My brother plays piano, so he played Pachelbel's Canon for my wife to walk down the aisle in our wedding. We exited to Stevie Wonder's For Once in My Life, which is definitely a fun song. No hymns, but I can definitely appreciate their use at many weddings.
I grew up singing hymns. The hymn writers all have such incredible background stories. Fanny Crosby, Philip Bliss, William Cowper, and John Newton, just to name a few, all were brilliant lyricists. So brilliant, in fact, that many popular praise and worship songs borrow or directly copy lyrics from hymns.
As an example, Christian artist Matt Maher just released a new album this past Friday, and several of his songs are based on hymns. It's great to me to see how songs written hundreds of years ago still find relevance today, largely because they're based in biblical truth.
I play in the worship band at my church, and we've talked about writing some of our own songs. I suggested we just crack open a hymnal and we'd be all set.
Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing this.
That is cool that your brother played the piano for your wife to walk in to! Nice! We exited to mariachis - thanks to my time doing mission work in Mexico. :) They also played at our reception. It was a lot of fun...11 years ago! :)
I think it is really interesting that a lot of modern praise has some of the same lyrics as older hymns. And some of the hymn writers do have amazing stories. I have a book with some of their stories in my library. Need to read through it sometime!
I have heard of Matt Maher, I'll have to check out the link. That's cool that you play in a worship band! Have a good one!