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Music

Sunday Singing: My Soul’s Been Anchored

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“My Soul’s Been Anchored,” performed by Moses Hogan Chorale & Singers during the Moses Hogan Reunion Concert, 2013

This folk song is rare among hymnals, and the arrangement above comes from Moses Hogan (1957-2003). Not something we would sing together as a congregation, but we could sing along with the choir and have it stick in our ears for the week.

Refrain:
In the Lord, in the Lord,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord;
In the Lord, in the Lord’
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord.

1 Before I’d stay in hell one day,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord;
I’d sing and pray myself away,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. [Refrain]

2 I’m born of God, I know I am,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord,
I’m purchased by the dying Lamb,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. [Refrain]

3 Going to shout and pray and never stop,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord;
Until I reach the mountain top,
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord, O Lord!
My soul’s been anchored in the Lord. [Refrain]

Music

Sunday Singing: With Grateful Heart My Thanks I Bring

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“With Grateful Heart My Thanks I Bring” piano accompaniment by Andrew Remillard

This adaptation of Psalm 138 appears to have been written for a Presbyterian Psalter published in 1912. The tune is one of the two most commonly used for this hymn. Entitled “St. Petersburg,” it was written by influential Ukrainian composer Dimitri Stepanovitch Bortniansky (1751-1825).

1 With grateful heart my thanks I bring,
before the great thy praise I sing:
I worship in thy holy place
and praise thee for thy truth and grace;
for truth and grace together shine
in thy most holy word divine.

2 I cried to thee and thou didst save,
thy word of grace new courage gave;
the kings of earth shall thank thee, Lord,
for they have heard thy wondrous word;
yea, they shall come with songs of praise,
for great and glorious are thy ways.

3 O Lord, enthroned in glory bright,
thou reignest in the heav’nly height;
the proud in vain thy favor seek,
but thou hast mercy for the meek;
through trouble though my pathway be,
thou wilt revive and strengthen me.

4 Thou wilt stretch forth thy mighty arm
to save me when my foes alarm;
the work thou hast for me begun
shall by thy grace be fully done;
Forever mercy dwells with thee;
O Lord, my Maker, think on me.

Music

Sunday Singing: Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds

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“Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds” performed by Messiah’s Congregation of Maine Choir

“Let Children Hear the Mighty Deeds” was written by the great Isaac Watts, D.D. (1674-1748). The original 1917 title was “Providence of God Recorded; or, Pious Education and Instruction of Children.” It draws from the first part of Psalm 78, which says,

“We will not hide them from their children,
    but tell to the coming generation
the glorious deeds of the Lord, and his might,
    and the wonders which he has wrought.” (v.4 RSV)

The tune is one of twelve common hymn tunes published in a 1615 Scottish psalter, rearranged to be more upbeat by Theodore Ferris.

1 Let children hear the mighty deeds
which God performed of old,
which in our younger years we saw
and which our fathers told.
He bids us make his glories known,
the works of pow’r and grace,
that we convey his wonders down
through ev’ry rising race.

2 Our lips shall tell them to our sons,
and they again to theirs,
and generations yet unborn
must teach them to their heirs.
Thus shall they learn, in God alone
their hope securely stands,
that they may ne’er forget his works,
but practice his commands.

Music

Sunday Singing: Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart

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“Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” performed by the Tapestry Chamber Singers of Ft. Loudon, Penn.

“Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart” is a moving prayer that I hope hasn’t been completely forgotten by today’s church members. It was written by Catholic minister George Croly (1780-1860) of Dublin, Ireland.

This recording skips the fourth verse given here, which is the most challenging verse of the five. It asks the Lord for the grace to put ourselves aside and trust Him even though he doesn’t respond as we want Him to.

1 Spirit of God, descend upon my heart;
Wean it from earth, through all its pulses move;
Stoop to my weakness, mighty as thou art,
and make me love thee as I ought to love.

2 I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies,
no sudden rending of the veil of clay,
no angel visitant, no op’ning skies;
but take the dimness of my soul away.

3 Hast thou not bid us love thee, God and King?
All, all thine own, soul, heart, and strength and mind.
I see the cross– there teach my heart to cling:
O let me seek thee, and O let me find.

4 Teach me to feel that thou art always nigh;
Teach me the struggles of the soul to bear,
to check the rising doubt, the rebel sigh;
teach me the patience of unanswered prayer.

5 Teach me to love thee as thine angels love,
one holy passion filling all my frame:
the baptism of the heav’n-descended dove,
my heart an altar, and thy love the flame.

Blogs, Socials, Fiction, Music, Reading

Ranking Dostoevsky’s Works and Life as the Ice Grows Thinner

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Amazon’s Middle Earth series, The Rings of Power, will begin September 1 and run into October. I don’t know much about it, but I hope to enjoy it if we still have a Prime membership (which seems to come and go regularly of late).

Because of the series, I intend to read The Silmarillion soon. I know I read about half of it before, but I don’t remember where I stopped. One of the chapters, perhaps thirteen, dragged on about geography about as warmly as a fifth-grade social studies text. I aim to push past those parts and enjoy the stories beyond them.

I don’t know if I will attempt to blog about the series if I’m able to watch it near the release days. I probably wouldn’t have enough thoughts to share.

Crime or Punishment? A Dostoevsky enthusiast categorizes all of the famous author’s novels and novellas into must-reads, read-afters, and only for other enthusiasts.

Notes from Underground, Poor Folk, and The Brothers Karamazov are among the must-reads. The Double and The Gambler are on the list for reading after the must-reads. Uncle’s Dream and The Permanent Husband are only for the most dedicated readers.

“I won’t be exaggerating,” she says, “when I say [The Brothers Karamazov] brought me back from abyss. It might not work the same way [for you as] it did for me, but there is an obvious need for more people to read and understand the beautiful intricacies of life and its fallacies, to love life in its entirety.”

Oh, gentlemen, do you know, perhaps I consider myself an intelligent man, only because all my life I have been able neither to begin nor to finish anything. Granted I am a babbler, a harmless vexatious babbler, like all of us. But what is to be done if the direct and sole vocation of every intelligent man is babble, that is, the intentional pouring of water through a sieve?

“Notes from Underground,” Fyodor Dostoevsky

On Death: R.L. Stevenson wrote, “[A]fter a certain distance, every step we take in life we find the ice growing thinner below our feet, and all around us and behind us we see our contemporaries going through.”

Social Media: “How teens use social media often drives how everyone uses social media.” YouTube is the most-used social media platform and the second most-used search engine.

Online Fiction: “China is producing and consuming the largest amount of web fiction in the world, with an estimated 20 million full-time, part-time, and dabbling writers. The grind is hard, and the conditions can be exploitative, but those who do it are on the vanguard of a reading revolution.” (via Literary Saloon)

For Love of a Hero: Mo Ghille Mear (My Gallant Hero), performed by The Choral Scholars of University College, Dublin.

Photo: March Mobil Gas, Mount Clemens, Michigan. 1986. John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.

Music

There’ll never be another Judith Durham…

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There’s much talk today of the death of Olivia Newton-John, the famous Australian singer. And that’s appropriate. She was a great talent (not to mention a heartthrob for my generation).

But I just learned of the death, last Friday, of another great Australian singer. Judith Durham of the Seekers succumbed to a long-standing lung condition. She was 79.

According to what I’ve read, Miss Durham was a Christian who hesitated at first to go into secular music because she was committed to Gospel.

The Seekers’ music was unique. I hope it lasts forever, because it sure means a lot to this old man.

Rest in peace.

Music

Sunday Singing: ‘He Leadeth Me’

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‘He Leadeth Me’ preformed by the Norton Hall Band of Southern Seminary

Today’s hymn, “He Leadeth Me,” is by Baptist Minister Joseph H. Gilmore (1834-1918) of Rochester, New York, who was also on the faculty of the University of Rochester to teach English. The tune was arranged by William B. Bradbury (1816-1868) of York, Maine, after seeing the hymn text in a publication. He was a born musician and inspired the regular study of music in New York City public schools.

1 He leadeth me: O blessed thought!
O words with heavenly comfort fraught!
Whate’er I do, where’er I be,
still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me.

Refrain:
He leadeth me, he leadeth me;
by his own hand he leadeth me:
his faithful follower I would be,
for by his hand he leadeth me.

2 Sometimes mid scenes of deepest gloom,
sometimes where Eden’s flowers bloom,
by waters calm, o’er troubled sea,
still ’tis God’s hand that leadeth me. Refrain

3 Lord, I would clasp thy hand in mine,
nor ever murmur nor repine;
content, whatever lot I see,
since ’tis my God that leadeth me. Refrain

4 And when my task on earth is done,
when, by thy grace, the victory’s won,
e’en death’s cold wave I will not flee,
since God through Jordan leadeth me. Refrain

Music

Sunday Singing: ‘Holy Spirit Faithful Guide’

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‘Holy Spirit Faithful Guide’ performed by Fountainview Academy

Today’s hymn, “Holy Spirit Faithful Guide,” was written and arranged by Marcus Morris Wells of Cooperstown, NY (1815-1895). He was a farmer and said he was working in the cornfield on Saturday afternoon when the concept for this hymn came to him. He worked it out the next day and sent it to the editor of the New York Musical Pioneer, who published in the November 1858 issue.

1 Holy Spirit, faithful Guide,
Ever near the Christian’s side;
Gently lead us by the hand,
Pilgrims in a desert land;
Weary souls fore’er rejoice,
While they hear that sweetest voice
Whisp’ring softly, “Wand’rer, come!
Follow Me, I’ll guide thee home.”

2 Ever present, truest Friend,
Ever near Thine aid to lend,
Leave us not to doubt and fear,
Groping on in darkness drear;
When the storms are raging sore,
Hearts grow faint, and hopes give o’er.
Whisp’ring softly, “Wand’rer, come!
Follow Me, I’ll guide thee home.”

3 When our days of toil shall cease,
Waiting still for sweet release,
Nothing left but heav’n and prayer,
Wond’ring if our names were there;
Wading deep the dismal flood,
Pleading naught but Jesus’ blood,
Whisp’ring softly, “Wand’rer, come!
Follow Me, I’ll guide thee home.”

Music

Sunday Singing: The King of Love My Shepherd Is

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“The King of Love My Shepherd Is” performed by the choir of St. Francis de Sales Church in Ajax, Ontario, Canada

This is another of my favorite hymns. This adaptation of Psalm 23 is by Englishman H. W. Baker, Vicar of Monkland, Herefordshire (1821-1877). He reportedly recited this hymn’s third verse as his dying words. The beautiful tune is naturally traditional Irish, labeled “St. Columbia” in the books.

1 The King of love my shepherd is,
whose goodness faileth never.
I nothing lack if I am his,
and he is mine forever.

2 Where streams of living water flow,
my ransomed soul he leadeth;
and where the verdant pastures grow,
with food celestial feedeth.

3 Perverse and foolish, oft I strayed,
but yet in love he sought me;
and on his shoulder gently laid,
and home, rejoicing, brought me.

4 In death’s dark vale I fear no ill,
with thee, dear Lord, beside me;
thy rod and staff my comfort still,
thy cross before to guide me.

5 Thou spreadst a table in my sight;
thy unction grace bestoweth;
and oh, what transport of delight
from thy pure chalice floweth!

6 And so through all the length of days,
thy goodness faileth never;
Good Shepherd, may I sing thy praise
within thy house forever.

Blogs, Socials, Music, Poetry, Reading, Religion

Give Duke Ellington His Due and a Good Reason to Read Poetry

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The great American composer Duke Ellington would have been the first African-American composer to win a Pultizer Prize for Music back in 1965 had the award board agreed with its own jury. This week, scholar Ted Gioia has been raising awareness of this oversight in judgement and support for pressing the Pulitzer Prize board to reverse this decision.

He describes the decision in his post, “Let’s Give Duke the Pulitzer Prize He Was Denied in 1965.”

That missing award from 1965 has long been a source of disappointment and frustration to jazz fans, and a genuine disgrace in the history of the Pulitzer. The jury that judged the entrants that year decided to do something different—they recommended giving the honor to Duke Ellington for the “vitality and originality of his total productivity” over the course of more than forty years.

This was an unusual move in many ways. First, the Pulitzer usually honors a single work, much like the Oscar for Best Picture or other prizes of this sort. In this instance, the jury recommended that Ellington get the honor for his entire career. But even more significant, it would be the first time a jazz musician or an African American received this prestigious award.

But it never happened.

The Pulitzer Board refused to accept the decision of the jury, and decided it would be better to give out no award, rather than honor Duke Ellington. Two members of the three-person judging panel, Winthrop Sargeant and Robert Eyer, resigned in the aftermath.

If I have my facts right, the only African American with a Pulitzer before 1965 would have been poet Gwendolyn Brooks in 1950.

Reading Classics: Two books argue for reading Socrates and other classics and for “literature [as] a proven path to character formation.”

Resist or Compromise? “In 1981 I was sitting on a washing machine in Willow Grove, Pa., reading a Bible, when an elderly man approached and struck up a conversation. We spent the whole washing and drying cycle on chairs outside the laundromat, him telling me in detail of the persecution of Christians under the Japanese occupation of Korea (1910-1945) and of his imprisonment along with others who refused to bow to the Shinto shrine.”

Prufrock: Micah Mattix’s arts & literature roundup is now on Substack. He explains the reason here.

Poetry: Reading “rhythmic poetry” can help you handle stress, according to some biofeedback responses. Surely hymns would fit this pattern too. (via Miller’s Book Review)

Poetry: Irish poet Eamon Grennan says in a recent interview, “Of course, at the bottom of all is your engagement with the language itself. Loving that, loving and being able to admire how words make sense, how they fit into rhythms that give them a different kind of heft: the potential music of language, I suppose, needs to be part of your breathing.”

This kind of thinking gives him lines like this:
“Moonwhite the garden lightens
And the moon, a pealed clove of garlic, pales.”

Aliens in UFOs: Ron Capshaw says Jordan Peele’s “NOPE” captures the horror and wonder of an old-school UFO movie but doesn’t quite payoff in the end because we’ve seen many aliens who want to kill us over the years.

Photo: Cream Castle sign in Sikeston, Missouri, 1979. John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive (1972-2008), Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.