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Mar. 3rd, 2008 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaThe music committee at church has asked people to write short essays about their favorite hymn. I don't know yet if I want to write up something formal to send in (you know, in my copious free time), but ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
telerib wrote up something about the trials of adjusting to the Unitarian-Universalist hymnal, and it got me thinking.
When I first became a UU, I was highly disappointed in the hymnal. It seemed to me that it could be roughly broken down into three parts: (a) old Protestant hymns with the words changed, (b) "modern" music with intervals and rhythms that are difficult for a congregation of untrained singers to manage, and (c) cheesy, trite songs that made me roll my eyes. (Our ministers are unfortunately fond of several songs in the third category.) The problems were exacerbated by the fact that our congregation is lousy at singing. Except for a few favorites, people pretty much look down at the hymnal and mumble. And the organist/music director doesn't seem to have much of a gift for accompanying congegational singing. (I never realized how good my childhood church's organist was at supporting lousy singers so they could belt out hymns confidently, until I encountered an organist who wasn't.)
Over time, the UU hymnal has sort of crept up on me and made its home in my heart. There are still a number of hymns that make me roll my eyes (fortunately, we've been singing them less often in recent years), and others that even I, with years of experience with choral singing and sight-reading, find difficult to sing. But now when I think of hymns that I might call "favorite," most of them are not from the Pilgrim Hymnal of my youth - they're from the UU hymnal.
I like the rampant idealism and the lilting melody of hymns like "We'll Build a Land," with its chorus of:
Come, build a land where sisters and brothers
Annointed by God, may then create peace
Where justice shall roll down like waters
And peace like an ever-flowing stream.
I like the poetry (and the sly religious commentary) of "The Peace Not Past Our Understanding":
Not scholar's calm, nor gift of church or state
Or everlasting date of death's release
But careless noon, the houses lighted late
Harvest and holiday, the people's peace.
I especially like many of the spirituals, like "There is More Love Somewhere" (link is to a YouTube video) and "Now Let Us Sing:"
(Now let us sing) Sing to the power of the faith within
(Now let us sing) Sing to the power of the faith within
Lift up your voice (Lift up your voice!)
Be not afraid (Be not afraid!)
Sing to the power of the faith within.
I like "This Is My Song," "Earth Was Given as a Garden," "We Would Be One," "Hail the Glorious Golden City," "Lift Every Voice and Sing," "For the Earth Forever Turning," the UU rewordings of "For All the Saints" and "Once to Every Soul and Nation"... but my favorite has to be hymn #108, "My Life Flows on in Endless Song."
My life flows on in endless song
Above earth's lamentation
I hear the real, though far-off sound
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its sweet note ringing
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?
What though the tempest round me roars
I know the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storms can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
While love prevails on heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
If you're a folk music fan, you probably know this one as "How Can I Keep from Singing?" It's an old Quaker hymn that comes out of the abolitionist tradition and underwent a popularity revival during the Civil Rights struggle. The UUs have weakened the fire of the third verse, which is supposed to start "When tyrants tremble, sick with fear, to hear their death knells ringing..." but they've kept enough of the original ("To prison cell and dungeon vile/our thoughts to them are winging;/when friends by shame are undefiled,/how can I keep from singing?") to let you know that they're talking about serious suffering.
I love the gutsy refusal of this hymn to give in to hopelessness. It makes me think of people gritting their teeth, holding their heads up, and setting out with fierce determination to begin one more time with love. It's not a song that denies the awfulness and suffering in the world - but it reaches through those things to grab onto a thread of love, or life, or God, and uses that to withstand whatever comes.
It's a song that inspires me to courage.
I've most often heard it sung in a meditative, serene manner, and it's very pretty sung that way. But I much prefer Eva Cassidy's gospel-inspired version, which comes off as much more... joyously defiant. You can especially hear the exclamation points and the implied "damn it!" in the second repetition of the the second verse: "No storm! Can! Shake! My! In! Most! Calm!" ...You kind of want to see a storm try, because Eva would kick its ass.
I've been playing this song a lot, during and after my miscarriage. When everything in me is whimpering "My God, how could I possibly sing?" it's good to have something to put steel in my back. It's an act of faith to reach out and grab on to that thread of the endless song. However faint it is, it's still playing. And I still have the strength to sing it.
telerib wrote up something about the trials of adjusting to the Unitarian-Universalist hymnal, and it got me thinking. When I first became a UU, I was highly disappointed in the hymnal. It seemed to me that it could be roughly broken down into three parts: (a) old Protestant hymns with the words changed, (b) "modern" music with intervals and rhythms that are difficult for a congregation of untrained singers to manage, and (c) cheesy, trite songs that made me roll my eyes. (Our ministers are unfortunately fond of several songs in the third category.) The problems were exacerbated by the fact that our congregation is lousy at singing. Except for a few favorites, people pretty much look down at the hymnal and mumble. And the organist/music director doesn't seem to have much of a gift for accompanying congegational singing. (I never realized how good my childhood church's organist was at supporting lousy singers so they could belt out hymns confidently, until I encountered an organist who wasn't.)
Over time, the UU hymnal has sort of crept up on me and made its home in my heart. There are still a number of hymns that make me roll my eyes (fortunately, we've been singing them less often in recent years), and others that even I, with years of experience with choral singing and sight-reading, find difficult to sing. But now when I think of hymns that I might call "favorite," most of them are not from the Pilgrim Hymnal of my youth - they're from the UU hymnal.
I like the rampant idealism and the lilting melody of hymns like "We'll Build a Land," with its chorus of:
Come, build a land where sisters and brothers
Annointed by God, may then create peace
Where justice shall roll down like waters
And peace like an ever-flowing stream.
I like the poetry (and the sly religious commentary) of "The Peace Not Past Our Understanding":
Not scholar's calm, nor gift of church or state
Or everlasting date of death's release
But careless noon, the houses lighted late
Harvest and holiday, the people's peace.
I especially like many of the spirituals, like "There is More Love Somewhere" (link is to a YouTube video) and "Now Let Us Sing:"
(Now let us sing) Sing to the power of the faith within
(Now let us sing) Sing to the power of the faith within
Lift up your voice (Lift up your voice!)
Be not afraid (Be not afraid!)
Sing to the power of the faith within.
I like "This Is My Song," "Earth Was Given as a Garden," "We Would Be One," "Hail the Glorious Golden City," "Lift Every Voice and Sing," "For the Earth Forever Turning," the UU rewordings of "For All the Saints" and "Once to Every Soul and Nation"... but my favorite has to be hymn #108, "My Life Flows on in Endless Song."
My life flows on in endless song
Above earth's lamentation
I hear the real, though far-off sound
That hails a new creation
Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its sweet note ringing
It sounds an echo in my soul
How can I keep from singing?
What though the tempest round me roars
I know the truth, it liveth
What though the darkness round me close
Songs in the night it giveth
No storms can shake my inmost calm
While to that rock I'm clinging
While love prevails on heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?
If you're a folk music fan, you probably know this one as "How Can I Keep from Singing?" It's an old Quaker hymn that comes out of the abolitionist tradition and underwent a popularity revival during the Civil Rights struggle. The UUs have weakened the fire of the third verse, which is supposed to start "When tyrants tremble, sick with fear, to hear their death knells ringing..." but they've kept enough of the original ("To prison cell and dungeon vile/our thoughts to them are winging;/when friends by shame are undefiled,/how can I keep from singing?") to let you know that they're talking about serious suffering.
I love the gutsy refusal of this hymn to give in to hopelessness. It makes me think of people gritting their teeth, holding their heads up, and setting out with fierce determination to begin one more time with love. It's not a song that denies the awfulness and suffering in the world - but it reaches through those things to grab onto a thread of love, or life, or God, and uses that to withstand whatever comes.
It's a song that inspires me to courage.
I've most often heard it sung in a meditative, serene manner, and it's very pretty sung that way. But I much prefer Eva Cassidy's gospel-inspired version, which comes off as much more... joyously defiant. You can especially hear the exclamation points and the implied "damn it!" in the second repetition of the the second verse: "No storm! Can! Shake! My! In! Most! Calm!" ...You kind of want to see a storm try, because Eva would kick its ass.
I've been playing this song a lot, during and after my miscarriage. When everything in me is whimpering "My God, how could I possibly sing?" it's good to have something to put steel in my back. It's an act of faith to reach out and grab on to that thread of the endless song. However faint it is, it's still playing. And I still have the strength to sing it.
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Date: 2008-03-03 04:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 04:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 06:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 06:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 06:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-03 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-03-04 03:02 am (UTC)(Walker has several recordings on that page, including this MP3 (http://gwynethwalker.com/mp3/howsatb.mp3) (4.6 Mb) of a combined orchestra and chorale performance. Definitely worth a listen, if your bandwidth permits.)
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Date: 2008-03-06 10:05 pm (UTC)http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B01E5DF1739F93BA15756C0A963948260&sec=health&spon=&pagewanted=2