There is a balm in Gilead reminds me of the evangelical Church Of My Youth - I think we used to sing it occasionally at Youth Group, perhaps not in church itself IYSWIM.
That’s it. In church, I would expect it to be sung more like this—minimal accompaniment, and often with one voice taking the verses. (That’s how we did it this morning.)
The congregation generally knows the refrain without needing the book, and it’s the kind of song that many people will naturally start to sing harmony on. It’s never sung loudly, and usually sung where it functions as a prayer. We sang it as part of the Confession sequence this morning, and I’ve often heard it incorporated into the Prayers of the People.
Thanks @Nick Tamen - my rather vague memory from 60 years ago is that we (the Youth Group) sang There is a balm in Gilead all together, but we had some good singers, so we may have sung it in the way you describe.
Trinity 9, Parish Communion
And can it be? -Sagina
Come down O love diving- Down Ampney
Restore O Lord- (Kendrick)
Bread of heaven on thee we feed- Bread of Heaven
All for Jesus- All for Jesus ( Stainer)
St Thomas Mass.
<snip>
Bread of heaven on thee we feed- Bread of Heaven <snip>
Tune* by my great-great-great uncle.
(*Not very exciting IMO)
It's a Josiah Conder hymn. My last church had many members of that family over the years, resting in the graveyard, by the wall on the right: https://www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/3434364250/. The last - Bill - died at a very advanced age about 12 years ago.
Traveled to a funeral at the church of my childhood and youth today. The hymns were:
“For All the Saints”/SINE NOMINE
“Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling”/HYFRYDOL
“Thine Is the Glory”/JUDAS MACCABEUS
“Be Thou My Vision”/SLANE
I was pleased to see that one decades-long practice continues. Choirs can be hard to pull together for funerals during the work day, so many churches generally forego choirs for funerals. But our choir and the choir of the Episcopal church one block away have long joined forces for funerals at both churches, so that even if some can’t come, there’s always a sufficient number for a choir.
Plain old Trinity 10 at Our Place tomorrow, with the following ditties:
New every morning is the love (Melcombe) The Church's one foundation (Aurelia ) Guide me, O thou great Redeemer (Cwm Rhondda) Alleluia, sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
We are looking at sadness. The text is Psalms 42 & 43.
Praise to the Holiest in the height (Gerontius)
O vindicate and plead my cause (New Briton)
As The Deer Pants For The Water (Nystrom)
Be Still my Soul (Finlandia)
Hymns
What shall I do my God to love, / Wiltshire
Christ is the world’s light, / Christe Sanctorum
Our God, we know your providence, / Billing
Break now the bread of life, / Bread of Life
This is the truth we hold, / Little Cornard
No choir items today. #3 is a melody by R R Terry. The other Terry hymn in Oz hymn books is Highwood, also a fine tune.
“Tell out, my soul!” - Woodlands.
“Jesus, stand among us” (Kendrick).
“Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love” - Chereponi.
"Loving Shepherd of your sheep” - Buckland.
“We cannot measure how you heal” - Ye banks and braes.
“Sent forth by God's blessing” - The Ash Grove.
At our first Sunday of the month "Hymns of Praise" service:
How Great Thou Art - HOW GREAT THOU ART
How Deep The Father's Love For Us - Stuart Townend
Great Is Thy Faithfulness - FAITHFULNESS
*Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - HYFRYDOL
In Christ Alone - Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
*This hymn chosen by a couple in the congregation celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary
Parish Communion
Lord Jesus Christ - Living Lord
Father Lord of all creation- Abbots Leigh
Jesus stand among us - Caswall
During Communion- choir
Let all mortal flesh- Picardy
Guide me O thou great- Cwm Rhondda
Great organist today, 7 choir, about 15 congregation. One Church Warden running around doing everything else.
We had The Organist Who Can Play (but does it very quietly) today, and only four of us in the "choir", but we gave reasonable welly to:
Colours of day - Light up the Fire The Lord will come and not be slow - St Stephen All for Jesus - All for Jesus Bread of heaven, on thee we feed - Bread of Heaven* Here, Lord, we take the broken bread - St Columba* Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour - St Helen
* We had two Communion hymns, as they were both very short.
Low key organ only Mass. No kids Liturgy, and no coffee.
Praise to the Lord the Almighty, the king of creation.
Simple plainsong Alleluia and verse.
Celtic Mass
O bread of heaven beneath this veil.
Alleluia, sing to Jesus.
And I played a Bach chorale prelude at the offertory and another one at the end.
This congregation is accustomed to more modern, guitar led stuff, but they are really singing these Trad hymns with considerable wellie. Most gratifying.
Judge eternal throned in splendour (Rhuddlan)
Children of the heavenly King (Melling)
Jesu thou joy of loving hearts (Maryton)
I am the bread of life (I will raise him up)
Now thank we all our God (Nun danket)
Lammastide Evensong
To thee O Lord our hearts we raise (Bishopgarth)
Psalm 65
Magnificat
Psalm 67 (Deus) in place of the Nunc
Fair waved the golden corn (Holy Rood)
Bringing in the sheaves
Lord of the harvest it is right and meet (Martins)
I had the morning off, thanks to a visiting organist volunteering to play a Sunday service as thanks for being allowed to practice at our place while on vacation, and the hymns were as follows:
Guide Me Oh, Thou Great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
Come, Ye Disconsolate (CONSOLATOR)
I am the Bread of Life
Instead, I joined a friend at the Lutheran church she quasi-regularly attends, and the hymns were these:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
Now Thank We All Our God (NUN DANKET)
Jesus, Lead Thou On (SEELENBRÄUTIGAM)
O Lord, We Praise Thee (GOTT SEI GELOBET UND GEBENEDEIET)
and one communion hymn I do not remember.
I did, however, still play the evening service at my parents' church and the hymns there were thusly:
A Mighty Fortress (EIN FESTE BURG)
This Is My Father's World (TERRA BEATA)
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (NETTLETON)
May the Peace of Christ Be With You (KI RI SU TO NO)
Looking at self-worth based on Psalm 139 (hence the third choice)
Christ Triumphant, Ever Reigning! (Guiting Power)
O for a closer walk with God (Didn't recognise this)
O Lord you searched and you've known me (Kingsfold)
The Earth is the Lord's (Kendrick)
Oft in danger, oft in woe (University College) Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour (St Helen) Broken for me (words and music by Janet Lunt)* Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy) Hills of the north, rejoice (Little Cornard)
Quite a nice selection - * was sung by cantors during Communion.
We had a mostly very commendable selection today; unfortunately we had the duff organist, who had obviously been Not Practising even more than usual ...
Hail thou once despisèd Jesus - Lux Eoi* Thy kingdom come! On bended knee - Irish New every morning is the love - Melcombe O thou, who at thy eucharist didst pray - Song 1 Give me joy in my heart - Sing Hosanna**
* Much as I like Lux Eoi (it is by Sullivan, after all ), I really think that hymn should go to Stuttgart.
** or, as David used to put it, Give me unction in my gumption, make me function ...
We are back home after a few months away, but since I brought Covid home with me, no singing st church for me.
Oh dear. Sorry to hear about the Plague - hope you're better soon!
Blue? A reference to the song from Mack the Knife - Brecht describes the scene on the beach, *on a beautiful, blue Sunday*...well, that's how the German translates...
We shall be in liturgical blue next Sunday, for that well-known Anglican Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary...
Be thou my vision. It was meant to be Lord of all hopefulness, but muggins put up the next number by mistake. Luckily almost the same tune.
Soul of my Saviour.
Love divine etc to Blaenwern.
People still singing really well for these organ only services. So I can play with extra wellie.
We had the reader who always fills me with a sense of imminent disaster - will she get the right reading, will it be at the right time, will she be loud enough, will she sound as though she has prepared it? Today she was obviously expecting the psalm to be sung (it never is during the recess - this is clear in the published rota) so she stood there mute while the sawmill whispers of "read it!" from the congregation got louder and more frequent.
Readers are so frustrating. They are almost always the least prepared when it comes to big services. The cleaners clean, the sacristan makes sure everything is just so, the servers are rehearsed and the musicians practice. But the readers just seem to walk up to the lectern with no preparation. Drives me bonkers.
Is it just our place?
I've experienced the same, but, in all fairness, the readers we have at Our Place (they are few in number) do seem to practise, or at least to make a fair job of it. So I'm told, anyway.
We are back home after a few months away, but since I brought Covid home with me, no singing st church for me.
Oh dear. Sorry to hear about the Plague - hope you're better soon!
Blue? A reference to the song from Mack the Knife - Brecht describes the scene on the beach, *on a beautiful, blue Sunday*...well, that's how the German translates...
Ah, of course. That didn’t occur to me.
And thanks! Too early to be sure today, but maybe better.
The song is Der Moritat von Mackie Messer, from Der Dreigroschenoper, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
But you knew that, I'm sure...
There are YouTube links to it, with Lotte Lenya (wife of the composer) singing it in a most beautiful but terrifying way - hardly suitable for a thread about hymns...quite why the song occurred to me, I couldn't say.
Amazing Grace (My chains fell off) - NEW BRITAIN with added Chris Tomlin refrain
City on a Hill - Nick & Becky Drake
How Deep the Saviours Love for me - Stuart Townend
When I was lost, you came and rescued me - Kate & Miles Simmonds
And Can It Be, That I Should Gain? - Nathan Fellingham's tune (Not SAGINA, unfortunately)
The song is Der Moritat von Mackie Messer, from Der Dreigroschenoper, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
But you knew that, I'm sure...
I did. I once played Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum in a production of The Threepenny Opera. We did the Ralph Manheim–John Willett translation, which translates the line in question—An ‘nem schönen blauen Sonntag— as “On a shining sky-blue Sunday”.
The song is Der Moritat von Mackie Messer, from Der Dreigroschenoper, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.
But you knew that, I'm sure...
I did. I once played Jonathan Jeremiah Peachum in a production of The Threepenny Opera. We did the Ralph Manheim–John Willett translation, which translates the line in question—An ‘nem schönen blauen Sonntag— as “On a shining sky-blue Sunday”.
Ah! Alliteration's Artful Aid - not present in the German original...
Scans well, too.
I like *beautiful, blue Sunday*, which also has an Amount of Alliteration.
(I'd better end this rather obscure, if erudite, tangent here, before Having to Heed Hostly Homilies).
No morning committnents yesterday so nice to attend a 'plain celebration' for a change. At country Evensong for Trinity 11 the following were sung -
O strength and stay (Strength and stay)
Hark my soul it is the Lord (St Bees)
Jesus my Lord my God my all (St Chrysostom)
Sunset and evening star (Crossing the bar)
All modestly sung imdeed almost purred through 😏 with the final hymn by Tennyson being one I had not played for years.
So who else is planning to use ‘Tell out my soul” on Sunday?
(RIP Timothy Dudley-Smith).
Not me. I really hate the tune it is sung to.
Woodlands?
There is/was *another* tune, rather bouncy and IMHO an attractive alternative to Woodlands, written for Psalm Praise, I think. I can't offhand find it online, so there may be some sort of copyright issue., and I no longer have my music copy of Psalm Praise ( ).
I haven't checked, but I'm sure TOMS will be sung at Our Place on Sunday!
RIP Timothy Dudley-Smith. A long and fruitful ministry, indeed.
Comments
Thanks @Nick Tamen - my rather vague memory from 60 years ago is that we (the Youth Group) sang There is a balm in Gilead all together, but we had some good singers, so we may have sung it in the way you describe.
And can it be? -Sagina
Come down O love diving- Down Ampney
Restore O Lord- (Kendrick)
Bread of heaven on thee we feed- Bread of Heaven
All for Jesus- All for Jesus ( Stainer)
St Thomas Mass.
(*Not very exciting IMO)
It's a Josiah Conder hymn. My last church had many members of that family over the years, resting in the graveyard, by the wall on the right: https://www.flickr.com/photos/norfolkodyssey/3434364250/. The last - Bill - died at a very advanced age about 12 years ago.
“For All the Saints”/SINE NOMINE
“Love Divine, All Love’s Excelling”/HYFRYDOL
“Thine Is the Glory”/JUDAS MACCABEUS
“Be Thou My Vision”/SLANE
I was pleased to see that one decades-long practice continues. Choirs can be hard to pull together for funerals during the work day, so many churches generally forego choirs for funerals. But our choir and the choir of the Episcopal church one block away have long joined forces for funerals at both churches, so that even if some can’t come, there’s always a sufficient number for a choir.
New every morning is the love (Melcombe)
The Church's one foundation (Aurelia
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer (Cwm Rhondda)
Alleluia, sing to Jesus (Hyfrydol)
Praise to the Holiest in the height (Gerontius)
O vindicate and plead my cause (New Briton)
As The Deer Pants For The Water (Nystrom)
Be Still my Soul (Finlandia)
Hymns
What shall I do my God to love, / Wiltshire
Christ is the world’s light, / Christe Sanctorum
Our God, we know your providence, / Billing
Break now the bread of life, / Bread of Life
This is the truth we hold, / Little Cornard
No choir items today. #3 is a melody by R R Terry. The other Terry hymn in Oz hymn books is Highwood, also a fine tune.
“Tell out, my soul!” - Woodlands.
“Jesus, stand among us” (Kendrick).
“Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love” - Chereponi.
"Loving Shepherd of your sheep” - Buckland.
“We cannot measure how you heal” - Ye banks and braes.
“Sent forth by God's blessing” - The Ash Grove.
How Great Thou Art - HOW GREAT THOU ART
How Deep The Father's Love For Us - Stuart Townend
Great Is Thy Faithfulness - FAITHFULNESS
*Love Divine, All Loves Excelling - HYFRYDOL
In Christ Alone - Keith Getty & Stuart Townend
*This hymn chosen by a couple in the congregation celebrating their sixtieth wedding anniversary
Lord Jesus Christ - Living Lord
Father Lord of all creation- Abbots Leigh
Jesus stand among us - Caswall
During Communion- choir
Let all mortal flesh- Picardy
Guide me O thou great- Cwm Rhondda
Great organist today, 7 choir, about 15 congregation. One Church Warden running around doing everything else.
Father Lord of All Creation
Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me
The Church’s One Foundation
Colours of day - Light up the Fire
The Lord will come and not be slow - St Stephen
All for Jesus - All for Jesus
Bread of heaven, on thee we feed - Bread of Heaven*
Here, Lord, we take the broken bread - St Columba*
Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour - St Helen
* We had two Communion hymns, as they were both very short.
Praise to the Lord the Almighty, the king of creation.
Simple plainsong Alleluia and verse.
Celtic Mass
O bread of heaven beneath this veil.
Alleluia, sing to Jesus.
And I played a Bach chorale prelude at the offertory and another one at the end.
This congregation is accustomed to more modern, guitar led stuff, but they are really singing these Trad hymns with considerable wellie. Most gratifying.
Alleluia for the Lord God Almighty reigns
The Lord's my Shepherd, I'll not want
I cast my mind to Calvary
“Our God, Our Help in Ages Past”/ST. ANNE
“O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing”/AZMON
“For the Fruit of All Creation”/AR HYD Y NOS
Judge eternal throned in splendour (Rhuddlan)
Children of the heavenly King (Melling)
Jesu thou joy of loving hearts (Maryton)
I am the bread of life (I will raise him up)
Now thank we all our God (Nun danket)
Lammastide Evensong
To thee O Lord our hearts we raise (Bishopgarth)
Psalm 65
Magnificat
Psalm 67 (Deus) in place of the Nunc
Fair waved the golden corn (Holy Rood)
Bringing in the sheaves
Lord of the harvest it is right and meet (Martins)
A quaint rural observance with lusty singing!
I had the morning off, thanks to a visiting organist volunteering to play a Sunday service as thanks for being allowed to practice at our place while on vacation, and the hymns were as follows:
Guide Me Oh, Thou Great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)
Come, Ye Disconsolate (CONSOLATOR)
I am the Bread of Life
Instead, I joined a friend at the Lutheran church she quasi-regularly attends, and the hymns were these:
A Mighty Fortress is Our God (EIN FESTE BURG)
Now Thank We All Our God (NUN DANKET)
Jesus, Lead Thou On (SEELENBRÄUTIGAM)
O Lord, We Praise Thee (GOTT SEI GELOBET UND GEBENEDEIET)
and one communion hymn I do not remember.
I did, however, still play the evening service at my parents' church and the hymns there were thusly:
A Mighty Fortress (EIN FESTE BURG)
This Is My Father's World (TERRA BEATA)
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (NETTLETON)
May the Peace of Christ Be With You (KI RI SU TO NO)
Christ Triumphant, Ever Reigning! (Guiting Power)
O for a closer walk with God (Didn't recognise this)
O Lord you searched and you've known me (Kingsfold)
The Earth is the Lord's (Kendrick)
How great is our God
Indescribable
Our Father in heaven ( a version of the Creed)
*
Be still for the presence of the Lord#
*
*
10 000 reasons
The words were on the screen.
* = I can’t remember.
* I had heard three of the songs before but knew only one.#
Oft in danger, oft in woe (University College)
Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour (St Helen)
Broken for me (words and music by Janet Lunt)*
Let all mortal flesh keep silence (Picardy)
Hills of the north, rejoice (Little Cornard)
Quite a nice selection - * was sung by cantors during Communion.
Hail thou once despisèd Jesus - Lux Eoi*
Thy kingdom come! On bended knee - Irish
New every morning is the love - Melcombe
O thou, who at thy eucharist didst pray - Song 1
Give me joy in my heart - Sing Hosanna**
* Much as I like Lux Eoi (it is by Sullivan, after all
** or, as David used to put it, Give me unction in my gumption, make me function ...
Hyfrydol for ever!
We are back home after a few months away, but since I brought Covid home with me, no singing st church for me.
Oh dear. Sorry to hear about the Plague - hope you're better soon!
Blue? A reference to the song from Mack the Knife - Brecht describes the scene on the beach, *on a beautiful, blue Sunday*...well, that's how the German translates...
We shall be in liturgical blue next Sunday, for that well-known Anglican Feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary...
Soul of my Saviour.
Love divine etc to Blaenwern.
People still singing really well for these organ only services. So I can play with extra wellie.
We had the reader who always fills me with a sense of imminent disaster - will she get the right reading, will it be at the right time, will she be loud enough, will she sound as though she has prepared it? Today she was obviously expecting the psalm to be sung (it never is during the recess - this is clear in the published rota) so she stood there mute while the sawmill whispers of "read it!" from the congregation got louder and more frequent.
Readers are so frustrating. They are almost always the least prepared when it comes to big services. The cleaners clean, the sacristan makes sure everything is just so, the servers are rehearsed and the musicians practice. But the readers just seem to walk up to the lectern with no preparation. Drives me bonkers.
Is it just our place?
I've experienced the same, but, in all fairness, the readers we have at Our Place (they are few in number) do seem to practise, or at least to make a fair job of it. So I'm told, anyway.
And thanks! Too early to be sure today, but maybe better.
But you knew that, I'm sure...
There are YouTube links to it, with Lotte Lenya (wife of the composer) singing it in a most beautiful but terrifying way - hardly suitable for a thread about hymns...quite why the song occurred to me, I couldn't say.
City on a Hill - Nick & Becky Drake
How Deep the Saviours Love for me - Stuart Townend
When I was lost, you came and rescued me - Kate & Miles Simmonds
And Can It Be, That I Should Gain? - Nathan Fellingham's tune (Not SAGINA, unfortunately)
Ah! Alliteration's Artful Aid - not present in the German original...
Scans well, too.
I like *beautiful, blue Sunday*, which also has an Amount of Alliteration.
(I'd better end this rather obscure, if erudite, tangent here, before Having to Heed Hostly Homilies).
Gather Us In
O Wheat, Whose Crushing was for Bread (DRAYCOTT)
Deck Thyself, My Soul with Gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH)
Worthy of every song we could ever sing
I love you Lord (All my life you have been faithful)
I was buried beneath my shame - a new one to me
My Lighthouse
It was a baptismal service and the last two songs were the choices of the two people being baptised.
O strength and stay (Strength and stay)
Hark my soul it is the Lord (St Bees)
Jesus my Lord my God my all (St Chrysostom)
Sunset and evening star (Crossing the bar)
All modestly sung imdeed almost purred through 😏 with the final hymn by Tennyson being one I had not played for years.
(RIP Timothy Dudley-Smith).
Not me. I really hate the tune it is sung to.
There is/was *another* tune, rather bouncy and IMHO an attractive alternative to Woodlands, written for Psalm Praise, I think. I can't offhand find it online, so there may be some sort of copyright issue., and I no longer have my music copy of Psalm Praise (
I haven't checked, but I'm sure TOMS will be sung at Our Place on Sunday!
RIP Timothy Dudley-Smith. A long and fruitful ministry, indeed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnE-yDUucAg
For Bishop Timothy, Faithful vigil ended is indeed appropriate.
yep.