CA M PUS N E WS
M AY 202 1
Hymnary Turns 25
Book has generation-spanning connection BY LANCE SCHWARTZ • CHIEF COMMUNICATION OFFICER
When a parishioner walks into the sanctuary for worship there are a few things they expect to always be there – the pastor, an instrument to lead the music, perhaps the collection basket, and certainly there is always a hymnal in the pew. Maybe for some churchgoers the thought of where the hymnal came from, or how it got into the church pew, never crosses their mind. In the seats of Bethany's Trinity Chapel are copies of the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (ELH). The worship and hymnbook is also used throughout the Evangelical Lutheran Synod (ELS) – the church body that owns and operates Bethany. The Synod published the ELH in 1996. 2021 marks the 25th anniversary of the hymnal's debut. Two of the key people involved in the production of the ELH are current members of the Bethany faculty. Dennis Marzolf has served on the Bethany faculty since 1983 and Mark DeGarmeaux since 1995. While the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary was compiled by the worship committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod, Marzolf and DeGarmeaux were prominent contributors to the effort. It's a traditionally Lutheran hymnal but the Norwegian heritage of the ELS and Bethany is evident throughout the Hymnary. According to DeGarmeaux's notes about the hymnal production process, hymn and tune was the most daunting task faced by the committee. He noted, "It would be an easy thing to prepare a hymnal with 1,500 tunes and texts. It would be fun to prepare a hymnal with 1,000 tunes and texts. But to select and limit the hymn corpus as we have had to do in ELH is a difficult task indeed." 20
Concordia Seminary, St. Louis
Alfred Fremder
While the work of DeGarmeaux and Marzolf was extensive, he credits the help of others who contributed to the project. "We were assisted in our work by many who made personal suggestions." Interestingly, another historical Bethany figure played a role in the hymnal's development. Among the four service rites contained in the ELH is the The Divine Service: Rite Three which is a setting written by Dr. Alfred Fremder, Bethany's beloved choir director in the mid 20th Century. Fremder passed away in April 2006. Five years ago, the Bethany Concert Choir gave a tour performance in Omaha, Nebraska, where Alfred Fremder's son, David, and Barb, a daughter-in-law of Fremder, presented Bethany Choir Director Dennis Marzolf with a signed baton that belonged to Alfred Fremder. Fremder also wrote the arrangement for "On My Heart Imprint Thine Image" a piece steeped in Bethany choral tradition that customarily closes each Bethany Concert Choir performance.
Photo by David Norris
