A Song to Sing, A Life to Live, Part 1

This week, we'll start with a discussion of Chapter 1 in "A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice", by Don and Emily Sailers. This chapter talks about our personal songline, and the ways that music and worship are tied together in most faith traditions. We'll also talk about music's healing power. If you haven't ready the chapter, or want to get started with this book, I've got an extra copy or two. Feel free to drop in.

Music and Finding God, in Church and Smoky Bars

For tomorrow (having fallen back :-) ), we'll spend some time with the Krista Tippett interview with the Indigo Girls.  There's a transcript up on that site, and I'll have copies.

Two Sacred Harp-style pieces

Introduction

We’ve spent the past few weeks looking at Sacred Harp music, understanding some of the back-story, and watching the Awake My Soul PBS special on the subject. Today, I want to close out that session by taking a look at two pieces that have origins in the Sacred Harp. As with many such pieces, there are a lot of different ways to present them, and the message we get can depend on that presentation.

Saints Bound for Heaven

Saints Bound for Heaven is a piece that the choir will be doing in November, and we’ll take a look at the particular arrangement we’re using. First, let’s take a look at the lyrics:

Our bondage it shall end by and by, by and by.
Our bondage it shall end by and by.
From Egypt’s yoke set free,
Hail the glorious jubilee,
And to Canaan we’ll return by and by, by and by.
And to Canaan we’ll return by and by.

Our Deliv’rer He shall come by and by, by and by.
Our Deliv’rer He shall come by and by.
And our sorrows have and end,
With our three score years and ten,
And vast glory crowns the day by and by, by and by.
And vast glory crowns the day by and by.

And when to Jordan’s floods we are come, we are come.
And when to Jordan’s floods we are come.
Jehovah rules the tide,
And the waters He’ll divide.
And the ransom’d host shall shout we are come, we are come.
And the ransom’d host shall shout we are come

Then with all the happy throng we’ll rejoice, we’ll rejoice
And with all the happy throng we’ll rejoice.
Shouting Glory to our King,
Till the vaults of heaven ring.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice, we’ll rejoice.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice.

Shouting Glory to our King,
Till the vaults of heaven ring.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice, we’ll rejoice.
And thro’ all eternity we’ll rejoice.

This is #258 in William Walkers The Southern Harmony. A 4-line shape note version can be found on sacredharpbremen.org. I hadn’t noticed before, but part of the compactness of this style is printing the verses under each part. The basses are reading words under the soprano part for the first verse, as kind of the hardest reach. I’m guessing that this is part of why the first pass through each piece is done by singing the note names, rather than the hymn words.

Hymnary.org lists this piece as being original to William Walker and E.J. King in The Southern Harmony and that is the only hymnal listed where this is published.

The particular choral arrangement the choir is doing is by Alice Parker and Robert Shaw, two pretty big names in the whole choral anthem business. Some different presentations of the anthem (including a sample file on the JW Pepper site):

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxT6hbh0vZQ
• http://www.jwpepper.com/4806121.item#.UlrkFmRgaas
• http://www.jwpepper.com/audio/4806121.mp3
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/saints-bound-for-heaven/id6693234
• Saints Bound for Heaven, from In Sweetest Union John (United Sacred Harp Singers) https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/in-sweetest-union-join/id30648771

I Will Arise (Come, Ye Sinners)

I Will Arise and Go to Jesus is also known as Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched. The lyrics are from Joseph Hart (1712–1768), written in 1759 (per hymnary.org). There are at least two tunes, one called Restoration and one called Come, Ye Sinners. Restoration is attributed to Southern Harmony, by William Walker. Come, Ye Sinners is by Jeremiah Ingalls (1764–1838). However, when I look at the index to The Sacred Harp, this is song 312b, and includes verses 5, 2, and 6 below. These verses are all 8.7.8.7 meter, and there are lots of melodies with that meter. Nettleton is the tune we’re most familiar with for Come, Thou Fount. And the lyrics for Come, Thou Fount are by Robert Robinson, written in England in 1758. Verses 5 and 6 below are actually verse 1 to the hymn as written by Robinson.

1. Come, ye sinners, poor and needy,
   weak and wounded, sick and sore;
   Jesus ready stands to save you,
   full of pity, love and pow’r.

2. I will arise and go to Jesus;
   He will embrace me in his arms.
   In the arms of my dear Savior,
   Oh, there are ten thousand charms.

3. Come, ye thirsty, come and welcome,
   God’s free bounty glorify;
   True belief and true repentance,
   ev’ry grace that brings you nigh.

4. Come, ye weary, heavy laden,
   lost and ruined by the fall;
   If you tarry till you’re better,
   you will never come at all.

5. Come, Thou Fount of ev’ry blessing,
   Tune my heart to sing Thy grace.
   Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
   Call for songs of loudest praise.

6. Teach me some melodious sonnet,
   Sung by flaming tongues above;
   Praise the mount — I’m fixed upon it —
   Mount of Thy redeeming love!

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUutI0rgHr4
• http://www.hymnary.org/text/come_ye_sinners_poor_and_needy_weak_and
• Restoration, from Awake My Soul soundtrack

Looking forward

We won’t meet next week, given the altered schedule for Consecration Sunday. For the November 3rd session, I’d like to go through an interview with the Indigo Girls from On Being. Following that, my current thought is to spend some time with the book A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice by Don and Emily Saliers (Emily being one of the two Indigo Girls and Don being a long-time church musician).

Awake My Soul, Part 3

We'll continue with Awake, My Soul and finish up the video this week.  Some key thoughts so far are how this very old style of singing has been preserved primarily in the South, that there has been a resurgence of interest in the Sacred Harp style of singing in the past 10-15 years, and that this emerged out of the singing schools -- as a way to improve congregational singing.  From my perspective, Sacred Harp is about worship, about community, and about making music participation accessible to as many people as possible.

Awake My Soul, Part 2

Last week, we started watching the "Awake My Soul" video about Sacred Harp.  This week, we'll continue that story and spend a bit more time in the section that talks more about the history of Sacred Harp and its resurgence over the past few years.

Awake My Soul, Part 1

Over the last few weeks, we’ve spent some time covering the general background of the singing schools and shape note singing. For the next few weeks, we’ll continue this with a video study, using the PBS Awake My Soul video. The plan is that we’ll watch half an hour or so of the video and then discuss what this presents, particularly in terms of what this might or might not mean for us.

Do-Re-Mi or Fa-So-La?

We had some discussion last week, in the introduction to Shape Notes/Sacred Harp about the “Fa-So-La” notation that’s probably the most common structure in Sacred Harp singing, with a scale of Fa-So-La-Fa-So-La-Mi-Fa. Both of these are examples of Solfège, which is a music education method to teach pitch and sight singing.

Many people of my generation, at least, probably think of the Sound of Music when we talk about do-re-mi, and the song of that name as done by Julie Andrews. But this seven note solfège is ancient, as discussed in the Wikipedia article linked above, among other sources.

In the eleventh century, a six note scale was proposed by Guido of Arezzo, which was ut-re-mi-fa-so-la. Ti (or si) was added shortly later and ut became do. This six-note scale is also sometimes referred to as Guidonian Hand, after a hand-based mnemonic to remember the notes and positions.

During Eizabethan England (late 16th and early 17th century), a simplified version came into vogue, with the four syllable solfège, that was designed to be easier to read and understand. It was out of these same roots that the singing schools arose and this same four note solfège persists in the Sacred Harp/Shape Note singing of today.

• Demonstrate scales in multiple keys

A key point to understand is that for most music education programs, we use a “movable” solfege, so that “do” is the base note of the key. If the music is in the key of C major (no sharps or flats), do corresponds to C. If the music has one sharp (key of G major), do corresponds to G. And if the music has one flat (key of F major), then do corresponds to F. Regardless of the key, a major scale (e.g. C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C) is two whole steps, a half step, three whole steps, and a half step.

Fa-so-la with just four shapes was (and I agree) easier to see and read than seven different shapes. The singer simply needs to understand that “fa” (a triangle) is always a half step above the note below it, and everything else is a whole step above the note below it. For us citified musicians, we have to remember the key signature to know whether that note on the third line of the treble clef is a B natural (as in the key of C) and therefore a half step below the third space (C) or it’s a B flat (as in the key of F) and therefore a whole step below the third space (C).

At least for me, as a fairly classically trained musician, the shape notation seems complex and confusing. But I can also see the beauty and simplicity of the system for training people to sight read and sing music in church. That’s why it was created and it is something I think that opens up music to a group of people who might well otherwise be intimidated by it.

Singing Schools

This week, we’ll start a journey that will take us in, around, and through some particularly American expressions of music, with a particular look at shape note singing and the Sacred Harp tradition.

Over the past year, we’ve looked at a variety of different kinds of music and touched on some of the different perspectives of what constitutes appropriate music for church?

• In your opinion, what kind of music should be sung during a church service?
• From our previous discussions, and your own experience, what kinds of perspectives have there been about what constitutes music appropriate for worship services?

The controversy over what constitutes appropriate music is hardly a new one. Consider the following[1]:

1. It is a new way, an unknown tongue.
2. It is not so melodious as the usual way.
3. There are so many tunes we shall never have done learning them.
4. The practice creates disturbances and causes people to behave indecently and disorderly.
5. It is Quakerish and Popish and introductive on instrumental music.
6. The names given to the notes are bawdy, yea blasphemous (i.e., fa-sol-la-mi, etc.)
7. It is a needless way, since our fathers got to heaven without it.
8. It is a contrivance to get money.
9. People spend too much time learning it, they tarry out nights disorderly.
10. They are a company of young upstarts that fall in with this way, and some of them are lewd and loose persons.

This is from a 1722 pamphlet, describing the work of the so-called Singing Schools, which were an attempt by Harvard trained ministers to improve what they saw as the appalling quality of music in their congregations. The bulk of the congregational music at that time was just melody, done in line-out (call and repeat) format. The key idea of the music schools, which were patterned after similar efforts in the late 17th century rural England, was to teach people (everyone) the rudiments of music theory, reading music, and leading music. In one sense, this can be viewed as an extension of the push to literacy. For Protestants, in particular, a key factor in the push to literacy was to enable people to read the Bible. A key factor in the singing school movement was to teach people to read music and sing, thereby increasing the quality of music and bringing an improved offering to God.

Some relevant articles and links:

• Wikipedia article on Sining Schools. Note the comments from Laura Ingalls Wilder.
• FaSoLa article. Note the rather scathing comments about Lowell Mason.
• SmithCreekMusic.com article

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1. Leonard Ellenwood, The History of American Church Music, p. 20, as quoted on smithcreekmusic.com  ↩

Three Hymns for Today

Introduction

This has been a most interesting week, and my schedule got pretty much thrown out the window on Monday with mother needing surgery. Thanks to all who’ve been in prayer for her, and a full recover (back to where she was in the Spring) seems likely at this point. We’ve still got a long ways to go, but I do see a light at the end of the tunnel.

So, I’ve not spent as much time in preparation as I’d like to, and we’re going to spend some time looking at the three congregational hymns scheduled for today:

• Processional Hymn #483 Sing Praise to God (Mit freuden zart)
• Recessional Hymn #421 The Church of Christ in Every Age (Wareham)
• Congregational Response #456 Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun (Morning Hymn)

I do have a new toy for part of this. Based on a recommendation over at iPad forums, I got a copy of Symphonix Evolution Player, which will let me play the MIDI files that hymnary.org provides for the tune pages. That’s a neat service that hymnary.org provides and I think that will help us better understand some of the tunes.

I won’t have a lot of discussion on-line for this week, as I’ll mostly simply have links to the hymnary.org pages and other related materials for each of the songs. It will be a bit more free-form.

Lectionary

For September 1st, we are in 17th week of Ordinary (Proper) time and we are in year C of the Revised Common Lectionary[1].

Our scriptures for today are:

• Jeremiah 2:4–13 – which looks at how we should be grateful for what the Lord has done for us.
• Psalm 81:1, 10–16 – which echos this theme and also talks about how we are to seek and follow God.
• Psalm 112 – Happy are those who fear the Lord, who greatly delight in his commandments…
• Hebrews 13:1–8, 15–16 – let mutual love continue, show hospitality to strangers, let marriage be held in honor, keep your lives free from the love of money, trust in God, Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Through Christ, let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God. Do not neglect to do good and share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
• Luke 14:1, 7–14 – The story of choosing the lesser place and being elevated, rather than choosing the higher place and being demoted.

Sing Praise to God (Mit freuden zart) #483

• Lyrics: http://www.hymnary.org/text/sing_praise_to_god_who_reigns_above
• Tune: http://www.hymnary.org/tune/mit_freuden_zart

The Church of Christ in Every Age (Wareham) #421

• Lyrics http://www.hymnary.org/text/the_church_of_christ_in_every_age
• Tune: http://www.hymnary.org/tune/wareham_knapp

Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun (Morning Hymn) #456

• Lyrics: http://www.hymnary.org/text/awake_my_soul_and_with_the_sun
• Hymn: http://www.hymnary.org/tune/morning_hymn_barthelemon

An interesting note on this is that these words can be sung to Tallis’ Canon, which many people will recognize, and which I’ve sung many times with the “Go with us, Lord, and guide the way, Through this and every coming day, That in your Spirit strong and true, Our lives may be our gift to you.”

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1. http://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=277  ↩

Sing to the Lord a New Song

Introduction

• Welcome back after the summer break
• Brief refresh of the purpose of the class
• Discussion of the Focus Group Survey for PNC
• Will cover last Sunday’s anthem: Sing to the Lord a New Song, by Robert Lau
• If we have time, will cover: Stand Up and Bless the Lord (#491), which is today’s recessional hymn.

PNC Focus Group Survey

The PNC has asked groups throughout the church to complete a focus group survey. The basic way that this will work is that I’ll hand the survey out today. Either next week or the week after, depending on schedules, we’ll spend part of the class time coming up with our response. Each group (and each of the adult Christian Ed classes is a group) gets to turn in a response from that group. People who are in multiple groups (the choir is another group, for example, as is each of the session committees) should fully participate in each of those groups.

The nature of the survey is that there are a list of attributes, all of which are of value for our next pastor. Each of us is to go over this and select the 8 which we consider most important. I certainly didn’t find it easy to narrow my list to just 8 – there are many important things on that list. But narrow it to 8 is what we each need to do individually.

Either next week (Labor Day weekend) or the following weekend, we’ll meet and consolidate these votes. One question will be what 8 are the ones we’ve chosen most consistently across our group. We may want to reconsider and come back the following week for further discussion. In the end, we’ll need to report back to the PNC what 8 we as a group consider the most important.

For folks not here this week, I’m happy to mail or email a copy of the survey form.

We’ll find the week where the most of us can get together to discuss the results. If we need to take someone’s input by email, then we’ll do that, but I’d rather have this discussion in person as much as possible.

Sing to the Lord a New Song

This is a piece that the choir has done a few times now, and which we did as our back-to-worship piece. It’s not something I’d have expected us to do on a first Sunday back when we first got it, but we’ve learned it and it’s a fun piece.

The arrangement we use is from Paraclete Press and is copyright 2007.

About Robert Lau

Robert Lau has been in music since he started studying violin at age of 7. He’s currently in the Gettysburg, PA area and is the Organist and Choirmaster for Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church (in Camp Hill, PA). He’s been there for 25 years.

Lyrics

The lyrics of this piece are based on Psalms 148, 149, and 150, so let’s look at those first.

Psalm 148 (NIV)

Note that the Hebrew for “Praise the Lord” is Hallelu Yah (per NIV footnotes). These are the last three Psalms in the Book of Psalms. According to Wikipedia "Most manuscripts of the Septuagint also include a Psalm 151, present in Eastern Orthodox translations; a Hebrew version of this poem was found in the Psalms Scroll of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Psalms Scroll presents the Psalms in an order different from that found elsewhere, and also contains a number of non-canonical poems and hymns in the same style as the canonical Psalms, suggesting that the current collection of 150 may have been selected from a wider set.

1 Praise the Lord.  
    Praise the Lord from the heavens;  
    praise him in the heights above.  
2 Praise him, all his angels;  
    praise him, all his heavenly hosts.  
3 Praise him, sun and moon;  
    praise him, all you shining stars.  
4 Praise him, you highest heavens  
    and you waters above the skies.  
5 Let them praise the name of the Lord,  
    for at his command they were created,  
6 and he established them for ever and ever—  
    he issued a decree that will never pass away.  
7 Praise the Lord from the earth,  
    you great sea creatures and all ocean depths,  
8 lightning and hail, snow and clouds,  
    stormy winds that do his bidding,  
9 you mountains and all hills,  
    fruit trees and all cedars,  
10 wild animals and all cattle,  
    small creatures and flying birds,  
11 kings of the earth and all nations,  
    you princes and all rulers on earth,  
12 young men and women,  
    old men and children.  
13 Let them praise the name of the Lord,  
    for his name alone is exalted;  
    his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.  
14 And he has raised up for his people a horn,[b]  
    the praise of all his faithful servants,  
    of Israel, the people close to his heart.  

Praise the Lord.  

Psalm 149 (NIV)

1 Praise the Lord.  
    Sing to the Lord a new song,  
    his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.  
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;  
    let the people of Zion be glad in their King.  
3 Let them praise his name with dancing  
    and make music to him with timbrel and harp.  
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;  
    he crowns the humble with victory.  
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor  
    and sing for joy on their beds.  
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths  
    and a double-edged sword in their hands,  
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations  
    and punishment on the peoples,  
8 to bind their kings with fetters,  
    their nobles with shackles of iron,  
9 to carry out the sentence written against them—  
    this is the glory of all his faithful people.  

Praise the Lord.  

Psalm 150 (NIV)

1 Praise the Lord.  
    Praise God in his sanctuary;  
    praise him in his mighty heavens.  
2 Praise him for his acts of power;  
    praise him for his surpassing greatness.  
3 Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,  
    praise him with the harp and lyre,  
4 praise him with timbrel and dancing,  
    praise him with the strings and pipe,  
5 praise him with the clash of cymbals,  
    praise him with resounding cymbals.  
6 Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  

Praise the Lord.

• Are there particular areas of resonance?
• Looking at these three Psalms, what particularly jumps out at you?

Sing to the Lord a New Song lyrics

Now, let’s look at the lyrics of the piece and then listen to a rendition of the piece.

Peoples and tongues of ev’ry nation
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Bring him a song of jubilation,
Sing to the Lord a new song.
All God’s creatures,
Old men and children,
Voices raised in hymns of love.
He crowns the humble with salvation.
Sing to the Lord a new song.

Mountains and hills and all creation
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Join in a hymn of adoration.
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Praise His name, singe “Alleluia!”
Praise Him for His mighty deeds.
This is our song, our supplication:
“Sing to the Lord a new song.”

Praise Him, shining stars,
And praise Him highest heavens.
Oh, all kings and princes
Praise His holy name.
Angels above make melody to Him.
Now lift your voice,
Lift up your heart, and sing, and sing!

Come Christians all, now raise your voices,
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Praise and thanksgiving be your choices,
Sing to the Lord a new song.
Sound the trumpet,
Play on the lute and harp;
Dance your dance and shout for joy.
Make music now as heav’n rejoices,
Sing to the Lord a new song.

Sing! Sing! Sing a new song.

• What speaks to you most in these lyrics?
• How do these lyrics amplify these Psalms for you?
• How does the music amplify the lyrics for you?

A few thoughts about the music: From a rhythm perspective, this piece is a bit challenging. Much of the piece is in 7/8 time, which is unusual, and it moves into 3/8 and 3/4 time some points. The middle section is pretty straightforward, going into a 4/4 section before coming back to 7/8 for the last verse. Once you get the hang of it, it’s fun, but I’m not the one who’s up front trying to do three beats, then four beats, then three again. Muscially speaking this is a piece where the singer needs to be up on tiptoes. Or, as one of my former choir directors put it, there are some pieces that you need to drive through with an F350 pickup truck and punch a hole in the back wall of the sanctuary, and there are other pieces that are like driving a nimble sports car through the mountains. This is a sports car piece.

Stand Up, and Bless the Lord

Lyrics

Stand up, and bless the Lord,
Ye people of His choice:
Stand up, and bless the Lord your God
With heart, and soul, and voice.

Though high above all praise,
Above all blessing high,
Who would not fear his Holy name,
And laud and magnify?

O for the living flame,
From His own altar brought,
To touch our lips, our minds inspire,
And wing to heaven our thought!

There, with benign regard,
Our hymns He deigns to hear;
Though unrevealed to mortal sense,
The spirit feels him near.

God is our strength and song,
And His salvation ours;
Then be his love in Christ proclaim’d
With all our ransom’d powers.

Stand up and bless the Lord,
The Lord your God adore;
Stand up, and bless His glorious name
Henceforth for evermore.

See http://www.hymnary.org/text/stand_up_and_bless_the_lord_ye_people for a discussion of the lyrics.

There are multiple different tunes used for this piece, which is 6.6.8.6. We use Carlisle http://www.hymnary.org/tune/carlisle_lockhart, but I found it interesting that there are four different tunes all pretty equally in use.

May the Road Rise to Meet You

Introduction

There are a couple of different directions and thoughts I’d like to explore with what’s often called “The Irish Blessing”, which is the basis for the choral anthem today.

First, let’s take a look at the words, at least as one common English translation

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

• What is your history with this poem or song? What does it mean to you? Are there particular times and places where you’ve seen this used traditionally?

• There are lots of Irish blessings (and curses). Why do you think this one has become so popular?

Let’s listen to one fairly straightforward a capella version of the Irish Blessing, by Joyce Eilers. Does this do anything for you or give you some additional insights into this text?

Translation and History

The history of this poem is hard to find. I wasn’t able to find anything that seems at all authoritative. It’s just listed as a traditional Irish blessing, and there appear to be versions of this in song for multiple centuries back. The main thing I’ve found is that some people ascribe this to St. Patrick, but that’s pretty generally regarded as inaccurate. So, I think the most we can say is that it’s old, lots of people throughout time have arranged these words to different musical presentations.

There are a few interesting aspects of the English translation, though. For what it’s worth, here is what I’m told is the original Gaelic:

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat
Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl
Go lonraí an ghrian go te ar d’aghaidh
Go dtite an bháisteach go mín ar do pháirceanna
Agus go mbuailimid le chéile arís,
Go gcoinní Dia i mbos A láimhe thú.

Plugging that Gaelic into Google Translate gives the following English back:

Good luck on your road
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God in you palm of His hand.

It’s interesting that what’s apparently a quasi-literal translation of the Irish idiom is what has become popular. At least to me, “may the road rise to meet you” isn’t a commonly used idiom in English. At least not something like “get on the ball” or “right up your alley”. We do have the idiom that “the ground came up to meet him”, which means that someone stumbled and implies that the person was a bit intoxicated. However, for the Irish, the essence of that first line is “May you have a successful journey” or “Good luck upon your travels”, and is kind of like the older expression of “Godspeed”.

• What has gone through your mind thinking about that first line? What about the other lines of text in this poem?

I do have to wonder why this particular text has become so popular. The Irish are pretty famous for having lots of blessings (and several curses as well). I found several sites with lots of pages of Irish and curses including one at irishcultureandcustoms.com and another from wisegeek.com. Injecting a bit of humor that I think represents a good part of what we culturally appreciate about the Irish:

May those who love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts,
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we may know them by their limping.

Some Different Presentations

So, getting into the music side of this a bit, there are a few different presentations I want to listen to around this song.

The first is by a group called Acoustix and is a Barbershop Quartet version of The Irish Blessing. I’m pretty sure that’s the first Barbership style piece we’ve done in this class.

I added this one in after I’d published the column, and it’s a very bare presentation with just an Irish lass and guitar.

Another version is by the Texas A&M University choir and alumni, and is pretty close to the version I’ve done before. The choir I was in in Kingsport used something sort of close to this version after every baptism.

The last version I want to do is an SSAA version of the Phillip Stopford arrangement that the choir is doing today.

The question in the end is whether any of this helps us live a more Christian life and helps us bring others to Christ. For me, some of these bring peace, others challenge my thinking a bit.

Moving Forward -- Tammy Trent

Introduction

Music has a power to help us through some of the toughest times in our lives. And for those with the gift, it can be a way to express the pain associated with those times and reach out to others. It is perhaps particularly interesting to hear a message of hope coming from someone who’s been there, who’s gone through that valley, and come out the other side. That’s part of the music and witness of the I See Beautiful album by Tammy Trent.

Crossrythmns.co.uk has an interview and article that summarizes Tammy Trent’s life. Basically, she’s a child of the 80’s, raised in a Christian household in Grand Rapids, MI. She got a break singing backups for Pam Thum, and got her first record deal in 1995. She met Trent Lenderink when the two were 15, at a church revival. They married seven and a half years later. In September 2001, they were on a mission trip to Jamaica and Trent (who was an experienced diver) went diving in Blue Lagoon, with Tammy watching from shore and reading a book. Something happened, and Trent drowned – on September 10, 2001. She was working to get her family to come down to be with her when all US flights were grounded on September 11, 2001. She tells of being alone in the hotel room in Jamaica and praying for comfort from God. A hotel maid told her that she’d heard Tammy crying and was there to offer comfort. Tammy said in the Crossrythm interview that

I had asked, ‘God could you just show up here right at this moment?’ And he did it for me at that moment. So I knew at that moment that somehow I would get through this. I knew that God was very, very real. And that I wouldn’t just survive it but somehow I would overcome it. I knew that truly that was the beginning of healing in my life. […] I think it’s still really a choice for me every day, to wake up and to choose life and to choose hope and to choose peace even in the moments when I don’t feel those things.

There are two songs from her I See Beautiful album that I’d like to take a look at today. One is the title track, and the other is called Stop the World. We’ll look at the second song first. It was written by Peter Orta for Tammy, in response to Trent’s death, and Peter sang it at Trent’s funeral. There’s also a third song, At the Foot of the Cross, also from that album, that we can talk about if we have time.

Stop the World

2001 Peter Orta

Now when I gaze upon the ocean
I look and try to find my smile
And the wind on my face always
Reminds me to breath

Memories come back as the sun falls
I remember chasing after you
Now I’ve captured your heart deep inside me
Finally. I’m free.

CHORUS:
You’re my miracle of life
You’re everything I breathe
I wanna fall asleep in your eternity
So I let the winters fall spring the summer free
If the season is your love
Stop the world for me

Now when I wake up in the morning
My eyes have never been so clear
The gift that you were is now what I have to be
I see clearly

CHORUS

BRIDGE:
All the pain is not in vain
If there’s a change
I’ll never be never gonna be the same

CHORUS

• How do we handle those times of feeling alone, of feeling abandoned, of tremendous loss?
• How do we express grief and work through it?

I See Beautiful

2006 Tammy Trent
Every time I take the time I see you
Everywhere I look I know you’re there
No matter how I’m feeling I can feel you
I believe that I receive your goodness

I choose to see things differently
You can if you will just believe

CHORUS:
Something like rain
That falls from the sky
The air that I breathe
The tears of joy in my eyes
An innocent child
A flower in bloom
Oh, I can’t help it I see beautiful

The sun and moon take turns dancin’ on the ocean shore
The stars light up the heavens everywhere, Yeah
Sitting by the fire watching snow fall to the ground
Father I can see how much you care, Wow

I choose to see things differently (Yes I do)
You can if you will just believe (Yes you can)

CHORUS

Come go with me open up your heart
You can receive decide to be a part of everything I choose to see things differently (Yes I do) You can if you will just believe (Yes you can)

CHORUS

The sun and the moon
The stars in the sky
Every living thing you created day and night

This is a bit of a more “pop” song than I normally listen to, but (as noted in the Crossrythm interview), the song takes on a greater meaning when you know the story behind it. A key reminder for me in this music is that attitude is key to many things. I like the idea of deciding to see beautiful as a part of the way we choose to live.

At the Foot of the Cross

2006 Tammy Trent At the foot of the cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me your love
Through the judgement you received
And you’ve won my heart
Yes you’ve won my heart
Now I can

CHORUS
Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross

At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death you bore for me
And you’ve won my heart
Yes you’ve won my heart
Now I can

CHORUS (2x)

I don’t have much particular to say about this song, other than it’s a beautiful presentation of a key point of Christianity. I wouldn’t have necessarily found it, other than finding Tammy’s story in preparing for this lesson.

Music! Music! from The Upper Room

I saw the devotional today from The Upper Room, talking about the music of God in our lives and everywhere around us. It's definitely worth a read.... 2013-06-04 Upper Room Devotional

God Be In My Head

Introduction

Our choir first did God Be In My Head at the ordination for Colleen, and it was on my mind to spend some time looking up the history of this piece. It’s a very rich one, and we’ll spend some time on it today, looking at the lyrics, listening to a couple of different presentations of the piece, and looking at a devotional written from this.

History

The words are a prayer, and a fairly old one. The first known printing is from the Sarum Primer from the early 16th century.

God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing.

Sarum is the latin name for the British town of Salisbury, which is in sourthwestern England, about 50 km from London and sort of near Southampton. For reasons I haven’t dug into, the common rite practices from Salisbury were very influential in what has become the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

This particular prayer was prabably around for hundreds of years before being written in the Sarum Primer, and I’ve seen different pages ascribing it to 12th century England and 13th century France. Suffice it to say, it’s relatively old, though not as old as some things like the Gloria Patri.

A Devotional

In doing some reading on this piece, I found a devotional that I want to share from bryontayler.com. Rather than reproduce the devotional here, I’m simply linking to it.

Set to Music

Given the age of this prayer, it’s not surprising that it was originaly done as chant or plainsong, and many of the presentations have that feel to it. On particularly interesting version was written by Fraser Wilson (no relation), and there’s a YouTube presentation of that by the Rivelin Singers of Chester, England (which Wilson apparently directs).

From a hymnal perspective, some call this an irregular meter, others list it as 12.10.10.10.11. The latter is somewhat useful, in that among modern hymnals, there are three tunes with that meter – God Be In My Head, Field, and Lytlington. The tune God Be In My Head is by Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941). If you do a search in iTunes, most of the presentations of this prayer are basically the Davies version, with the Rutter version next. As one example, let’s listen to The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge presentation of the Davies version.

Tying a bit back to last week, and the version I found while searching through my music library. There are at least four or five presentations of this on YouTube, and the one I liked best is done a group called the “Cappuccinis” in Frankfurt, Germany. I’ve got the recording of this by the Cambridge Singers with Rutter conducting, and that’s what we’ll listen to this morning.

A final version of this song is quite different. I found this on bandcamp.com, and it’s by Michael Van Patter, and it’s on the Songs for Liturgy compendium by Cardiphonia.

Thoughts

There are lots of different ways to sing and think about this prayer. But it’s the thinking about that’s most important. I’ve not really found one that’s quite singable and memorable for me, but I may well keep looking. What this prayer is asking for is something that’s important to me, and someplace where I fall short. So, it’s a good one to keep in mind, all of our days.

Dolly Parton and the art of songwriting

I saw this article in this morning's paper, and thought it very relevant to stuff we've discussed. Take a look at Dolly's interview on songwriting. I didn't know she wrote "I Will Always Love You". But there's a lot I don't know....

For the Beauty of the Earth

Introduction

If my schedule is correct, the anthem for this Sunday is Rutter’s version of For the Beauty of the Earth. If the schedule has changed from what I have, then the choir’s doing something different. Either way, though, we’re going to talk about this beautiful piece and look at a couple of different presentations (including the Rutter version with orchestra).

John Rutter

We’ve spoken a bit about John Rutter, back on November 11th, in a discussion about All Things Bright and Beautiful. We also discussed and played his composition of This is the Day the Lord Hath Made for the Royal Wedding[1].

Reposting a bit from that session: from the artist’s site[2], the Wikipedia page, the above interview, an interview with 60 Minutes[3], and a few other locations[4]:

• Born in London in 1945 and went to Highgate School, which apparently provided an excellent music education
• He did not come from a particularly musical family
• Studied at Clair College, Cambridge and wrote his first published composition while still a student (at age 19)
• Has published a lot of music, including choral works for large and small groups, orchestral works, a piano concerto, two children’s operas, and music for television.
• In 1980 he was made an honorary Fellow of Westminster Choir College, Princeton, and in 1988 a Fellow of the Guild of Church Musicians.
• In 1996 the Archbishop of Canterbury conferred a Lambeth Doctorate of Music upon him in recognition of his contribution to church music.
• He was honoured in the 2007 Queen’s New Year Honours List, being awarded a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to music.

Personally, I love this passage from the interview with Rutter in the 60 Minutes interview:

Correspondent Vicki Mabrey found the maestro in a small church in Edinburgh, Scotland, giving singing lessons.

“You don’t realize how good it is until you’ve tried it,” says Rutter. “It is wonderful to go to a choral concert, to hear a choir sing. But I think the deepest joy of all is to actually sing.”

Rutter holds these singing days about 20 times a year. “When I agree to do these, I make just one condition, which is that anybody is welcome,” he says. “So long as they are willing to come and bring their voice, they’re welcome.”

The cost of admission: donation to charity. Singing lessons from the master: priceless.

For the Beauty of the Earth

This is hymn 473 in the Presbyterian Hymnal[5], and a copy of that page can be found on-line at hymnary.org.

The words to this hymn are by Folliott Sandford Pierpoint, written in 1864. The most commonly used tune is called Dix, which predates the words. Dix is credited to Conrad Kocher in 1838, though the arrangement we use is from William Henry Monk in 1861, as presented in the 1906 English Hymnal. The meter is 7.7.7.7.7.7, and the tune is in G major. Other common songs with this meter include Christ Whose Glory Fills the Skys and Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me. See the 7.7.7.7.7.7 page on hymnal.net for an interesting resource where we can listen to these different hymns with this particular meter.

According to the Wikipedia page on this hymn, Pierpoint was 29 when he wrote the hymn, and he was inspired by the (English) countryside around him. This is the only commonly used hymn by Pierpoint that survives to this day.

For the beauty of the earth,
For the beauty of the skies,
For the love which from our birth
Over and around us lies:

Chorus
Lord of all, to thee we raise
This our joyful hymn of praise.

For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night,
Hill and vale and tree and flower,
Sun and moon and stars of light:

Chorus

For the joy of human love,
Brother, sister, parent, child,
Friends on earth, and friends above,
For all gentle thoughts and mild:

Chorus

For each perfect gift of thine
To our race so freely given,
Graces human and divine,
Flowers of earth and buds of heav’n.

Chorus

There are three presentations of this that I want to use today:

• The first is instrumental, using Douglas Court’s arrangement for tenor horn and piano: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4PVnjC8aJQ. Tenor horn is not an instrument we get to hear very often, and this is beautiful with just the horn and the piano. Personally, this arrangement would also be beautiful with the horn and harpsichord, and it sounds kind of Baroque to me.

• The second is a nice congregational singing of the traditional hymn posted on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQpYtUDRMpw. I like this presentation as the words are very clear, this is a nicely done recording, and there’s also an interesting instrumental accompaniement. While the congregation is singing, the instruments are nice decoration in the background. The congregation also does a nice job mixing things up with women singing part, men singing part, and some four part harmony.

• The last is the Rutter arrangement, with orchestra. The version I have is from Gloria - The Sacred Music of John Rutter[6]. This is a tough act for the choir to follow, given that it’s professional musicians in a studio environment and with Rutter himself conducting. Oh well….

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1. There are multiple YouTube uploads of this piece from the wedding, with http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UGxzEyop14 being a bit cleaner and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssnAMpYKsd8 being the one apparently from the BBC official album for the Royal Wedding.  ↩

2. See http://www.johnrutter.com/ for the artist’s site and http://www.youtube.com/artist/john-rutter for a dedicated YouTube channel.  ↩

3. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/12/17/60ii/main589173.shtml  ↩

4. I found at least 7 other interviews with John Rutter by searching on YouTube  ↩

5. The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs. Louisville, Ky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990.  ↩

6. Maestro Rutter’s site points to the collection on Collegium Records. It is also available through ITunes at https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/gloria-sacred-music-john-rutter/id444809046 and other typical outlets. For the Beauty of the Earth is track 13 from this CD.  ↩

Some newer songs about Grace: Needham and West

Introduction

Note: If anyone is interested in hearing Jimmy Needham sing, he will be at 1st Baptist of Concord, here in Knoxville, on May 31. See www.jimmyneedham.com for more info.

We’re continuing the theme of songs about grace, as we seek a better understanding of this miracle and the way it affects the way it affects the living of our lives. My perspective is that there’s a tension here, in that we are nothing and we are everything. There is no aspect of our lives which is not touched by sin, yet we are special that the God of all Creation wants a personal relationship with us. Different songs, and indeed different parts of different songs, touch on the different aspects of this tension.

In my searching on this subject, I found a CBN Asia page from September 2012, with Five Songs about Grace. We’ll take a closer look at two of these: If I Ever Needed Grace by Jimmy Needham and Only Grace by Matthew West. And continuing from last week, we’ll look at these songs using videos of performances by the artists. For If I Ever Needed Grace, we do get to hear the artist’s background and motivation for writing the song. I didn’t find that sort of narrative for Only Grace by the author, but there’s a newspaper story that gives the account of its writing, based on an interview with West.

Both of these are presented simply, with just the artist, self-accompanied on guitar, and both are younger artists (under 40) I’d classify both of these more as “songs”, rather than as “hymns”, though Only Grace is done pretty regularly as a praise singing, based on what I’ve read. Both of these songs are new to me, and are pretty contemporary. If I Ever Needed Grace is more the reflection and recollection around our need for grace, while Only Grace is more about our response to grace – particularly the need to get back up after we’ve sinned and fallen short. For me, both of these songs are more about personal worship, perhaps things that might be done as an anthem or in just my personal listening. And for If I Ever Needed Grace, it’s clearly written from the perspective of a straight, married guy, with children. So, one thing to discuss and think about is how this song does or doesn’t work for people who aren’t in that place. In that sense, it bears some similarities to the Phillips, Craig, and Dean song I Want to be Just Like You – which speaks strongly to fathers with sons. Perhaps that’s a question to get back to in another session. Some songs, like Amazing Grace are comparatively universal, while others can speak more to people in particular situations.

If I Ever Needed Grace

Jimmy Needham is a young (b 1985) Christian singer from Houston, Texas. His website bio provides some good background and motivation particularly for this song, which came to him as he was working on his fifth studio project. The Wikipedia page also provides relevant background. This song reached the top 40 on the Billboard Christian Songs chart in August, 2012.

In the YouTube video for this song, Needham first talks about the motivation for this song, which we’ll discuss.

• Listen to the first part of the video. How does Needham’s perspective relate to you or not?
• Listen to the second part of the video, with the song. What do you hear in the lyrics?

If I Ever Needed Grace
Jimmy Needham (2012)

It still feels like yesterday
A lifetime of empty days
My hungry heart was desperate for a meal
I feasted on the Bread of Life
Forgiveness pierced me like a knife
Your breath filled up my lungs and I could feel
I was broke and all I could say was

Chorus
If I ever needed grace, it’s now
You are strong when I am weak, somehow
I am weak enough to see
I need You to cover me
If I ever needed grace, it’s now

I met the woman of my dreams
Wanted to give her everything
Then fear came like a thief in the night
But my journal pages prophesy
That one day I’d make her my bride
Soon my best friend was wearing white
With our lives ahead all I could say was

Chorus

In every joy and pain
Whatever comes my way
God I need Your grace

Nine short months ’til she arrived
Little hands and lions eyes
And I’m so scared I don’t have what it takes
But I hear Your voice Sunday morning
Father give me eyes to see
All I need’s the power of Your name

Chorus

If I ever needed grace
If I ever needed grace
If I ever needed grace, it’s now

Only Grace

Matthew West is a bit older (b 1977) than Needham, but still on the younger side of artists we’ve listened to and discussed. He’s from Downer’s Grove, IL originally and currently makes his home in Nashville.

As discussed on his Wikipedia page West had some challenges in 2007, where he had to have surgery for vocal cord damage as a result of polyps and an enforced two months of silence. This particular song is before that time.

In an interview with Big 3 News of Ohio in 2011, West speaks about the origins of Only Grace, indicating that it came as he was being searched to give a concert at a prison. That interview also talks about his work on a testamony-based album, which we may look at in another session.

The YouTube video for this song is a presentation given as part of a radio station promo session with Spirit 103.5 FM of Seattle.

Only Grace
Matthew West (2005)

There is no guilt here
There is no shame
No pointing fingers
There is no blame

What happened yesterday has disappeared
The dirt has washed away
And now it’s clear

There’s only grace
There’s only love
There’s only mercy
And believe me it’s enough

Your sins are gone
Without a trace
And there’s nothing left now
There’s only grace

You’re starting over now
Under the sun
You’re stepping forward now
A new life has begun
Your new life has begun

There’s only grace
There’s only love
There’s only mercy
And believe me it’s enough

Your sins are gone
Without a trace
And there’s nothing left now
There’s only grace

And if you should fall again
Get back up, get back up
Reach out and take my hand

Get back up, get back up
Get back up again
(Get back up)
Get back up again

There’s only grace
There’s only love
There’s only mercy
And believe me it’s enough, it’s enough

Your sins are gone
Without a trace
And there’s nothing left now
There’s only, there’s only grace
(Get back up)

There’s only mercy
And believe me it’s enough, it’s enough

Your sins are gone
(Get back up)
Without a trace
(Get back up)
And there’s nothing left now
There’s only, there’s only grace

So get back up
Get back up again
(Get back up, get back up )
Get back up again

Step by Step (and Awesome God)

Introduction

We spent some time last week talking about praise hymns and whether Sinner Saved by Grace fit our personal definitions of praise hymns. This week, I want to reach back to a song that I’ve used as a source of comfort over much of the past 15–20 years: Step by Step. I first heard this piece in the early- to mid–1990’s, when I went on the Walk to Emmaus. It was one of the first pieces where I learned the chord accompaniment (it’s pretty easy), and I’ve sung this to myself in a variety of times of stress. This simple praise chorus is something that just works for me. A particularly troubling time was when I moved to Michigan, after having been downsized from my job with “The Eastman” up in Kingsport. I had to move up to Michigan in January, leaving my family behind in Kingsport. The loss of that job ended a lot of dreams for us, and I had a hard time being by myself and away from my wife and children. I sang this song a lot during those several months. I still sing it often, particularly when I’m facing temptation or other emotional challenges.

So, with today’s session, I want to talk about this song, in particular, and about this kind of quiet praise singing, particularly when we’re by ourself.

As it turns out, the author of Step by Step is also the author of another well-known praise song, Awesome God. That’s another one that I really like, though it’s more of something I enjoy in a group, rather than something I’ve sung that much when I’m by myself. Listening to Mullins (see the YouTube videos linked below), he talks about Step by Step in the context of the longer Sometimes by Step as a prayer. It’s very much that for me, while Awesome God is more of a group praise song.

• Are there times when you felt lonely or emotionally challenged that you’d like to talk about?
• Are there particular songs or spiritual practices that help with those time?
• I’ve spent some time in therapy, and one thing we discussed is that song is often a powerful tool for dealing with temptation. Is it that for you? Why?

Step by Step

In digging into this song, I find that it’s a lot more recent than I expected. If I have this correct, the chorus that I’m used to came from a collaboration between Rich Mullins (1955–1997) and David Strasser (aka “Beaker”, for his apparent resemblance to the muppet). Mullins came out with an album The World as Best I Know It in the very early 1990’s, and this chorus was on volume 1. An expanded song, into Sometimes by Step was on volume 2. I wasn’t familiar with the longer song, and that’s what we’ll take a look at.

For Sometimes by Step and Awesome God, I’ve referenced the YouTube videos of Mullins himself in concert. Both of these include some preamble by Mullins that expresses his perspective and testimony. In this case, I like the idea of letting the artist speak for himself, particulary since he’s passed away.

Sometimes by Step
(1992) Rich Mullins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2KOCgC8DnU

Sometimes the night was beautiful
Sometimes the sky was so far away
Sometimes it seemed to stoop so close
You could touch it but your heart would break
Sometimes the morning came too soon
Sometimes the day could be so hot
There was so much work left to do
But so much You’d already done

CHORUS:
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
Oh God, You are my God
And I will ever praise You
I will seek You in the morning
And I will learn to walk in Your ways
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

Sometimes I think of Abraham
How one star he saw had been lit just for me
He was a stranger in this land
And I am that, no less than he
And on this road to righteousness
Sometimes the climb can be so steep
I may falter in my steps
But never beyond Your reach

CHORUS

And I will follow You all of my days
And I will follow You all of my days
And step by step You’ll lead me
And I will follow You all of my days

More about Rich Mullins

There are a lot of pages about Rich Mullins, who died at age 41 in a traffic accident. The Wikipedia page about Mullins is one source of information I used. I particularly liked the quote referencing his perspective on working with the poor:

Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my Savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken….[1]

Mullins was also responsible for another very well-known praise song, Awesome God

Awesome God

Awesome God
(1988) Rich Mullins
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJL_bChiTI0

When He rolls up His sleeves
He ain’t just putting on the ritz
(Our God is an awesome God)
There’s thunder in His footsteps
And lightning in His fists
(Our God is an awesome God)
And the Lord wasn’t joking
When He kicked ’em out of Eden
It wasn’t for no reason
That He shed His blood
His return is very close
And so you better be believing that
Our God is an awesome God

Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God
(repeat)

And when the sky was starless
In the void of the night
(Our God is an awesome God)
He spoke into the darkness
And created the light
(Our God is an awesome God)
Judgement and wrath He poured out on Sodom
Mercy and grace He gave us at the cross
I hope that we have not
Too quickly forgotten that
Our God is an awesome God

Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power, and love
Our God is an awesome God
(repeat, multiple times)

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1. From http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQnFU5JvuWY&mode=related&search= (The quoted speech begins at 7:40 of this video reference), as cited on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_Mullins.  ↩

Sinner Saved by Grace

Introduction

I’d like to get back to the theme of songs about grace this week, and move into another contemporary piece. As I did some searching the Internet for songs about grace, I came across a 2012 column by Pamela Rose Williams titled 8 Christian Praise Songs about Grace. I was particularly struck by Williams comment, quoted below, in reference to Sinner Saved by Grace, by the Gaither Vocal Band:

I am a firm believer in the use of praise songs to prepare the heart to receive the message from God’s Word that is to follow. This is a great song to add to your praise set as the last one – it is slower and can be used to make that so very important transition in the service when we go from praising and singing to listening and meditating. Whether or not you think it will work in your praise set, no doubt this is an unmistakable and powerful praise song about grace. Enjoy the video below by the Gaither Vocal Band.

• What does the term “praise song” mean to you?
• Where do we use praise songs in our worship, from your perspective?

There’s a lot in what Williams has to say that really spoke to me about one of the roles that music plays in worship and how the minister and the music director work together to try and help us move through the worship. And that worship has many different elements, but hearing the word of God is key. Indeed, Calvin’s institutes (4.1.9) talk of the marks of the church being that “Wherever we see the Word of God purely preached and heard, and the sacraments administered according to Christ’s institution, there, it is not to be doubted, a church of God exists”[1]. And, again, I come back to that word “hear”, and I’d like us to think of that as “shema” – that hearing is active and that that we are expected to act up on what we hear. We’ve discussed this concept a time or two, that the Hebrew word “shema” isn’t passive. And that’s part of what I understand in Calvin’s mark of the true church – that the Word is proclaimed and heard.

So, praise songs, as Williams comments, are one of the tools we have as we move to that phase where the Word is proclaimed and a means to help us hear what God has for us today.

Sinner Saved by Grace

The song that Williams refers to is one I probably heard a time or two before, but it wasn’t in my collection. And, unfortunately, the YouTube video that she links to is apparently one put up without the artist’s permissions. There is an authorized version at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snjd291QmiE, and that’s part of what we’ll use today. It’s not a style of music that I tend to listen to, but there are a lot of reasons to spend some time with this song. One is that it’s not a style of music that I tend to listen to. Bill and Gloria Gaither have definitely been a force in the Southern Gospel music scene. And both the lyrics and presentation of this song have a powerful message about grace and personal salvation.

Wikipedia has a good article on Bill Gaither and a somewhat less complete article on the Gaither Vocal Band. Additional history and information are available through the Gaither Vocal Band website.

Sinner Saved By Grace
Lyrics: Gloria Gaither (1986)
Arr: William Gaither and Mitch Humphries © EMI Music Publishing

If you could see what I once was
If you could go with me
Back to where I started from
Then I know you would see
A miracle of love that took me in it’s sweet embrace
And made me what I am today
Just an old sinner saved by grace.

I’m just a sinner saved by grace
When I stood condemned to death
He took my place
Now I live and breathe in freedom with each breath of life I take
Loved and forgiven
Back with the living
I’m just a sinner saved by grace.

How could I boast of anything I’ve ever seen or done?
How could I dare to claim as mine the vict’ries God has won?
Where would I be had God not brought me gently to this place?
I’m here to say I’m nothing but a sinner saved by grace

I’m just a sinner saved by grace
When I stood condemned to death
He took my place
Now I live and breathe in freedom with each breath of life I take
Loved and forgiven
Back with the living
I’m just a sinner saved by grace

• What do you see in the lyrics?
• How does the presentation by the Gaither Vocal Band provide a perspective?

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1. As cited on http://www.presbyterianmission.org/ministries/sharedcelebration/what-shared-celebration/  ↩

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

Introduction

The piece we’ll cover today is one that the choir is doing at the early service this week and the late service next week. So, except for the travelers, all will get a chance to hear it.

The title 8s My Shepherd Will Supply My Need. It is based on the 23rd Psalm. The lyrics are by Isaac Watts (1674–1730). The tune is another American Folk Hymn, first captured in William Walker’s Southern Harmony (1835), as with last weeks discussion on Amazing Grace. This particular arrangement is by Mack Wilberg, who is the music director for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

We should do a session on Isaac Watts, as he’s often considered the father of English hymnnody. According to Wikipedia, Watts wrote over 750 hymns, many of which are in use today[1].

Psalm 23

1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
6 Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever [NIV]

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. [KJV]

My Shepherd Will Supply My Need

There are some performances of this work out on YouTube (and other places, I’m sure). Of the ones I listened to, the one by the Baylor A Capella Choir was the one I liked the most[2].

My Shepherd will supply my need:
Jehovah is His Name;
In pastures fresh He makes me feed,
Beside the living stream.
He brings my wandering spirit back
When I forsake His ways,
And leads me, for His mercy’s sake,
In paths of truth and grace.

When I walk through the shades of death
Thy presence is my stay;
One word of Thy supporting breath
Drives all my fears away.
Thy hand, in sight of all my foes,
Doth still my table spread;
My cup with blessings overflows,
Thine oil anoints my head.

The sure provisions of my God
Attend me all my days;
O may Thy house be my abode,
And all my work be praise.
There would I find a settled rest,
While others go and come;
No more a stranger, nor a guest,
But like a child at home.

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1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts  ↩

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KPcBRJpF-Vw  ↩

Amazing Grace

Introduction

When we discuss songs about grace, that collection has to include the hymn Amazing Grace. This is a very powerful song that has been used in a wide variety of places and ways. Indeed, there’s a perspective that it has been overused. Certainly, it is one of the most well-known hymns and one which has been used in some very political ways.

The Wikipedia article on Amazing Grace is quite extensive, and there is some additional information on the Library of Congress (LOC) page on Amazing Grace. The LOC page links to a wide range of recordings and other media about the hymn. There are countless Internet web pages on this hymn, and several books.

I think the history is pretty well established, and I’ll use the Wikipedia article as the basis for our discussion today.

This is a short post today. As we discuss this tomorrow, there are a wide range of places we can go and things to discover.

Lyrics

One version of the lyrics is below, including both the original verses by John Newton and a commonly used additional vers that was first printed as a part of this hymn by Harriet Beecher Stowe in Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852. There are certainly many verses that have been added to this song, but we’ll focus on the ones listed below.

Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav’d a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.

’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev’d;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believ’d!

Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares,
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promis’d good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.

The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.

Additional African-American tradition verse, as published by Stowe:

When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise,
Than when we first begun.

A Friend Called Grace

Introduction

As we move from Easter into the weeks of Eastertide, heading towards Pentecost, I want to spend some time talking about grace.

One really important question in this is “What is grace?” Lots have been written and sung about grace, and we’ll take a look at it. For me, there are a few experiences that shape my thoughts about grace.

• I learned a lot of the theory about grace in going through the Walk to Emmaus [1]. An Emmaus weekend (or Cursillo, or Tres Dias, or any of the other “fourth day” weekend) includes a series of 15 talks, 5 of which are given by clergy and are directly about grace: Prevenient Grace, Justifying Grace, Means of Grace, Obstacles to Grace, and Sanctifying Grace. For me, the concept of Prevenient Grace[2] was powerful. Prevenient Grace comes particularly from St. Augustine, and expresses the idea that God’s grace exists for as individuals exists before we ever make any decision. God’s grace was there for me even before I was born. It’s something I’ve known, but hearing the discussions of prevenient grace was one of the powerful parts of Emmaus for me, both as someone attending the weekend as a pilgrim and on the half-dozen teams on which I’ve served. I particularly remember a presentation by Rev. Ted where he talked about the part of the Apostles Creed where Jesus “descended into Hell”. For Rev. Ted, that was particularly important to him and some of his struggles. Christ had already been to Hell for Ted, well before Ted was even born.
• I learned more about the living of grace through the example of a friend who is a Bosnian Muslem. That friend has been through the experience of excaping from Bosnia after his neighbors turned against him. They burned his house, and basically all of his possessions as part of that great crime of “ethnic cleansing”. Yet this friend was still a gentle soul. He was angered by those who led the ethnic Bosnians into this sin, yet he’d long since forgiven those neighbors and prayed for their well-being and that they would forgive themselves.
• Each Lent, I am reminded again and seek out those ideas of grace. We can, and should, talk about grace at many different times of the Christian year. But for me, Lent is a particular time when I am reminded many times of the ways in which God has cared for me and given me the gift of his presence. I have done nothing, other than simply being a child of God, to merit this love, but it is there for me anyway.

When I searched through my music library for songs about Grace, there’s a pretty large number of hits, though that’s partially because Point of Grace[3] is one of the artists where I have a couple of their CD’s.

What Is Grace?

We can spend a lot of time here. We can define grace, and the christianity.about.com definition is a good one:

Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is kindness from God we don’t deserve. There is nothing we have done, nor can ever do to earn this favor. It is a gift from God. Grace is divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration (rebirth) or sanctification; a virtue coming from God; a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine favor.[4]

Certainly, grace is discussed in many different places in the Bible, with places like Ephesians 2:8 being well known examples: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God. I’ve heard lots of people refer to passage (from 2nd Corinthians) that says ""My grace is sufficient for you*, though that’s another one that I think is instructive to look at in the fuller context of 2nd Corinthians 12:1–10:

I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. 2 I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God knows. 3 And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows— 4 was caught up to paradise and heard inexpressible things, things that no one is permitted to tell. 5 I will boast about a man like that, but I will not boast about myself, except about my weaknesses. 6 Even if I should choose to boast, I would not be a fool, because I would be speaking the truth. But I refrain, so no one will think more of me than is warranted by what I do or say, 7 or because of these surpassingly great revelations. Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Clearly, grace is something we can discuss for eons. It’s really something that we also need to understand on a much deeper level. And music is one way to do that :-).

A Friend Called Grace

The song for this week is anther by Phillips, Craig, and Dean[5]. As we’ve discussed in the past, this is a group made of three senior pastors who view music as one of the ways of teaching about scripture and the bible. Their song A Friend Called Grace is the second track from the 1995 Lifeline CD[6]. Part of the setting for this song is the well-known story of Jesus with the woman caught in adultery. That’s another story with many a sermon and blog entry written about it. But for today, let’s just use it as a basis for this song and for some discussion about grace.

Tears dripped off of her crimson face,
She covered her head tried to hide her shame.
Caught and condemned now she can’t get away;
Just a pawn in the hands of a Pharisee game.
The noise and the rage of the frenzied grew
As they struggled for the power in an ageless feud.
And as she softly cried they again reviewed
The obvious fate of this ill repute.
Then a voice of His love ended all debate;
His words of a hope sent the crowd away.
The hand that flung the stars in space
Lifted her face and she heard Him say:

CHORUS
Let me introduce you to a friend called grace
Doesn’t care about your past or your many mistakes.
He’ll cover your sins in a warm embrace.
Let me introduce you to a friend,
A friend called Grace.

The courtroom crowd grew quiet and still
As the white-robed judge called truth appeared,
As the ring of the gavel brought a fierce debate,
As the players of eternity decided my fate.
In the light of truth all could clearly see
The facts made the trial mere formality.
And my accusers stood with baited breath
Confident conviction would end in death.
But from the blood-stained cross to the witness stand
Walked a man with a hope in His nail-scared hands.
The words that He spoke brought me sweet release
He whispered I’m a friend that you need to meet.

CHORUS

If you’re tired of the guilt and the sleepless nights,
Running from the shame of a wasted life.
Someone is standing with an open hand,
Waiting there to give you a second chance.

(key change) CHORUS
Chorus repeats multiple times

Some thoughts that occur to me in listening to this song again to prepare for this class:

• Hands are mentioned in both the first and second verses. In the first verse, they’re the hands that flung the stars in space. In the second, they’re the nails-scarred hands.
• “Just a pawn in the hands of a Pharisee game” – They’re is a lot expressed in that statement, which has always stood out to me. The Pharisee’s didn’t care about this woman. They only wanted to use her as a means to trap Jesus. And, as with the “is it legal to pay taxes to Caesar” question, Jesus leaves them in the trap they tried to set for him.
• There is an aspect of this presentation of grace that is trying to speak to the unchurched, I think. It reminds me of the whole question of where we are in the story of the Prodigal Son. So many of us are more of the older brother than the prodigal son. Some times, I don’t feel as spoken to in songs that talk about being apart from God. But there are times when I’ve taken myself away from God and there are times if I wonder if I’ve done with my life what I should have done. I haven’t felt like my life has been particularly wasted at any point. But I have reached out for that open hand, offering me a second, third, fourth, fifth, … chance.
• One musical note that I want to point out is the key change coming off the bridge and into the multiple repeats of the set of chorus repeats that close out the song. That’s a common thing to listen for in a lot of songs. In the choir, we sometimes joke about those as “Barry Manilow moments”, as many of Mr. Manilow’s songs feature multiple key changes. In this case, taking the key up a half step (which is what I think PCD are doing in this song) is a way to add energy to the song and presentation.

Next Steps

I’d like to spend a couple of weeks on a “Songs of Grace” series. If you have some particular suggestions or areas of interest, please feel free to pass them along.

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1. The Walk to Emmaus is a ministry of the Upper Room division of the United Methodist Church, built on the Cursillo short course in Christianity developed by the Roman Catholic church. See http://emmaus.upperroom.org for more information about the Walk to Emmaus.  ↩

2. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevenient_grace  ↩

3. http://www.pointofgrace.net/  ↩

4. http://christianity.about.com/od/glossary/g/grace.htm  ↩

5. http://www.phillipscraiganddean.com/  ↩

6. https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lifeline/id45809884  ↩

PS to MT to GF to ES: Take My Mother Home and Watch the Lamb

Introduction

PS to MT to GF to ES. It’s not exactly the same as Tinker to Evers to Chance, to borrow from the 1910 poem by Franklin Adams[1], but it describes the Passion Play of the Trinity, putting Death out of the game. Palm Sunday, to Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter Sunday.

As we celebrate Palm Sunday today, I want to look forward to Maundy Thursday and to Good Friday, and the remembrance of the Passion. First, where does “Maundy” come from? First, lots of people don’t use the term. In other places (particularly Ireland and Scotland), the term Holy Thursday is more common.

There is some uncertainty in where “Maundy” comes from. The most generally accepted theory is that it comed from the old French mandé, from the Latin mandatum, the first word of the Latin version for “A new commandment I give you: That you love one another; as I have loved you” (John 13:34)[^wikimaundy]. An alternate theory is that it comes from the “maundsor baskets” that the King of England would distribute to some of the poor before attending mass on Holy Thursday. In this case, maund comes from the latin mendicare and the French mendier, both meaning to beg.

I haven’t studied enough of the question to have an opinion, but both origins can describe things that we are to do. In the case of the derivation from mandatum, this is the root for our word “mandate”. A new mandate I give you. Perhaps that’s a bit stronger than a new commandment. Or perhaps the meaning of commandment has been watered down over time, since it’s not a word we use much today. But mandate is a pretty strong word and reinforces the perspective that this is something that is required of us. That mandate is that we love one another. And, to me, that means all of the others. Not just the ones who are like me or the ones that happen to agree with me.

In the context of “to beg”, then Maundy can also be the reminder of our call to take care of the poor, specifically. That’s one aspect of love, and something where Christ’s call is clear.

One song that our choir has done for the Maundy Thursday service every year is Take My Mother Home, which is Andrew Clarke’s arrangement of a particularly touching spiritual (that’s really about Good Friday). One reason for the notice of this song is a performance by Harry Belafonte in the 1950’s[2], and another is the work of Francis Hall Johnson to preserve many of the spirituals during the early 1900’s[3].

Take My Mother Home

The biblical reference for this song comes from John 19:25–27:

25 Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” 27 and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. [NIV]

The words are haunting as presented in the spritual

I think I heard him say when he was struggling up the hill
I think I heard him say, take my mother home
Then I’ll die easy, take my mother home
I’ll die so easy, take my mother home

I think I heard him say, when they was raffling off his clothes
I think I heard him say, take my mother home
I think I heard him cry when they was nailing in the nails
I think I heard him cry, take my mother home

I’ll die this death on Calvary, ain’t gonna die no more
I’ll die on Calvary, ain’t gonna die no more
Ain’t gonna die no more

I think I heard him say, when he was giving up the ghost
I think I heard him say, please, take my mother home
Please, take my mother home

For me, the “nailing in the nails” part is particularly emotionally strong. That part is sung by the men against a stylized crying done by the women. And it comes to a particularly discordant chord on “nails”. The way we present this piece is, in my view, a much harsher presentation than what the demo version that the various sheet music sites use. The Clarke arrangement is a somewhat challenging piece for our choir, in part because he uses a bunch of chords that are more common in jazz music.

A more traditional spiritual presentation can be found on YouTube, done by the Morehouse College Glee Club (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6eM8bXW3fhU). They also include to other verses, one “when they was spittin’ in His face” and one “when he was dyin’ on the cross”. And the chords in and around “nailing in the nails” are also extremely discordant, as it should be.

Watch the Lamb

The second song I want to present for today is also from Good Friday, and derives from Mark chapter 15, including the story of Simon of Cyrene being forced to carry the cross for Jesus. This is a long song (over 7 minutes) and very disturbing. I don’t like the thought of children seeing any crucifixion. But children did and have seen such things.

This is Watch the Lamb, by Ray Boltz (http://www.rayboltz.com/). What I hadn’t known, when I picked this song for today, is that Ray Boltz “came out of the closet” in 2008. His newest album (True) has songs about his challenges reconciling his identities as a gay man and a Christian.

Walking on the road to Jerusalem
The time had come to sacrifice again
My two small sons,
They walked beside me on the road
The reason that they came
Was to watch the lamb

Daddy, daddy what will we see there?
There’s so much we don’t understand
So I told them of Moses
And Father Abraham
And then I said,
Dear children, Watch the lamb

For there will be so many
In Jerusalem today
We must be sure the lamb
Doesn’t run away
And I told them of Moses
And Father Abraham
And then I said,
Dear children, Watch the lamb

When we reached the city
I knew something must be wrong
There were no joyful worshippers
No joyful worship songs
I stood there with my children
In the midst of angry men
And then I heard the crowd cry out,
Crucify Him

We tried to leave the city
But we could not get away
Forced to play in this drama,
A part I did not wish to play
Why upon this day
Were men condemned to die?
Why were we standing here
Where soon they would pass by?

I look and said, Even now they come
The first one cried for mercy,
The people gave him none
The second one was violent,
He was arrogant and loud
I still can hear his angry voice
Screaming at the crowd

Then someone said, There’s Jesus!
And I scarce believed my eyes
A man so badly beaten,
He barely looked alive
Blood poured from His body,
From the thorns upon His brow
Running down the cross
And falling to the ground

I watched Him as He struggled
I watched Him as He fell
The cross came down upon His back,
The crowd began to yell
In that moment I felt such agony
In that moment I felt such loss
Until a Roman soldier grabbed my arm
And screamed, You, carry His cross!

At first I tried to resist him
Then his hand reached for his sword
And so I knelt and took
The cross from the Lord
I placed it on my shoulder
And started down the street
The blood that He’d been shedding
Was running down my cheek

They led us to Golgotha
They drove nails
Deep in His feet and hands
An yet upon the cross
I heard Him pray, Father forgive them
Oh, never have I seen such love
In any other eyes
Into they hands I commit My spirit,
He prayed and then He died

I stood for what seemed like years
I’d lost all sense of time
Until I felt two tiny hands
Holding tight to mine
My children stood there weeping
I heard the oldest say
Father, please forgive us
The lamb ran away

Daddy, daddy what have we seen here?
There’s so much
That we don’t understand
So I took them in my arms
And we turned and faced the cross
And then I said,
Dear children, watch the Lamb

Conclusion

We stand in the triumph of Palm Sunday. But we know what will come with the passion and suffering of Christ. It is the painful reminder we go through each year, to remember that our God loves us that much. And we will come through Good Friday and move into the even greater triumph of Easter Sunday.

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1. See, for example, the article on Baseball’s Sad Lexicon on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball’s_Sad_Lexicon.  ↩

2. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GLSKM5YtRE for a YouTube recording (no video) of the Belafonte presentation of this hymn.  ↩

3. http://www.artsongupdate.org/Articles/HallJohnson.htm  ↩