In contemplating why it takes such gargantuan effort to complete and post a hymn on our site (go listen to our latest hymn!), we decided to analyze our efforts. (Yes, Steven is an Engineer.) Our findings gave us a more realistic picture and a good laugh— we hope that it makes you chuckle, too.
Hmm. Something serious is going on here.
Steven is working on engraving our newest hymn!
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Rebecca was at the piano and the tape was rolling. She played this for prelude, but sadly the back-up sound engineer (Steven) failed to exclude background noise. Still, enjoy this preview of one of our upcoming hymns.
Click here to listen to: Commit Now All Your Griefs (Preview)
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Rebecca explaining the story behind this new hymn tune.
Our resident composer had been pondering a new tune for this hymn written by Paul Gerhardt in the 1600s. After a week of muddling with musical ideas and no real progress, the text was set aside. During the following week, Steven and Rebecca attended the Westcoast Christian Worldview Conference.
One afternoon, after a nap during the break, Rebecca woke with a start. “I’ve got something!” she exclaimed, and started dashing down the new melody for “Commit Now All Your Griefs”. Later that afternoon she found a piano and worked out the chords. Dorothy Schwartz was very kind to oblige Steven and Rebecca by performing the new hymn at the last day of the conference, with Rebecca accompanying on the piano.
Dorothy singing. She has a beautiful voice, which she seeks to use for God’s glory.
Our hope in composing a new tune for this hymn, which used to go to DIAMETIA (Crown Him With Many Crowns), is to communicate these truths with a tender, plaintive tune. God is faithful even in the midst of difficulty.
Here is the first verse:
Commit thou all your griefs
And ways into his hands;
To his sure truth and tender care,
Who earth and heav’n commands.
Who points the clouds their course,
Whom winds and seas obey,
He shall direct your wand’ring feet,
He shall prepare your way.
The more dominion you have over a field, the more you can discern it’s excellence.
Take an omelette, for instance. You have to eat lots of omelettes to discern a good omelette from a bad omelette. The more you observe, eat, and create, the greater expertise you have to make a judgement on quality omelettes.
Similarly, the more you immerse yourself in music, the greater ability you have to distinguish between beautiful music and ugly music, good music and bad music, true music and false music.
Whatever your interest (hymns, string quartets, folk music, film scores, etc.), saturate yourself with music from that genre. In time, you will learn how to perceive God honoring creative works.
Thoughts from Professor John Hodges’ lecture at the West Coast Christian Worldview Conference.
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We decided to add a few film composers to our links page. Jurgen Beck is a recent friend and Benjamin Botkin a older one. We are excited about the work that these men are doing in the arena of reforming film compositions.
As you might imagine, the process of writing a hymn and the process of writing symphonic music for film are quite different. However, the building blocks remain the same.
Film composers have much more liberty in the feel of their music. Hymn writers have more constraints within their compositions.
If I were to make a very limited analogy, writing a film score is like writing a novel. Writing a hymn is more similar to writing a poem. And of course [silly me!], that’s what the music is doing! A film composer is creating music to musically illustrate a story on screen. A hymn-writer uses music to illuminate a theological poem.
Though the main focus of our current project is towards hymn-writing, we certainly have a big space in our musical heart for film composers. In fact, every once in a while, when our resident composer has a spare minute, you’ll find her brain crowded with musical ideas for symphonic pieces. Most of them don’t get down on paper; a few do.
But as the CEO and wise leader of ReflectHymn always reminds his eccentric composer, it’s better to finish one project than start twenty-seven new ones. : )
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At long last, and with much thanks for your patience, we give you, “Lord, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee”. Enjoy!
P. S. You may have noticed that this hymn is titled “May 2011″ and not “April 2011″. We made an executive decision, seeing that we are the official executives here at ReflectHymn.com, that we are skipping April’s hymn and listing this as May’s.
These months have been full of wonderful busyness and company, so we weren’t able to get April’s done as we had hoped.
You will be glad to know that we’ve already penciled in June’s hymn on the family calender, and plan to release that on schedule, God willing. : )
We are grateful for the expertise of Don W., a musician in our church, who has painstakingly gone over the harmonic structure of many of our hymns.
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We could make lots of excuses about the lateness of April’s hymn: weddings for friends, company, sickness, painting, and a myriad of other factors. The long and short of it is, we just have not made it happen as we had planned. Please forgive our tardiness!
To encourage all our patient readers (that is, all 3 of you), we thought we’d show you a sneak peek at the banner for our upcoming hymn, “Lord, with Glowing Heart I’d Praise Thee”. God willing, we should have it up and delivered to you this week. Appreciate your prayers!
Now, back to finish painting the master bedroom . . . before the paint dries on the roller . . .
“Great thoughts should be carried by great music.
“We would not offer the gift of a diamond in a fast-food hamburger box to even a familiar friend of family member, let alone to a king.
“Why would we offer the great truths of Scripture or praise to God in a musical style similarly common simply because is appeals to the masses? Does Scripture evidence God’s praise by the masses or by the remnant?”
Excerpt from Singing and Making Music by Paul Jones, Chapter 23 “What Happened to Hymns?”
Photos by ciron810, lisby1, and Jesse Kruger.
