Adding Refrains to Hymns

[Guest Guest]

Recently, I have seen some older hymns being "renovated" with a modern refrain being tagged on. A couple of instances are the addition to Come Thou Fount (of Every Blessing) and Chris Tomlin's beautiful addition to Amazing Grace.

Chris Tomlin was originally asked to write the refrain for the movie, Amazing Grace, that followed the life of William Wilberforce. Obviously, it was a huge undertaking. I mean, who wants to touch Amazing Grace, right? If you watch the movie, you'll hear his version during the ending credits; I believe God used that as a springboard, and now that beautiful song and it's added refrain are all over the radio airwaves.

So, what do you think? Should we add to hymns and older traditional music to (for lack of better words) revive them to a younger generation?

[HappyChristian]

I like the words that were written to add on to these songs. Personally, though, I don't think they needed addition to appeal to younger people. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, though. Know what I mean?

(I don't like Chris Tomlin's singing style. It's too breathy for me.)

[Jerry]

I don't think there is anything wrong with adding a chorus to a hymn - however, I certainly have problems with making the hymns rocky or "modernising" them(ie. going from sacred to a fleshly style), which a lot of praise music does.

[Guest Guest]

I like the words that were written to add on to these songs. Personally, though, I don't think they needed addition to appeal to younger people. I don't think there's anything wrong with it, though. Know what I mean?

(I don't like Chris Tomlin's singing style. It's too breathy for me.)

I do know what you are saying. I did not mean that they needed to "modernize" the songs to appeal to a younger generation. I think that in their popular resurgence, however, it may introduce them to a younger generation, perhaps one that hasn't known them since birth as I have.

As far as the vocal styling of Tomlin, I agree. Although, I do think that is purely a preferential issue at this point.