Hymn Blog - October 11, 2009

October 11, 2009 – Thanksgiving Sunday

VU 218 – We Praise You, O God. This text was written in 1902 by Julia Cory for a Thanksgiving service at the request of her organist at Brick Presbyterian Church in New York City. The original 16^th century text, known as the “Dutch Hymn of Thanksgiving” was written in celebration of the release of the Netherlands from Spanish rule. The tune, KREMSER, was arranged by the 17^th century Viennese conductor, Eduard Kremser, from a tune published with the earlier text in a 17^th century collection of Dutch folk songs.

MV 191 – What Can I Do?   Singer songwriter Paul Rumbolt was born in Newfoundland, but has been a resident of the foothill country of Alberta for the past 15 years.

VU 541 – Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow. This best known doxology was written by Thomas Ken, while he was chaplain at Winchester College,. Probably in use as early as 1674, it was published in 1695 in the appendix to Ken’s “Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College.” The tune OLD 100^TH was composed or adapted by Louis Bourgeois, and published in the enlarged edition of the Genevan Psalter of 1551.

VU 584 – Anthem with congregation joining last verse. The text of the final verse was written by the late Sylvia Dunstan, United Church minister, hymn poet and Fellow of the Hymn Society. It was commissioned for the 250^th anniversary of First and Central Presbyterian church in Wilmington Deleware. The tune, HERMON, was composed in 1935 by Charles Venn Pilcher, professor of New Testament at Toronto’s Wycliffe College, and precentor at St. Alban’s Anglican Church.

VU 221 – Sing Praise to God, Who Has Shaped. Joachim Neander rebelled against his family’s piety, but was converted at age 20 in Bremen, Germany. This text was written in 1680, when he was 30, and the year he died of tuberculosis. It is based on Psalm 103:1-6 and Psalm 150. This translation is by Madeleine Forell Marshall, and first appeared in The New Century Hymnal (1995). LOBE DEN HERREN is adaption, by Neander, of an anonymous German choral tune first published in 1665.

MV 187 – We Give Our Thanks. We Give Our Thanks. This is a traditional song from Botswana. The original words were translated by the great Taiwanese hymnologist I-to Loh, who is a retired professor of Worship, Church Music and Ethnomusicology at Tainan Theological College & Seminary, also an adjunct Professor of Worship & Church Music at the Southeast Asian Graduate School of Theology. He was the editor of Sound the Bamboo: CCA Hymnal 2000. The simple structure invites improvisation of text, which we have done.