Hymn Blog - November 20, 2011

November 20, 2011 – Reign of Christ

VU 820 – Make a Joyful Noise. This upbeat setting of our psalm of the day (Psalm 100) is by Vancouver composer Linea Good, from her collection Stickpeople (1992). Linnea is a well known United Church musician, who tours extensively across Canada.

MV 101 – Jesus, You Fill Our Hearts. Text and tune are by Dan Damon, internationally published writer of hymn texts and tunes. He is pastor of First United Methodist Church, Richmond, California. Dan serves as adjunct faculty in church music at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. He plays piano in clubs in the San Francisco area and studies piano and composition with Richard Hindman. Dan has toured Zimbabwe with the Jubilate Choir from the Pacific Northwest Conference of the United Methodist Church. Dan is a life member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, and is a member of the Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts. His newest collection, Garden of Joy (2011) was published by Hope Publishing.

MV 162 – Christ, within Us Hidden. This hymn explores a number of images of encounter with Christ. Author Curtis Tufts grew up in Calgary Alberta, and is a life-long member of the United Church of Canada. After first dropping out of confirmation class, he re-entered the church through a lively Hi-C youth ministry, and was a candidate for ordained ministry by the ripe age of 18. He studied at the University of Calgary and St. Andrew’s College in Saskatoon, was ordained in 1981 and has ministered in Peace River AB, Maymont SK, Calgary AB, Saltcoats SK, and Spruce Grove AB. Frustrated with the words available in the hymn books of the day, he began writing new hymn lyrics to familiar tunes in 1985. The tune, ALEXANDER, is by Sid Woolfrey, a graduate of Memorial University of Newfoundland, with a B.A. and B.Ed. in Psychology and English. Later, through studies in Nova Scotia, Quebec, and St. Pierre, he specialized in French. He has studied music at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick. A church organist since the age of 12, he has directed musical theatre for elementary and junior high school students, has many years of experience directing community and church choirs, and for 30 years was church organist and choir director for the Herring Neck Pastoral Charge in Newfoundland. Throughout that time, he conducted several choir workshops for all ages, focusing on the ministry of music in worship and the melding of music and liturgy. Sid also served as a member of the More Voices Development Team. He believes music is a language accessible and meaningful to all in our congregations.

VU 700 – God of Freedom, God of Justice. New Zealand hymn poet Shirley Erena Murray wrote this text in 1980 for a Prisoner’s of Conscience service held in support of Amnesty International’s Campaign Against Torture. It is set to PICARDY, a model tune from French sources, which probably originated as a carol melody in the 17^th century.