Praise & Worship

The “Praise and Worship” genre is surprisingly old.

One Praise and Worship song predates Hillsong and Elevation, Chris Tomlin and Phil Wickham of today. It predates Amy Grant and Twila Paris from the 1980s. It predates Larry Norman and Phil Keaggy of the 1960s and 70s. It predates Reg Layzell and the Latter Rain movement of the 1940s. It predates the Azusa Street Revival of 1906. It predates the two Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th centuries. It predates the Reformation and the discovery of America. It predates when we needed four digits to indicate the year. It predates the filioque controversy, Gregorian Chant, and possibly the the fall of the Roman Empire. One Praise and Worship song has survived from as far back as the fifth (and possibly the fourth) century to today. It is still in our hymnals, and is still sung by churches, by high school and college kids at youth retreats, and even by elementary school children in their chapel services.

The title of this Praise and Worship song is “We Praise You, O God.” The song literally has “praise” in the title, and also has the word “worship” in the lyrics. Sadly, many of our “modern worship” congregations have never sung “We Praise You, O God” - which we still know by its original name: Te Deum Laudamus. And it really is too bad, because it is not only part of our Lutheran identity, it is also part of our broader Christian identity. Its loss among so many who practice “modern worship” is a tragic example of deracination and replacement by objectively inferior (and ephemeral) music that is really more about the singer than the One being praised. But the good news is that the Te Deum is still being sung with gusto as part of the Matins service that traditionalist Lutherans continue to sing - even sometimes in Latin - even though it is not likely to be heard at events like the National Youth Gathering or at congregations that have traded the altar, font, and pulpit for stage, kiddie pool, and barstool.

I sing this Praise and Worship classic in the Matins services at my congregation six days a week (seasonally, at least). And it never ever gets old.

And to be frank about it, even the most popular of the “modern” Praise and Worship genre will fall away within a few years, removed by the passing of time like dross, while the magnificence of the Te Deum will continue to shine like gold. We will still be singing the Te Deum a thousand years from now, whereas the stuff coming out of praise bands and speakers today will be long gone perhaps in decades if not years or even weeks.

Here is an interesting article showing the Te Deum’s adaptation from Ambrosian chant, to Gregorian, and then to an early Anglican chant (which sounds, at least in my reading, similar to Healy Willian’s setting (as found in the new Lutheran hymnal, Te Laudamus). It is also similar to Luther’s German Te Deum (again, at least to my ears) - an English version of which is also in Te Laudamus. We used to sing it antiphonally on occasion at Kramer Chapel, and it was glorious! I remember the little ones singing the Willan version from memory in the chapel services at Zion in Fort Wayne, where I did my field work, and where I was ordained.

The tune in our TLH/LSB Te Deum follows in the train of this English chant tradition, being set to two Anglican chants - one by Henry Lawes (1596-1662) and Robert Cook (1768-1814). This setting was first used in the LCMS’s 1912 hymnal called Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book with Tunes (ELHB). For more, see the LSB Companion to the Services (pages 698-702) commentary by Paul J. Grime.

Here are a few videos showing the Te Deum’s adaptations through the centuries. This is one Praise and Worship song that never goes out of style - even though some Lutherans have traded it away for a bowl of pottage.

Here is the Ambrosian version:

Here is the Gregorian version:

Here is an Anglican chant version:

Here is Luther’s German version - sung beautifully by a guy who felt it appropriate to do so in a beautiful sanctuary clad in an undershirt (sigh):

Here is an English translation of Luther’s Te Deum:

Here is the Healy Willan setting by an all female choir:

Here is the Willan version sung by a mixed choir:

Here is our setting from LSB sung by the Concordia Theological Seminary Kantorei:

And here is a mixed-voice choir version:

And as a bonus, here is Dr. Eckardt’s history of the Te Deum…

… and my own presentation on the Te Deum at the same conference:

Here is a search of all Gottesblog posts that contain the words “Te Deum.”