I’ve been on holiday for the last week without access to a computer, which is why there have been no posts this week – it’s too difficult to type much on a mobile phone. So here is a briefer commentary than usual on all this week’s hymns. I have been singing them all, as well as attending three very different worship services – communion in a parish church, Cathedral evensong, and harvest festival in a Baptist chapel. In all of them, music has played a key part, whether provided by a robed choir or a couple of guitarists – you can work out which is which.
Sunday 19 September
“Peace on earth to all your people”, a Scottish version of the canticle Gloria in Excelsis. See 12th September for my previous comments on this canticle. The present version departs from the standard text in a few places, such as in verse 2 where it has “receive our song of praise” rather than “receive our prayer”; I’m not sure that’s a sensible change as the original is really a prayer for mercy. And in verse 3, “God in heaven” rather than more specifically “Christ in heaven”.
Monday 20 September
“Creating God, we bring our songs of praise” by Jan Berry and sung to the well known (sometimes over-used) tune ‘Woodlands’. The first verse addressed to the ‘creating God’ celebrates life, work, skill and joy. The second to the ‘forgiving God’ expresses sorrow for our anger, strife and emptiness. The third to the ‘redeeming God’ refers to the ‘fragile hope’ that he will make all things new, which is an honest acknowledgement that it does take a good deal of faith to hold on to that hope. The last verse addressed to the ‘renewing God’ looks to a future of harmony, peace, justice, dignity and pride – all the things that are often lacking in our earthly societies. Overall this is a good summary of what the Christian life is about.
Tuesday 21 September
“For the music of creation” by Shirley Murray. The first verse suggests that music is a sort of metaphor for creation, as it requires creativity in us. God is described as the ‘world’s composer’ and we as the ‘echoes of his voice’. The second verse lists various types of instrument, and different types of music – ‘simple melodies’, ‘hymns of longing and belonging’, ‘carols from a cheerful throat’, lullabies and love-songs. The music we make doesn’t have to be ‘religious’ to please God. The last verse refers to movement in worship – ‘hands that move and dancing feet’ – for the idea still sometimes found in Western churches that we have to stand up straight and immobile when singing in church probably seems weird to many Christians around the world for whom the whole body is used in worship.
Wednesday 22 September
“Earth’s fragile beauties we possess” by Robert Willis. John provided his own alternative tune to this one. The theme is life as pilgrimage. The first verse looks at the ways we should move through this life leaving as little impact as possible on those ‘fragile beauties’. The second looks at ‘earth’s human longings’ in grief, loss, famine, plaque and sword, referring to Christ’s cross as well as the story of Exodus, the archetypal pilgrimage. The last verse reminds us that we possess not only the beauties of earth but God’s own image, any deliberate damage to which was borne by Christ on the cross. This is a hymn for our times as people are realising too late the irreversible damage we have already done to this fragile world.
Thursday 23 September
“We give God thanks for those we knew” by Michael Perry, a hymn about healing and wholeness. It reminds us that Jesus came to bring healing through his love, and still does, but that we too should “dedicate our skills and time” to address the suffering around us.
Friday 24 September
“Maker of all whose word is life” by Elizabeth Cosnett. It’s a wedding hymn, addressing the Trinity: the Father as God of truth and faithfulness, Jesus the Son who knew earthly happiness, and though unmarried himself brought joy to the wedding guests when he turned water into wine, and the Holy Spirit as guide and bringer of steadfastness. The last verse reminds us that we need God’s grace to help us keep our wedding vows.
Sunday 26 September
The final song in this section, for the weekend of 25th/26th September, was a setting of “Holy, holy holy Lord” by Geoff Weaver. There’s probably not much to say about this short and familiar text, but John did suggest it was an appropriate response to the Old Testament reading about the dedication of Solomon’s Temple when the shekinah-glory of God filled the place.
On this web site responders can’t use bold, so I’ll have to use capitals instead:
GLORIA – PEACE ON EARTH … . This metrical setting of the canticle uses the first phrase as a chorus and intersperses it with verses: this way of tackling the canticle has become quite widespread and I suppose it echoes the way that psalms have been set with refrains to punctuate the verses. I thought the words were adequate but not exceptional, and I wished the arrangement of the tune had been handled better.
CREATING GOD … . Actually the book has a different tune, and I felt slightly guilty about my decision to use Woodlands – but Jan Berry’s words were clearly written with a huge pause after the 4th syllable of lines 1 and 3 (except for line 3 of verse 4), which seemed to require Woodlands – but Stephen’s right that the tune can be over-used. I was disappointed in the words, and felt it was “Christianity-lite” in some places – for example the “our own worth” at the end of v1: the Christian doctrine of our self-worth is surely that our true worth is only to be found when we are joined up to Christ and our spirits are unlocked by his Holy Spirit. Somehow the easy rhyme had usurped the search for the right expressions in several places.
FOR THE MUSIC OF CREATION … . As Stephen says, a hymn of metaphor as well as a celebration of music. Again I wondered if the ease of rhyme had undermined the wrestling with thought – “Psalms and symphonies exalt you”, but they do so in such different ways that they are hardly combinable in the same phrase, and sadly the joy and peace that music speaks over discord and division is not a real healing but at most a papering over cracks. An optimistic but not a very realistic hymn.
EARTH’S FRAGILE BEAUTIES … . I was moved by this hymn, and as Stephen says wrote a new tune for it as I felt that the AABA structure of “Kingsfold” failed to reflect the way the verses moved to the refrain lines which concluded them. We have feet of clay in our walk of faith, and yet we can find a calling in anticipation of the Kingdom of God.
WE GIVE GOD THANKS … for those who knew the touch of Jesus’ healing love – presumably because in the Gospel accounts it was their stories which brought the news of his healing power into our lives, but the hymn doesn’t actually explain, and I wondered if the last verse – which says that his healing power lives on in our willing care – was a bit sub-Christian? Somehow the miraculous aspect of the healing power of Jesus is skated over in favour of our doing what we can in the natural realm. Maybe I’m wrong?
MAKER OF ALL … . Elizabeth Cosnett was (if I recall correctly) a professor of English at Liverpool University, and an attender of Hymn Society conferences. I found this hymn worthy but dull: it addresses God in three persons in the first three verses (but doesn’t call Jesus by his name but rather by the title “Son of Mary”). As Stephen says the punch-line and summary is in the last verses: give them grace to keep their vow. It is very specifically a wedding hymn, and I gave it a miss for Morning Prayer.
I hadn’t previously come across a convincing tune to the meter 8.6.8.6.8.8, and I still haven’t.
HOLY HOLY HOLY LORD … . (HC Sanctus & Benedictus) A local church near here uses the song “Holy holy holy is the Lord, holy is the Lord God almighty” at this point in the Eucharistic Prayer, so I suppose I am familiar with the idea of a hymn with this purpose – but the two verses highlight the way that Benedictus is much briefer than Sanctus and needs padding out. I suppose if one lived in a country familiar with this American folk tune “Land of Rest”, then the hymn would work well.
But I hadn’t come across the tune before, and was amazed that despite it being harmonised in three ways (on HymnQuest, in Hymns and Psalms, and in this book,) none of the arrangers had realized that line 3 starts with a tonic chord as the melody line’s note is essentially an accented passing note! So, yet another tune I had to rewrite!
Welcome home after your holiday, Stephen, and I look forward to the return of one hymn per blog!