Real Music: A Guide to the Timeless Hymns of the Church

by Anthony Esolen

Real Music by Anthony Esolen is a comprehensive and fascinating guide, in print and song, to the great hymns of the Church. It shows that, unlike much of what is sung in too many Catholic churches today, good music, “Real Music”, combines great poetry with doctrinally sound lyrics and beautiful melody.

With noted Catholic author Anthony Esolen as your guide and the St. Cecilia Choir as your muse, join the Catholic Musical Renaissance which is truly a recovery of the best that has been sung and prayed down through the ages. You’ll be glad you did.

Real Music is arranged by events in the life of our Lord and the seasons and Sacraments of the Church. This book will teach you much about poetry, music, and the Catholic Faith itself. What better way to learn your Faith than through beautiful music!

Whether at home in your favorite easy chair, or among friends in an informal class at your parish, Real Music will bring you deep into the lyrics and melodies of the great hymns that so magnificently offer praise and honor to God.

Real Music is meant to be savored; first by reading Esolen’s masterful explication of the poetic, melodic, and doctrinal elements of a hymn and then listening to the hymn itself.

Genres: Music, Catholic, Cultural, Nonfiction, Christianity, Christian, Art

296 pages, Paperback

Published December 7, 2016

About the author

Anthony Esolen is the author of over twenty-five books and over 1,000 articles in both scholarly and general interest journals. A senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, Esolen is known for his elegant essays on the faith and for his clear social commentaries. His articles appear regularly in Touchstone, Crisis, First Things, Public Discourse, The Catholic Thing, Chronicles, Inside the Vatican, and Magnificat, among others. An accomplished poet in his own right, Esolen is known for his widely acclaimed three-volume verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Modern Library). His Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child has been described as "a worthy successor to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man." And its sequel, Life Under Compulsion, has been called "essential reading for parents, educators, and anyone who is concerned to rescue children from the tedious and vacuous thing childhood has become." His recent books of social commentary include Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World, and the forthcoming, No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends upon the Strength of Men.

Anthony Esolen has been writing his own poetry for decades, but until recently most of his published poetry has appeared in his verse translations of the great poets, Dante, Tasso, and Lucretius. More than a hundred of his own poems have appeared in such venues as Fine Madness, The Plains Poetry Journal, and Modern Age. After studying and teaching great poetry for nearly thirty years, Professor Esolen set out to write a book-length unified poem of his own, a project which he hopes will show that serious and significant long poetic works can still be written in our time. The result of his effort is The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, a book-length single poem composed of 100 parts -- short lyrics, dramatic monologues, and hymns -- centered on the life of Christ. He is working now on a second such long poem, The Twelve-Gated City, a collection of 144 interrelated poems centered on the parable of the prodigal son.

The grandson of Italian immigrants to America, Anthony Esolen was born and raised in the coal-mining country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Fellow. He is the 2020 recipient of the CIRCE Institute's Russel Kirk Prize, awarded each year to a writer and scholar "in honor of a lifetime dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom and virtue." He is writer-in-residence at Magdalen College in Warner, NH.

For more from the mind and pen of Anthony Esolen, visit his online magazine called Word and Song, at https://anthonyesolen.substack.com

Reviews

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am writing this book to bring back the words of great Christian hymns, most of which are no longer heard anywhere. These hymns are not pious sentiments (or, worse, self-celebrating sentiments or social propaganda) set to a catchy tune. They are works of art. They are, at their best, profound meditations upon the meaning of Scripture, their artistry serving to help us to see truths we may have missed or to hear in our hearts, not only in our ears, the implications of the Word of God for our lives. they are verbal and melodic icons of Jesus Christ.

I'm lucky enough to be part of a parish which offers a rich variety of music and our choice is the 11:00 Mass, where we often sing same great hymns that Anthony Esolen writes about in this stellar book.

Esolen's translation of Dante and his commentary on the missal, The Beauty of the Word, are favorites of mine. His adroit connecting of poetry and prayer with underlying meanings have often opened my eyes and inspired me. Naturally I was eager to see what he would show me in some of my favorite hymns. (Without the music, it's had to have a complete experience so a CD of 18 beautifully sung hymns is included with the book, though that is far from the complete number that Esolen examines.)

He begins with the psalms and how many classic hymns have come from them. Then he looks at how the English poet would focus on a particular aspect of a psalm and develop it as a bit of theology for us to sing.

I've loved these hymns for their rich imagery and meaning but never made the sorts of connections that Esolen points out. That is why it is so good to have Anthony Esolen for a guide. He clearly loves the theology, poetry, and meaning of each hymn.

Here's an example, from the chapter "Who is Christ?"

The glory of these forty days
We celebrate with songs of praise;
For Christ, by Whom all things were made,
Himself has fasted and has prayed.

The poetry is so straightforward that we might miss the artistry. Notice the word glory. That should surprise us. When Jesus went forth into the desert, what glory accompanied Him? No train of disciples, no fanfare, no parade, no earthquake. The glory, then, must subsist in the very absence of the manifestations of glory. It susbsists in loving humility—a glory the world misses.

Thus we can understand the first part of the stanza only in the context of the last part. This is what's glorious: Christ by Whom the world was brought into being (cf. Jn 1:3), Himself has fasted and has prayed. He Himself has done so. The pronoun is emphatic. The richness of the world's being—all things—is placed in contrast with Jesus' depriving Himself of food, and His attitude of complete openness, complete self-emptying, in prayer before the Father.

We sing These Forty Days all the time during Lent but until I read Esolen's explanation, the hymn never came fully alive.

Chapters range from The Psalms to the Nativity, the Cross and the Resurrection to Our Love for Jesus to The Glory of God, and, of course, much more. Not only does this book help us to enter into each song, it gives us spiritual food in helping us understand and grow closer to God.

I can't recommend Real Music highly enough. Read it and then go ask your music director to slip some of these classics into his regular repertoire. They're good for the soul.

[Katie Fitzgerald · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Esolen is one of the smartest Catholic writers out there. Though this book is dense with analysis of hymn lyrics, it really drives home the way so many Catholic hymns that have been in use since Vatican II just totally miss the mark of what liturgical music is meant to be. I read this on Scribd so I didn't have access to the music CD that is meant to accompany it, but I was able to find most of the tunes for the hymns he mentions on YouTube. It was really eye-opening to see how many tunes I recognized because they had been set to different, "modernized" lyrics during my childhood. Reading the original lyrics - and additional "lost" verses - really made me long for a restoration of those old classic hymns. I did skim a lot of the analysis as the book went on, but for those who select and play musical pieces at Mass, I would consider this an absolute must-read, and would suggest reading every word to fully understand why those older hymns are superior to many contemporary ones.

[Joyce · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the most engaging read, but it does help me to appreciate the poetry and music of the older hymns of Christianity.

[Richard Bicknase · Rating 4 out of 5]

One note to start: I checked this book out from my library, and I only discovered while reading that someone had previously vandalized the book by cutting out all of chapter seven discussing hymns about the holy eucharist, as well as a few other isolated pages earlier in the book. Because of this, my reading experience was not a truly complete one.

I thought this book was largely successful in achieving its goal. The analysis of the hymns was devotional and interesting, and also deep enough to be informational and thought-provoking. I'm a hymn writer myself, and certain nuggets of analysis were put in ways that might help my own writing. However, there were at least two places where information cited by the author was inaccurate due to either a failure of research or a failure of editing. (1. Calling Gustav Holst a German composer instead of an English composer and 2. Saying the hymn "Day of Wrath" (Dies irae) doesn't appear in any modern hymnals when both Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary and Christian Worship include it and are the current hymnals of their respective Lutheran synods). This, combined with a certain tone that was occasionally employed would invite someone antagonistic to the thesis of the book to disengage from the book and its argument.

I was familiar with much of the hymn material discussed in the book, but some of it was new to me. In any case, I can say reading this book was an excellent reminder of how rich of a treasure Lutheran hymnody and hymnals are. There were multiple examples in the book of the author lamenting changes or omissions made in modern hymnals, but I was reading this complaint knowing the Lutheran hymnals I am familiar with do not make that change or omission. Hymnody is a treasure, and we need to always remember the depth of this truth.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent hymn study. He has a great selection of hymns for all seasons and purposes and studies both Scriptural contexts and melodies.

It was fun to see how often Esolen would complain about word changes or verses being left out of his Catholic hymnals, but it would be "correct" in our Lutheran hymnals.

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

In his book Out of the Ashes: Restoring American Culture, Esolen devoted an entire chapter solely to music. Here he does one better! To sing is to pray twice, wrote St. Augustine, and Real Music demonstrates that emphatically. There is nothing quite like the musical tradition in Christian liturgy; a newcomer to an Anglican or Catholic church may first appreciate the organ or harp, but when time is invested in these services -- when one attends throughout the year, for several years -- the real beauty and power of its hymns, offertories, anthems, etc. reveal themselves. These hymns are not merely pretty lyrics put to pretty music, but are themselves poetic articulations of the Church's theology and scripture. The Christian music tradition can do much more than make a listener feel "nice"; hymns can fill the soul with scripture. Esolen attempts to convey this experience not over a course of years, but into one book, devoting different chapters to distinct areas of the tradition. He here covers Eucharistic hymns, hymns of glory and penitence, hymns celebrating life and challenging death. Esolen does not merely present hymns to the reader and comment on their theology; he guides the reader through how the hymns' very meter and grammar strengthen the meaning. This book is a treasure for Christians who love traditional hymnody, or who have heard it on the wind before and yearn to know more about it.

My only regret: I read this as an e-book, and so didn't a chance to listen to the CD.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Even though Esolen is Roman Catholic, most of the hymns mentioned in here are ones I am familiar with (and a few I liked that I didn’t know previously), and his theology was, for the most part, pretty spot on. There were some hymns listed as strong hymns that I myself would not consider “strong”, and it was interesting to read his perspective and reasoning behind his choices. Of course, not being Lutheran, he did miss some of the very strongest and best hymns and I would be interested to see what he would say of some of them (Paul Gerhardt for example).

[Leslie Moellering · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't tend to enjoy (understand) poetry, but the way the author explains the poetry of "the Timeless Hymns of the Church" is truly fascinating. I enjoyed learning under his tutelage.

[Jack W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The most obnoxious part of this book was the title, which the publisher chose, and the second most obnoxious part was the summary on the back cover. The publisher keeps trying to prove that Esolen *really is* Roman Catholic, which I understand might be hard to deduce if you just read the book and thought that he trusted in Jesus as his Lord and Savior.

The entire inside, that is, the part written by Esolen, testifies to the greatness of God and his mercy as revealed in Scripture and glorified in verse. It was an easy read that introduced me to new hymns and poetry and forced me to think more deeply about the spiritual songs which I sing each day. A great resource for any Christian.

[Kevin de Ataíde · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book I've read in some time: a proper hymnology and theological rumination on a handful of popular hymns. I recommend.

[David Dunlap · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable volume -- part music appreciation, part literary analysis, part theological presentation, part church history lesson, part devotional...with a whiff of polemic thrown in. (Dr. Esolen has no sympathy for the 'improvements' foisted upon older hymns in the interest of providing the 'inclusion' dictated by political correctness, nor does he have a very high regard for what passes as modern hymnody these days. It is somewhat ironic that the accompanying CD changes the wording in the second line of the second verse of "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven" to reflect the very p.c.-run-amok Dr. Esolen deplores.) The Catholic point of view of the author is not overly emphasized. -- The book might have benefited from the inclusion of fewer hymns (some are given almost breathless treatment), and the accompanying CD might have benefited from a closer coordination with the text -- inclusion of some of the more unfamiliar hymns that Dr. Esolen describes, as well as some he discusses at greater length, would have been appreciated. Still, such shortcomings do not seriously spoil a fine volume that I read with much pleasure and joy -- and edification.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a great discussion of over 50 hymns by topic, Esolen explores syntax and grammar, biblical adaptation, poetic and rhyme structure, some musical elements and more. A fine discussion and introduction (for the general reader) to studying hymns.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a compelling exploration of hymns as poetry, doctrine, and prayer. Excellent.

[Hank Beyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tough read for the musically illiterate. I did enjoy his on the lyrics and listening to the CD. Beauty is presented as a way to experience God. I struggled but what I grasped was excellent.

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthony Esolen does it again. God bless this man, what a gift for teaching and showing God's truth in music!

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

theology + poetry = hymnody