Music post: the Episcopal hymnal
May. 12th, 2006 10:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
resonantI was putting up chestnuts from the Episcopal hymnal for ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
skuf, so the rest of y'all might as well share them.
I always say that at Vatican II, the Catholic Church put all its good music out in a garage sale and the Episcopalians came around and bought it at bargain prices. Of course these hymns aren't exclusive to the Episcopal hymnal, but there's a certain style that I associate with it, a certain broad, formal, stately exultation.
I wish I had "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," which is one of my favorites and also interesting for being set to the tune we associate with "Deutschland Uber Alles."
The God of Abraham Praise by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, from Sing Lustily and With Good Courage. I love this CD, though the songs aren't performed in traditional four-part-with-organ style. (Also, the hymns I'm familiar with have had some adaptations made to the lyrics over the years -- to use gender-neutral langauge to refer to God, for instance, and to remove suggestions that Only We And People Like Us are going to heaven -- and it's sometimes strange to hear the original lyrics!)
O Worship the King by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, from Sing Lustily and With Good Courage. This is one of those songs of praise that gets into nature imagery and becomes pleasantly pagan -- His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.
All Glory, Laud, and Honor by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from Hymns Of Faith. I don't actually like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir all that much -- big wall of choral sound -- but it's hard to find choral performances of hymns. This is a Palm Sunday hymn, so even more than usual with the pageantry.
Saint Patrick's Breastplate by the Revels, from Sing We Now Of Christmas. It's not a Christmas song, though. It was sung at exorcisms, once. I like the hymnal version better -- it begins, I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the three in one and one in three, and it breaks in the middle for prayer set to a little Celtic dance tune: Christ be with me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all who love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. It's a huge, long, thundering hymn, and we only used to sing it on special occasions.
Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones by the Trinity College Choir, from A Vaughan Williams Hymnal. A great broad hymn of praise, with verses calling upon all of nature to praise God. If you ever get the chance to hear the long version, there's even a verse calling upon "our sister, death," to praise God. Thou leadest home the child of God, for Christ our Lord thy way hath trod, Alleluia. The words are attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness by the Trinity College Choir, from A Vaughan Williams Hymnal. I'm not sure, but I think I remember this one being sung at Easter.
Sleepers, Wake! by the Robert Shaw Chorale, from Songs of Faith and Inspiration. Of course it wasn't sung like this in my church growing up -- but we did sing a simplified four-part version from the hymnal, and it makes the hair stand up on the back of my arms. We had a slightly different translation in those days, too: Wake, awake! for night is flying, the watchman on the height is crying, awake, Jerusalem, arise!
All in one 30MB zip file.
skuf, so the rest of y'all might as well share them. I always say that at Vatican II, the Catholic Church put all its good music out in a garage sale and the Episcopalians came around and bought it at bargain prices. Of course these hymns aren't exclusive to the Episcopal hymnal, but there's a certain style that I associate with it, a certain broad, formal, stately exultation.
I wish I had "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," which is one of my favorites and also interesting for being set to the tune we associate with "Deutschland Uber Alles."
The God of Abraham Praise by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, from Sing Lustily and With Good Courage. I love this CD, though the songs aren't performed in traditional four-part-with-organ style. (Also, the hymns I'm familiar with have had some adaptations made to the lyrics over the years -- to use gender-neutral langauge to refer to God, for instance, and to remove suggestions that Only We And People Like Us are going to heaven -- and it's sometimes strange to hear the original lyrics!)
O Worship the King by Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band, from Sing Lustily and With Good Courage. This is one of those songs of praise that gets into nature imagery and becomes pleasantly pagan -- His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form, and dark is his path on the wings of the storm.
All Glory, Laud, and Honor by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir from Hymns Of Faith. I don't actually like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir all that much -- big wall of choral sound -- but it's hard to find choral performances of hymns. This is a Palm Sunday hymn, so even more than usual with the pageantry.
Saint Patrick's Breastplate by the Revels, from Sing We Now Of Christmas. It's not a Christmas song, though. It was sung at exorcisms, once. I like the hymnal version better -- it begins, I bind unto myself today the strong name of the Trinity, by invocation of the same, the three in one and one in three, and it breaks in the middle for prayer set to a little Celtic dance tune: Christ be with me, Christ above me, Christ in quiet, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all who love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger. It's a huge, long, thundering hymn, and we only used to sing it on special occasions.
Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones by the Trinity College Choir, from A Vaughan Williams Hymnal. A great broad hymn of praise, with verses calling upon all of nature to praise God. If you ever get the chance to hear the long version, there's even a verse calling upon "our sister, death," to praise God. Thou leadest home the child of God, for Christ our Lord thy way hath trod, Alleluia. The words are attributed to St. Francis of Assisi.
Deck Thyself, My Soul, With Gladness by the Trinity College Choir, from A Vaughan Williams Hymnal. I'm not sure, but I think I remember this one being sung at Easter.
Sleepers, Wake! by the Robert Shaw Chorale, from Songs of Faith and Inspiration. Of course it wasn't sung like this in my church growing up -- but we did sing a simplified four-part version from the hymnal, and it makes the hair stand up on the back of my arms. We had a slightly different translation in those days, too: Wake, awake! for night is flying, the watchman on the height is crying, awake, Jerusalem, arise!
All in one 30MB zip file.
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(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:14 pm (UTC)*shivers up and down spine*
The Episcopal/Anglican church does have this wonderful kind of cult of music. After 6 years as a choister and three as a head chorister, I feel like I'm sort of a life-long member of a very specific sect--a subsection of the church for people who relate most strongly to its music.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:15 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:09 am (UTC)Anyway, the wonderful thing about having three choirs is that whichever one is up there in the choir loft, the members of the other two are scattered about the congregation, and odds are there's one sitting behind you.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:36 pm (UTC)I like "Onward Christian Soldiers", but the theology is pretty shaky and I think it's not in the hymnal any more.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:40 pm (UTC)My mother reports that they sang "Lift High the Cross" at her church recently (The love of Christ proclaim, till all the world adore his sacred name, and she said to her friend, "Why do we have to sing this?" and her friend replied, "So we don't have to sing 'Onward, Christian Soldiers.' "
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 05:41 pm (UTC)Apparently "Once to every man and nation" is gone for good -- the message that if you screw up one time, that's it isn't exactly compatible with Christianity.
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:11 am (UTC)The Presbyterians have the same melody with different words, but I can't remember which words.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:55 pm (UTC)THANK YOU for posting this! The first time I heard Germany's national song was very weird as I immediately recognized it - as a song from my church. You've just confirmed I wasn't crazy for thinking this. Of course, I couldn't remember the name of the song at the time so couldn't explain to anyone why I kept thinking this.
Also, I plan to download this zip tonight when I get home as I love old church music too. Thanks!
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:12 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 03:57 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 04:00 pm (UTC)He remembers the Beatles' "Come Together" being sung as a communion hymn!
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 04:03 pm (UTC)Yes. The more modern music (often with guitar) is done at my parish for the Sat. evening mass, which often attracts a younger crowd.
The 10:30 Sunday Mass, where I sing, has the full panopoly of classic Catholic religious music. We did Allegri's Miserere Mei for Ash Wednesday, and Lotti's Crucifixus</i) which I could email you, if you wanted) for Good Friday. Lots of Mozart, and the hymns that are in English are usually 19th or early 20th century.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 04:05 pm (UTC)We do lots of Mozart and other Baroque liturgical music, and the English-language hymns tend to be 19th or early 20th century. It's helped me to improve a lot, as a sight reader.
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:15 am (UTC)I'm no longer in choir -- the rehearsals conflicted with one of the kidlet's activities -- but every time we did something like that, the next piece would always be "River in Judea" or something similarly bluesy-gospely; to me it felt like I was paying for the pleasure of singing Mozart. Gospel isn't bad -- I'd way rather have gospel than contemp Christian -- but it needs big voices, which we did not have, so it always sounded kind of pathetic and weedy.
Saint Patrick's Breastplate
Date: 5/12/06 04:16 pm (UTC)With ...... at this fateful hour
I place all Heaven with its power
And the sun with its brightness
And the snow with its whiteness
And the fire with all the strength it hath
And the lightning with its rapid wrath
And the winds with their swiftness along their path
And the sea with its deepness
And the rocks with their steepness
And the earth with its starkness
All these things I place
By God's almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 04:33 pm (UTC)Okay, this is a fascinating comment, and really shows to me the core of Episcopalianism, when taken in conjunction with reactions I've seen to the "new" hymnal. Namely, we're a strong, strange mixture of cradle Episcopalians, former Catholics, and former Baptist/fundamentalist/non-denominational types. Because the reaction I get from a number of people I know is that when the redid the hymnal, they got rid of most of the "real" hymns, ie the ones that are more traditional in Baptist terms, and the versions of the music that are more traditional, keeping the ones that are considered more "formal [and] stately".
I think that overall, we have a lot of gorgeous stuff, and that sometimes my own ambitious choir director and organist, in their desire to expose us to as much of the hymnal as possible, show me that a few of the songs in the book are just unsingable. *G*
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:18 am (UTC)And, yes, there's nothing worse than a congregation gamely sight-reading its way through a big complicated unfamiliar hymn.
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 04:36 am (UTC)Yes. Yes, it does -- maybe even more if you're a second soprano with a narrow range. *g* I love singing harmony, but I often find myself jumping up and down octaves.
I'm a cradle Episcopalian, and I graduated high school the year before the current Hymnal came out, I think -- I was at least old enough to remember that we used to have some of the more familiar versions of some of the Christmas carols, and now we only have what may be older, but less familiar versions to sing. Away in a Manger, I *think*, is one of them. And other more Methodistish hymns like "The Old Rugged Cross," which I think someone else mentioned.
Some of those unsingable hymns sound positively atonal and syncopated -- v. v. modern.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 04:46 pm (UTC)Goodness, haven't been to church in a while, mayhaps I should go.
(no subject)
Date: 5/26/06 05:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 04:52 pm (UTC)I think that's the version I know from choir? And the version you uploaded - I've heard the "background music" before, but never connected it to the hymn I know. Weird!
Hahahaha, I know that one from Mr. Bean - am so uncultured in some respects, *gg*!
It's all beautiful - thanks so much for uploading :o) !
(no subject)
Date: 5/26/06 05:22 pm (UTC)I've heard the "background music" before, but never connected it to the hymn I know.
That happened to me with "Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring." There's this moment of "Whoa, same song!"
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 05:00 pm (UTC)I was in an Anglican choir for the past two and a bit years, despite being a pagan, before I got fed up and quit.
The verses are always entertaining, though sometimes disturbing, and the tunes are almost always wonderful.
Members of the congregation would keep coming up after the service to make their complaints about the organ and choir, such as "It's too loud!" or "You shouldn't take that hymn so fast. It's meant to be a Welsh funeral hymn!" (The hymn in question was not.)
(no subject)
Date: 5/26/06 05:23 pm (UTC)However, in my opinion the organ is always too loud with relation to the choir. Though I suppose if you wanted to listen to the organ and didn't want all that pesky singing to interfere ...
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 05:33 pm (UTC)*pipes up shyly* Ahem, I'm trying not to play the 'ugly German' here but that kinda hits a sore spot.
'Deutschland über Alles' is the part of the Deutschlandlied that is being left out since WW II. 'Cause, you know, 'Germany over everything' is just really damn stupid.
Perhaps you can think about 'Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit' - 'Unity and Justice and Freedom'. *bg*
Okay, I'm sorry, I just wanted to clearify. I'd hate to think people are still thinking we're singing about how much more important than anything else our country is.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 06:09 pm (UTC)Of course, if you wanted national songs to be all about what fills people with the most passion, they'd mostly be about food, I think. And maybe, you know, mountains and stuff.
(no subject)
Date: 5/12/06 09:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/13/06 12:54 am (UTC)(from a lapsed church choir member)
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/13/06 03:52 am (UTC)Cradle Anglican here and I think I've sung all of these......
I miss "Onward Christian Soldiers", the last time I heard it was for my dad's funeral - his favorite hymn and appropriate for a veteran.
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:25 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/13/06 04:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:25 am (UTC)Oh, lord help us all.
(no subject)
Date: 5/13/06 06:02 am (UTC)As to Glorious Things, both it and the German anthem come from a Haydn string quartet and originated without connection to one another. Just for information's sake. ♥
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:27 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 05:36 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/14/06 02:58 pm (UTC)And as for the Papist garage sale, too true, too true.
(no subject)
Date: 5/17/06 02:29 am (UTC)[giggling madly]
I think that trend is slowly reversing, and our parish is much more likely to perform Palestrina than Marty Haugen, but we are the exception, I believe.
The spouse and I always say we're neo-proto-traditionalists. We want gay marriages, but we want them performed in Latin.
Offtop
Date: 5/15/06 01:32 pm (UTC)I`m so sorry to distube you, but your positive or negative answer needs.
The letter of May. 15th, 2006 (resonant8@att.net) :
"Dear Resonant!
Once i ran across some reviews of your "Transfigurations" and the illustrations in "The theban band" ( www.squidge.org/%7Epraxisters/ ) and I was burning to find this fic. Resently I`ve read it. I think this story was and is one of the cult things of the HP fandom and unfortunatly "Transfigurations" is almost unknown in russian readers except those who have read it in original version. Therefore i ask your permission to translate and publish it on Fanrus website ( www.fanrus.ru ). I promise to do my best as for keping to the style and the spirit of the text. I`ll state everywhere that you`re the author of the fic and i`m just a translator. All additional information (like your e-mail oe website) can be published, if you wish.
I hope for the positive reply very much.
Julia Dorozhko ( Bee4)"
Thanks:)
Offtop (adidtion)
Date: 5/15/06 01:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/18/06 02:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 5/26/06 05:24 pm (UTC)