The Bible and Music

As a child, I refused to eat most foods put in front of me. My family soon figured out I would eat only if I was distracted. Scooby Doo and Power Puff Girls were my main staples accompanying dinner with my parents, but my grandparents preferred to take a different approach. They sang to me (if being serenaded and fed at the same time is not living the dream, I do not know what is). I can distinctly remember my grandmother singing “Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain” during breakfast one morning. Amongst waffles and sausage links, the memories of these lyrics and my grandmother’s expressions while singing are some of my favorite things.

During a previous class, Professor McGrath asked us to look up children’s biblical songs, and where they originated from. Based on my personal experience I just shared with “Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain,” I feel it is a good match for this particular post. “Climb, Climb up Sunshine Mountain” was copy written in 1934 by Percy Crawford. Crawford was widely known for empathizing the power of youth ministry within churches. This song is not particularly taught today in a typical Christian class, but was most popular throughout the late 30’s and early 50’s.

As mentioned earlier in our class this week, children’s songs are usually very repetitive. Some information I found interesting about this song was “It was a common Hebrew literary device to repeat a word for emphasis, as if driving a truth deeper with the second blow. The writer wants to hammer home the idea that the Christian climb is not a matter of a single initial step up, but of continual climbing (literally keep on climbing in the original).” Not only is it a children’s song device to be repetitive, but a Hebrew one as well. While I had considered repetition a mechanism for an intellectually immature audience, finding out this information showed me how effective it really is. This strategy reinforces the idea that following the word of God is an uphill journey, which may be difficult to keep up at certain times. Finding all of this background information was exciting to see behind a song I grew up with.

http://www.drurywriting.com/keith/climb.htm

http://www.lyricsofsongs.net/a/289-action-bible-songs-cedarmont-kids/1346-climb-climb-up-sunshine-mountain.html