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.  ↩