Why the Amish Sing: Songs of Solidarity and Identity

• 10. Case Study: The Loblied, or Lobsang
• Chapter
• Johns Hopkins University Press
• pp. 107-118
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CHAPTER 10

Case Study: The Loblied, or Lobsang

Hilde Binford sings the Loblied in a clear voice as we enjoy breakfast together at a highway truck stop. Binford teaches musicology at Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, near the heart of the first Amish settlement in colonial America. “I know the whole thing from memory,” she boasts, beaming. She has mastered the Loblied by singing in worship services beside her Amish friends.

Learning the Loblied, “O Gott Vater, wir loben Dich,” is no mean feat. Singers sing from the Ausbund, which contains only the text. They have to learn the melody by heart. One syllable may have as many as eight notes. And one verse, with about 225 notes and taking five minutes or more to sing, is almost twice as long as an entire popular music selection—with no instrumental accompaniment to help with the pitch and momentum. So with all four verses, the Loblied can take twenty or more minutes for the congregation to sing. Sung slowly, the Loblied, sometimes referred to as the Lobsang or Lobgesang, offers an opportunity for meditation and worship. The simple melody moves with a lithe grace, and the message of the text underscores the Amish desire to direct their gaze toward the Almighty.

Whereas the other hymns change from service to service, the Loblied is always the second song sung at bi-weekly worship services. It thus occupies the most privileged place of any hymn on the Amish musical landscape. After congregants have completed the opening hymn in Sunday worship, the ministers and bishop rise and leave the gathering for the Abrot, the ministers’ meeting during which they decide who will preach in the service and share counsel on other issues facing the community. The worshipers continue the service in the leaders’ absence by singing the Loblied.

“We sing this song every Sunday,” explains an Old Order man. David and his mother, Naomi, sing the first verse for me. David starts each line, and they stagger their breathing for the remainder of the line to produce a continuous sound. “In worship services there are more of us; we don’t run out of breath,” adds his mother. David is an experienced singer but leads the second line and succeeding lines a half pitch higher than the first. “I can follow, but I can’t lead the Ausbund tunes myself,” Naomi admits. In the sixth line of the song, she misses the melody and goes off on her own. David suggests that this sometimes happens in worship. “Last Sunday we had a lot of visitors in the service. We asked several [of the men] to each lead one line of the Loblied as a way of welcoming them. Sometimes, they got off and we came in to try to get them back on,” David explains. “The sixth line is especially hard.” He refers to the only line with an accidental, a note outside the given key, which raises the fourth note in the scale a half step. “We sang it a bit faster than we do in worship,” he also admits. “It usually takes us twenty minutes to do all four verses.”

David and Naomi’s descriptions of the variations that occur in the singing of the Loblied are indicative of the ways that this hymn has been stretched through time and region, all without losing its shape. A close examination of the Loblied provides a fascinating window into Amish worship life and the musical practices that so heavily form it. We look first at the history of the text and tune of this central praise hymn and then turn to a discussion of how it is sung and notated in a variety of contexts.

Origins of the Loblied

The Amish sing the Loblied from the Ausbund with words that were written 450 years ago. According to Rudolf Wolkan in Die Lieder der Wiedertäufer, Leenaert Clock of Holland, a prolific author credited with over four hundred hymns, wrote the text of the Loblied in 1525.¹ The text asserts that, although the faithful suffer sorrow and loneliness, they may lean on God and count on God’s presence. In gratitude for God’s constancy, believers seek to praise God for granting them wisdom and truth and for leading them to a holy, pious life. The hymn reveals much about the Amish belief that praise of God is the primary aim of humans.

The melody of the Loblied, like melodies of other Ausbund hymns, corresponds to a secular tune, “Es wollt ein Magdlein Wasser hollen,” which the Anabaptists also adopted for the text “Aus tiefer Not schrei ich zu Dir,” beginning about 1534.²

The Amish relate that their melodies have been passed down through the generations, but it is impossible to tell whether they are the same as those first sung by the martyrs and early Anabaptists. This study of the Loblied demonstrates a strong consistency in the melodies the Amish have sung from 1930 through the early twenty-first century. By examining several sung and notated versions of the Loblied, we can identify regional and historical variations in the melody as well as striking commonalities among them.

Holmes County, Ohio, Version

A Holmes County singer demonstrates the hymn (Musical Example 10.1) by singing one verse. At the pace she chooses, the four verses of the song would take only twelve minutes to sing. She acknowledges that she was singing it much faster than usual because of her nervousness and unfamiliarity with singing this song alone—and into a tape recorder. The nuances of the turns of the notes (gliding here, solid there, stronger then lighter), the lilt, the sweetness of her voice, the intensity, the sincerity of purpose—none of these can be adequately described or diagrammed. Suffice it to say, while the song may appear lethargic on paper, there is energy and melodic interest within each phrase when one hears it sung. In the worship setting, hearing the voices attune themselves to the others adds aesthetic satisfaction.

In this version of the Loblied, the Holmes County singer elongates several notes in each line and scoops and slides into and out of notes.³ Other singers singing the same song do not. Naomi takes frequent breaths within one line, almost one for each word. But as Naomi previously pointed out, a group would stagger their breathing so that no obvious pauses would be heard. This Loblied melody employs repetition as an organizing principle; for example, several lines are repeated exactly (lines 1, 2, and 7 are the same, and lines 3 and 4 match). Lines 2, 4, and 6 start on D and end on C. Line 7 starts on C and also ends on C (table 10.1 has more detail).

The melody is almost thoroughly diatonic, containing the notes that make up the major scale, except for one accidental, an F-sharp in line 6, third note. In the entire melody, she sings only one F sharp, which is the sole note foreign to the C scale. In the ascending melody, the effect of raising the F to F-sharp makes the E–F-sharp a wider interval, a step rather than a half step.⁴ No Amish person could explain why they sharped this note. The melody has come to them this way. There is no obvious melodic or textual reason for this accidental note, but it also appears in a 1997 Holmes County, Ohio, version in print (in Musical Example 10.2, see the third note of the melisma on the syllable “Uns”). In the Troyer version there are three Fs in line 6, and it is not clear whether all three are sharped. The Holmes County version (Musical Example 10.1) uses only the first two sharps. The melody line varies on both the “-nen” of “ermahnen” and on “durch.” The F-sharp does not, however, appear in a 1929 version from Pennsylvania. This change documents one very unusual and surprising melodic variant, an F-sharp instead of an F, between 1929 and 1997.

The Loblied melody is largely pentatonic, employing only five notes of the scale C-D-E-F-G. Of the 225 notes sung for each verse, only 14 are outside this group: seven As and six Bs, each below the middle C, and the single F-sharp above middle C.

The Loblied in the Troyer Edition

The second version of the Loblied (Musical Example 10.2) comes from the Troyer shape-note songbook edition called Ausbund and Liedersammlung Songs. There is no clef sign designating the starting pitch. The group can make any note do, the first note of the major scale (as in the song “Doe, a deer”) and in this case the starting and main note. This allows the leader to choose the most comfortable range for the assembled group.

Several tune inconsistencies are noticeable between the Holmes County and Troyer versions. As the Holmes County singer begins, she starts with a low G, or sol below the do, and slides up to the do, whereas the Troyer version begins directly on the do as designated by a triangle. The Holmes County singer holds some notes for a beat and others for only part of a beat, with up to four notes on one beat. The Troyer version is written with even beats, all of the same note length. But that is not the way the tune would ever be sung. It is sung more rhythmically, like the Holmes County version (Musical Example 10.1).

Surprisingly, the Troyer uses a text borrowed from the Ausbund hymn number 131 for line 3, “Die du, o Herr, so gnädiglich,” which emphasizes the love God graciously gives, in place of the Holmes County line “Dass Du Dich, O Herr, gnädiglich,” which underlines God, who gives the love. This comparison shows that the text has changed a little over 450 years, but there have been a few more melodic changes.

Lomax Versions of the Loblied

Two Loblied versions recorded by musicologist Alan Lomax and his wife, Elizabeth, on a Smithsonian Institution–sponsored tour through Iowa and Indiana in 1938, offer snapshots of Amish singing to compare with today’s renditions (compare Musical Examples 10.3 [Iowa] and 10.4 [Indiana]).

The Indiana melody starts a half-step higher. The Iowa version has more complex rhythms, using a mixture of different note values from whole notes to sixteenth notes, while the Indiana version only uses slow (whole notes) and fast (quarter notes). (For a comparison of the openings of each of these versions and the Holmes County and Troyer renditions, see appendix I, Musical Example A1.9.)

Comparing these 1938 written versions of the Loblied with the 2006 Holmes County version demonstrates that there is a remarkable consistency among versions from 1938 to 2006, far outweighing minor variations. A few added notes lead to minor melodic differences, but more surprisingly, many congruencies exist between the 1938 and 2006 versions, amazing given the chronological and geographic distance between the communities singing the two versions.

Having said that, the Amish have not retained complete uniformity of the song throughout the years or across the miles. Many rhythmic differences, caused by how long the singer or singing group holds each note, do exist.⁵ One striking melodic difference between the Lomax (Musical Example 10.3) and the Holmes County (Musical Example 10.1) version is the addition of anticipatory notes in nearly every line of the Holmes County version. A few anticipations appear in the Indiana version, but none appear in the Iowa rendition. Another difference in the melody of the second syllable of “Va-ter,” transposed in C, is that the Lomax version employs D-E-F-E, while the Holmes County melody is D-F-E-D.

The Loblied in Mifflin County, Pennsylvania

In 1942, Joseph W. Yoder’s landmark collection of Amish hymns, found and notated in the Kishacoquillas Valley of Mifflin County in western Pennsylvania, purports to show the “old way.” Yoder’s aim was to help Amish families rehearse Ausbund hymns at home and to learn, by the use of shape notes, how to sing the old hymns. He expected this practice to improve the singing of the Ausbund hymns in community worship services and gave directions for their performance:

All the notes between two consecutive bars are sung to one syllable. This necessitates slurring throughout the entire piece, and as slurring is one of the characteristics of these tunes, the marks indicating slurs are omitted, but understood. The whole notes represent a sustaining of the voice almost as long as a whole note in 2/2 time; the half note somewhat shorter; and the quarter note a quick swing of the voice, a mere touch of the voice to that note; and the double notes represent a rather long sustaining of the voice. A slight stress of the voice on the first part of each syllable is probably as near to the accent as we can come, as there is little if any accent.⁶

These approximations of note lengths reinforce the notion that members practice and learn note lengths by repeatedly singing the songs together. Singers adapt to the group. Indeed, the group must make musical decisions together, since the Ausbund contains no musical notations.

Yoder’s version of the Loblied (Musical Example 10.4) follows an earlier Mifflin County notation of the song, published around 1929 in a book about Mennonite immigration.⁷ Yoder uses slightly different, generally longer notes on some pitches and a different key, A-flat major, rather than the G major of the Mifflin version. Otherwise, the melody is the same. Either a Vorsinger in Mifflin County used the earlier written version as his guide, or the Amish remained perfectly consistent through those thirteen years.

I have yet to find a Holmes County family that owns the Yoder collection, but they would like to. Upon the request of an Amish bishop, I made him a copy from the library book when I couldn’t locate an actual book for him.

Leola, Pennsylvania, Version of the Loblied

In Leola, Pennsylvania (1997), a group of Amish record another melody for the Loblied. As an unusual addition, one woman sings harmony in this recording, mostly a third below the man who sings the melody (Musical Example 10.5).

Other than the hymn text, the similarities between this version and the previous one include the same five-note voice range. This is a “fast” tune, not like any of the tunes used for Ausbund singing. Some typical aspects of Amish Ausbund singing employed in this version include cutting off the last syllable of the line abruptly, extremely slow tempos, and brief pauses between lines before the Vorsinger begins the next line. The melody moves in whole and half steps, with occasional thirds and rarer fourths as the congregants unite in the steady rise and fall of phrases. The harmony is a major element that distinguishes this version from others, but the harmony would not be acceptable in worship services.

One Last Version

Atlee Miller, a Holmes County Vorsinger, enjoys talking about singing. Sandwiched between his discussions of singing for special days, he remarks, “We sang a different melody for the Loblied when I was a boy.” That was nearly seventy years ago (Musical Example 10.6). This information was a significant breakthrough. How many other melodies have the Amish tried and discarded? How many other groups knew or used this alternate melody? Since the Amish have not put emphasis on the melodies, the dominant ones seem to win out, while others drop from usage. Atlee’s great musical memory, along with frequent rehearsal and interest in Amish singing, makes him an invaluable resource for documenting changes as well as recovering obsolete melodies.

Whither the Loblied?

No one knows how this consummate Amish hymn will evolve or stay the same in the minds and mouths of future generations. The youth in some communities are expressing a strong interest in memorizing the tunes and mastering the singing of hymns such as the Loblied. Judging from the striking continuity of the Loblied’s melody, text, and rhythm through history, despite some historical and regional variations, we can surmise that the Loblied will carry its graceful, solemn tones far into the centuries to come.