Friday, February 3, 2012

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

Sections covered today: Stewardship, Peace, Unity, Sunday
* = new to the Worship series

*807 Lord, Whose Then Shall They Be ("Southwell") - tune good.  text ????
*808 Touch the Earth Lightly ("Tenderness") - Eco-friendly garbage, text and tune.  Did the author and composer use green pens to write this dreck?
*809 The Temple Rang with Golden Coins (Sensmeier) - see my last post about #795.
*810 With Gifts that Differ by Your Grace ("Mozart") - Now THIS is better.  Fine tune, and the text here at least has us "using our talents" as opposed to "being green".
812 O God of Every Nation ("Passion Chorale") - The two previous edition of this hymnal used the Calvin Hampton tune "Pike".  Worship IV uses "Passion Chorale".
813 O God of Love, O King of Peace ("Tallis' Canon") - Text: bastardized once again.  Third line of first verse should read "The wrath of sinful man restrain".  Tune retained from Worship III.  Worship II used "Wilderness".  Favorite tune for this comes from "We Celebrate", and that is "Quebec" (listed in the "Pilgrim Hymnal" as "Hesperus").
*814 Peace I Leave You (Taize) - Weird melody, but it's Taize.  Take it or leave it, I guess.  In English, German, Polish, and Spanish.
*815 Everything That Has Voice (Haugen) - garbage!
*816 O Look and Wonder (Sosa) - "It is like precious oil when running fresh on Aaron's beard" - actual lyric.  WTF?
*817 Jesus Promises Communion ("Nettleton") - Such a great tune and people seem to enjoy putting weird texts to it.  Another goofy "we are one" text.  By the way, Jesus didn't always promise communion.  Remember that Gospel passage, "I come not to bring peace, but discord"?
*819 How Good and Pleasant, Lord, It Is ("Dove of Peace") - the first tune I learned with "I Come with Joy to Meet My Lord".
820 Peace with the Father ("Coena Domini") - Worship III used the Orlando Gibbons tune "Song 46".  Both that and the tune in Worship IV are well-written tunes.
*821 Creator of the Intertwined ("Kingsfold") - Intertwined?  Like in tangled-up in mangled-up knots?  (You're a twisted one, Mr. Snark!)
*822 We Are Many Parts / Muchos Miembros Hay (Haugen) - garbage/basura
*823 I Am the Vine (Bell) - Tune is one of the better ones written or used by John Bell (in this case, written).  Text, however, not so hot (we sing Jesus' voice in the first person here with no quotation marks).
824 In Christ There Is No East or West ("McKee") - Like "O God, Our Help in Ages Past", the key switches back and forth (C in Worship II, B-flat in III, back to C in IV).  Make up your dang minds, will you?
825 On This Day, the First of Days ("Gott Sei Dank") - Always liked this hymn.  However, some bastardizations in the text.  Go back to Worship II for the REAL text.
*826 Making Their Way ("Komt Nu Met Zang") - Another "gathered as one" motif, a la a good chunk of stuff from OCP composers.  Still, somewhat better than the text Worship III used with this same tune ("What Is this Place").
*827 Prepare a Room for Me ("Optatus Votis Omnium") - the tune most often used with "The Coming of Our God" (speaking of which, where is "The Coming of Our God"?).  Good tune.  Text: well, you know, all those "gathering as one" basics that we just need to brag about, right?

And those last two made the "Sunday" section.  Go figure.  Next installment starts with "Gathering".  Oh how I shudder when I see or hear that word as of late!
Peace,
BMP

2 comments:

Richard Chonak said...

"Creator of the Intertwined"? Is that a song about Al Gore?

Brian Michael Page said...

That's what I was wondering at one point. Like some misdefined "diversity" maybe? (all in the so-called name of social justice)
BMP