Sunday, August 29, 2010

Just to clarify...

Last night I realized that the phrase "dumbing down" did not sound very nice and that I needed to clarify myself a little. I'm not sure how widely used this term is or how it is usually used. Please forgive me if I offended you, my reader. What I meant by it was that unintentionally we could end up singing music that is so simple that our goal of excellence in worship would be left unchallenged. That is not to say that we shouldn't sing any and all pieces to the best of our ability.

The only comparison I can think of is this: Babies, after a few months, learn to digest mother's milk or formula much more easily than they digested it in the beginning. There is less spitting up, maybe less burping, etc. and they are ready for other food as well. At some point, that other food becomes necessary and vital to their growth.

So it should be with our spiritual expressions of praise. We will grow in our faith and our praise should expand with us! I hope this has made things clearer - and not muddier.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Dumbing Down?

I was trying to find the top of my piano yesterday! This means picking up the books that are on it, wondering (or remembering) why they were put there in the first place, and deciding if they still need to be out. I began thumbing through an old camp songbook and came across a piece with a melody that, while somewhat predictable in nature, took a few turns in unexpected directions. In spite of my last 'rant' on the topic, this time my thoughts took a different twist. By not giving a congregation the opportunity to learn and sing such a hymn, am I/are we dumbing down? That is to say, are we setting the bar too low in congregational singing?

Monday, August 23, 2010

Calm Repose

I was looking in this old hymnal the other day for an alternate tune I remembered singing with the words Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah. I found that tune, and then got 'lost' for awhile, thumbing through the book and looking at other hymns. Some I remembered and haven't sung for years, and others I don't think I'd even heard before such as this one:

O for a heart of calm repose
Amid the world's loud roar,
A life that like a river flows
Along a peaceful shore!

Come, Holy Spirit! still my heart
With gentleness divine;
Indwelling peace Thou canst impart;
O make that blessing mine!

Come, Holy Spirit! breathe that peace,
That vict'ry make me win;
Then shall my soul her conflict cease,
And find a heav'n within.

The author is anonymous; the tune (no name given) is by Henry W. Greatorex. No other information was published in this hymnal.

In spite of the outdated language, the words are meaningful even today. In fact, maybe they are even more necessary today as the roar of the world seems very loud at times!

I could leave my post there, but there is another dilemma I wish had an answer to. Who on earth put this tune with these words? In the first line there are 2 huge jumps in the melody - one 6th and one 7th. It doesn't strike me as being 'calm repose' to have a melody like that. I know, some of this comes down to the fact that 80 years ago two things were quite different.
1. The general population sang more than they do now.
2. More of the general population attended church than they do now.
I have no stats to back up my statements but I don't think I'm too far off the mark. Maybe congregations would not have found that melody as difficult to sing then as I think congregations today would. Maybe it's not such a bad marriage between words and tune. Maybe there's something else symbolic in the tune that I am not seeing. For sure I know there will always be more to learn about hymns.

Monday, August 16, 2010

O land of rest...

Yesterday I enjoyed worshiping without playing - in other words - I had a vacation Sunday. I have next week off as well and plan to visit another congregation to see how they worship. A week ago (August 8th) I played Joseph Martin's arrangement of Land of Rest for the prelude. This was done with a little humour, pointing to my vacation time with the words:

O land of rest, for thee I sigh! When will the moment come...?

In reality, the words are not talking about vacation at all, but rather about the Christian's responsibility to keep on the heavenly road until we are called home to our reward.

I'm not sure that the words I recall are actually the ones that belong with Martin's arrangement. The tune names are similar but not identical. Martin indicates that the traditional American melody may have come from the UK originally but is known to have been widely used in Appalachia. That tune is called LAND OF REST. He also says that the words commonly used are from the 16th century.

The tune I'm more familiar with is O LAND OF REST and was written by William Miller in the 1800's. The verses have a refrain which are in keeping with the idea of continuing to work for the Kingdom:

We'll work 'til Jesus comes,
We'll work 'til Jesus comes,
We'll work 'til Jesus comes,
And we'll be gathered home.

Words by Elizabeth Mills

Unfortunately, neither of these tunes is in the Cyber Hymnal.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Summer Camp and Rain





As happens nearly every year, I seem to get lost in memories of summer camp. For 3 or 4 years as a teenager I spent about three weeks in July at what was then called Clarksburg Camp (Church of the Nazarene) within walking distance of Georgian Bay. I helped in the dining hall - we called it waitressing - but what it really meant was setting tables, filling salt shakers etc. and washing dishes. It meant early mornings after late nights around a campfire, and it produced lasting friendships and opportunities for spiritual growth.

There is so much music associated with those weeks that I could probably write several entries. The bunch of us girls washing dishes and cleaning up the dining hall would often sing to pass the time and some songs I recall are: Amen (the spiritual), a version of Psalm 100 put to music by a local musician, and He's got the whole world in His hands.

Then there were the traveling song evangelists that came to provide music for the services. I remember many of them, but one that holds a special place in my heart is Canadian Deverne Mullen. He created some of his own arrangements for the camp choir to sing and he always encouraged the teens to join. The tabernacle (meeting place) had a tin roof and you can imagine the deafening sound when it rained! We've had a couple really torrential downpours in the last week or so, and it made me think of Deverne singing "My, Didn't it Rain!" He always had this piece at the ready in case of a storm at camp.