There is a part of me that is torn. As a musician, I love that the music we sing is published. I love that whenever I need the tune to a hymn I can look in a book. I love that the words to my favorite songs are published online. But...

As someone who is aware of patterns in history, I hate that music is published. I hate that I don't have to turn to a friend to learn a new tune. I hate that communities of believers don't write or rewrite hymns to meet their communal stories (I hate that the churches in New Orleans haven't written and set poems to music that speak of God's provision through difficult circumstances).

In his book, Ancient Mysteries Described, author and anecdotal collector William Hone found a direct correlation between published music and public caroling - which in Hone's opinion led directly to a collective amnesia concerning words and tunes of hymns. This he found as a book publisher in 1823!

So when we come upon a hymn like Infant Holy, Infant Lowly, I'm torn. The tune and the words are Polish and were first recorded in 1908 in the Spiewniczek Piesni Koscielne, a book of carols. Not very long after, Edith M. G. Reed translated this carol into English and adapted the tune to fit. And, while the words and the music of this Christmas hymn are brilliant, like every other Christmas Carol - nay, every other time honored hymn in our Christian tradition - we can easily lose the tunes and the poems we love if we fail to remember them, not only in our books, but in our hearts