The hymns from
Sing Praise for the last week or so have taken the serious themes of repentance
and commitment. A more joyful note now
follows with today’s song, a Taizé chant, “In the Lord I’ll be ever
thankful”. I have known the chorus or ‘ostinato’ part of this song for many
years (it was written in 1998) but the words to the ‘verses’ (or rather the soloist’s
or cantor’s acclamations) are new to me.
John, who has been playing these songs online as part of morning prayer,
thinks they may be offered as examples of the sort of words that could be extemporised
to suit the theme or mood of a particular act of worship, since they don’t fit easily
to the metre of the chant that the congregation or choir sings at the same
time. It’s not possible for a single
person to sing both at once, but John has recorded both parts here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6EqDdGrw0w
The cantor
acclaims her or his reasons for trusting God: “You are my salvation”, “The Lord
is my rock and fortress”, “The Lord God is worthy of praise”, “You have done
wondrous things”. These are in one sense
quite vague, though all are Biblical. It
is up to each worshipper to know make these personal in their heart – how has
God saved me? How has he protected me? What has he done in my
life to make him worthy of my praise? What wondrous things has he
done?
Singing the praise
of God can actually be hard work, to get beyond repeating the words on the page
or screen and really meaning them.
Another reason, perhaps, for thinking that these are merely suggestions and
the cantor could actually be intended to make them personal to themselves or
their congregation. For example, “I
praise you Lord, for you saved me from depression. I will be thankful always for the dream that
gave me new hope”. Or corporately “God has brought us new members, let us
praise him. For our sisters and brothers
in Christ let us give thanks”. The skill
is in fitting these words around the ostinato, and again the various lines of
music in the book just give an idea of what is possible, but it requires a gifted
singer to do justice to this cantor role.