[Maryann Corbett]

Just now I'm collaborating with my choir director on a translation and setting of Veni Sancte Spiritus, and years ago I did a good bit of liturgical music writing. Since most congregational music calls for meter and a great deal of it calls for rhyme, and this forum is friendly to both of those, I wondered: Is anybody else out there involved in hymn writing? Are there old threads here I should be aware of?

Best,
Maryann

[Carol Taylor]

Maryann, whatever the attraction in liturgical music is (and some of it is truly beautiful), it isn't the words, which are the same over and over and almost always lifted directly from Bible passages. The lyrics of hymns don't usually make for good poetry when separated from the music. I guess the same can be said for most secular songs. There are only so many ways you can repeat the same few tropes, and when the subject never changes it's hard to avoid recurring words and phrases. A good song is one that finds a felicitous combination of old words and new melody and harmonies, but a poem has to depend on its originality and its appeal to a non-converted readership.

Carol

[Terese Coe]

Maryann,

I'm glad you brought this up, since I do love hymns. They were the best part of church and Sunday School for me (in childhood). I tried to write one a number of years ago, though I've no music for it:

Hymn

If you should seek the highest good
would it be truth or beauty,
or innocence or work or God,
or nature, love and duty?

What sorry thing you cannot love
may gain your love tomorrow;
the kindness that’s too much to give
may prove too much to borrow.


Terese

[Maryann Corbett]

Terese, thanks for your response and for your hymn; I did get a PM (and another hymn!) on the subject from one other member.

Carol has made some valid points; it's true that what you can say in a hymn is limited by the beliefs of the group that's going to be singing. But it most definitely isn't true that all hymn texts are lifted straight from Scripture. There is some room for creativity, within limits.

It's a special challenge to write words that can be sung, by a group of untrained singers, from the heart. Not all poets will be interested in it. But some might. Among the many, many registered members of Erato who only lurk, there might be a few who have done this. If you're not eager to do the public discussion thing, feel free to PM me.

Regards,
Maryann

[Lightning Bug]

carry on...

[Terese Coe]

Bugsy,

That is a sweet hymn. Your best poem of those I've seen.

Terese

[David Anthony]

Here's something I wrote in hymnal stanzas (modelled on "It came upon a midnight clear"), though the theology's a bit dodgy.

Nearer to Thee

We scanned the headlines for the news
and sensed what was to come:
those children in the photograph
were not returning home.
Small hope surrendered with a bleak
announcement on TV,
and someone played a brave old tune—
Nearer, my God, to Thee.

Can God be near when malice lurks
throughout the world He made,
when every generation sees
its innocents betrayed?
Each evil lessens all of us—
Who lets such evil be?
But grief fills churches, grief and shame,
and brings us nearer Thee.

We search for meaning, finding none,
for hope where hope has died.
I think about a message sent
when Christ was crucified:
untainted lives are beacons, bright
however dark the sea.
Take them, Father; take our hopes
and hold them near to Thee.

(In memory of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman)

[Maryann Corbett]

Thanks to everyone who has responded.

I've just been reminded of something: Richard Wilbur wrote Christmas a hymn. Perhaps he wrote other hymns, but this one I know well: A Stable Lamp is Lighted. To the best of my knowledge, he wrote the text before any music had been written. There are, I think, several musical settings now, and they're out there for sale (and very popular) so I shouldn't reproduce the whole thing, but the first verse goes like so:

A stable lamp is lighted
Whose glow shall wake the sky.
The stars shall bend their voices
And every stone shall cry,
And every stone shall cry
And straw like gold shall shine.
A barn shall harbor heaven,
A stall become a shrine.

Lots could be said about the kinds of creativity going on here.

Maryann

[Peter Chipman]

Yes, Maryann, when you first brought up the topic I was thinking of that poem of Wilbur's, and Rossetti's "In the Bleak Midwinter," and Cowper's Olney Hymns, and even Pope's "Universal Prayer." I love them all, even without music. Always have, even when I was a scientific humanist teenager.

Sorry I don't have any hymns of my own to show. Someday, maybe.

-Peter

[Lightning Bug]

Peter,

That Rosseti piece has been made into a lovely lyric of the same title on the James Taylor Christmas Album. The lines are cherry-picked, re-arranged, and perhaps some added. It's my favorite on the album.

Bugsy

[edit] Ooops, seems like everybody has done that song.

[This message has been edited by Lightning Bug (edited April 12, 2006).]