Category Archives: Music

Music

Sunday Singing: Angel Band

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I don’t know how many congregations sing this gospel song by Connecticut Methodist Jefferson Hascall, but Hymnary.org claims it has been published in 183 hymnals since 1860. This tune is not the original, but the meter of the lyric is so common, you could sing it any number of ways. William Batchelder Bradbury gave us the current tune, entitled, “The Land of Beulah,” published in 1862.

1 My latest sun is sinking fast,
my race is nearly run;
my strongest trials now are past,
my triumph is begun.

Refrain:
O come, angel band,
come and around me stand;
O bear me away on your snowy wings
to my immortal home.
O bear me away on your snowy wings
to my immortal home.

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Blogs, Socials, Music, Non-fiction

A Tall Anniversary, Beautiful Things, and Conversations

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Thursday was the anniversary of the completion of Paris’s iconic ironwork project, The Eiffel Tower, named for the owner of the company that proposed and assembled it by March 31, 1889. They were aiming to have it up for the 1889 World’s Fair to be part of the centennial gala of the French Revolution. Philadelphia held a similar one in 1876.

The architect proposed using large stone monumental pedestals at the base and glass halls on every level of the tower. It’s final, simplified design was constructed in 18,000 parts in Eiffel’s factory about three miles away. The measured every piece carefully and mathematically configured the lattice work to minimize wind resistance. Two and half million rivets hold together the 1083-foot tower. 

Viewing the construction for a few weeks before completion, journalist Emile Goudeau wrote, “One could have taken them for blacksmiths contentedly beating out a rhythm on an anvil in some village forge, except that these smiths were not striking up and down vertically, but horizontally, and as with each blow came a shower of sparks, these black figures, appearing larger than life against the background of the open sky, looked as if they were reaping lightning bolts in the clouds.”

More on the 1889 World’s Fair from Marc Maison.

Beauty: Where would we be without beauty? It enlivens the heart; we value it, even if the beautiful thing isn’t useful–putting aside the inherent beauty of some useful, well-designed things.

Symphony: Robert Reilly says, “There is a steadiness in Haydn’s music, a sense of normalcy. At the same time, it is filled with wonder at what is—at its goodness.” Haydn was told his sacred compositions were too cheerful; he replied that his heart leaped for joy at the thought of God. As an example, here’s a performance by the Chiara String Quartet of Haydn’s “Seven Last Words of Christ.”

Sounds: Cambridge’s word blog is talking about rustling and howling type words.

Isaac Adams: “The race conversation often feels like talking to each other at the Tower of Babel. We may be trying to build together, but we’re frustrated and speaking past one another.” Adams’s book, Talking About Race, intends to inspire healthy conversations on this subject and bring us together.

Gene Veith: The popular Lutheran blogger is moving to a subscription model at $5/month.

Photo by Karina lago on Unsplash

Music, Uncategorized

Sunday Singing: For All the Saints Who from Their Labor Rest

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Here’s a hymn I hope all of us know well. “For All the Saints Who from Their Labors Rest” was written by the “poor man’s bishop” William W. How (1823-1897) to an original tune composed by the great Ralph Vaughan Williams.

1 For all the saints who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

2 Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou, in the darkness dread, their one true light.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

3 Oh, may thy soldiers, faithful, true, and bold
fight as the saints who nobly fought of old
and win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia! Alleluia!

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Music

Sunday Singing: “Be Thou My Vision”

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“Be Thou My Vision” performed by Celtic Worship

This may be my favorite hymn for as long as I can remember. The original Irish words are attributed to the monk Dallan Forgaill in the poem, “Rop tú mo Baile.” They have been used in Christian services in Ireland for several hundred years. The folk tune, “Slane,” may go back to the 4th century. Both the words and tune are said to have been inspired by St. Patrick’s protest of King Logaire of Tara’s order forbidding any fires until after he lit the sacred fire of the spring equinox. Patrick ignited a fire for Easter on Slane Hill as a way of saying Christ is the king of heaven and earth.

I appreciate the group Celtic Worship for including the oft-skipped third verse in this hymn.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power

Music, Religion

‘Blott en Dag’

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Another busy day. I have much translating to do. This situation would be more pleasant if it was all  paying work, but I found out yesterday I’d fallen behind in my volunteer stuff. The volunteer stuff pays better, of course, but I’ll have to wait till I get to Heaven to collect.

Beautiful day today. Temperature in the 50s. It was a genuine pleasure to be outside, the short time I spent there. That hasn’t been true for some time.

I continue listening to Norwegian radio, both secular and sacred. Today one of the hymns I listened to was one that’s very popular among my tribe, though it comes originally from the hated Swedes. “Blott En Dag” means, essentially, “one day at a time.” Above, a young Sissel does it on Norwegian TV. The standard English translation is called “Day by Day” (not to be confused with the ditty from “Godspell”). Its first verse goes:

Day by day, and with each passing moment, 
Strength I find to meet my trials here. 
Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment, 
I’ve no cause for worry or for fear. 
He whose heart is kind beyond all measure 
Gives unto each day what He deems best. 
Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure, 
Mingling toil with peace and rest.

You can read the rest here, along with a short bio of the lyricist, Carolina Sandell, a really excellent Swedish hymn writer.

That mention can suffice to make this my obligatory Women’s History Month post, now I think of it. Don’t say I never threw a bone to the feminists.

Maybe that wasn’t the best way to put it…

Music

Sunday Singing: Ukrainian Alleluia

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“Ukrainian Alleluia” by Craig Courtney, performed by the Wellington College Chorale

Composer Craig Courtney wrote this piece in 2007 as a testimony to the enduring faith of Ukrainian Christians and our eternal hope.

3Once more they cried out,

“Hallelujah!
The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.”

4 And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who was seated on the throne, saying, “Amen. Hallelujah!” 5 And from the throne came a voice saying,

“Praise our God,
    all you his servants,
you who fear him,
    small and great.”

6 Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,

“Hallelujah!
For the Lord our God
    the Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and exult
    and give him the glory,
for the marriage of the Lamb has come,
    and his Bride has made herself ready;
8 it was granted her to clothe herself
    with fine linen, bright and pure”—

for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.
(Rev 19:3-8 ESV)

Music, Uncategorized

‘Ormen Lange’

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And the translation work keeps coming in. If I were tired of it, I would not tell you. Because I have an international trip this summer to support. Plus inflation to cover. Also, it’s nice to be needed, when you’re me.

It’s cold, cold, and I have to go somewhere tonight. But tomorrow’s supposed to be warmer, and Sunday warmer still. Maybe this will be the turning point – just as Daylight Savings Time falls, clattering like a muffler off an old car. Maybe spring is coming. Or milder weather, with some consistency, at least.

The song above is an old Faeroese ring dance song, translated into Norwegian. I heard it first from a Norwegian folk group, but their version doesn’t seem to be on YouTube. However, this one isn’t bad, and they illustrated it with footage swiped from the 1958 film, “The Vikings,” starring Kirk Douglas. For its time, that movie made commendable gestures in the direction of trying to be kind of authentic. In some ways. Sort of.

It’s still better than the History Channel series, now metastasized to Netflix, they tell me.

The song is about King Olaf Trygvesson (whom you may remember from The Year of the Warrior), and how he built and launched his great ship, Ormen Lange (the Long Serpent). The chorus goes:

The dance is loud in the hall, when we dance in the ring! 
Gladly ride the men of Norway to the Thing of Hildar (a kenning for battle).

The full text is here.

Music

Sunday Singing: ‘The Sorrowful Mother,’ a Hymn for Lent

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Here’s a 13th century hymn from well outside my church circles. It’s a traditional Catholic and Orthodox hymn for Lent, which began last Wednesday. I believe it’s attributed to the Franciscan Jacopone da Todi, which he wrote in Latin. The performance above is in Ukrainian with English and Ukrainian subtitles.

Music

‘Molde Canticle’

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The amazing number above was included on the album Sissel put out around the time of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Norway, where she sang the Olympic Hymn. This was a cassette album, and Molde Canticle was included as an “extra.” When I bought the album in CD form later on, it didn’t include this one. And I missed it a lot. But here it is. The composer is the Norwegian musician Jan Garbarek.

In some alternate universe, I would like to have The Year of the Warrior made into a major motion picture. And in the scene where Erling first meets King Olaf Trygvesson, in frost-covered ships on the sea, I’d like this to be the background music.

Music, Religion

‘Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us’

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I’m in the mood for ‘Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us’ tonight. I used to sing this song with my old musical group. We generally didn’t do it in performances, just for our own pleasure, because it works really well in four parts. This rendition is quite nice. It comes from the choir of Weimar University, of which I know nothing.

It’s assumed the hymn was written by Dorothy A. Thrupp. It was published with her tune in 1840 in London.. Historians assume she wrote the words too, but she took no credit. The tune we use was written by William Bradbury.

I needed this hymn tonight, for reasons I won’t go into. Mostly just the mood I’m in.