Music for August 1, 2021 + The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982.)

• Hymn 522 Glorious things of thee are spoken (AUSTRIA)
• Hymn 527 Singing songs of expectation (TON-Y-BOTEL)
• Hymn 690 Guide me, O thou great Jehovah (CWM RHONDDA)

I am away this week on vacation with my family, so there will be no choir or organ music this Sunday. Thanks to Karen Silva for playing the piano for the voluntaries and accompanying the hymns.

There are three great hymns this week. Here are some notes on them, taken from the website Hymnary.org

John Newton

Our first hymn is Glorious things of thee are spoken, written by John Newton It is written on Isaiah 33:20-21, but there are plenty of clear references to other Scriptures, which Newton cited in footnotes, such as Psalm 87 (the first two lines of the hymn are nearly a direct quote of Ps. 87:3) and Isaiah 4:5-6 (which is closely paraphrased in the third stanza). This hymn has been called one of Newton's finest hymns, and it is certainly one of his most popular, along with “Amazing Grace” and “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds.”

The most common tune for this text is Franz Joseph Haydn's famous melody AUSTRIA (which is also called AUSTRIAN HYMN, GERMAN HYMN, HAYDN, or VIENNA). This association was a very strong one until after World War II. The German national song “Deutschland über alles” (written in the mid-nineteenth century by Hoffmann von Fallersleben), paired to this tune, was used by the Nazis in World War II, and added some very painful associations to this music. The question of whether to banish this popular tune completely or retain it because of it pre-1940s history is well-answered by Paul Westermeyer: “Though it is … a tune that needs to be in hymnals for future generations, there are many circumstances where, because of its associations, this tune still should not and cannot be sung” (Hymnal Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 700).

The popularity of  William Williams's text (Guide me, O thou great Jehovah) is undoubtedly aided by its association with CWM RHONDDA, composed in 1905 by Welshman John Hughes during a church service for a Baptist Cymanfa Ganu (song festival) in Capel Rhondda, Pontypridd, Wales. Hughes received little formal education; at age twelve he was already working as a doorboy at a local mining company in Llantwit Fardre. He eventually became an official in the traffic department of the Great Western Railway. Much of his energy was devoted to the Salem Baptist Church in Pontypridd, where he served as both deacon and precentor. Hughes composed two anthems, a number of Sunday school marches, and a few hymn tunes, of which CWM RHONDDA is universally known.

At first widely disseminated in leaflet form, CWM RHONDDA gradually was adopted into various hymnals. The tune is named after the valley of the Rhondda River, a coal mining area in Wales. Though composed with simple melodic means, CWM RHONDDA is a vigorous melody in major tonality (contrary to the popular belief that most Welsh tunes are minor). 

The notion of “the unknown” is not an idea we’re overly fond of. Part of us would love to know how the future plays out - what to prepare for, what to let go because it won’t be successful anyway. C. S. Lewis alludes to this desire in Prince Caspian, in this conversation between Lucy and Aslan. “Please, Aslan!” said Lucy, “am I not to know?” “To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No, nobody is ever told that.” “Oh dear,” said Lucy.”

Not knowing what the future holds brings a certain uneasiness to our lives. And yet, in a strange kind of way, there is comfort in the fact as well. Whatever happens to us or our loved ones is out of our hands; we simply couldn’t know anything about it if we tried. There is a common phrase: “Let go, and let God.” In this hymn by William Williams, we are given the words to express our prayer that God would guide us as we walk through a life of unknowns. At the end of her conversation with Aslan, Lucy, her head previously buried into Aslan’s mane, suddenly sits up and says, “I’m sorry, Aslan…I’m ready now.” Let us pray that we are always ready to go with God wherever He takes us, songs of praises ever on our lips.