We sang one of my favorite hymns today - Earth and All Stars - and the tune has been in my head all day. The text epitomizes my fall theme, as nature, musical instruments, workers, classrooms, and people all join together in a joyful song of praise of God's "marvelous things." There's a running joke among the choir that it's a pretty crazy hymn for its mention of boiling test tubes, but the universality of praise from all kinds of quotidian sources is part of what makes the hymn so great to me.
I heard plenty of positive comments about the choir anthem today, and I want to thank the choir again for devoting their considerable talents and time to enhancing our worship. We've been having a lot of fun with the descants and psalm antiphons every week, and I hope they're adding some sparkle to your Sunday mornings.
I also had a few people ask about the tune of "Blessed Jesus at Thy Word." They noticed that it seemed just the slightest bit different from what they had grown up with, and they were right! The Bethany hymnal has the Bach harmonization, which in typical Bach fashion has plenty of added passing tones or what some of us now hear as "extra notes" compared to the LBW version, which often simplified hymns to a quarter note based chorale. At second service, I played plenty of other versions of the hymn tune - from the simple to the highly ornamented, traditional to dissonant. I hope the hymn tunes from this Sunday stick with you and brighten your week with hymns of praise.
One of the members commented to me on the way out of worship that when he was singing "Earth and All Stars" he saw and sang "loud humming cell phones" instead of "loud humming cellos". I told him he just updated the hymn.
ReplyDeleteThis is also one of my favorite hymns because it reminds us that all things can give praise to God. It is a hymnal variation of the line in the Proper Preface that says, "we should at all times and in all places give thanks and praise to you, almighty and merciful God."
Unfortunately, the ELW changed the original hymn. It combined the original 1st and 2nd verses leaving out from the 1st verse, "Oh, victory! Loud shouting army!" and from the 2nd verse, "Flowers and trees! Loud rustling dry leaves!" It also changed the refrain from "He has done marvelous things, I too will praise him with a new song!" It also left off the original 7th verse (as did the LBW):
ReplyDeleteChildren of God, Dying and rising,
Sing to the Lord a new song!
Heaven and earth, Hosts everlasting,
Sing to the Lord a new song!
Very interesting Rev. Ferro. Upon reading your comment I had to immediately do a comparison between the ELW and LBW. I had never noticed. I don't miss the 'loud shouting army', but I do miss the 'loud rustling dry leaves'. It is autumn - we hear a lot of loud rustling dry leaves these days - lots of praise going on outside.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy the mix in Earth and All Stars of religion connected to the natural world - as Christianity certainly was once - and also connected to a technological world. We need both of these today to accomplish God's work in this world.
ReplyDelete