Comments on: The new hymnal-ette

By: Ereshkigal

Ereshkigal — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 19:37:28 +0000

SLT has introduced more than its fair share of saccharine jingles. For All That Is Our Life sounds like a Campbell’s Soup ad.

THANK YOU!!!

Sometimes I think that half the Singing the Living Tradition is a collection of Hallmark cards set to rejected Muppet movie music.

I guess that I must wait until our GA delegation returns home to get reviews of the newer submissions.

By: Philocrites

Philocrites — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 12:17:01 +0000

Let me amend my comment just a bit: Most of these songs will sound contemporary, of course, but “Be Thou with Us” and “We Begin Again in Love” are the only two that were both written and scored since the publication of “Singing the Living Tradition.”

By: Philocrites

Philocrites — Fri, 17 Jun 2005 11:56:19 +0000

The 13 songs included in the “Jewish and Christian Teachings” section are:

“We Begin Again in Love” (R. Eller-Isaacs; L. Kleen, 1996)
“23rd Psalm” (B. McFerrin, 2003)
“Be Thou with Us” (D. Budd, 1994; T. Benjamin, 1995)
“Hush” (Afric-Amer spiritual; J. Shelton)
“Santo” (C. Guillermo, 1986)
“Rivers of Babylon” (T. McNaughton, G. Reyam, F. Farian, B. Dowe, 1978)
“Szekely Aldas” (Trad. Transylvanian; E. Norton, 2002)
“Eli, Eli” (H. Senesh; D. Zehavi, arr. K Herman)
“There Is a Balm in Gilead” (Afric-Amer spiritual; arr. N. Williams Jr, 2000)
“Shall We Gather at the River” (R. Lowry, 1865)
“Nada Te Turbe” (”Santa Teresa de Jesus”; J. Berthier / Taize)
“Ubi Caritas” & “Vieni Spirito Creatore” (J. Berthier / Taize)

By my count, that’s one hymn (”Shall We Gather”), one spiritual, one gospel setting of a spiritual, one reggae spiritual, five chants or praise refrains (including one in Hungarian), one choral anthem (”23rd Psalm”), one Hebrew or Aramaic song, and two Spanish songs. Only one of these — Daniel Budd and Tom Benjamin’s 13-word praise song “Be Thou with Us” is genuinely contemporary.

Happily, “Here I Am, Lord” didn’t make the cut.