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Eccles: New hymns?

Rufus T FireflyRufus T Firefly Shipmate
edited January 7 in Limbo
I'm always interested to discover new hymns. Widening the repertoire of the church is a healthy thing, in my experience. With that in mind, perhaps we could share the new (to us, anyway) hymns that we have come across.

(Two important bits of explanation:
a) By "hymn" I mean any hymn, song or chant appropriate to use in corporate worship.
b) I do not want to encourage breaking copyright laws. So by all means suggest a title and author and perhaps some small description of the hymn. But please do NOT quote words if they are in copyright.)


I want to start with two hymns that I have found over the past year.

"Where the road runs out" is by Colin Gibson, from New Zealand. Actually I found out that it was written in 1976, but I heard it for the first time 12 months ago. It has been described as a hymn which "blends biblical with New Zealand land and seascape images" and it includes the very striking phrase "be the dolphin Christ", which really appealed to me. I have only heard it sung to the tune of Kingsfold ("I heard the voice of Jesus say") but I believe other tunes are available.

"Table of the World" is by Tony Alonso and is sung to the tune of Nettleton ("Come, thou font of every blessing"). It's a great hymn to send people out, with the theme of going from the table of Jesus to the table of the world.

I like both of these hymns very much - especially "where the road runs out".

I look forward to hearing what new hymns other people have found.
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Comments

  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    Anything by Shirely Erena Murray.
    Like Colin Gibson she is also from Aotearoa-New Zealand - there must be something in the water there
  • What is a new hymn? In many places it can be something in the books they've had for decades but just never sung.

    I aim to use as many in our books (NEH plus the supplement) as possible, and we also have words and/or tunes from elsewhere as required - so (for purely musical reasons) we use a lot of Welsh tunes.

    Things we don't sing unless requested for a wedding or funeral are: anything by Mr Ke****ck, anything from Hil****g, anything that sounds like bad 1960/70s cocktail lounge music.

    The big thing I've found is that when you introduce new stuff it can be enormously helpful to either have a "singing Sunday" where the sermon morphs into a learning new music session, or to have an open "singing Saturday" a couple of times a year. We used that last approach when introducing new congregational settings of the ordinary and it worked very well.
  • I have only heard it sung to the tune of Kingsfold ("I heard the voice of Jesus say") but I believe other tunes are available.
    You may well think so , but I couldn't possibly comment... :wink:
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    I think Timothy Dudley Smith’s hymns are always worth a look. Holy child, how still you lie or A purple robe, for example.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    I've never encountered Where the road runs out before now. Is it restricted to New Zealand? But checking it on the web, how does it fit to Kingsfold? Kingsfold is in Double Common Metre, (8 6 8 6 8 6 8 6), eight line ballad metre, which makes it usefully interchangeable with a lot of other tunes and words. The words I found for Where the road runs out are not in that metre. The first verse is 10 9 8 7 and the chorus 7 6 7 6. The other verses don't confirm to the same pattern.
  • I like See What a Morning of Stuart Townsend's oeuvre - it's an Easter hymn.
  • angloidangloid Shipmate
    BroJames wrote: »
    I think Timothy Dudley Smith’s hymns are always worth a look. Holy child, how still you lie or A purple robe, for example.

    Except for 'Lord for the years' 'Spirits oppressed by pleasure...' What's that about? Not to mention line 4 of verse 2: who can sing that with a straight face?
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    Lord of the word, receive Your people's praise.
    ?
  • AlbertusAlbertus Shipmate
    angloid wrote: »
    BroJames wrote: »
    I think Timothy Dudley Smith’s hymns are always worth a look. Holy child, how still you lie or A purple robe, for example.

    Except for 'Lord for the years' 'Spirits oppressed by pleasure...' What's that about? Not to mention line 4 of verse 2: who can sing that with a straight face?

    Do you not think that pleasure and wealth can be oppressive to the spirit, then? That seems to me to be a perfectly orthodox Christian statement about the dangers of shallow earthly distractions.
  • angloidangloid Shipmate
    Albertus wrote: »
    angloid wrote: »
    BroJames wrote: »
    I think Timothy Dudley Smith’s hymns are always worth a look. Holy child, how still you lie or A purple robe, for example.

    Except for 'Lord for the years' 'Spirits oppressed by pleasure...' What's that about? Not to mention line 4 of verse 2: who can sing that with a straight face?

    Do you not think that pleasure and wealth can be oppressive to the spirit, then? That seems to me to be a perfectly orthodox Christian statement about the dangers of shallow earthly distractions.

    Oh I understand the theology. Just the way it is expressed comes across as gloomy puritanism. There is no compensating hint of joy in the rest of the hymn. It's all compounded by the plodding dirgey tune it is usually sung to.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    The tune needn’t be played in a dreary, dirgey fashion. It’s OK if played at a decent tempo and with decent registration. (Mind you, there are some who could make ‘Lord if the dance’ dreary.)
  • AlbertusAlbertus Shipmate
    Agreed. There are some hymns I just physically (literally) can't sing because I find them so plodding that I just give up the will to keep on (anything by Fred Kaan, some by e.g. James Quinn), but Dudley-Smith's have never been among them.
  • I like John Bell's rendering of John 1: Before the world began, though I have to confess to not using his tune but setting it to BETHANY, more commonly used for Nearer my God to thee. A lot of Bell's hymns are good, even if some are a little overly "worthy".

    For I heard the voice of Jesus say I grew up using Kingsfold but O Rowan Tree is the usual tune here.
  • Pine MartenPine Marten Shipmate Posts: 42
    I like See What a Morning of Stuart Townsend's oeuvre - it's an Easter hymn.

    Our small singing group are singing this on Easter day, and we are also doing a couple of Taize chants on Good Friday :)
  • If you are serious in your research of new hymns, then the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland is a good resource. There are links to many good articles by clicking the website links; also if you like what you see, and want to take the study further, you can become a member and get access to much additional material.
  • I like See What a Morning of Stuart Townsend's oeuvre - it's an Easter hymn.

    Our small singing group are singing this on Easter day, and we are also doing a couple of Taize chants on Good Friday :)
    I'm intending to choose it, too

  • For I heard the voice of Jesus say I grew up using Kingsfold but O Rowan Tree is the usual tune here.
    What about Vox Dilecti?

  • For I heard the voice of Jesus say I grew up using Kingsfold but O Rowan Tree is the usual tune here.
    What about Vox Dilecti?

    Never heard it before.
  • MudfrogMudfrog Shipmate
    This is a good one.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKd8jez22CE

    It's being used in our ecumenical Good Friday open air witness.
  • Mudfrog wrote: »
    This is a good one.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKd8jez22CE

    It's being used in our ecumenical Good Friday open air witness.

    But it's not a hymn - by which I mean it is not a congregational song. It is a devotional song (whose merits or otherwise we may discuss) intended to be sung by a professional quality singer.

    (And if you want my personal opinion, it's a maudlin dirge, but I accept that others may see things differently)
  • One that I have loved for some time is Sing of the Lord's Goodness

    But you have to have musicians who get the jazz theme and especially Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". If you try and play it "straight" it's awful. But with the right musicians, it's a blast.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    Mudfrog wrote: »
    This is a good one.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKd8jez22CE

    It's being used in our ecumenical Good Friday open air witness.


    But it's not a hymn - by which I mean it is not a congregational song. It is a devotional song (whose merits or otherwise we may discuss) intended to be sung by a professional quality singer. ...
    I don't entirely agree with you. In the recording, Kristyn Getty is singing it that way, but she is a solo singer. But it's made available to the world as a hymn to be sung by congregations and where Mudfrog lives, it's going to be used that way. Therefore it is a hymn.

    If you were to say there are some songs which work better as solos, or sung by groups and don't work well as hymns, then I would agree with you. There are a lot that applies to. I'm not sure that applies to this one as I've never personally sung it congregationally. So I can't say whether it works or not. But if people are trying to sing them congregationally, it makes them poor hymns, rather than not-hymns-at-all.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    But it's not a hymn - by which I mean it is not a congregational song. It is a devotional song (whose merits or otherwise we may discuss) intended to be sung by a professional quality singer. [/i]
    Not necessarily: here it is sung congregationally: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij8rU2G_aSc (sorry to be "trading" Youtube clips!)

    Crossed with post above.

  • One that I have loved for some time is Sing of the Lord's Goodness

    But you have to have musicians who get the jazz theme and especially Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". If you try and play it "straight" it's awful. But with the right musicians, it's a blast.

    Couldn't agree more! Definitely not one for traditional organists to try!
  • I've sung The Power of the Cross as a congregational hymn - as in this version. Stuart Townsend tends to pitch his hymns within a comfortable singing range.

    @Rufus T Firefly I've also sung Sing of the Lord's Goodness, used to be a regular when the music group were playing instead of an organ.
  • MudfrogMudfrog Shipmate
    Mudfrog wrote: »
    This is a good one.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKd8jez22CE

    It's being used in our ecumenical Good Friday open air witness.

    But it's not a hymn - by which I mean it is not a congregational song. It is a devotional song (whose merits or otherwise we may discuss) intended to be sung by a professional quality singer.

    (And if you want my personal opinion, it's a maudlin dirge, but I accept that others may see things differently)

    I beg to differ. The woman sings it in a soloist's style but the song is also published in 4 part harmony for a choir to sing. The only reason I posted her version was because I couldn't find a congregational version on youtube.
  • Mr SmiffMr Smiff Shipmate
    For I heard the voice of Jesus say I grew up using Kingsfold but O Rowan Tree is the usual tune here.
    What about Vox Dilecti?

    Beautiful tune - the only time I've actually broken down and cried while singing a hymn was when we sang that hymn to that tune (I was sat on the front row and was desperatly hoping the minister didn't notice I was crying in case he wanted to, y'know, pray for me or something :worried: )
  • One that I have loved for some time is Sing of the Lord's Goodness

    But you have to have musicians who get the jazz theme and especially Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". If you try and play it "straight" it's awful. But with the right musicians, it's a blast.

    Couldn't agree more! Definitely not one for traditional organists to try!

    How very dare you! Just because some of us are "traditional organists" doesn't mean we have no capacity to do jazz - if you're looking for a fine example, go no further than Dudley Moore.
  • Mudfrog wrote: »
    This is a good one.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKd8jez22CE

    It's being used in our ecumenical Good Friday open air witness.

    But it's not a hymn - by which I mean it is not a congregational song.
    Isn’t it the content rather than whether it’s a congregational song that makes it a hymn in the strict sense? A hymn, in the strict sense, is a song of praise or prayer about, and often addressed to, God. The Exultet is a classic example of a hymn typically sung by one person. Likewise, the Gloria in Excelsis is a hymn, regardless of whether it is sung by the congregation, a choir or a cantor.

  • One that I have loved for some time is Sing of the Lord's Goodness

    But you have to have musicians who get the jazz theme and especially Dave Brubeck's "Take Five". If you try and play it "straight" it's awful. But with the right musicians, it's a blast.

    Couldn't agree more! Definitely not one for traditional organists to try!

    How very dare you! Just because some of us are "traditional organists" doesn't mean we have no capacity to do jazz - if you're looking for a fine example, go no further than Dudley Moore.

    Retreats, suitably abashed - but you know what I mean!
  • Gramps49Gramps49 Shipmate
    edited March 2018
    Three of the more contemporary writers of congregational hymns my fellowship uses are David Haas, Marty Haugan, and Susan Briel. GIA Publications promotes their work.

    https://www.giamusic.com/store/sacred-music/
  • Also from the same publisher, though a Lutheran, Herman Stuempfle - we had one of his yesterday in fact.
  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    Galilit wrote: »
    Anything by Shirely Erena Murray.
    Like Colin Gibson she is also from Aotearoa-New Zealand - there must be something in the water there

    Well sort of. Gibson and Murray have had such a stamp on Aotearoa/New Zealand hymnody for so long that many of the newer/younger hymn writers don't get a look in. Maybe Gillard's "Servant Song", though the Archbishop of York once famously grumbled about whether it was a hymn at all, and a NZ newspaper attributed it to Shirley Murray anyway.

    At any rate there are other A/NZ hymn-writers, like Mark Wilson and Ian Render ... it would be nice if they got a glimpse into the kiwi hymnodic gerontocracy occasionally.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus


    So much more inspiring than anything I'm likely to hear at our parish church this Easter. At least I'll have this playlist to console myself. I usually sit with Faure's Requiem playing at home through Good Friday.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    I hesitate to stick my head above this particular parapet, but does NZ hymnody really segué into A/NZ hymn-writers. Whether you like it or not, if your say 'current Australian hymnody' to anyone from elsewhere, they will immediately think of Hillsong.
  • MaryLouise wrote: »


    So much more inspiring than anything I'm likely to hear at our parish church this Easter. At least I'll have this playlist to console myself. I usually sit with Faure's Requiem playing at home through Good Friday.

    I’m glad you like them
  • MaryLouise wrote: »
    At my seminary, we're using a lot of the following hymns over Triduum and Eastertide.
    <snip>
    Most of these are pretty modern. I also think they're pretty good!

    So much more inspiring than anything I'm likely to hear at our parish church this Easter. At least I'll have this playlist to console myself. I usually sit with Faure's Requiem playing at home through Good Friday.

    The music at your place must be truly dire.

    None of that list will be appearing in our place. On the other hand, you'll find Byrd's setting of Ave verum corpus, Duruflé's Ubi caritas et amor, and other things for choir, while the congregation will get to sing hymns such as O sacred head, sore-wounded and Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle (a translation of the Latin Pange lingua.
  • MaryLouiseMaryLouise Shipmate, Host Emeritus
    Well, that's a magnificent selection, @TheOrganist. In a very different and more traditional way.
  • Thank you.

    Perhaps a case of horses-for-courses: then again, why go for the not very good when you can have something sublime?
  • Perhaps a case of horses-for-courses: then again, why go for the not very good when you can have something sublime?
    The Duruflé Ubi caritas is indeed sublime, but obviously not for congregational singing. James E. Moore’s Taste and See (from Catholic Max’s list) is about as sublime a hymn for the congregation to sing during communion as I know.

  • ZappaZappa Shipmate
    Enoch wrote: »
    I hesitate to stick my head above this particular parapet, but does NZ hymnody really segué into A/NZ hymn-writers. Whether you like it or not, if your say 'current Australian hymnody' to anyone from elsewhere, they will immediately think of Hillsong.

    A/NZ in an NZ context usually means Aotearoa / New Zealand ... not sure if that's what you were clarifying though
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    Ah, my apologies. Neither A/NZ nor Aotearoa are familiar expressions to me, or, I suspect, generally over here. Indeed, if you'd written Aotearoa out, I'd have assumed it was a place in New Zealand. It's only in response to your comment that I looked it up and found it is the Maori word for New Zealand.

    I'd assumed you meant 'Australia/New Zealand' i.e. the two big countries in the Southern Ocean with relatively similar roots.
  • One newish hymn that I like very much is G.B. Timms' "Blessed Thomas, Doubt No Longer." Very appropriate for Low/Quasimodo/Divine Mercy Sunday (as well as for the Feast of St. Thomas). Sadly, it's use is pretty much confined to churches using the New English Hymnal.
  • GalilitGalilit Shipmate
    Enoch wrote: »
    Ah, my apologies. Neither A/NZ nor Aotearoa are familiar expressions to me, or, I suspect, generally over here. Indeed, if you'd written Aotearoa out, I'd have assumed it was a place in New Zealand. It's only in response to your comment that I looked it up and found it is the Maori word for New Zealand.



    I actually DID write Aotearoa-New Zealand in full and with a hyphen not a "/".
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    edited April 2018
    You did, but it's only now registered with me as you've pointed this out and I've checked, that you meant A/NZ as an abbreviation for Aotearoa-New Zealand and that they are the same place. As I've said, as far as I am consciously aware, this was the first time I'd ever encountered the word Aotearoa.

    Incidentally, how is it pronounced and where does the stress go?
  • AlbertusAlbertus Shipmate
    One newish hymn that I like very much is G.B. Timms' "Blessed Thomas, Doubt No Longer." Very appropriate for Low/Quasimodo/Divine Mercy Sunday (as well as for the Feast of St. Thomas). Sadly, it's use is pretty much confined to churches using the New English Hymnal.
    ...and even more sadly, there are fewer of them around than there used to be...

  • Albertus wrote: »
    One newish hymn that I like very much is G.B. Timms' "Blessed Thomas, Doubt No Longer." Very appropriate for Low/Quasimodo/Divine Mercy Sunday (as well as for the Feast of St. Thomas). Sadly, it's use is pretty much confined to churches using the New English Hymnal.
    ...and even more sadly, there are fewer of them around than there used to be...

    Is that so? Granted, where I live now it's unheard of to use the NEH. I'm now in the land of the 1982 Episcopal Hymnal. But my impression was that in England it's the default in cathedrals, college chapels, and highish to Anglo-Catholic parishes (except for the most extremely Anglo-Papalist).
  • My local (Piskie) Cathedral uses NEH. Way to scotch (if you'll pardon the pun) the myth of being the "English kirk".
  • You'll find the NEH at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (RC).
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