人的的歌曲膾灸人口。學習英文金曲不單對唱歌有好處，英語能力，尤其是口語，也會相應提升。

歌曲：Yesterday, The sound of Silence, Imagine, Hero, My Heart Will Go On, O Holy Night…..

傳統/流行聖詩班

裝備教會領唱、主席在敬拜隊、敬拜小組等等的事奉。透過聲樂訓練，學習在音樂上帶出歌曲的語氣和訊息，並學習一些「過場」語和手勢指示會眾和小組音樂的流程。

歌曲：讚美之泉、ACM等機構之作品，普天頌讚、世紀頌讚。

正規聲樂課程

聲樂正規訓練課程：

個人學習：每小時$450

小組學習（4-6人）：每小時$700

1          美聲唱法

1.1         以美聲唱法作為唱歌基礎，保養聲帶，並建立演譯不同種類的聲樂作品的技巧。例如百老匯、藝術歌曲、歌劇、流行聖詩、國語時代曲、牧歌、流行曲、四部合唱曲等等。

2          聲樂歷史

2.1         介紹歷史上自中世紀以來不同聲樂作品的體裁，提升對聲樂以致於其他音樂作品的品味。

3          基礎樂理

3.1         學習基本視譜能力，明白音階、音距、和絃、大、小調、節奏，以學習不同音高、節奏的用聲方法。

4          用氣方法

4.1         以圖解、科學理解方法學習正確的用呼吸方法，並解釋腹式呼吸之方法和技巧。

5          打磨音色，擴闊音域

5.1         透過聲樂練習堅固中聲區的穩定性和強度，訓練不同風格需用的音色，並慢慢拉闊至三個八度的音域。

6          清晰語音

6.1         學習基礎國際音標（IPA）、國語拼音和粵語拼音，介紹不同國家，例如英語、美語、德語、意大利語、法國語等語言的語言特質。

7          動作教學

7.1         透過簡單舞蹈、肢體動作學習協調聲帶和音色的質素。

8          歌曲和練習曲

8.1         使用Sieber練習曲和不同時期、風格的歌曲。

9          利用科技，明白聲音特質

9.1         使用軟件Sing and See，理解不同語音、不同音色的共鳴振幅的分別。

10      小組學習

10.1     透過同唱(unison)和合唱(part singing)學習小組中不同人的用聲長處，並提升自己聲樂水平。