21.09.6
Print, Photographic, Digital
1910 Approximate
North Waseca Lutheran Church Choir. Description: black and white photo showing a group of young adults posed outdoors beside a white clapboard building; displayed on the grass by the front row women are books with the title "Frydetoner", a modernized songbook of hymns for young people of this era.
One of 57 images on a compact disc collected for the 150th anniversary of the North Waseca Lutheran Church in 2008. It seems that even back in the 1890s young adults would express their “growing pains” of progress through music. What was the standard fare for their parents seemed to them obsolete. One way to meet this need was in the publication of songbooks that included styles of music found in their new country. Decried by the leaders of the Norwegian Synod as not of good quality, the new songbooks being published contained a wide range of styles that were not traditional to the Lutheran church. Frydetoner, or Joyful Songs, published in Minneapolis, was one of these songbooks.