Hymns of the Old Colony Mennonites and the Old Way of Singing

Abstract

In an article on the origin and development of the so-called Old Way of Singing, Nicholas Temperley described it as a phenomenon that had existed during several centuries of Anglo-Saxon culture in both Great Britain and North America.1 A brief analysis of a German hymn sung by the Old Order Amish led him to suggest further that the practice might in fact be a characteristic of Protestant worship in general.2 In this article I shall examine various aspects of the hymnody of a group known as the Old Colony Mennonites that may lead to further clarification and expansion of the concept. The availability of written documents that can be compared with the music of congregations still singing in a style that seems to have changed very little in the past century makes it possible to study this particular melismatic hymn-singing tradition-the Old Way of Singing among the Old Colony Mennonites--in considerable detail. Because there are still congregations living in relative isolation, it is also possible to examine the ways in which their musical practices reflect and reinforce their view of the world and its relationship to them. Old Colony Mennonites are one of several groups of Mennonites for whom the injunction to live apart from the world has manifested itself in visible and sometimes dramatic ways. They share with the larger body of Mennonites basic Anabaptist tenets of faith such as the concept of the church as a voluntary community, the refusal to take an oath, and the renunciation of violence.3 Like the Hutterites, the Old Order Amish of Pennsylvania, and the Old Order Mennonites of Waterloo County in southern Ontario, however, they have been distinguishable by their simple, austere clothing and rural way of life and by their avoidance of technological developments that might compromise their attempts to remain separated from the world.4 And like the Hutterites and Old Order Amish, the Old Colony Mennonites have a rich tradition of hymn singing.5