Hymn Blog - May 2, 2010

May 2, 2010 – Easter V

VU 870 – Let All Creation Bless the Lord. Although included as a metrical version of psalm 148, the psalm of the day, Carl Daw originally wrote this text as a paraphrase of the canticle Benedicte, omnia opera Domini, from the apocryphal book, the Song of the Three Young Men. American Episcopalian Carl Perkins Daw Jr., taught English at the College of William and Mary prior to theological studies. He was ordained a priest in 1982, and served as a pastor in Virginia and as vicar-chaplain at the University of Connecticut.    He served from 1996 to his retirement in 2009 as the Executive Director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. He was made a fellow of the Society in 2007. He is a widely published hymn poet, with six of his texts appearing in Voices United and three in More Voices. This text is from Daw’s book, A Year of Grace (1989). The tune, ALLEIN GOTT IN DER HÖH, is adapted from a 10^th century plainsong melody.

VU 444 – Child of Blessing, Child of Promise. This beautiful baptismal hymn text is by Ronald Cole-Turner, the H. Parker Sharp Professor of Theology and Ethics at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a position that relates theology and ethics to developments in science and technology. An ordained minister of the United Church of Christ (USA), Cole-Turner wrote this hymn in 1980, and it was used at the baptism of his daughter in 1982. The tune, STUTTGART, is attributed to Christian F. Witt, and is found in the Lutheran Psalmodia Sacra (1715, Gotha, Germany). It was adapted in its present form, harmonized and named by Henry J. Gauntlett for Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861).

VU 467 – One Bread, One Body. During Communion we sing this hymn by John B. Foley S.J. A member of the St. Louis Jesuits, who have made major contributions to liturgical renewal in the Roman Catholic Church, Foley has advanced degrees in theology, philosophy and liturgical theory. Foley also has extensive formal musical training, including study at Toronto’s Royal Conservatory of Music. Foley has published many pieces of liturgical music as well as concert music and four musicals, and has recorded multiple albums with the St. Louis Jesuits.

VU 465 – Christ, Be Our Host. This hymn both introduces and closes our communion liturgy. The text is by Herman G. Stuempfle Jr, who died in 2007, at age 84. He was a pastor, poet and educator. A pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, he served as professor, dean and president of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg for 27 years. He authored over 500 hymn texts, eight of which appear in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, the 2006 hymn book of the ELCA. The tune, EARTH AND ALL STARS, is by the late David N. Johnson, an American organist, composer and professor of music at Syracuse University and Arizona State University. This tune was originally written for the text of the same name found at 888 in Voices United. Johnson died in 1987.