Some thoughts on hymns and the hymnal update

Image credit: Clipart-Library.com

In preparation for the release of the new hymnal, I’ve been working on a comparison of the current (1985) hymnal with its predecessor (first published in 1948; I’m using a slightly revised version from 1973). In this post, I’m just sharing some random things that came to mind while doing this comparison.

Hymn Titles

  • “Though Deepening Trials” is a clunky title for a hymn. In my experience, over half the time, people say the first word as through, which I think is completely understandable. Though is just a limp and unexpected word to begin a hymn title with. The problem, really, is that the first line is used as the title. From the 1973 hymnal to the 1985 one, several hymns had their titles switched from being the first line to being their most core or oft-repeated line. For example, “Ere You Left Your Room This Morning became “Did You Think to Pray?” and “When Upon Life’s Billows became “Count Your Blessings.The problem is that “Though Deepening Trials” doesn’t have a chorus or oft-repeated phrase, which is why, I assume, the 1985 hymnal compilers left its title as-is.
  • “Glorious Things Are Sung of Zion” always sounds to me like damning with faint praise. “What do you think of Zion?” “Well, I’m not a fan, but I’ve heard glorious things are sung of it.”
  • The title “Again, Our Dear Redeeming Lord” always makes me chuckle, because if you just added a question mark to the end, it sounds like something a long-suffering servant would say when their master kept making annoying demands. I imagine it being said by the servant in the Parable of the Vineyard in Jacob 5, when he was so tired of the Lord wanting to go back to the vineyard over and over and over.

Hymn Lyrics

  • The biggest revision to the hymn lyrics I’d like to see is to change language to make them gender-neutral. I’d be encouraged if even just the new hymns in the new hymnal had gender-inclusive language. I doubt we’ll get any such thing, though, as the Q15, although they will occasionally modify a scripture on the fly to add women, seem largely unconcerned with the issue. Maybe the 2065 hymnal will get there.
  • “Thy Spirit, Lord, Has Stirred Our Souls” refers at one point to “our sacred goals.” This strikes me as a quintessentially Mormon phrase. Who else would love goals so much as to describe them as sacred?
  • “Come, Let Us Anew” refers to the “adorable will” of the Master. I’m sure this is just a shift in connotation since it was written, but adorable sounds condescending to me. Like we’re saying “Oh, Jesus. You’re just so cute when you tell us to love one another! How naive of you.”
  • As a kid, I was always a little disturbed by the line about how Jesus was “Ris’n with healing in his wings” in the hymn “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” because I knew we weren’t like those misguided Christians who thought angels had wings, and if they didn’t, then for sure Jesus didn’t. As an adult, I’m not bothered by this, but there are definitely some lyrics that I think preach false ideas. One that sticks out to me is the line “There’s the right and the wrong to ev’ry question” from “Choose the Right.” I feel like this is way overstating things, and that in many situations, it’s actually harmful to try to overlay a moral dimension to random, inconsequential questions, or to try to force people to see that your way is the only right way in situations where you have to choose between competing goods, rather than between good and evil.
  • I’ve noticed a few somewhat consistent errors in wording when some of the hymns are sung. Two are words that sometimes get pluralized when they’re written as singular. One is in the final verse of “The Spirit of God,” I’ve heard that Ephraim would be crowned with his “blessings” in Zion. The other is in “Have I Done Any Good?” where I’ve heard that we should do more than just dream of our “mansions” above. A third is an added word, where I’ve heard people add an extra “me” in the closing line of “The Lord Is My Light,” where “He leads, he leads me” becomes “He leads me, he leads me.”
  • I’m really not a fan of the lyrics in “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” that celebrate how the wicked people are about to get their comeuppance. I’m thinking here of these lines: “The wicked who fight against Zion / Will surely be smitten at last”, “While they who reject this glad message / Shall never such happiness know.” I realize that this was an important theme for the early Church, when commiserating about persecutions suffered, and looking forward to glorious punishment of the persecutors, promoted group cohesion. In the 21st century, though, they feel way out of place. I know this is one of our most popular hymns, so it’s not about to get discarded, but I wonder if the language could be softened. There’s precedent for this, for example, in the re-working of “Praise to the Man” to not single out the state of Illinois to be blamed for Joseph Smith’s death, and in some hymns losing more offensive verses (e.g., “Who’s on the Lord’s Side?” had, in the solo version at the end of the 1973 hymnal, a verse that celebrated the Lord “mak[ing] bare his arm / To lay the wicked low”).
  • I’m old enough to kind of remember when the 1985 hymnal first came out, and everyone had to get used to some of its tweaks in wording. At the beginning, I remember half my ward still singing “you who unto Jesus” in “How Firm a Foundation,” for example. I don’t recall any stumbling over the line “the world has no use for the drone” that was dropped from “Have I Done Any Good?”, but I do have a suggestion for bringing a modified version of this line back in a praise of genetic diversity:

Only she with unique genes

Adds strength so we live

The world has no use for a clone!

Hymn Selection

  • I’ve always found it mildly irritating that, even with hymnal space so limited, we sometimes have multiple versions of the same hymn (e.g., “While of These Emblems We Partake”: version 1, version 2), sometimes with the verses rearranged (e.g., “‘Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Loveversion 1, version 2). This was even more common in the 1973 hymnal. I hope that for the new hymnal, we can finally just settle on a favorite from each pair and drop the other to make space for more different hymns.
  • The 1973 hymnal has 25 mentions of Utah. The 1985 hymnal has zero. I think this was a positive step as the Church spread to make it clear that Utah isn’t the only place you can be a Mormon. To continue the trend, I wonder if hymns like The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close” might be up for deletion in the new hymnal. (Also, it’s long and rambly. And it seems unkind to celebrate white Mormons displacing Native Americans.) Other hymns that might also be dropped using this criterion: “O Home Beloved”, “For the Strength of the Hills”, and “O Ye Mountains High.”
  • I’m not a fan of the prophet worship in the hymn “Praise to the Man.” But I’m very glad, looking at the older hymnal, that the even more hagiographic “Oh Give Me Back My Prophet Dear” was dropped. I’m sure it’s too much to ask for “Praise to the Man” to be discarded as well, as it seems to be a favorite.
  • The 1973 hymnals has two hymns about the MIA, but these were dropped from the 1985 hymnal. I can’t think of any current hymns about Church programs. FHE seems to be less emphasized and VT/HT became ministering, but I’ve never noticed a hymn about any of them. This seems like a good call to me, as programs come and go far too quickly for our hymnal pace of once every few decades.
  • I wish we could get rid of some of the bouncier hymns. I think the perfect example is “Let Us All Press On,” but there are definitely others.
  • For the same reason that I don’t like the lyrics in “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet” that I mentioned above that celebrate the baddies getting their comeuppance, I’m also not a fan of military-themed hymns like “Onward, Christian Soldiers” and “Hope of Israel.” We have lots of fine hymns that just celebrate the good news, either of Jesus and the Atonement, or of the Restoration, without needing to frame life as a fight or non-Mormons as enemies. “Come, Come, Ye Saints” is lovely. “The Spirit of God” is a great celebration of the Restoration without needing to put anyone else down. Let’s keep those and ditch the military metaphors.
  • I wonder if we couldn’t use some more sacrament hymns. We only have 30 (actually fewer if you don’t count the same lyrics put to different music as a separate hymn), so in the 48 or so weeks of sacrament meetings, they get repeated sooner than most others.
  • I am a big fan of Christmas music, and would love it if we could have far more Christmas hymns than the 15 we do. Maybe 50 would be good.
  • My single favorite hymn in our current hymnal is probably “Be Still, My Soul.” I’m a doubter and a worrier, and this hymn really speaks to me.

A Random Note That Doesn’t Fit Anywhere Else

  • The 1973 hymnal has a far greater variety of moods (one- or two-word directions about how a hymn is to be sung) than the 1985 hymnal. Some of them are interesting. For example, “without dragging.” Is this a commentary on how the compilers thought these hymns were being sung? It’s applied to “America the Beautiful” (maybe people weren’t all that enthusiastic about America) and “We’re Not Ashamed to Own Our Lord” (maybe people were on the fence about this too; note that links are to the 1985 hymnal with updated moods). Also, there are 32 hymns that have the mood “with dignity,” but only two that get the extra punch of “with great dignity.” These are “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” and “Oh Come, All Ye Faithful.” Another fun example is that “Oh Holy Words of Truth and Love” was to be sung “beautifully,” which is a not-so-subtle suggestion that people like me need to just shut up as its sung, and also a suggestion that perhaps some ugliness is tolerable in the singing of all other hymns. Anyway, I think it would be fun if some of these were brought back for the new hymnal, especially if choristers were encouraged to randomly mix and match them with hymns.

 

37 comments

  1. “He leads, he leads me” becomes “He leads me, he leads me.”

    The note is there, waiting for a syllable to fill it. Just make the additional “me” official.

    And while we’re at it, the bass part in “Let Us All Press On” should read “We will fear not the wicked nor give heed to what they say.” I don’t even know what the hymnal says, but it is wrong.

  2. Great post! I really enjoyed all the details and insights expressed here. The current hymnal is long overdue for an update and some culling, and I hope it doesn’t disappoint when we finally get it.

    I’m not a fan of “Praise to the Man” and “We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet” either. The idol/leader worship in those hymns is so cringeworthy and makes me so uncomfortable. If those hymns are already awkward for members to sing, then I can’t imagine how people investigating the church must feel hearing them. I’m not a fan of “Joseph Smith’s First Prayer” for the same reason either. On that note, I hope the new edition of the hymnal drops “We Ever Pray for Thee” as well. Replace the words “prophet dear” with “dear leader” and you get the North Korea’s national anthem or something like unto it.

    I’ve always found the sacrament hymns to be so dreary. The only one I truly like is “In Humility, Our Savior”. The other ones are just so slow and pessimistic sounding, that I honestly dread the sacrament hymn each Sunday. I could also do without multiple versions of the same hymn and the obscure ones no one sings or has even heard of (“Again We Meet Around the Board”, anyone?).

    On a personal note, I could do without “High On the Mountain Top”, “If You Could Hie to Kolob”, and “I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go”. I got so sick of those songs while attending one of the BYU schools. Those three hymns were **always** the go-to for opening/closing hymns/special musical numbers for sacrament meeting and devotionals. I’m pretty sure I heard them multiple times a semester. The “Come Thou Fount/If You Could Hie to Kolob” music arrangement was also a favorite special musical number during my time as a college student. That was another song I heard **at least** once a semester. “Come Thou Fount” is such a beautiful hymn but I hate how overused it’s become in church circles.

    Like you, I would love to see more Christmas hymns in the new songbook. I would also like to see “Down to the River to Pray” simply because it’s a beautiful song with so much history behind it. I also want “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” added in as well. I’ve always loved the message of unity and broken things coming back together in that song, and with our church membership so divided, its message is particularly pertinent.

  3. I’m sure they’ll remove Hymn #80 – it is the opposite of those military marches you and I dislike, but Mormons are confused by its call to humility instead of bully patriotism, and so it’s hardly ever sung. I can’t believe Kipling wrote this for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, it must have been shocking then.

    God of our fathers, known of old,
    Lord of our far-flung battle line,
    Beneath whose awful hand we hold
    Dominion over palm and pine —
    Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
    Lest we forget—lest we forget!

    The tumult and the shouting dies;
    The Captains and the Kings depart:
    Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
    An humble and a contrite heart.
    Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
    Lest we forget—lest we forget!

    Far-called, our navies melt away;
    On dune and headland sinks the fire:
    Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
    Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
    Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
    Lest we forget—lest we forget!

  4. “Oh Give Me Back My Prophet Dear” is a little bit flawed as a congregational hymn and was sung pretty infrequently even before it was eliminated in 1985. It is a beautiful melody but the vocal range is high so the untrained singers sound strained and out of tune, and John Taylor blundered with the prosody of the first verse, breaking the pattern of iambs by putting the unimportant and unstressed “of” in the position of a stressed syllable, and that on the high F, the climax of the vocal line. It was kind of perversely fun to sing about “Priests of Baal, desperate their craft to save”, in the fourth verse, but I can imagine today’s crowds of newcomers or investigators being a little mystified.

    I wonder if “Sons of Michael, He Approaches” will still be in the new book. I don’t think it gets much use. When they retained it in 1985 they gave it a new tune and changed the last line from “That the ancient one doth reign In his Paradise again!” to “That the ancient one doth reign In his Father’s house again!”

  5. I’m kind of on board for the suggestion for more Christmas hymns/carols. My main hope for the new hymnal is that there will be more Easter hymns/carols. We have only 4 hymns in the official Easter section of the hymnal. You can pull from the sacrament hymns to find others, and our current hymnal does include All Glory Laud and Honor (a traditional Palm Sunday hymn) in the generic praise to God section. I would like to see a better selection of hymns that are known to be for Easter.

  6. I agree that “Oh Give Me Back My Prophet Dear” is flawed as a sacrament hymn because of the topic, and perhaps flawed as a congregational hymn as well, but I still love it as a piece written by John Taylor about his friends. Hopefully some songs, like that one, can be remembered even as we no longer sing them in sacrament meeting.

    I love Christmas hymns, but 4 weeks of Christmas hymns times 2 songs per week only gives time to use 8 of them. Even if you extend Christmas to 5 weeks and have an extra congregational hymn each week (except for fast Sunday) that gets you to 14. My point is, we already barely have time to get to all of them as it is. Adding 20 more Christmas songs just means even more of them aren’t getting sung for years at a time. (But I can open up at least 1 slot by getting rid of those Shepherds watching their flocks by night, and probably With Wondering Awe, too. So, you can add a couple . . . )

    Also, yes we need more Easter songs, but since we won’t even rotate through the 4 we have, would it make a difference?

  7. I wish they’d change the last word in the third verse of If You Could Hie to Kolob from “there is no end to race” to “there is no end to grace”

  8. This was great! Thanks, Ziff.

    P.S. Anybody heard any scuttlebutt on the status of a new hymnal? I haven’t heard anything about it in ages.

  9. The Green Hymnal introduced gender-inclusive language into “The Time is Far Spent,” so there is a precedent. I fully expect some changes in this regard in the new hymnal.

    We need to get rid of every mention of the word race. Whatever it might have intended to covey, it will be misunderstood: “If you could hie to Kolob,” “Come O Thou King of Kings,” “Adam-Ondi-Ahman”

    “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Obvious choice for MLK day and the lyrics are coincidentally appropriate for Pioneer Day, having a different focus than the usual Pioneer Day songs we drag out.

    “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet” has nothing at all to do with the prophet after the first line. Can’t we at least come up with a title more in line with the actual topic of the song?

    I would be in favor of more Christmas carols, but I guarantee that “Silent Night” will still be sung at least once every week in December

    “Love at Home” is slow, tedious, and repetitive. Those half-notes at the end seem to go on for hours.
    “Ring Out, Wild Bells” is a real downer.
    “I am a Child of God” is sung all the time, and I’m just tired of it.

  10. We need more music written by the great composers of sacred music. This is why I want to keep “If You Could Hie to Kolob”. Fix the problems, but keep it because it’s great music. And how do we have a hymn book with 300 hymns and only 1 composed by Bach? Mendelssohn is also underrepresented. I agree we need more sacrament hymns because they get used every week. Solution: add about 10-20 Bach chorales. Many of the commonly used words might work for sacrament.

  11. I’m in favor of dropping “I Believe in Christ” for two reasons:

    The lyrics go nowhere; there is no thought development; if you slammed the hymnal so hard that the words fell off the page, you couldn’t put the hymn back together because any line might as well be sung in any verse.

    And second, if you dropped it you would suddenly have room for those 20 additional Christmas songs you want.

  12. We have a bunch of songs in our hymnal about needing the Lord to fortify us as we leave and go out the doors into a dark, difficult world. Abide with Me. Abide with Me, ‘Tis Eventide. God Be with You Till We Meet Again. As the Shadows Fall. Now the Day is Over. They were great for ending sacrament meeting at five o’clock in early November forty-five years ago, but they were orphaned in 1980 when the church switched to ending sacrament meeting mid-morning or early-afternoon with Sunday School starting in ten minutes. I miss those good, gloomy songs, but we’ve no occasion to sing them together. The compilers or the 1985 hymnal hadn’t accepted those hymns’ emeritus status yet, but any future compilers will surely omit them.

    Likewise, the shortening of our Sunday meetings in 2019 has further reduced the amount of singing the latter-day saints do together. Is producing a new hymnal still an ongoing project? One category that may take a hit if the compilers are paying attention is priesthood hymns. Ye Elders of Israel, come join now with me. Rise up, O men of God, have done with lesser things. My local quorum doesn’t sing anymore since ten minutes was sliced off, and a General Priesthood Meeting has not been convened in over a year. That leaves just stake priesthood meeting, and my previous stake went a couple decades without holding one of those.

  13. Excellent post! I agree with 99% of it, but…

    1) I can’t stand gender neutral adaptations of most hymns. Other denominations have issued hymnals incorporating this idea, but have retracted them. Do you know what “Joy to the World” sounds like if you can’t sing the word “Lord”‘and pronouns are avoided with re-worked sentences? It’s painful. The congregation sings the old words, or fumbles with the new. On the other hand, Carol Lynn Pearson loves singing “Faith of our Mothers” instead of a “fathers” to great success. So, maybe there’s a way to tinker judiciously.

    2) oh please, let’s keep the bouncy songs. Our worship music has slowed considerably of late and feels like a geriatric meditative heartbeat most of the time. It is so depressing. We need the pep. I’ll concede that many of the faster songs in the current hymnal are from an outdated turn of the 20th c style (cue Eulalie McKecknie Schinn in the Music Man leading Columbia Gem of the Ocean “when borne by the red white and blue”). But, hey we could add “Simple Gifts” (the Shaker song) and Brigham’s favorite hymn “Resurrection Day”’which was sung on the prairie as a fast-paced, kick-your-heels-up joyful dance by the evening campfires. I fear that with our geriatric Q15, our new hymnal will suffocate us with dirges. There’s a time and place for slow reflective music, but also a time and place for joyful spirited music. We need a mix.

    3) Please no evangelical hits. (No circle be unbroken, down to the river to pray, etc.) Why? Because I am concerned with the current political agenda led by the evangelical right (in the U.S.), and know that songs and art are more powerful symbols of enculturation, alignment, and assimilation than rhetoric, policy, or essentially anything else. The church might claim political neutrality, but “undergrounding” the message by hitching us to evangelical culture and direction. Before someone’s heart breaks letting go of these quality songs, I’ll
    Share that I boycott many of Wagner’s works for the political messages he imbued.

    4) the German LDS hymnal has a significant number of hymns from the great musical masters (Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Handel, Bach, Schumann, etc.) I’m afraid these pieces will go away.

  14. I would agree that gender neutral lyrics can be done badly, but they don’t have to be. Our theology rejects a gender-neutral God or Jesus, so “Joy to the World” and a lot of other hymns should be fine as is. W.W. Phelps already gave us “And saints their songs employ” in place of “Let men their songs employ.” I think lyrically, it’s an improvement, even aside from gender considerations. Some might argue for language inclusive of Heavenly Mother, and there might be a place or two where that would work. But I don’t see a wholesale reworking of all the hymns to tweak the gender of deity.

  15. Mortimer,

    Good point about wanting to avoid our church getting hitched to the evangelical. Though I do love those songs (“Down to the River to Pray” and “May the Circle Be Unbroken”) I mentioned in my previous post and the messages shared therein. I think the messages and themes in those songs are what church members really need to hear right now.

    I agree that overall our church hymnbook could do with more bouncy, peppy, and positive songs. Sacrament meetings are so bleak because the majority of our hymns are so slow, dull, and difficult to get through. “Simple Gifts” is one of my favorite songs and has a relevant message I think our church body would benefit from internalizing. Funny enough, I learned that song in elementary school… make of that what you will.

    I also agree with you and Quentin (not Cook) about the need for more classical music and songs done by the great composers. As he said, you can replace the current sacrament hymns with Bach, Mendelssohn, and other composers, and witness the mood in the chapel and amongst the congregation lift **instantly**.

  16. I remember the first time I realized “We Thank Thee O God for a Prophet” really wasn’t about the prophet other than that first line. It made me appreciate the song so much more. I agree with Left Field, let’s change the title.

    As the organist I love a good peppy hymn and have tried to push the tempo some on these songs. Then a few months ago when the monthly hymn list was printed out there was a note about how the organist should follow the chorister – so back to a slow dirge we go!

  17. I could go the rest of my life without ever again singing the line “as to our lips the cup gently we press.” I know Mormons love the passive voice but come ON.

  18. Left Field, I agree, we can do better at inserting gender neutral or multi-gendered language. For example, I think “Heavenly Father Loves Me” is beautiful with heavenly mother throughout, e.g. “she gave me my eyes that I might see…” and “yes I know heavenly parents love me”.

    JC, I know, and I used to love those songs too. Now they are painful to me, but musically, they are good. I hear ya.

    Hooray! We’re on the “pep” bus together. Here are a few of the style instructions (suggestions for playing) that we should fess-up to and write on the top of our hymns: whale song, Victrola player needing to be wound up again, subtle movie background music of a choir singing ohhhs and ahhhs without a melody, Counter-reformation seriousness wherein art is strangled by protocol, Mahler without the passion, quiet dignity defined as never smiling again, abandon all hope ye who enter here, this is the song that never ends, a lullaby with sad lyrics, contest to be the most subdued with a heartbeat, low and slow with comparable low energy, Ben Stein saying “Bueller? Bueller?” and lastly, “like the cartoon Caillou”.

    Finally, I can predict exactly what we’re going to see in the new hymnal. In the Sunstone podcast E119 (reviewing changes in art at the DC Temple open house), Steven Carter described a strategic leadership shift away from history (Joseph Smith, pioneers, etc) to a type of essential Mormonism, focused on getting people to practically experience our Jesus rather than sludge through symbols, history, scripture, or connect to the nostalgia of white American pioneer stock. If I want to learn the peace of Buddhism, I don’t want to have to study over a thousand plus years of history and texts, I want to pick up “Buddhism for dummies” and get some practical tips to be more calm. It’s the same for us- they want to appeal to converts by stripping away pioneer stuff, Masonic symbols, Kolob scripture, Joseph Smith, and just focus on the simple Mormon-flavored Jesus for making everyday living better. Did you see the Liahona this month? There were zero stories about the rusty-trusty pioneers. (Well, one in the US appendix, but it’s not a headliner.) I’ll say that again. It’s July- and we’re not celebrating rusty trusty pioneers. (Am I in the Matrix?) There were no pics of pioneers in the DC temple, only two pics of BOM subjects (one hidden in a stairwell), and only one pic of Joseph Smith’s first vision – without Deity in the frame. Murals painted by the pioneers were torn out of the SL Temple for plain walls and multi-purpose rooms, and the murals with pioneers and Native Americans in the Manti Temple were scheduled to be demolished. The saints rose up and they have supposedly been preserved. But, this is the new “on message” cleansing of our art. It’s a period of massive censorship and realignment. Our hymns are up for a massive overhaul.

    So following this strategic direction, being “on message” the new hymnal will:
    1) Have far fewer or nearly no pioneer/ Zion/ hymns. I used to think “faith in every footstep”’was a sure addition, but with the removed emphasis on pioneers, I’m not sure a two-pager will fit. (It’s also poor hymnody and has an awkward transition to the chorus.)
    2) The songs about Joseph Smith, Kolob will go.
    3) Songs that don’t specifically mention Jesus- that say- only reference God won’t rank as highly and will be chopped.
    4) Prophet songs should be chopped, but we know they love them. That being said, Praise to the man has no hope of moving forward.
    5) The 6 BOM songs are on the chopping block, including “The’Iron Rod”.
    6) Many more sacrament hymns, more Christmas hymns, more slow, reverential Christ-centered hymns.
    7) Gulp, welp and wince, I concede that we will adopt many more contemporary evangelical Jesus songs. I can see us gaining Amazing Grace and the hymns that Wilberg has arranged in the past for the MoTab.
    8) I know the saints submitted thousands of beautiful new compositions, and can’t wait to hear the gems.
    8) I hope there are beautiful hymns from other cultures, new styles and sounds.

  19. Re: Praise to the Man. A few years ago I was taking the course work necessary to certify to become a Kodaly (pronounced koe DIE) music educator through BYU’s Conferences and Workshops. Most of our teachers came from Hungary where music educator and composer Zoltan Kodaly pioneered his revolutionary and highly effective method of music education. In my choral teaching/score conducting class during my 2nd year our Hungarian teacher had us study the folk song “Scotland the Brave”. Several of the ladies in my class got very excited because the melody is the “Praise to the Man” melody with just two notes changed, and they begged our Hungarian teacher (who wasn’t LDS) if they could sing PttM for her.

    I’ll never forget the look of consternation on her face when they finished! We’d become good friends a couple of years before when I had gone to Hungary for some additional training, so when she asked me to go to lunch with her later on I wasn’t surprised. She asked me over lunch if in our church we worshipped Joseph Smith as much as we did Jesus and were we still trying to get revenge on the ancestors of the men who killed him and Hyrum because that was the message she received after listening to the song. Fortunately, I was able to disabuse her of that notion, but when I went back and reread the words to the hymn I could easily see how she could come up with that idea. While it’s not quite “Up, Awake Ye Defenders of Zion” (the ultimate persecution complex and revenge hymn especially in the old 1950’s hymnal) it’s still bad enough.

    What was concerning to me was 1)the other LDS class members didn’t seem think that there was anything wrong with the hymn, and 2)they were oblivious to the feelings of the non-LDS members of our class when they heard the questionable lyrics wrapped up in a stirring Scottish folk song melody.

    We LDS class members ended up having a serious discussion about the lyrics after class the day after PttM had been sung in class.. As I expected the ladies had never really paid attention to the lyrics because the melody is just so much fun to sing. Being forced to actually read the words and think about what they mean to members vs. what someone not of our faith might think if they heard those same words for the first time brought about a much needed discussion.

    Re: “If You Should Hie to Kolob”. Until the lyrics were put to the very beautiful and popular English folk song “Dives and Lazarus” (about the rich man ignoring the beggar Lazarus when he was alive and then begging this same Lazarus, who now resides with God while the rich man is in hell, to go warn his living brothers so that they can escape his fate), Kolob had a truly horrible melody and was never ever sung. Change the tune and voilà! suddenly everyone wanted to sing it. We’d be better off keeping the glorious melody and finding some wonderful lyrics to fit it instead of getting rid of the entire song part and parcel. We should do the same with “O, Little Town of Bethlehem” which has an extremely boring melody and is always sung like a funeral dirge. The Brits sing the words to a much lovelier and livelier (but not too lively) tune and it makes a world of difference.

  20. Many years ago, I was a young missionary in a small branch in Austria, and the only pianist in the branch. I tried to play “Silent Night” early in December and was told, rather sternly, “We only sing that on Christmas Eve!”

    I love “O Holy Night” and used to wish it was in the hymnbook, but now I think I would rather have it only sung by real musicians.

    The Primary songbook has some beautiful songs, for singing and for prelude music. I could see “Beautiful Savior” being in the hymnbook.

    “The Wintry Day” has some cringy lyrics but the music is lovely. I’d like to hear it as a cello solo with piano accompaniment.

  21. A Poor Wayfaring Stranger,
    I thought Kolob was based on Star of County Down. Did Lazarus pre-date SoCD? I know the tune is an old folk song- has been though several iterations before becoming a folk hymn (folk/popular music set w hymn lyrics and adopted as sacred).

    I’m not surprised at your classmates tone-deafness to non-LDS perspectives. Many times I’ve felt like hiding under a rock as our faith has been presented to non-LDS. For example- hearing the crazy testimonies in F&T meeting in front of investigators, seeing the sister missionaries staff a booth at our county fair dressed indistinguishably from Yearning For Zion women (completely naively), our ward’s enthusiasm to invite the entire community to General Conference. Fist bumping you in sympathy.

    Dagmar, I agree with the Austrians.

    I think this would be a lovely funerary hymn to add to the next hymnal … https://youtu.be/KCUYfhBhCks
    Certainly it would be appropriate for the saints dying trying to defend their homes and families in Ukraine, for the LDS police officer killed in the line of duty in our community, and for many others. I agree about primary hymns being wonderful resources, and would love to add All Creatures Great and Small back into the hymnal.

  22. Dagmar, I’m a professional cellist and have played “The Wintry Day” in arrangement that my mom, the ultimate arranger/accompanist, did. Minus the cringy words it IS a very lovely melody. (Unfortunately, she is in poor health and got rid of ALL of her wonderful arrangements without consulting me before she decided to move to an assisted living facility. My heart is still broken by this.) The funny thing is that my mom’s ward (the one that I grew up in) didn’t even know that it was a hymn in the hymnal! That’s another tune along with “If You Should Hie to Kolob” and “In Adam-Ondi-Ammon” that could use beautiful new lyrics to do justice to the melodies. Unfortunately, I’m not holding my breath.

  23. Mortimer, I did a bit of research on “Star of County Down” and “Dives and Lazarus”. While the melody to “Star” is one of the many variants that is an offshoot of “Dives and Lazarus” the words were written at the turn of the 20th century. The words to “Dives and Lazarus” go much further back while the tune that is known by that name is much older still. Ralph Vaughan-Williams, one of my very favorite composers, said that finding so many variants of this tune on his many folks song gathering forays with his BFFs and folk song gathering/musician/composer colleagues Gustav Holst, Cecil Sharpe and Rebecca Clarke was like finding the greatest musical treasure of his life. He immortalized it in his gorgeous setting of “Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’”. If you haven’t heard it before DO listen to it. I’m positive that it is the music of heaven.

  24. A while back I discovered a website that had the history of hymns and their tunes. The tune for Kolob is called Kingsfold and I discovered a BEAUTIFUL hymn written to that same tune. It is called I Heard The Voice of Jesus. I think it would be a amazing replacement.

    I heard the voice of Jesus say,
    “Come unto me and rest;
    lay down, O weary one,
    lay down your head upon my breast.”
    I came to Jesus as I was,
    so weary, worn, and sad;
    I found in him a resting place,
    and he has made me glad.

    I heard the voice of Jesus say,
    “Behold, I freely give
    the living water, thirsty one;
    stoop down and drink and live.”
    I came to Jesus, and I drank
    of that life-giving stream;
    my thirst was quenched, my soul revived,
    and now I live in him.

    I heard the voice of Jesus say,
    “I am this dark world’s light.
    Look unto me; your morn shall rise
    and all your day be bright.”
    I looked to Jesus, and I found
    in him my star, my sun;
    and in that light of life I’ll walk
    till trav’ling days are done.

    The good shephard calling to his sheep. “I came to Jesus as I was…and he has made me glad.” Stoop *down* to drink of the stream. Yes please. I sing this to my kids now. If they hear Kolob they will think it stole the tune from this song.

  25. Hedwig, three cheers for “I Heard the Voice of Jesus”! What beautiful lyrics. Have you sent them to the Church Music Committee?They are probably unaware that they exist. This hymn keeps everyone’s favorite hymn tune and jettisons the esoteric Kolob lyrics for ones that focus on the Savior. It’s a winner in my book. Thanks for sharing.

  26. What about the country western section?—if you use the western twang, “Let Us All Speak Kind Words.” Drives my wife nuts when I sing it that way in Church. 🙂

    Also, we enjoyed “For the Strength of the Hills” and “Firm As the Mountains Around Us” during the mountain mudslides of 1983.

  27. In the Episcopal Hymnal, “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” is set to Tallis’s Third Tune, which I absolutely love. I even sang it at the funeral of a non-Mormon uncle.

  28. A Poor Wayfaring Stranger,
    Thank you for the history of the tune, and moreover, thank you for sharing R Vaughn Williams variations on it. I can’t believe I never heard it before (I’m a musician and have played many of his pieces). It brought me to tears- so spiritual and moving. Thank you.

    Hedwig, thank you for more history, and for those beautiful lyrics.

  29. Deborah, when you refer to Tallis’ Third Tune are you referring to the tune from the Archbishop Parker’s psalter? Vaughan-Williams also took that tune and wrote “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” for a double string orchestra. It’s glorious too. Mortimer, if you loved the Dives and Lazarus variants you’ll also love the Thomas Tallis fantasia. Tallis was a Catholic who somehow managed to stay alive and out of prison in Elizabethan England. Archbishop Parker was made Anne Boleyn’s chaplain when she became queen of England. Right before her arrest for treason and adultery she put her daughter Elizabeth in his care. In 1559 Elizabeth made him the Archbishop of Canterbury as thanks for his loving care during her tumultuous life and also because he was a gentle and moderate church leader-which was sorely needed after the religious turmoil of her brother and older sister’s reigns. Being a moderate meant that he allowed Tallis, the greatest choral composer of his era, to compose in peace and without fear.

  30. A Poor Wayfaring Stranger,
    I *may* have sent them in? I had an infant at the time so my brain was not laying down memories well with the sleep deprevision. I found the lyrics because I love the tune so much but the lyrics can be problematic, so I thought, “I will write new lyrics!” Then I decided to check if it had been done already, and it had. No church hymnal fame for me. The question is whether I discovered that before or after the window closed. I guess we will find out when the hymnal comes out? Sorry for the unsatisfying answer.

  31. A Poor Wayfaring Stranger: that tune exactly! That Vaughan Williams Fantasia is amazing, and I heard it in person once, which is always the best way to hear orchestral works!

  32. A Poor Wayfaring Stranger and Deborah,
    You’re talking to a fellow Thomas Tallis fan! Thanks for sharing the fantasia and episcopal hymn! I submitted “If ye love me” to the church’s hymnal committee, thinking it could be modified as a simple short “keep the commandments” type hymn. I find that Tallis captures a peaceful and beckoning spirit that to me-sounds like the Saviour’s spirit. The King’s Singers’ recording is lovely https://youtu.be/Y1WwNSfCom8 . What I love about the Tallis song is that the words “keep my commandments” are only sung once and the rest of Jesus’ message is the focal point. This elevates the song out of a mere obedience/works -focused ditty, to the higher spiritual level of spiritual communion with God (which is what Jesus was saying in the verse- that he will give us another comforter and abide in us forever.) I think it would need to be slightly arranged for hymnody, but I see it working.
    I love “Spem inAlium” too.

  33. Mortimer, I’m a fellow Tallis fan! I wish that there was a way that you, Hedwig, Deborah and I could meet (online) so that we could discuss sacred choral music or just beautiful music period. I miss the the days when I could play solo Bach (cello suites) and other beautiful classical music for sacrament meeting and RS. When the BKP mandate about only playing hymns came out I gave up playing in church unless I could find a beautiful hymn arrangement that wasn’t banal and saccharine at the same time. That’s why my mom made glorious arrangements for us to perform.

    It wasn’t until I became a professional musician and played so many requiems, masses, oratorios, Bach Cantatas and bazillions of “Messiahs” that I really fell in love with choral music-especially English Renaissance choral music. Tallis’ music speaks to the deepest part of me. About 4-5 years ago The Tallis Singers came to perform at BYU. Most of their program was Tallis. I was in happy heaven. I’m not a fan of huge bombastic religious works like the Verdi Requiem. And whoever thought that “Dies Irae” (Day of Wrath and Judgment) belongs in a a requiem mass to comfort the grieving who are left behind was a sadist! Give me Brahms’ “German Requiem” and those of Faure, Durufle and Rutter instead with their messages of comfort and hope.

    There was a time in our church when beautiful music by great composers was welcome and it added so much to the spirit of our meetings. I’m old enough to remember reading President Kimball’s talk when it came out in the Ensign about the necessity of the arts in our worship and in our lives and homes. The part that I remember most is when he asked when our church was going to start producing playwrights, artists, composers, poets and authors who would be great enough to be spoken of along with Shakespeare, Van Gogh, Bach, Beethoven, Wordsworth and Dickens or George Eliot (aka Maryann Evans). While the talk was given at BYU it was a challenge to the entire church. Look at the arts in the church today and you can’t help but wonder if President Kimball weeps on high. We need to recapture his vision for the members of the church.?

  34. Mortimer, Spem in Alius rocks! Forty different vocal parts weaving in and out of each other. I definitely think that this is some of the music of Heaven. How did Tallis do it?

Comments are closed.