There are also websites (Small Church Music and Hymns Without Words) where you can download MP3 files in various arrangements, sometimes with a nominal charge. The speeds and pitches can be a bit odd (too fast/too high) but there are easily-available programs to alter that.
There are also websites (Small Church Music and Hymns Without Words) where you can download MP3 files in various arrangements, sometimes with a nominal charge. The speeds and pitches can be a bit odd (too fast/too high) but there are easily-available programs to alter that.
Hymnary.org is also very useful, and often have midi files which are easily imported to MuseScore and tweaked. I've also had a lot of luck with a semi-derelict site called billysloan.co.uk. Plus, if anyone wants to PM me I have amassed a fairly large catalogue I'd be happy to share.
"All creatures of our God and King" / LASST UNS ERFREUEN
Psalm 114, recited.
"Through the Red Sea brought at last" / STRAF MICH NICHT
"Lord, make us servants of your peace" / DICKINSON COLLEGE
"Come with us, O blessed Jesus" / WERDE MUNTER
"'Forgive our sins as we forgive'" / DETROIT
"Go forth for God" / LITTON
We had a farewell bash at St Pete's today for an elderly gentleman who's moving south to live near his daughter, and part of the celebration involved singing several of his favourite hymns (he was the organist for many years, long before my association with the church). The list included (all to the Correct Tunes):
All hail the power of Jesus' name
The King of love my shepherd is
Angel voices, ever singing
He who would valiant be*
Onward Christian Soldiers**
Dear Lord and father of mankind
Be still, my soul
For all the saints
* sadly without hobgoblins which, along with foul fiends, have been expunged from our abomination of a hymn book
** or "Onward Christian Pilgrims", as the aforementioned abomination has it ...
@Piglet, I’m curious as to the Correct Tune™ for “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” as I can think of a few candidates for the honor, but only one Correct Answer™.
And I’m also curious whether the “Christian Pilgrims” are still “marching as to war.”
There was no service at my church today as the church was inaccessible due to road closures because of a Half Marathon event (which, as it happened our minister competed in - he's a keen runner) so I took the opportunity to pay a visit to a different Baptist church not far from home, that I'd never been to a service at before. The music was mostly more modern than that at my own church, and included one that was new to me, that I rather liked 'When I was lost'
Back in the day when I sang in an A-C choir whenever see sang “ All hail the power of Jesus’ name” the choir was handed a separate sheet with the harmony as per Miles Lane. For all I know ( at that time an ignorant Papist) Diadem may have been the tune of choice in the NEH.
Sorry - I should have specified that one - it was Miles Lane.
@Nick Tamen - no, I'm afraid they were not marching anywhere. In fact, the version in Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New* is a complete rewrite, bearing little or no relation to the meaning of the original.
* which will be banned when I come to power ...
[/rant]
Back to what we sang today:
Light's abode, celestial Salem - Regent Square Bread of Heaven, on thee we feed - Bread of Heaven O breath of life, come sweeping through us - Spiritus Vitae* O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder - How Great Thou Art Guide me, O thou great redeemer - Cwm Rhondda
* a tune I don't think I've ever sung before, and the combination of not having had choir practice yesterday, not having a music edition of the book in front of me, and it basically being a rather rubbish tune meant I was Not A Happy Piglet.
However, Cwm Rhondda more than made up for it, and was sung con belto, complete with the appropriately lengthened note in the last verse.
Harvest Thanksgiving today at Our Place (one of the most deprived and poverty-stricken urban parishes in England ):
Come, ye thankful people, come (St George's Windsor) Fill your hearts with joy and gladness (Ode to joy)
Kumbayah Lord's Prayer God whose farm is all creation (Shipston) We plough the fields and scatter (Wir pfluegen)
Quite a fair turn-out, even with at least eight regulars Away, but our Asian students start lectures this week, and were busily lighting votive candles after Mass...
If you Google Onward, Christian pilgrims, you may well find a page with the full lyrics, published by a church, but I refrain from posting a link here, because copyright.
BTW, FatherInCharge occasionally uses yet another hymn to the same tune - Onward, Christian families - but I don't think that's in the public domain, either.
We have a subscription to CCLI (copyright licensing) so I could view the whole thing on their "SongSelect" website. I quite like it.
Today:
"Awake, awake: fling off the night!” (Morning Hymn).
“For the fruits of his creation” (Ar Hyd Y Nos).
“King of glory, King of peace” (Gwalchmai).
“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” (Corvedale).
“Lord of all hopefulness” (Slane).
Harvest is next week. Thinking of all the climate and other disasters we've had this year, I have little enthusiasm for it.
My thoughts exactly - Our Place's parish has any number of people who depend not only on the *official* Food Bank, but less formally-organised charities as well.
Being encouraged to sing the traditional harvest hymns with gusto rings a little hollow IMHO, although the sentiments are probably still valid in country parishes!
Mind you, in fairness, all gifts of dry food at today's Mass will go to the Food Bank tomorrow, and there has also been a cash collection for Water Aid, so FInC is not unmindful of the needs of others.
This is Amazing Grace (Who breaks the power of sin and darkness?) Amazing Grace with "My Chains are Gone" By Grace Alone Somehow I Stand (Boldly I approach) Great Is Your Faithfulness, O God (This is Amazing Grace, This is Unfailing Love)
Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour
Dear Lord and Father
Seek ye first
Let us break bread together
Praise to the holiest.
No organist, since he has resigned and taken annual leave, thereby deliberately missing his last Service, but we were accompanied on the piano by a valiant Church Warden, who reluctantly did a good job.
Debate in the choir vestry about whether to give him the gifts we had purchased- a compromise was reached to post the vouchers and card, but not deliver the physical gift. All very awkward. Many prayers for the right successor to be found.
And @Piglet, I really must find a copy of “Onward Christian Pilgrims.” A perverse curiosity o‘ertakes me.
I think BF has answered for me (thanks!); I had several attempts with Mr Google, but none came up with more than the first stanza. As the words were only written in 1982 - apparently as a pacifistic response to the Falklands War - they'd certainly be well within copyright.
I'm about as peaceful a piglet as you might wish to meet, but I have no problem with the military allegory of OCS. I very much doubt that when the Rev'd Baring-Gould wrote "marching as to war" he was actually suggesting that anybody go up to the "heathen" and stick it to them with a bayonet!
I've always hated the militarism of OCS and am very grateful for the alternative. I have no such faith in the intentions of the original author whose work strikes me as standard Victorian imperial bullshit
We had All Hail the Power of Jesus Name as well: but to Coronation O for a Thousand Tongues (Lyngham) We have a Gospel to Proclaim (Fulda)
We were going to finish with Tell Out my Soul but we ran out of time (visiting speaker). Usually this is to Woodlands, but I know that our pianist this morning prefers to play Go Forth - and nobody wants to upset the pianist.
This is Amazing Grace (Who breaks the power of sin and darkness?) Amazing Grace with "My Chains are Gone" By Grace Alone Somehow I Stand (Boldly I approach) Great Is Your Faithfulness, O God (This is Amazing Grace, This is Unfailing Love)
This is Amazing Grace (Who breaks the power of sin and darkness?) Amazing Grace with "My Chains are Gone" By Grace Alone Somehow I Stand (Boldly I approach) Great Is Your Faithfulness, O God (This is Amazing Grace, This is Unfailing Love)
I'm sensing a theme here...
Yes - the sermon was entitled "What's so amazing about grace?" (which put us all in mind of a book).
If you Google Onward, Christian pilgrims, you may well find a page with the full lyrics, published by a church, but I refrain from posting a link here, because copyright.
I've always hated the militarism of OCS and am very grateful for the alternative. I have no such faith in the intentions of the original author whose work strikes me as standard Victorian imperial bullshit
I would have to agree. But I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
When I was a boy in Bible class, we used to sing "There’s a grand highway that is free to all, and it leads to the King’s abode" which actually includes the lines "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! I hear them marching. Hark! Hark! Hark! The pilgrims sing". However - unlike "There's a fight to be fought and a race to be run" which we also sang, there are no militaristic allusions.
CSSM chorus no.183! I cringed at the final line, "Well done! My brave Crusader".
It was written by Cecil Allen, the well-known author on railway matters (and employee of the Great Eastern/London & North Eastern Railways). He was invited to travel on "Mallard's" run which (just!) set the all-time speed record for steam traction, but refused as it was on a Sunday.
I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
When I was a boy in Bible class, we used to sing "There’s a grand highway that is free to all, and it leads to the King’s abode" which actually includes the lines "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! I hear them marching. Hark! Hark! Hark! The pilgrims sing". However - unlike "There's a fight to be fought and a race to be run" which we also sang, there are no militaristic allusions.
From the text, I’m guessing it may have been set to the tune of “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” which was later used, of course, for “Jesus Lives the Little Children.” (And now I have “Stout-Hearted Men,” another song that reminds me of ST. GERTRUDE, running through my head. )
I remember that one, too, from Sunday School days - but yes, we also sang it rather more robustly.
Hymns and choruses from Sunday School days might well form the theme of a separate thread, particularly for those of us of...ahem...more mature years...we did have such a thread some years ago IIRC.
One especially egregious example comes to mind:
Over the sea there are little brown children, fathers and mothers and babies dear;
They have not heard of the Father in Heaven; they have not heard that God is near
I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
When I was a boy in Bible class, we used to sing "There’s a grand highway that is free to all, and it leads to the King’s abode" which actually includes the lines "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! I hear them marching. Hark! Hark! Hark! The pilgrims sing". However - unlike "There's a fight to be fought and a race to be run" which we also sang, there are no militaristic allusions.
From the text, I’m guessing it may have been set to the tune of “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” which was later used, of course, for “Jesus Lives the Little Children.” (And now I have “Stout-Hearted Men,” another song that reminds me of ST. GERTRUDE, running through my head. )
I checked out the first link, and recall singing *Jesus died for all the children* to what is actually a very catchy tune. I can see how the lyrics may have been amended to omit any reference to PSA, though!
Over the sea there are little brown children, fathers and mothers and babies dear;
They have not heard of the Father in Heaven; they have not heard that God is near
.
Aaaargh! Fortunately I have never come across that one before.
I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
When I was a boy in Bible class, we used to sing "There’s a grand highway that is free to all, and it leads to the King’s abode" which actually includes the lines "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! I hear them marching. Hark! Hark! Hark! The pilgrims sing". However - unlike "There's a fight to be fought and a race to be run" which we also sang, there are no militaristic allusions.
From the text, I’m guessing it may have been set to the tune of “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” which was later used, of course, for “Jesus Lives the Little Children.” (And now I have “Stout-Hearted Men,” another song that reminds me of ST. GERTRUDE, running through my head. )
I checked out the first link, and recall singing *Jesus died for all the children* to what is actually a very catchy tune. I can see how the lyrics may have been amended to omit any reference to PSA, though!
I’ve never heard that version. We always sang:
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Though referring to people as “red and yellow” is a bit cringe-worthy now, I can’t fault the impetus for teaching that song to children in the American South in the 1960s.
Hymns and choruses from Sunday School days might well form the theme of a separate thread, particularly for those of us of...ahem...more mature years...we did have such a thread some years ago IIRC.
I had the same thought this morning, with the particular angle of wondering if/how those songs shaped us as we grew. Perhaps later today I can find time to start a thread.
Hymns and choruses from Sunday School days might well form the theme of a separate thread, particularly for those of us of...ahem...more mature years...we did have such a thread some years ago IIRC.
I had the same thought this morning, with the particular angle of wondering if/how those songs shaped us as we grew.
Interesting to note the settings in which the songs were sung, too. As a small child I went (not every week) to an Anglican Sunday School and cannot remember any songs. Perhaps we didn't have any, and only sang with the adults in church.
At the age of nine I started attending Crusaders, a non-denominational Bible class movement targeted at a very specific demographic: middle to upper-middle class boys who attended independent day schools. I suspect that some of the more militaristic songs may have been sung because they sat well with the Cadet Corps/ "muscular Christianity" ethos that was prevalent in such circles (though some of our leaders were actually pacifists) and because we were in the post-WW2/Cold War age. And they had good rousing tunes!
BTW Crusaders have changed a lot since then and are now known as Urban Saints - yet a camp which featured on a recent BBC "Songs of Praise" broadcast brought back instant memories because so much was familiar!
But this line of thinking might well get shunted onto another track.
I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
When I was a boy in Bible class, we used to sing "There’s a grand highway that is free to all, and it leads to the King’s abode" which actually includes the lines "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp! I hear them marching. Hark! Hark! Hark! The pilgrims sing". However - unlike "There's a fight to be fought and a race to be run" which we also sang, there are no militaristic allusions.
From the text, I’m guessing it may have been set to the tune of “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp,” which was later used, of course, for “Jesus Lives the Little Children.” (And now I have “Stout-Hearted Men,” another song that reminds me of ST. GERTRUDE, running through my head. )
I checked out the first link, and recall singing *Jesus died for all the children* to what is actually a very catchy tune. I can see how the lyrics may have been amended to omit any reference to PSA, though!
I’ve never heard that version. We always sang:
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Though referring to people as “red and yellow” is a bit cringe-worthy now, I can’t fault the impetus for teaching that song to children in the American South in the 1960s.
Hymns and choruses from Sunday School days might well form the theme of a separate thread, particularly for those of us of...ahem...more mature years...we did have such a thread some years ago IIRC.
I had the same thought this morning, with the particular angle of wondering if/how those songs shaped us as we grew. Perhaps later today I can find time to start a thread.
The version I sang was fairly similar to yours IYSWIM:
Jesus died for all the children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in his sight.
Jesus died for all the children of the world.
Why, may I ask? Sounds thoroughly biblical to me (Hebrews 1:4).
The Mother of Jesus cannot be "most" gracious. Only God can be "most" gracious. The words "most gracious" should be replaced by "blest mother."
Ah, we're not looking at the same verse. My v.2 is the one "O higher than the cherubim".
That is my stanza 2. It calls on the mother of Jesus to praise God.
The phrase "higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim" used to offend me since it seemed to contradict the statement in Psalm 8 that mankind is "a little lower than the gods" (which would include the angels). But I now understand that the mother of Jesus can have a place of honor above the angels.
Comments
Hymnary.org is also very useful, and often have midi files which are easily imported to MuseScore and tweaked. I've also had a lot of luck with a semi-derelict site called billysloan.co.uk. Plus, if anyone wants to PM me I have amassed a fairly large catalogue I'd be happy to share.
"All creatures of our God and King" / LASST UNS ERFREUEN
Psalm 114, recited.
"Through the Red Sea brought at last" / STRAF MICH NICHT
"Lord, make us servants of your peace" / DICKINSON COLLEGE
"Come with us, O blessed Jesus" / WERDE MUNTER
"'Forgive our sins as we forgive'" / DETROIT
"Go forth for God" / LITTON
All hail the power of Jesus' name
The King of love my shepherd is
Angel voices, ever singing
He who would valiant be*
Onward Christian Soldiers**
Dear Lord and father of mankind
Be still, my soul
For all the saints
* sadly without hobgoblins which, along with foul fiends, have been expunged from our abomination of a hymn book
** or "Onward Christian Pilgrims", as the aforementioned abomination has it ...
And I’m also curious whether the “Christian Pilgrims” are still “marching as to war.”
Likewise
I'd go for "Diadem" but I think our American friends use "Coronation".
Not that it matters….
@Nick Tamen - no, I'm afraid they were not marching anywhere. In fact, the version in Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New* is a complete rewrite, bearing little or no relation to the meaning of the original.
* which will be banned when I come to power ...
[/rant]
Back to what we sang today:
Light's abode, celestial Salem - Regent Square
Bread of Heaven, on thee we feed - Bread of Heaven
O breath of life, come sweeping through us - Spiritus Vitae*
O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder - How Great Thou Art
Guide me, O thou great redeemer - Cwm Rhondda
* a tune I don't think I've ever sung before, and the combination of not having had choir practice yesterday, not having a music edition of the book in front of me, and it basically being a rather rubbish tune meant I was Not A Happy Piglet.
However, Cwm Rhondda more than made up for it, and was sung con belto, complete with the appropriately lengthened note in the last verse.
And @Piglet, I really must find a copy of “Onward Christian Pilgrims.” A perverse curiosity o‘ertakes me.
Come, ye thankful people, come (St George's Windsor)
Fill your hearts with joy and gladness (Ode to joy)
Kumbayah Lord's Prayer
God whose farm is all creation (Shipston)
We plough the fields and scatter (Wir pfluegen)
Quite a fair turn-out, even with at least eight regulars Away, but our Asian students start lectures this week, and were busily lighting votive candles after Mass...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onward,_Christian_Pilgrims
The words are by Michael Forster, but AFAIK are still in copyright, and not available for reading online (though I may be in error here).
BTW, FatherInCharge occasionally uses yet another hymn to the same tune - Onward, Christian families - but I don't think that's in the public domain, either.
Today:
"Awake, awake: fling off the night!” (Morning Hymn).
“For the fruits of his creation” (Ar Hyd Y Nos).
“King of glory, King of peace” (Gwalchmai).
“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy” (Corvedale).
“Lord of all hopefulness” (Slane).
Harvest is next week. Thinking of all the climate and other disasters we've had this year, I have little enthusiasm for it.
Being encouraged to sing the traditional harvest hymns with gusto rings a little hollow IMHO, although the sentiments are probably still valid in country parishes!
Mind you, in fairness, all gifts of dry food at today's Mass will go to the Food Bank tomorrow, and there has also been a cash collection for Water Aid, so FInC is not unmindful of the needs of others.
This is Amazing Grace (Who breaks the power of sin and darkness?)
Amazing Grace with "My Chains are Gone"
By Grace Alone Somehow I Stand (Boldly I approach)
Great Is Your Faithfulness, O God (This is Amazing Grace, This is Unfailing Love)
Dear Lord and Father
Seek ye first
Let us break bread together
Praise to the holiest.
No organist, since he has resigned and taken annual leave, thereby deliberately missing his last Service, but we were accompanied on the piano by a valiant Church Warden, who reluctantly did a good job.
Debate in the choir vestry about whether to give him the gifts we had purchased- a compromise was reached to post the vouchers and card, but not deliver the physical gift. All very awkward. Many prayers for the right successor to be found.
I think BF has answered for me (thanks!); I had several attempts with Mr Google, but none came up with more than the first stanza. As the words were only written in 1982 - apparently as a pacifistic response to the Falklands War - they'd certainly be well within copyright.
I'm about as peaceful a piglet as you might wish to meet, but I have no problem with the military allegory of OCS. I very much doubt that when the Rev'd Baring-Gould wrote "marching as to war" he was actually suggesting that anybody go up to the "heathen" and stick it to them with a bayonet!
O for a Thousand Tongues (Lyngham)
We have a Gospel to Proclaim (Fulda)
We were going to finish with Tell Out my Soul but we ran out of time (visiting speaker). Usually this is to Woodlands, but I know that our pianist this morning prefers to play Go Forth - and nobody wants to upset the pianist.
I'm sensing a theme here...
Yes - the sermon was entitled "What's so amazing about grace?" (which put us all in mind of a book).
"Christ, the fair glory of the holy angels" / CAELITES PLAUDANT
Psalm 103, chanted.
"Ye holy angels bright" / DARWALL'S 148th
"Humbly I adore thee" / ADORO DEVOTE
"Let all mortal flesh keep silence" / PICARDY
"Ye watchers and ye holy ones" / LASST UNS ERFREUEN
I don't like the second stanza of the last one.
Choral: "Banners of peace, O holy archangel", music by our organist/choirmaster.
The Mother of Jesus cannot be "most" gracious. Only God can be "most" gracious. The words "most gracious" should be replaced by "blest mother."
Not a bad text at all.
I would have to agree. But I’m afraid the tune is also a bit problematic for me, whether because it’s so firmly connected to Baring-Gould’s text or because it just sounds martial, as in marching, à la “Tramp, tramp, tramp.” So as much of an improvement as the more recent text is, I still don’t really want to sing it, I’m afraid.
Ah, we're not looking at the same verse. My v.2 is the one "O higher than the cherubim".
Don’t forget
“The Lord hath need of me,
his soldier I will be”.
We girls were not keen.
It was written by Cecil Allen, the well-known author on railway matters (and employee of the Great Eastern/London & North Eastern Railways). He was invited to travel on "Mallard's" run which (just!) set the all-time speed record for steam traction, but refused as it was on a Sunday.
Hymns and choruses from Sunday School days might well form the theme of a separate thread, particularly for those of us of...ahem...more mature years...we did have such a thread some years ago IIRC.
One especially egregious example comes to mind:
They have not heard of the Father in Heaven; they have not heard that God is near
I checked out the first link, and recall singing *Jesus died for all the children* to what is actually a very catchy tune. I can see how the lyrics may have been amended to omit any reference to PSA, though!
I’ve never heard that version. We always sang:
Jesus loves the little children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
They are precious in his sight.
Jesus loves the little children of the world.
Though referring to people as “red and yellow” is a bit cringe-worthy now, I can’t fault the impetus for teaching that song to children in the American South in the 1960s.
I had the same thought this morning, with the particular angle of wondering if/how those songs shaped us as we grew. Perhaps later today I can find time to start a thread.
At the age of nine I started attending Crusaders, a non-denominational Bible class movement targeted at a very specific demographic: middle to upper-middle class boys who attended independent day schools. I suspect that some of the more militaristic songs may have been sung because they sat well with the Cadet Corps/ "muscular Christianity" ethos that was prevalent in such circles (though some of our leaders were actually pacifists) and because we were in the post-WW2/Cold War age. And they had good rousing tunes!
BTW Crusaders have changed a lot since then and are now known as Urban Saints - yet a camp which featured on a recent BBC "Songs of Praise" broadcast brought back instant memories because so much was familiar!
But this line of thinking might well get shunted onto another track.
The version I sang was fairly similar to yours IYSWIM:
Jesus died for all the children,
All the children of the world.
Red and yellow, black and white,
All are precious in his sight.
Jesus died for all the children of the world.
Just for clarity, I'm referring to the song whose text I hid...
That is my stanza 2. It calls on the mother of Jesus to praise God.
The phrase "higher than the cherubim, more glorious than the seraphim" used to offend me since it seemed to contradict the statement in Psalm 8 that mankind is "a little lower than the gods" (which would include the angels). But I now understand that the mother of Jesus can have a place of honor above the angels.