Each week, Music Director Barb Bosman shares her favourite hymns and inspirations to encourage and inspire you.
Music Notes
September 27, 2020
Psalm 27:6
“And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me: Therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tabernacle. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.”
Welcome to what may be our last week of virtual worship! It’s pretty unbelievable that when we started this, way back in March, it was only to be for maybe two weeks- we weren’t sure, but we never anticipated 6 months! It will be SO good to be together again in our wonderful old church, even if we can’t be close together. AND, we won’t be able to sing out loud , but we will have to find some ways to still have music, and make it enjoyable.
Because this is the last week, we decided to celebrate a little with a singsong.
The music we’ve chosen for this week , except for one song, is found in Voices United, and all are well- loved. One of the worst things about this isolation is the fact that our choir will be unable to sing as a group. So today, we have a “mini choir” to sing some familiar hymns for you. Marjorie Duizer, and Laurel & Mark Mitchell , regular choir members, and fortunately for me, in a family bubble, as far as the pandemic social distancing rules are concerned met in my garage to record songs which they each chose. And as a special treat, each sang solo parts in the song which was their particular favourite.
“Amazing Grace”-#266 VU-is my choice for our medley – but we are going to present it with a difference! Marjorie has been part of a choir that used this tune and Mark remembered that Terry Fletcher had talked about it as well. “The House Of The Rising Sun”, written and performed by The Animals in 1983, surprisingly has the same rhythmic pattern. It was a version we had planned to do with the whole choir, but hadn’t had a chance to do it. Hope you enjoy it!
Marjorie chose “In The Garden” as her favourite song to include today. This is the one hymn you won’t find in Voices United , but it is in the Gold hymn Book-#588 if you have one at home.
C. Austin Miles, wrote this lovely hymn in 1912. He had been a pharmacist, although wrote gospel hymns for the latter part of his career. This song’s popularity is enormous and prolonged. It has been recorded by countless artists through the years.
Laurel’s choice for our little singalong today is-” Pass It On”# 289 VU- sometimes known as “It Only Takes A Spark”. I gave a little history of this much- loved hymn a few weeks ago, and you might remember that it was written in 1969 by Kurt Kaiser- it took only about 20 minutes! He says ,”I am always amazed how the Lord can take a little song and use it to reach so many people.”
Our final song today is chosen by Mark- “How Great Thou Art”-# 238 VU. Written in 1885 in Sweden, by Carl Boberg, translated into German(1907), then into Russian(1912) and then into English(1925). It has been ranked second in one survey as the favourite hymn of all time- ranked behind Amazing Grace! It was first recorded in America in 1935, and since that time re-recorded by artists too numerous to list. It was a favourite song of Mark’s mom, which makes it even more special to him.
So that’s our singalong for this morning- we hope you found some comfort and enjoyment as you sang along.
I’ll close today, quoting something from the wonderfully uplifting posts which Robert Hunking has been including on the church Facebook-
“Remember, when you’re in a position to help someone, be glad and do it.
That’s God answering someone else’s prayer through you.”
Thank you, Robert.
Be well, everyone.
Sing along! … When you’re singing at home, you be as loud as you like! (True fact – Singing, especially in a choir increases life expectancy 🙂