catching up with arrears here; recorded these for Easter!
Him upon the cross I love – A year some back, I think, I returned to the Catherine Winkworth oeuvre … and had a go setting this one in a kind of, um, musical theatre style? I find it rather challenging to sing, but here’s a kind of demo anyway.
Him upon the cross I love
From Thy Heavenly Throne, a new recording of one that first appeared here, words again by Winkworth.
From thy heavenly throne
God of mercy, God of grace – I recorded this before too, but maybe never shared it. Words by Henry Francis Lyte. unlike the previous two, this is less soloistic, could be definitely sung by a group, more of a … I was going to say “modern” and “hymn”, but what I think I mean is 80s-90s chorus 😄
God of mercy, God of grace
Wesley: Easter Hymn. I kind of didn’t realise these lyrics were THIS song, without the Allelulias I associate it with. So, here’s another different tune! This one is also envisaged more as a singable group song – one of those joyful marching songs for Easter.
Easter Week by Charles Kingsley. I am enjoying the jubilant melismas and big alto notes here ^_^
I started to fear I was going to run out of suitable Catherine Winkworth material, but then I had a proper look at Christian Singers of Germany, her book of biographical sketches of Luther and others around the same time together with hymn translations, not all of which I’d seen elsewhere. Hooray!
Today I sketched out five songs, all on ukulele. One of them is actually……….. very famous. Ein feste Burg / A Mighty Fortress is our God………… The translation is a bit different than the most used English one, and I’ve taken a very different direction than Bach here however.
Excerpts from five songs
…As Thy beloved, soothe the sick and weeping, And bid the prisoner lose his griefs in sleeping; Widows and orphans we to Thee commend them, Do Thou, do Thou befriend them. (Evening Hymn – Bohemian Brethren)
…The world around is passing With all its pomp and pride; What men are here amassing Can never long abide; We die–and it is gone. But fear not, Christian sleeper, God is our mighty Keeper, And we shall wake anon…. (From God shall nought divide me – Louis Helmboldt)
…And were the world with devils filled, All eager to devour us, Our souls to fear should little yield, They cannot overpower us. Their dreaded Prince no more Can harm us as of yore; Look grim as e’er he may, Doomed is his ancient sway; A word can overthrow him… (Stronghold – Martin Luther)
…Ah Jesus Christ, my Lord! So meek in deed and word, Didst Thou not die to save us, Because Thou fain wouldst have us, After this life of sadness, Heirs of Thy heavenly gladness?… (In God my faithful God – Sigismund Weingartner)
…Ah! never can I praise enough The mercy Thou hast shown! When days were dark and storms were rough Thou mad’st Thy kindness known, Thy miracles of goodness then Thou sufferedst me to see; O Bread of Life! my heart again Cries, let me cling to Thee!…. (Burning Love, holy Flame – Anon.)
First recordings of three more Catherine Winkworth songs. One of these, Out of the depths, I actually tried to write last year or something but only really came up with the first line – which I have basically used in this version.
With these I haven’t modernised the lyrics or cut any verses — I made minor changes to a verse in From thy heavenly throne to make a new section.
Out of the depths
1 Out of the depths I cry to Thee; Lord, hear me, I implore Thee! Bend down Thy gracious ear to me, Let my prayer come before Thee! If Thou rememberest each misdeed, If each should have its rightful meed, Who may abide Thy presence?
2 Our pardon is Thy gift; Thy love And grace alone avail us. Our works could ne’er our guilt remove, The strictest life would fail us. That none may boast himself of aught, But own in fear Thy grace hath wrought What in him seemeth righteous.
3 And thus, my hope is in the Lord, And not in mine own merit; I rest upon His faithful word To them of contrite spirit. That He is merciful and just,– This is my comfort and my trust, His help I wait with patience.
4 And though it tarry till the night And round till morning waken, My heart shall ne’er mistrust Thy might, Nor count itself forsaken. Do thus, O ye of Israel’s seed, Ye of the Spirit born indeed, Wait for your God’s appearing.
5 Though great our sins and sore our woes, His grace much more aboundeth; His helping love no limit knows, Our utmost need it soundeth; Our kind and faithful Shepherd He, Who shall at last set Israel free From all their sin and sorrow.
Since I posted a throwback that must mean I have NEW music, yes?
Yes! Sort of. I sketched out another four Catherine Winkworth hymns on the piano yesterday, and here is one of them, the most coherent recording~  I might try and cut together the others or re record sometime.  This has a nice pretty tune and some lovely unnecessary doodles!
I’ve branched out! We’re now doing general purpose hymns not just Christmas 😛 I found the entire Chorale book for England with hundreds of these so I AM UNSTOPPABLE….. what shall I do with all these??
Abide among us with Thy grace, Lord Jesus, evermore, Nor let us e’er to sin give place, Nor grieve Him we adore. Abide among us with Thy word, Redeemer, whom we love, Thy help and mercy here afford, And life with Thee above.
Abide among us with Thy ray, O Light that lightens all, And let Thy truth preserve our way, Nor suffer us to fall. Abide with us to bless us still, O bounteous Lord of peace; With grace and power our souls fulfill, Our faith and love increase.
Abide among us as our shield, O Captain of Thy host; That to the world we may not yield, Nor e’er forsake our post. Abide with us in faithful love, Our God and Saviour be, Thy help at need, oh, let us prove, And keep us true to Thee.
As I may have mentioned, The Hymns and Carols of Christmas became pretty much my favourite site these last few years, and not just at Christmas… When I’m at a loose end one of my favourite things to do is make Christmas songs. (I try and completely ignore the original tunes of these lyrics, or ideally not know them in the first place.)
‘As on the night before this blessed morn’, words by George Wither, from here.
This is from sometime in November, alongside all the piano pieces. I had also just been to see Frozen 2, which … isn’t necessarily relevant, but it certainly put me in a musical theatre mood! Some more expressive vocal lines. The “whom nooor the earth nor (breath) HEavn of heavns can (breath) HOOOOLD” part is my favourite ^.^
1. As on the night before this blessed morn A troop of Angels unto Shepherds told, Where in a stable he was poorly born, Whom nor the earth nor heaven of heavens can hold, Through Bethlehem rung. This news at their return ; Yea, Angels sung, That God with us was born And they made mirth, because we should not mourn.
2. This favour Christ vouchsafed for our sake : To buy us thrones he in a manger lay ; Our weakness took, that we his strength might take, And was disrob'd, that he might us array : Our flesh he wore, Our sin to wear away : Our curse he bore, That we escape it may ; And wept for us, that we might sing for aye.
Today in perfect Gladness
Another one, also just from the very end of November I think! here
1. Today in perfect gladness Our praises let us sing, The Lord Who heals our sadness, Is born today our King, The Lord Who, like a giant, His course doth run, On His own strength reliant, Our righteous Sun.
2. In darkness He is lying Who gives the sky its light, He in a stall is crying Who thunders in His might; Swathes are those Hands enfolding Which made the stars, Him swaddling bands are holding Who breaketh down hell's bars.
3. He comes, redemption bringing, He comes, the Undefiled The Rose from Lily springing, The Father from His Child. He comes, with kingly banner Not yet unfurl'd, He comes, in wondrous manner, To save the world.
I had some trouble with the word “burils” in the original lyrics… “who burrils hell’s bars”. Even if I was sure what it meant (seems to maybe be a blacksmith/carpentry tool, which is NEAT but…) … it’s not going to translate well to a random listener I fear.
I would like to make something with all these Christmas songs, and the increasing amount of “modern hymn”(?) settings (..a lot of Catherine Winkworth, basically. I’ve got the entire Lyre Germanica to go through now and I am unstoppable.) … A book? for….. some people? I suppose choral settings would be the thing. Or different versions, some of them are fairly solo/unison/pop, right?