Author: Hilton Kean Jones

We’ve been doing in-person services for several Sundays following CDC guidelines. Among those restrictions, we don’t sing hymns or have choral music because those are such high risk behaviors during the pandemic. I did an instrumental version of a hymn this past Sunday and I noticed there was a soft, eerie, ghostly echo of the melody. The congregation with every so quietly, subvocally, humming the tune. Hopefully, that’s not a risky behavior, or at least it’s an acceptable risk behavior. It does give the people a chance to express themselves. I hope it’s safe. It was certainly touching.

Now that the primary musical vehicle for my work at Lakewood is no longer online, I”m trying to tidy up a list of everything I’ve posted online during the pandemic. I plan to repeat some of my own favorites, maybe one a week. Here’s one I really like a lot!

Easter Sunday was the first Sunday I returned to playing services in-person. It had been more than a year. The Easter videos for last year were among the very first in our effort to continue to provide spiritual community only via the internet. I’ve learned a lot during this year, especially about making videos, but also about music itself. At 76 you wouldn’t think I’d still be learning about music, but I am, mainly about how much better the music gets the simpler you make things!

This past Sunday was my third week of playing an in-person service. During these past two weeks, I’ve taken a “vacation” from making videos, except for an Earth Day compilation that will post this coming Thursday, Earth Day.

So, I’m resuming making a couple mid-week videos today with this beautiful tune from The Southern Harmony, and Musical Companion: Charlestown.

When I do these, I take the melodies directly from the Southern Harmony itself, deleting any of the harmony and counterpoint of the original, keeping only the melody. If it’s also published in various hymnals, I completely ignore those settings, so I’m interacting only with the original tune, devoid of even its own original harmony.

I didn’t know this tune, but I discovered and making the video, it does appear in some hymnals. I’m glad. It’s a beautiful melody.

If you’ve ever spent time in the desert, you’ll know that despite the thorns there are times–especially in the moonlight when you stand there alone, very still, listening–the dew sparkles and glistens and there’s a refreshing, peaceful, soul warming breeze.

The title of the tune, Pisgah,” from the tune from Southern Harmony, derives from the Hebrew word for summit and was the biblical mountain from which Moses first saw the promised land. It’s also the name for a mountain in North Carolina! For the complete story of how this part of American came to have a name from the ancient book of Deuteronomy see https://www.pisgahinn.com/history-of-pisgah-inn/.