The Singing Church is Edmund S. Lorenz’s history of Christian hymnody, tracing the hymns the church has written and sung across the centuries. A noted composer and publisher of church music, Lorenz surveys the development of congregational song from the early church to modern times.
The book examines the great periods and traditions of hymn writing, from Latin and German chorales to English and American hymnody, considering both the texts and the tunes. Lorenz writes with the knowledge of a practitioner and the perspective of a historian. As a thorough and readable account of the church’s singing tradition, it remains a valuable study for hymnologists and church musicians.