Smith, Rob2016-02-292016-02-29May 20152015-05http://hdl.handle.net/10657/1253In the closing decades of the twentieth century, America experienced a surge of hymn writing and composition sometimes referred to as a “hymn explosion.” Responding to the radical revolutions in society and religion, hymn writers initiated changes in language, subject matter, and even poetic form to create a new body of congregational song for the modern twentieth-century church. Hymn composers, seeking contemporary musical means to express the hymn texts, applied recent composition techniques to congregational song. This essay summarizes the musical style of late twentieth-century American hymns based on the analysis of over eighty-five tunes composed after 1970. The results reveal an increased flexibility in modal usage; the inclusion of rhythmic devices such as mixed meter and syncopation; experimentation with strophic form; an expanded role of accompaniments; and, most noticeably, a widened harmonic palette replete with color chords, modern modulations, and untraditional voice-leading.application/pdfengThe author of this work is the copyright owner. UH Libraries and the Texas Digital Library have their permission to store and provide access to this work. Further transmission, reproduction, or presentation of this work is prohibited except with permission of the author(s).American hymn explosionTwentieth centuryHymnsComposersMusical styleMusicComposed after 19702016-02-29Thesisborn digital0000-0002-8673-4333