Music for July 14, 2019

Vocal Music

• How Great Thou Art – Stuart K. Hine

Instrumental Music

• Hyfrydol – Paul Manz (1919-2009)
• Sonata No. 1 in F minor (Adagio) – Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847)
• Praise to the Lord – Paul Manz

Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)

• Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
• Hymn 609 - Where cross the crowded ways of life (GARDINER)
• Hymn R 266 - Give thanks with a grateful heart  (GIVE THANKS)
• Hymn 602 - Jesu, Jesu, fill us with thy love (CHEREPONI)
• Hymn 610 - Lord, whose love through humble service (BLAENHAFREN)
• Psalm 25:1-9 - Tone VIIIa

This Sunday one of our choristers, Emily VanNostrand, sings a hymn that has become one of the favorite hymns of the last century, How Great Thou Art. It was voted the United Kingdom's favorite hymn by BBC's Songs of Praise and was ranked second (after "Amazing Grace") on a list of the favorite hymns of all time in a survey by Christianity Today magazine in 2001.

It is also one among challengers for least-liked hymns of many in the church. (I've discovered Amazing Grace is also a contender!) Many of those who sing this hymn throughout the world in countless translations have no idea of the duality of feeling that exists around it. Perhaps both sides would benefit from some historical perspective.

Carl Boberg

Carl Gustaf Boberg, a Swedish pastor, editor, and member of the Swedish parliament, was enjoying a nice walk when a thunderstorm suddenly appeared out of nowhere. A severe wind began to blow. After the storm was over, Mr. Boberg looked out over the clear bay. He then heard a church bell in the distance. And the words to How Great Thou Art begin to form in his heart

O Lord, my God, When I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands hath made

This poem, titled O Store Gud (O Great God) was published in 1891 in Witness of the Truth, the weekly newspaper that Boberg edited. The poem became matched to an old Swedish folk tune and sung in public for the first-known occasion in a church in the Swedish province of Värmland in 1888. Eight verses appeared with the music in the 1890 Sions Harpan. It was later translated in German. In 1927, it was published in a Russian version of the German text.

Stuart K. Hine, an English missionary to the Ukraine, heard the Russian version and sang it at an evangelistic meeting with his wife. He then translated the first three stanzas into English, which they sang at an evangelistic meeting in England during World War Two. He published the first three verses (in both English and Russian) in 1949 in Grace and Peace, a Russian evangelistic paper which Hine edited. He later wrote the fourth verse as a triumphant message of life eternal.

The hymn was introduced to American audiences during the Billy Graham Evangelistic Crusades in the 1950s. The version sung by George Beverly Shea in the Graham Crusades is vastly different from that heard in Sweden. The Crusade rendition featured soaring lines with fermatas on the last phrase of the refrain. The Swedish version is much more understated and sung in strict rhythm.

Recordings by numerous popular recording artists may be found on YouTube, but perhaps none are as memorable as the rendition by Elvis Presley on his farewell tour in 1977 weeks before his death. This Sunday Emily sings the version made popular by Carrie Underwood.