Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is another harvest themed one, “For the fruits of all creation” by Fred Pratt Green. It’s another one I have known for many years, and the original words, I’m sure were “For the fruits of his creation”. The change is presumably to avoid gendered pronouns for God, always a debatable point since doing so detracts from the idea that God is a personality and not a mere force.
The thanks we give, then, are firstly for the fruit of the earth itself, and for the human labour involved at all stages of food production (for without farmers and factory workers we would mostly be starving). In the second verse the emphasis shifts from food to “the help we give our neighbour”, with ‘neighbour’ being defined in a global sense. In caring and sharing with our global neighbours, “God’s will is done”. Most churches have for many years now celebrated harvest by asking for gifts of food or money for the relief of poverty at a local or international level, with the idea that all God’s blessings are intended to be shared and not used selfishly.
The third verse asks us to thank God for a wider range of blessings: the “harvests of the Spirit” (presumably what is usually called the “fruits of the Spirit”), the “good we all inherit” (not sure what that means!), and for the wonders of the world, for truth and the love of God himself.
John played this to the tune that I think is called ‘ar hyd y nos’, but I do like the one set here in the book by Francis Jackson, best known as the long-time organist of York Minster.
I think this is a very well-constructed hymn by Fred Pratt-Green, moving as it does from thanksgiving for all God’s gifts to us at harvest-time in creation, to our responsibility and fulfilment of his plans by sharing what we have (in line with the Collect for Harvest Thanksgiving), and on to the spiritual implication (that God will also freely give us of his Spirit when we ask). It’s a pleasure to sing it.
About the tune: it seems that the hymn was actually written to the set tune EAST ACKLAM. hymnary.org says about the tune: “Jackson originally wrote the tune as a setting for Reginald Heber’s (PHH 249) ‘God that madest earth and heaven,’ which was usually sung to the popular Welsh tune AR HYD YNOS. Now matched to Pratt Green’s text in several modern hymnals, EAST ACKLAM was first published in the British supplement Hymns and Songs (1969). The tune has several striking features: the hammer-blow chords at the end of lines 1, 2, and 4; the melodic sequences; and the stunning melodic rise to the climax in lines [3, I guess] and 4. Although good choirs may enjoy the challenge of the harmony, the tune is best sung in unison by congregations. Use solid accompaniment and observe a ritardando, at the very end of stanza 3.”
I think what this means is that Francis Jackson’s tune failed to find the traction he hoped for with Heber’s text, because congregations couldn’t sing it easily enough! This verdict I agree with: if you try singing it unaccompanied, you will almost inevitably have a feeling of “have I returned to the right key?” when you get to the final four notes, because the modulations (“melodic sequences”) take you through a circuit of keys rather than out and back in a linear journey. So Fred Pratt-Green wrote his hymn for Jackson’s tune. But the simple truth is that the Welsh tune is much easier, and that’s why I sung it for this hymn. Jackson’s tune is a tune for choirs, not for congregations.
Actually, I would also like to take issue with Jackson over several of the notes in the harmonies of the tune: I feel he could have strengthened it in some places.
Having said all that, I asked the St Luke’s Eccleshill choir for their opinion this week, and they felt that maybe they could have a go at EAST ACKLAM for Harvest Thanksgiving (in a month’s time), so maybe we will fulfil Stephen’s desire for the set tune during the year.
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And about the words: yes, a quick look at Mission Praise shows the words originally started “For the fruits of HIS creation … for HIS gifts to every nation …”, and these two personal pronouns have been removed simply because they are masculine. A while ago I was quizzed on my reactions to what Rachel Treweek, bishop of Gloucester, had said about preferring not to use pronouns of God lest they ascribe gender to God, and that she prefers to say neither “he” nor “she”, but “God” (in the Observer). And I can see the point but disagree with it – I think it is more important to say that God is personal than to avoid using a pronoun, and the trouble with her policy is that one eventually ends up referring to God in impersonal terms. In the present case, putting “all creation” instead of “his creation” means one doesn’t say that God is the creator!