Tuesday, January 31, 2012

WORSHIP IV, THE FOLLOW-UP (Part the sixteenth)

Sections covered in this one: Mission/Ministry, Social Concern
* = new to the Worship series

*781 God Has Chosen Me (B. Farrell) - just an awful piece of music, text and tune!
*782 God the Spirit, Guide, and Guardian (Morris) - nice text, but certainly not the most easily-singable tune.
*783 Here I Am, Lord (Schutte) - Too late, they've already gone, and so should this piece.
*784 You Are Called to Tell the Story ("Cwm Rhondda") - gorgeous tune, garbage text.  How about those two classics that the St. Michael Hymnal uses (with that same tune)?  "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer" and "God of Grace and God of Glory"?
*786 God Sends Us Forth (Alonso) - garbage
*787 The Spirit Sends Us Forth to Serve ("Azmon") - one of the better OCP staples, though seems a bit "us-centered".  Tune is in a better key than in OCP (OCP's key is F, is in G here in Worship IV).
*788 Come and See the Many Wonders ("Abbot's Leigh") - nice text by Harry Hagen, OSB, one of the consistantly good Benedictine hymn writers.
*789 O God, Whose Healing Power (Sensmeier) - tune has a weird ending.  "Llangloffan" would be a nice alternative tune.
790 Lord, You Give the Great Commission ("Abbot's Leigh") - I was wondering where this one went.  In Worship III it was in the Ascension section.  That said, this and #788 should have been put together, with one of them printed as text only in the pew book.
*791 God, Bless Your Church with Strength ("Diademata") - Wow! I never thought any hymn was set to that tune other than "Crown Him with Many Crowns", with the exception of "Soldiers of Christ, Arise" (found in the Pilgrim Hymnal, which may still appear in some UCC pews), and my own paraphrase of the St. Francis Peace Prayer (which got lost in a nasty fire on XI-14-03).
792 Go, Make of All Disciples ("Ellacombe") - Worship II used a different tune (title eludes me at the moment), but at least used thees and thous.  Worship III and IV both use "Ellacombe", a fine tune by all means, but the text was, of course, bastardized.
*793 See My Hands and Feet ("Geneva") - I've always liked the half minor/half major motif in the tune.  Anyone on the text?
*794 To Be Your Presence ("Engelberg") - text questionable.  Tune excellent.
*795 The Thirsty Cry for Water, Lord (Sensmeier) - another weird tune by Randall Sensmeier, this time not so much strange rythymic ending, but strange melodic intervals (experimenting with G harmonic minor).
*796 As Birds of the Air ("Middlebury") - tune most commonly used with "Come Away to the Skies".  A mirror-image of another Early American tune, "Jacob's Ladder", oft-used with "As Jacob with Travel Was Weary One Day", though the latter tune is far better.  The former sounds more like one of those pseudo-folk songs of the 1970's that we often had to put up with.
797 God, Whose Purpose Is to Kindle ("Ebenezer") - better tune than what was in Worship III.
*799 We Are Called (Haas) - Dennis DeYoung of the 70's/80's pop-rock band Styx should have gotten some kind of writer's royalty for having the first line of "Come Sail Away" ripped off.  The tune is just awful.
*800 Jesus, Our Divine Companion ("Pleading Savior") - I've been waiting a long time for a hymnal other than "We Celebrate" and "Hymnal 1940" to carry this hymn.  Two strikes: should be "Jesus, THOU Divine Companion" (see Hymnals 1940 AND 1982), and the key (E-flat) is too low.
801 Lift Every Voice and Sing ("Anthem") - often known as the national anthem of African Americans (which I say in a very positive sort of way).  Tune is nice.  Text is your run-of-the-mill social justice dreck.  Key was dropped in this edition: was in A-flat in Worship III, leading to a few high F's in the melody, while in G in Worship IV (still high E's, but the low is now a B below middle C).
*802 We Cannot Own the Sunlit Sky (Lowry) - see my remark about #684 in a previous post.
*803 If You Believe and I Believe (Zimbabwean; adapt. from English - go figure) - The tune itself is reminiscent of a Dutch tune used for the Advent hymn "Prepare the Royal Highway", and could work well as a decent tune for 76 76 D hymns with the right accompaniment.
*804 We Sing Your Praise, O Christ ("Southwell") - nice tune; questionable text.

Hey, we finally got into the 800's.  Next installment: Stewardship
Peace,
BMP

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