new american hymnal
new album from dave meder arriving this fall
pre-order now for exclusive benefits that will be unavailable after the release
for writers/press: see full digital liner notes
press contact: Jason Paul Harman Byrne
Dave Meder (piano/compositions)
Philip Dizack (trumpet)
Marty Jaffe (bass)
Michael Piolet (drums)
and Isabel Crespo Pardo (vocals).
videography/art by Adrien H. Tillmann
PRE-ORDER TIERS
ALBUM NOTES
New American Hymnal is a collection of worship songs, not in a religious sense, but rather for the American civic and cultural experiment.
The enduring power of religion, faith, and hymns is that they bind us to a unifying creed: a set of principles that form the value system for even the most secular of cultures. Perhaps in no other country does religion remain such a curious force than in the United States. Despite our theoretically secular founding, several recent judicial and social policy changes have been driven by Judeo-Christian tenets. It's not a new phenomenon: political-cultural issues have been a steady unifying force for fundamentalists since the rise of the Moral Majority in the 1980s, and the broader idea of mobilizing religion for political ends is a centuries-old strategy.
Yet, on issues of existential and once-in-a-generation importance, such as the threat of climate change, this same American religious establishment is unable, or unwilling, to mount the same kind of organized political effort as it does on polarizing social issues. Why not? Who decides which issues make it onto the battle lines of a religious or political creed, and which do not? Who has the privilege of setting the dominant interpretation? Let’s decouple the ideas of worship, faith, hymns, and religion from the stigma and sometimes-toxicity of modern American religious institutions. Let’s look at these ideas in a civic and cultural sense. What exactly do we worship as Americans? What do we choose to elevate as themes in our American cultural creed? What values ultimately inform our metaphorical American hymnal?
New American Hymnal is a chance, in my small corner, to join others who are taking a fresh look at what constitutes the creed of American culture, independent of any religion. Nevertheless, I use the metaphor of a hymnal to guide the structure of this work: a nod to the names of existing church worship collections like the New English Hymnal or New Harmonia Sacra. I think of each work as a figurative meditation on an aspect of American civil life. Some works worship the good, some lament the bad, and others act as calls to action. But much like in a literal hymnal, these songs combine their various affects and messages into a unifying set of ideals.
The idea of the hymnal resonates with my own background as a child who grew up playing piano in a Southern Baptist church. I was often brought to tears by the hymns, and they remain one of the most foundational aspects of my musical language. When doctrine failed to convince me, the music would sustain me in the faith for some portion of my life. In college, as a political science major, I became interested in the curious relationships between American religion and politics. My professional musical life, which moved me from the South to New York City and now back to Texas, has allowed me to be a part of many diverse congregations that interpret the same text in strikingly different political and social directions.
Rather than attempt to sort out theological nuances or attempt to advocate for “who is right,” New American Hymnal instead tries to establish a foil: a secular creed based on the idea that certain American values are simply infallible - regardless of how they are interpreted or taught by any given religious group. There are injustices in modern American society that are intrinsically real, and no faith should be able to convince us otherwise based on their chosen religious text. We have real and existential problems ahead of us…problems that affect all of us…problems that exist outside of any religious worldview…problems that will require us to put dogmatic ideals aside and deal with each other in an intelligent manner…
