Music post: the Episcopal hymnal

[resonant]

I was putting up chestnuts from the Episcopal hymnal for 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.

Comments

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

It's a big favorite of mine, too.