Hymn Writing
I referred in a recent blog post to an email exchange between Mary Keithahn and me. She is the writer of the words to the song "When We Are Called to Sing Your Praise." Our exchange now includes several more emails.
From her I've learned about the Hymn Society organization. I'm sure not everyone is as much in the dark as I am about what this organization does, but I'm curious whether its work is well-known in conservative Mennonite circles. What do my readers know about this organization? Who has attended their annual conference? Who plans to attend this year? The organization, according to their website, is for the following people:
Mary partners with a musician, John Horman. She says that if I want to write words to hymns and know anyone who writes tunes, I should partner with that person, who will quickly be able to tell me what "sings" and what doesn't. All I would know to do now is to pay a lot of attention to regular rhythm and rhyme in poetry writing.
Mary also says that she's attended the conference for so many years, and met so many other hymn writers and/or heard them speak or sat under their instruction, that she now feels that she is meeting many friends when she pages through a hymnal. How awesome is that!
I've never paid much attention to what is offered at Shenandoah Christian Music Camp, although I'm sure they're doing a good work. Perhaps their work is similar to that of the Hymn Society, although certainly on a smaller scale, and with a Mennonite flavor.
The Hymn Society maintains a collection of all hymns in print. The online version can be accessed here at Hymnary.org.
Yesterday, when I was searching for the words to the song that begins with "Death Shall Not Destroy My Comfort," my Google search took me immediately to the hymnary.org website, where I typed those "first-line" words into the search box. That search took me to a page where I selected those words again from a list (of all songs that contained significant words in the search box, probably). On the next page I hit pay dirt. There was the song exactly as I remembered it. In a lineup of page scans from hymnals in which the song appears, the very first one was from the Church and Sunday School Hymnal, which is the first English hymnal our church used. It was published by Mennonites, and the words and tune are exactly as I remembered it. No wonder this version is familiar.
On this page, I also had access to a midi file that played the tune via Windows Media Player. I saw that the song is used quite infrequently, as revealed in a pie chart, with only a narrow line representing the piece of the hymnary pie devoted to this song. I also learned that it appeared in hymnals from about 1830 to about 1970. During that time it was published in 29 hymnals, although great variation is apparent in both wording and music.
No Youtube versions have tunes or words similar to the Church and Sunday School Hymnal version.
When I typed in "When We are Called to Sing Your Praise," in the hymnary.org search box, I found a short biography of Mary Keithahn, and saw also that the tune for the above song is Kingsford. That tune is listed as a midi file.
From that page I could access a listing of all the songs she wrote. I recommend especially the following titles, which Mary sent me in an email, along with the story of how she came to write the songs:
Faith is Patience in the Night
When Quiet Peace is Shattered
When We Lose a Child or Parent
She wrote the first after watching her son-in-law wait painfully but patiently for a pancreas/kidney transplant needed to sustain his life.
The second one was written in response to the disturbing painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.
Mary wrote the last song after repeatedly reading a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent by a friend after Mary was widowed in 1986.
Mary's songwriting obviously comes out of deeply felt personal experience in walking with God through hard times. No doubt, that gives her writing credibility and substance. If I ever write hymns, I'd be glad to do so by an easier route, but that probably is not mine to choose.
From her I've learned about the Hymn Society organization. I'm sure not everyone is as much in the dark as I am about what this organization does, but I'm curious whether its work is well-known in conservative Mennonite circles. What do my readers know about this organization? Who has attended their annual conference? Who plans to attend this year? The organization, according to their website, is for the following people:
The Hymn Society is for those who
- believe that congregational song is an integral component of worship
- believe that the writing and singing of new texts and tunes needs to be promoted
- value learning about the origins of the words and music they sing
Mary partners with a musician, John Horman. She says that if I want to write words to hymns and know anyone who writes tunes, I should partner with that person, who will quickly be able to tell me what "sings" and what doesn't. All I would know to do now is to pay a lot of attention to regular rhythm and rhyme in poetry writing.
Mary also says that she's attended the conference for so many years, and met so many other hymn writers and/or heard them speak or sat under their instruction, that she now feels that she is meeting many friends when she pages through a hymnal. How awesome is that!
I've never paid much attention to what is offered at Shenandoah Christian Music Camp, although I'm sure they're doing a good work. Perhaps their work is similar to that of the Hymn Society, although certainly on a smaller scale, and with a Mennonite flavor.
The Hymn Society maintains a collection of all hymns in print. The online version can be accessed here at Hymnary.org.
Yesterday, when I was searching for the words to the song that begins with "Death Shall Not Destroy My Comfort," my Google search took me immediately to the hymnary.org website, where I typed those "first-line" words into the search box. That search took me to a page where I selected those words again from a list (of all songs that contained significant words in the search box, probably). On the next page I hit pay dirt. There was the song exactly as I remembered it. In a lineup of page scans from hymnals in which the song appears, the very first one was from the Church and Sunday School Hymnal, which is the first English hymnal our church used. It was published by Mennonites, and the words and tune are exactly as I remembered it. No wonder this version is familiar.
On this page, I also had access to a midi file that played the tune via Windows Media Player. I saw that the song is used quite infrequently, as revealed in a pie chart, with only a narrow line representing the piece of the hymnary pie devoted to this song. I also learned that it appeared in hymnals from about 1830 to about 1970. During that time it was published in 29 hymnals, although great variation is apparent in both wording and music.
No Youtube versions have tunes or words similar to the Church and Sunday School Hymnal version.
When I typed in "When We are Called to Sing Your Praise," in the hymnary.org search box, I found a short biography of Mary Keithahn, and saw also that the tune for the above song is Kingsford. That tune is listed as a midi file.
From that page I could access a listing of all the songs she wrote. I recommend especially the following titles, which Mary sent me in an email, along with the story of how she came to write the songs:
Faith is Patience in the Night
When Quiet Peace is Shattered
When We Lose a Child or Parent
She wrote the first after watching her son-in-law wait painfully but patiently for a pancreas/kidney transplant needed to sustain his life.
The second one was written in response to the disturbing painting "The Scream" by Edvard Munch.
Mary wrote the last song after repeatedly reading a quote from Dietrich Bonhoeffer sent by a friend after Mary was widowed in 1986.
Mary's songwriting obviously comes out of deeply felt personal experience in walking with God through hard times. No doubt, that gives her writing credibility and substance. If I ever write hymns, I'd be glad to do so by an easier route, but that probably is not mine to choose.
posted by Mrs. I (Miriam Iwashige) at
8:23 PM
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