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Wesleys' Tavern Songs

Three summers ago I was struck by the fact that at every single worship and music event I attended around the country — without exception — a preacher, speaker, teacher, or workshop leader made reference to the Wesleys' practice of using drinking or tavern songs as tunes for their hymn texts. This didn't really bother me then because I had heard the same thing all my life. It was common knowledge. The same was often said of Martin Luther.

But I suddenly realized that summer that I had no personal knowledge of a single example. What drinking songs had they used? With which texts did they sing them? Where were they published? How did these tavern tunes find their way into the Wesleys' worship practice and the early life of our denomination? And which ones are we still singing today?

In search of answers, I explored much material of John and Charles: journals, sermons, articles, correspondence, writings, and the published Wesley hymnals of the 18th century. I widened my inquiry to include articles and books written ABOUT the Wesleys, their hymns, sources, liturgical practices, and aesthetics. To my utter amazement, there were no examples. There were no words from either Wesley about the practice nor any word of encouragement or approval to do so. There were no tavern songs in any of the Wesleys' hymnals. And in the secondary writings about the Wesleys, there was no research and not a single example of the practice. In fact, the more I read from and about the Wesleys, the more obvious it became to me that neither the Wesleys' sense of liturgical propriety nor their aesthetic sense would have allowed them to make use of tavern tunes to accompany their sacred words.

I wrote two short articles about this that are still online:

The impact of these articles was immediate. I received several hundred email messages and telephone calls from Christians all over the world, some thanking me for the articles, others chastising me. I did a couple of dozen interviews for radio and television, including one with Fox News in New York City that was broadcast around the world on television, and one with National Public Radio that was also picked up by Armed Forces Radio around the world. Articles appeared in The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times and hundreds of smaller newspapers and magazines in between. Nearly every church trade publication picked up the story, and it found its way into thousands of sermons, church newsletters, and websites in the USA and around the world in English and numerous other languages. You can still turn up many articles through a Google search — enter "Wesley" and "tavern songs" or "Wesley" and "drinking songs" or some similar search term (put quotes around each term and place the word "and" without quotes in between).

In the three years since the articles appeared, it's been interesting to watch the change. I have not heard the myth spoken once at an event I've attended. I've not heard it in a sermon. It surfaced once in an email message posted to MethodistMusicians list, but it was immediately corrected by several responders. I've heard from seminary and music class students and professors that they now debunk the myth in their classes. In his recent book, Praising the God of Grace: The Theology of Charles Wesley's Hymns (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2005), Charles Yrigoyen, Jr., General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History of The United Methodist Church and editor of Methodist History, writes, "Contrary to a widely circulated belief, [Wesley's] hymn-poems were not set to popular tavern tunes of his time" (p. xiii). It seems we are well on the way to setting the record straight about the Wesleys and their use of drinking songs and tavern tunes.

Yet the myth persists. Just this month I sat in a meeting of United Methodists from around the USA at the Discipleship Ministries in Nashville. Making a point of the church's outreach into the secular world and culture today, one participant referred to how the Wesleys composed their hymns to appeal to the masses by using tavern songs for their tunes. And since I work so often and so closely with hymns, congregational singing, and the Wesleys, I sometimes hear some form of the myth spoken still.

So what's the big deal? you may ask. Please read the articles. Have you heard the myth before? Have you believed and spread it? Does it make any difference to us today whether the myth is true or false? Let me know what you think. Or post a message to MethodistMusicians list.

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