Many people reading this blog no doubt already know all about Keith and Kristyn Getty and their highly popular modern hymns, "In Christ Alone," "The Power of the Cross," plus many others. I read an article about them today and went to their website where they offer lyrics to their hymns and some bars from each. This is exactly the kind of Christian music I especially appreciate! Read here about their philosophy of hymn writing. Keith and Kristyn have a full year of scheduled events ahead throughout the UK, the US, and also India (in November). Kristyn sings "in Christ Alone" on YouTube. Elsewhere on YouTube there is a teaching video of "In Christ Alone" with lyrics. The Jesus Film can be seen in the background.
Update 3/10/08 - The February 2008 Christianity Today published an interview with Keith and Kristyn titled "Singable Doctrine." I greatly appreciate some of the quotes and want to preserve them here. Keith said he wanted to do two things:
One was to write songs that helped teach the faith, and the second was to write songs that every generation could sing.
He went on to say:
I don't think of music as only teaching, but I do think that what we sing profoundly affects how we think. It profoundly affects how we feel. It affects, therefore, our emotional and our didactic relationship with God. But what we sing is for people of all ages. . .
"The radical thing about a church service is that people of every age and every wealth bracket and every background come together and sing together. So we write these quasi-folk melodies that everyone can sing, and we hope there's an enduring quality to them."
The husband and wife team work with a lot of pastors and theologians who advise and help them. Keith says,
Modern worship songs tend to have a very thin range of subjects. They also tend to explore subjects in a less deep way than traditional hymnody does.
So true!
"Our goal is to write great songs, but through them to nourish and enrich and inspire and invigorate people with truth applied intellectually and emotionally. It is a tough goal, which is why in every 100 melodies I write, maybe half of one becomes a song! . .
There are 20 centuries of Christian music history and a glorious history of sound traditions from before that. There's so much we can learn. Even if we detest the musical styles or we feel they're an irrelevancy to our paticular gifting, there's a rich legacy to be learned from.
I am in total agreement with their stated goals and philosophy!