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].
[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 30th 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).
[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 10th 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.
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