REXBURG— Members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from Australia, Sweden, Rexburg and more places all over the world have written verses for hymns and submitted them to BYU-Idaho.
Some of these verses have received a tune.
BYU-Idaho Music Department Chair Dr. Daniel Kerr said the hymn text submissions go toward the university’s annual Hymn Festival, where students perform new hymns with lyrics from text submissions and music from composition students.
Kerr said the festival started 20 years ago and invites all to submit text if they’re interested.
“Every few months, we’re seeing new hymns released from the church, so that’s very exciting. And this is kind of a similar process, just on our local level, to encourage more people to be creative and help submit things to grow the hymns that we can be singing in church and in our own homes and lives,” Kerr said in an interview.
Kerr said there are some helpful guidelines with writing hymn text. The text must be focused on a sacred topic and be doctrinally correct. The words must also align in a poetic meter that could be set to music.
He also reminded writers to match the meters of each verse if there are multiple verses.
A team of people in the Music Department reviews the entries and determines if the poem conveys a clear message with a solid rhyming structure. The team then chooses which texts will be set to music.
Music students studying composition then compose music for the chosen works.
Kerr said there has typically been 60 to 110 entries in the past, but approximately one dozen texts get set to music.
“It’s a great experience to be a participant in it and to put yourself out there and to share your talents, but it’s also a great experience to just come and listen and sing along,” Kerr said in the interview.
Writers can still submit hymn text until October 18. If you are interested in submitting text, email it to hymnfestival@byui.edu.