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.
4 comments:
May God give you genuine rest and renewal on these vacation Sundays, AuntE. And may that rest and renewal inspire and encourage you as you persevere in honoring Him through your music.
Thank you Dorothy. I usually am ready to jump in again by the end of August!
Happy vacation!
Check out O land of rest by title at the CyberHymnal rather than by tune; the Wm Miller tune is there that includes your chorus.
The sixteenth century text for the other LAND OF REST mentioned is probably Jerusalem, my happy home but I think that that text was not paired with LAND OF REST until the 20th century. Annabel Morris Buchanan, who published that with her arrangements of several folk melodies in 1938, said that she recalled it being sung to the text you mention, but probably minus the refrain, which goes with the William Miller tune.
Buchanan's arrangement, used in many modern hymnals with various texts, is still under copyright, but I'm sure I've seen the tune in older, public domain hymnals with a different harmonization, and I've been looking around (not hard enough, obviously) to rediscover it.
Still looking around to answer the Guide me, O thou great Whatever question at CWS.
Thank you, CWS. Yes, looking up "O land of rest" by title did the trick. Strange though, because supposedly that is also the tune name and looking it up that way the other day didn't get me anywhere.
The tune with refrain (O land of rest) was used in the Mennonite Piano Concerto by Victor Davies which I believe was written in the late 1970's or very early 1980's. In that work, it is given a bright, quick tempo as if to say, "We must work quickly as our Lord may return at any time!"
See your blog for the answer to "Guide me,..."
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