ABSTRACT
Hymns and songs for Christian worship are frequently updated, most notably with changes to their lyrics. This is sometimes driven simply by a desire to alter a song's theology; in other cases, it is to retain classic hymns whose lyrical content sounds anachronistic to the modern ear. Changes are limited to a certain extent by legal concerns, but the associated ethical questions are often neglected. Whether or not the wishes of the writer should be respected is both a legal and an ethical issue, but the effects of re-writing on the aesthetics and poetics of songs is, arguably, also an ethical concern. Adaptations are often made by editorial committees with a narrow range of requirements, such as re-wording hymns in modern language—but to do so without attending both to poetics and the marriage of words and music may result in a hymn or song of a quality inferior to the original composition. This chapter will explore these issues, using as examples classic hymns and contemporary songs that have been subject to controversial changes, and will argue that ethical choices in adaptation must give proper weight not only to legal, political and theological concerns, but also to artistic ones.
