Harold Byron Hannum
1901
- 1985
It
is at the organ, as recreator of vast "palaces
of music" - so Browning would have it - that professor Hannum
most effectively expresses himself. Master of the art and science of music, votary
of the highest development of the classics, he has long been esteemed for his
cultural influence on religious services and in the department he heads, as
well as for his own achievements.
In his lifetime, Harold Hannum became much more than a keyboard performer with
"remarkable skill in technique and an unusually delicate touch," as
described in the
Harold was born in Cleveland,
Ohio, on March 12, 1901, one of five children and the oldest of four sons of
Byron F. and Agnes B. Cochrane Hannum. While very
young, he studied piano at the nationally noted Oberlin College Conservatory of
Music near
He started his teaching
career at
In 1929 Hannum
accepted an invitation to teach in the music department at
On a personal level, Hannum was known for his genial disposition, his sly wit,
and a sense of humor that on occasion led to delightful repartee. And as busy
as he was during these years, he completed an M.Mus. at
While at EMC, Hannum became deeply involved in developing and producing a
new hymnal for the church, becoming known as its unofficial editor. It was criticized by some upon its release in
1941 as being too “high church,” and by others as having too many gospel songs
and poor tunes. Even though it
eventually gained acceptance, he regarded it as flawed, too many compromises
having been made. He also thought that it included material that should not
have been in a modern hymnal and omitted some that should have been
included. He offered advice and
encouragement in the planning stages for its replacement, the 1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal.
Hannum accepted a position at La Sierra
College, now La Sierra University, in 1944, where he would serve as organist
and chair the music program for more than two decades. A school established
only 22 years earlier, it became an accredited four-year college during his
first year there.
One of his first challenges
when he arrived was the organ used in the church services, a three-manual
theater organ with a "horseshoe"-shaped console from the Walt Disney
Studio in
Under his leadership the
department flourished as he upheld those high standards and recruited an
outstanding faculty. Hannum's presence on the organ
bench and influence on other organists in the Adventist church led to higher
standards in worship music at LSC and at other schools and churches. In 1955,
when the college yearbook was dedicated to him, it observed that in
"wielding his power upon the organ, massive titan of sound, he ruptures
the air with tone upon tone eliciting depths of latent emotion freeing the soul
in release." The final inscription on the page reads "To Professor
Harold B. Hannum, who both perceives and interprets
beauty . . . ."
It was this openness in
dealing with music from an aesthetic and cultural perspective that made him a
thoughtful and effective teacher not only in organ, but also in theory and
music appreciation classes. Hannum's ability to
quietly articulate his views without resorting to dogmatic pronouncements and
judgments also enabled him to reason in an effective and down-to-earth way
about music in life and worship with those who held other views. He observed in
his first book, Music and Worship:
The
selection of music for religious services is not a matter of right and wrong.
It is a matter of culture and taste. Tastes change and cultures differ. The
goal is to use, as far as possible, the songs considered best in the culture in
which one lives.2
The
church has not only used one kind of music, but has made use of many styles in
its services . . . no one kind of music meets the need of all kinds of people.
According to his background, culture, and training, an individual comes to
associate particular religious feelings with particular kinds of music. 3
While these statements standing
alone could be used to justify the idea that any kind of music can be used in
worship, Hannum clarified with a caveat in a later
book, Let the People Sing:
The
problems concerning appropriate church music would be easier to solve if we
were to realize that not all styles of music, no matter what the culture, are
suitable for the
And in his view the matter of
making good choices in this area was a personal matter, one that required
honest answers to a series of questions:
How
does my choice affect my spiritual life?
Does
the music exalt and glorify God?
Does
it sound more like unsanctified secular music or like music that inspired
religious thoughts?
Is
the music primarily entertaining and pleasing to me, or does it lead me to
contemplate spiritual themes?
Does
the music seem appropriate to the atmosphere of the church and does it promote
the worship mode? 5
This reasoned approach to
dealing with challenges in worship music sometimes frustrated those who wanted
a simple pronouncement from someone who in his later years had become a living
legend, "an authority" on worship music. I observed this in a class
in hymnology that I took from him at
Hannum wrote three books on music and
worship, drawing on his many years of experience as a thoughtful church
musician and music teacher and administrator. Because the books deal with those
larger issues, they are timeless, allowing his voice to continue beyond the end
of his life as a quiet, but effective force in the ongoing discussion about
music in worship and life.
Hannum retired in 1978. He was residing in
Riverside, California, at the time of his death on January 27, 1985, at age 83.
He was survived by his wife, Ethyl; two daughters, Elizabeth Fisher and Maguerite Hossler; and four
grandchildren.
ds/2012/2017
1.
2.
Music and Worship, Harold B. Hannum,
Southern Publishing Association ,1969,p. 91
3.
Ibid,, pp. 10,11.
4.
Let the People Sing, Harold B. Hannum,
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1981, p. 17.
5.
Ibid,
p. 18.
Sources:
References cited in endnotes; Obituary, Adventist Review, 4 April 1985;
Cuyahoga County Marriage Records (parent's marriage); !910 U.S. Federal Census;
1924 Southwestern Junior College yearbook, Mizpah;
numerous articles and write-ups in Washington Missionary College The Sligonian,1920-22
(student years) and 1924-1929 (quote is from 1 January 1927 Sligonian);
numerous articles and write-ups in EMC publications, The Student Movement
and The Cardinal, 1929-1944; Numerous La Sierra College articles
and publications, The Criterion and the Meteor, 1944-1978. Lake
Union Herald,
Books by Howard Hannum
Music
and Worship, Southern
Publishing Association, 1969
The
Christian Search For Beauty, Southern Publishing Association,
1975
Let
the People Sing,
Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1981