Category: Hymns

This whole online church presence thing is constantly evolving. One of the things that only now is finally falling into place is when to post some hymns for folks to sing at home. I’d done some before, but it was early in the pandemic and I recorded them more to have something to do at 3 a.m. when I couldn’t sleep because of worry. Now, however, it seems that what I did then is what to do now: have a hymn or two mid-week as sort of a mid-week touching base.

So, this is the first hymn posted purposely mid-week for you to enjoy and sing along to if you wish. NCH stands for New Century Hymnal. If you don’t happen to have one, often you can find the words at hymnary.org, perhaps under a slightly different title. You can also look there for all the hymn texts that fit that hymn tune. The hymn tune name for this hymn is PLEADING SAVIOR (melody from The Christian Lyre, 1831).

1831 definitely qualifies this tune as “old timey!” Even though I’m a conservatory trained composer/organist and a retired music professor, my roots are in deep, deep Southern Illinois…Snuffy Smith country, down where Illinois meets Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri. In fact, if you’re up on Lookout Mountain, you can see all four states.

My father was a Methodist minister and I was pressed into playing for Wednesday night prayer meeting and Sunday night services. Those must have been very patient parishioners because I was doing this long before I really was able to do it proficiently. But…before long I was good enough to do the big camp meeting at summer church camps under the giant circus tent. I learned how to jerk all the right emotions for altar calls and whoop’em up happy-dance hymns.

I guess I’ve never lost the fondness for those kind of hymns even though I adore a good Bach chorale. This hymn is definitely old-timey. Just play the video below and sing along…

This is an absolutely gorgeous hymn. One of those things one wishes one could have written oneself. It’s beautiful. If you congregation doesn’t know it, badger your music director and pastor to program it. It deserves to become a classic. I’ve presented it here, exactly as written, with just the sounds of a string orchestra. It speaks for itself. It’s the third in a series of hymns presented as part of our Pentecost celebration.

The hymn tune name is SHELDONIAN, by Cyril V. Taylor, and the words and music are with Hope Publishing Company. It’s #266 in the New Century Hymnal. You can read about it at https://hymnary.org/text/filled_with_the_spirits_power_with_one.

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QUICK LINKS TO OUR RECENT POSTS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS:
Online Devotionals: https://lakewooducc.org/category/online-devotional/
Sermon Texts: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/sermon-texts/
Posts containing music: https://lakewooducc.org/category/posts/music/
For all links, please note “Older Posts” button near bottom of page.
For a free streaming of just the music go to https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood

This is the second in a series of Pentecost hymn-tune posts. In the New Century Hymnal, it’s #265. The hymn tune is BOUNDLESS MERCY from the Union Harmony, 1837. The harmonization is by Hilton Rufty (1934), but the flute obbligato in the 2nd verse is mine. Copyright restrictions don’t permit a text to sing from, but if you have a NCH there’s a four-bar organ intro; then, start singing with the flute entrance. The author of the text is John A. Dalles.

You’re probably heard of the Southern Harmony, source of many famous hymns tunes such as Amazing Grace. The Union Harmony is equally interesting.

A reminder that all the music I’ve put together for Lakewood UCC since we began the covid-19 lockdown is available as a free streaming playlist at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood.
 

This coming Sunday is Pentecost, a major church feast day. In its honor, I’m going to post a couple hymns prior to Sunday and a couple the days after. The first is this one, Hail, O Festival Day. You are definitely welcome to sing along. The intro is organ only; start singing when the brass come in.

The respresentative text may be found at https://hymnary.org/text/lo_the_fair_beauty_of_earth_englishhymna (or in the New Century Hymnal #262). Notice that a couple of the verses are for Ascension, a couple for Easter, and the rest–the ones you should sing–for Pentecost.

The author is Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (https://hymnary.org/person/Fortunatus_VHC). I’ve always like my own name, all three of ’em, but Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus is definitely a name to envy!

So, here’s the first of some Pentecost hymns. You’ll be able to find it, and all the other music I’ve posted for Lakewood UCC since beginning the covid-19 lockdown at https://soundcloud.com/hilton-kean-jones/sets/music-at-lakewood.

When we were much, much, much younger my sister and I would slap-dash our way through the 4-hands transcriptions of Beethoven’s symphonies, collapsing in giggles whenever one or the other of us would beat the other to the end of a movement!

So, out of that memory springs the approach for this final Earth Day hymn-a-day marathon: Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee. #4 in the New Century Hymnal. Here’s a representative text: https://hymnary.org/text/joyful_joyful_we_adore_thee.

But — back to the symphonies, 4-hands — before the hymn itself, there’s two fragments from the final movement of Beethoven’s 9th symphony from which this famous hymn is drawn: first, the little Turkish march theme in which you can hear the famous hymn melody lurking but not entirely exposed, then the main theme as it first appears with the melody in augmentation in the upper voices with a rumbling stream of eighth notes in the lower voices. Both those fragments are from a 4-hands edition of the 9th symphony, with me playing both parts since Lucy, my sister, is in Hawaii and I’m in Florida.

After those two fragments, then comes the hymn as we know it but with me improvising a 4-hands version as if Lucy and I were doing it. “4-hands” means literally, four hands, or two people with two hands each, playing on the same piano. The literature for piano, 4-hands is very, very extensive and is considered much more important that literature for 2 pianos! It’s a medium I love. It’s VERY social and a lot of fun. I often require composition students to write in it when learning to write for orchestra because it teaches them to not mask the counterpoint of the different voices.

The picture above is Lucy and I playing some 4-hands music at Lakewood UCC way back in 2013.