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lutheranhymnsDon't know this one at all, but it features some big tenor/bass gaps. Lyrically, all the verses end with "To God all praise and glory!" But it's printed only once, sort of in between the verses, like it recognizes the low Shannon density--there are a few songs that do this kind of thing for refrains, but for a line that brief I guess I would have expected to see it repeated. (The last verse also repeats "give God the praise and glory!" a couple times earlier.) The translation has some cool rhymes like "made"/"evening shade," but then also veers back and forth between past/present command. "We sought the Lord in our distress; O God, in mercy hear us. Our Savior saw..." I'm guessing this probably is less zig-zaggy in the original? But maybe not.
Hymns in the wild: the church near me has been opening up more and now we have hymnals in the pews and can sing together! So today there were a couple hymns I recognized, which was good. And then the closing song was "Inch by Inch," which is a 20th-century folk-y song about gardening. As the pastor points out, it's theological as well, maybe an allusion to Ezekiel's Valley of the Dry Bones? Sure, that works. Anyway, this is the kind of hippie folk song I listened to as a kid growing up, and the lyrics were in the virtual bulletin, so I assumed we were allowed and encouraged to sing along. Which maybe we were. But the soprano soloist had a somewhat elaborate rendition, and to me, this is is the kind of song that really does not need that. (See also: O Christmas Tree, which she performed at a short outdoor blessing of the Christmas tree last winter.)
Hymns in the wild: the church near me has been opening up more and now we have hymnals in the pews and can sing together! So today there were a couple hymns I recognized, which was good. And then the closing song was "Inch by Inch," which is a 20th-century folk-y song about gardening. As the pastor points out, it's theological as well, maybe an allusion to Ezekiel's Valley of the Dry Bones? Sure, that works. Anyway, this is the kind of hippie folk song I listened to as a kid growing up, and the lyrics were in the virtual bulletin, so I assumed we were allowed and encouraged to sing along. Which maybe we were. But the soprano soloist had a somewhat elaborate rendition, and to me, this is is the kind of song that really does not need that. (See also: O Christmas Tree, which she performed at a short outdoor blessing of the Christmas tree last winter.)
