A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

he home. Although music-making has been an important activity in the past, its influence probably has diminished during the last two decades because of the introduction of radios, recordings, and televisions into the homes. However, in most homes one will find Bibles, one or more hymnbooks, and a piano. SINOINf! THE NEW SONG 241 Congregational Singing Congregational singing probably has been at the heart of Mennonite Brethren music-making. Spirited congregational singing certainly was a hallmark of the early revival days, and is still greatly enjoyed. An interesting congregational singing practice was the use of the Vorsaenger (lead singer). He would set the pitch, recite the hymn line by line, and lead out in singing. The congregation would respond line by line with the melody, usually in unison. The Vorsaenger, a man who would sit at the front of the church, was expected to know all or most of the melodies. This developed into a very fine art and practice, followed partly because of the lack of hymnals. 6 Some of the early hymnals in Russia were printed without notes. A common notation found in many other hymnals was numbers (Ziffern). The number notation was an aid in teaching note reading. An early collection designed for teaching singing in schools was the Choralbuch by Heinrich Franz. He issued both four-part (1860) and unison (1865) editions. The Mennonite Encyclopedia states that Four-part singing in Mennonite congregations . . . started with the introduction of hand-copied collections of songs with notes and ciphers and the publication of the choralbooks. Four-part singing in congregations was gradually introduced through choirs, which were first school or community choirs and gradually found their place in the congregational worship. ' The popularity of the use of Ziffern is noted in that "J. Ewert transcribed the notes of the melodies to Gebhardt's Frohe Botschaft into ciphers, which were published in Die Melodien der Frohen Botschaft (Gnadenfeld, 1884)."" The first German hymnal commonly accepted by Mennonite Brethren in Russia was T. Koebner's Glaubensstimme, a German Baptist publication. It came to North America with the migrations and was reprinted by the Mennonite Brethren Publishing House at Medford, Oklahoma, in 1905, edited by H. W. Grage, under the title Zions Glaubensstimme. Another popular collection was the Heimatklaenge. The Mennonite Encyclopedia states that it was First published in Russia for the Mennonites by Isaak Bom at Halbstadt, was taken over in 1903 by the Raduga Publishing House of Halbstadt. Seven editions appeared in Russia, after which A. Kroeker published the eighth revised edition in America, in the year 1924, which was followed by a second one (1939?) with notes " The extensively used hymnal, Drei-Band, was a collection of thres songbooks, Jubeltoene-Hosianna-Halleluja. Another collection used widely among Mennonite Brethren included Heimatklaen