lutheranhymns | Entries tagged with bass echos

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Some bass echoes here for the refrain: "Rejoice! (Rejoice!)" Etc. Alto part has both accidental sharps and flats so that keeps you on your toes.

Describing Jesus' cross as a "festal banner" is pretty bold. I guess it's associated with a festival (Easter, Good Friday), and...it's...a banner? In the sense that we should be loyal to it rather than any earthly flag? Okay, I like that interpretation. But it's still a bold move.

This is fairly elaborate in terms of bass echoes/splitting up text on different lines. The melody has some high pitched "oo-oo"s, while the tenor/alto parts repeat "we are marching, marching" "in the light of, the light of God." It is also very much a zipper song in that they list "additional stanzas ad lib" rather than an official "verse 1, verse 2, etc;" you can substitute "dancing," "praying, "singing," or anything else for "dancing," and that's the only change necessary.

I'll go ahead and put it under "classics for a reason," I think it's pretty well known as an upbeat South African tune contrasted with some of the more staid English/German stuff. Some time ago the the children's choir sang a Christmas anthem with new words to this melody, so it's spread beyond the one text.

The chorus has an example of bass (and alto and tenor) echoes; "It is well (it is well) with my soul (with my soul)." The verse feature a lot of unique rhymes for "soul," too.

There was a novelist from Minnesota who used this as a title for his book about spirituality on the prairie back in the day. One of the first chapters was "When sorrows like sea billows roll," which is from the second line. One of the last chapters is "Be jubilant, my feet" which is an allusion to this one. Since I went to high school in Minnesota, we read this and wrote about it. At parent-teacher conferences, the teacher was like "so-and-so's essay was really good!" And my mom said "oh, well I haven't read the book yet, but I'll read it for book club at some point and then I'll have to read the essay." *time passes* "Where's your essay, it was supposed to be good?" Me: "...I didn't even like the book, I assume I recycled it." "...oh." But then it randomly turned up a couple years later, so cool, you can read it now!

(The book was probably too heavy for me. ~Symbolism~ woo! Yeah I don't care, sorry.)

This is a weird case of translation by committee--488 was originally in German but translated into English (the German lyrics aren't printed here). This is a very loose translation into Spanish, that skips verse 2 of 488. Now, it's possible that this Spanish is pretty close to the original German and the English is not, but the Spanish and the English aren't too literal versions of each other, other than they're both about the miracle of bread and wine becoming the body and blood of Jesus.

This arrangement also introduces a chorus (with bass echoes!), which is in E major, while the verses are in...I'm not sure what, it has no sharps or flats and ends on the third note (E) of the scale, with a bunch of G-sharps thrown in for fun. But anyway. A lot going on here, at least tags-wise!

This isn't really a big enough section to be its own "confusing title" discussion, but this has nothing to do with "Good Christian Friends, Rejoice."

Weird composer name: Melchior Vulpius strikes again! And Cyril Alington looks like he's missing an R, but no, that's correct.

Big tenor/bass gaps: check.

Tenors and altos crossing paths: not quite, but they bump into each other on a G in the second-to-last chord.

Trailing alleluias: check, this is the "and alleluias" variety.

Bass/harmony echoes: check, the trailing alleluias are spread across several notes in the various parts so it's more of an echo-y thing.

This is one of those that gets an italicized alternate/subtitle, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." Which is repeated several times per verse. We also get a bass echo part with "Leaning on Jesus" while the melody is just "Lea-ning." The tenors/basses have the reverse problem as usual, this is a case of "often they're just an octave apart or even in unison, we didn't really need four whole parts here."

This is an example of a "zipper song" where you can plug in almost anything, religious or secular, alternating with the consistent "I'm gonna let it shine." (So it works well for protests/marches/rallies etc!) I feel like there are also a couple different versions of the melody; when you're singing something longer like "Hide it under a bushel? No!" the pitches move around more than this "rising" melody; it's adaptable enough that you can fit lots of different patterns in. But maybe not with this specific harmonization.

It also features yet another "oh-h" "echoy" part in the bass. I think I will try to retroactively add a tag for those. But maybe that's a tomorrow problem.

Definitely a case of composer famous for other things, Desmond Tutu is a prominent South African theologian and anti-apartheid activist. He's also collaborated on poetry with his daughter Mpho, they got quoted in an outdoor-church sermon I attended recently. In the context of God's unconditional love: "do you [humans] think I [God] planted fig trees expecting roses to bloom?" Me, a human: well, yeah, kind of, but I'd better not interrupt.

This particular hymn also has an "echo-y" arrangement, I may need to come up with a tag for that but I'm not sure if I've been consistent about how I refer to those.

The melody is fairly catchy and fast-paced, also with some optional "echo" notes. It was originally a Hebrew folk song about God's word; this got adapted loosely to an Anglophone/Christian version. (There's an even more directly Jesus-esque version in the VBS songs from far too long ago that got stuck in my brain.)

One of my choir buddies from out west has remarked that isn't a very good text. Because, the answer to the questions it asked is just, "no." We were not there [at Jesus' crucifixion]. And you know you we were not there. So why are you asking.

If I'm being generous, I would guess that the implied meaning is "we weren't there, but all of us have sinned and therefore caused Jesus' death, so in that sense, we were there." Or maybe, it's "they" who did all these things to Jesus, not in the sense that "it was the fault of a small group of conspirators two thousand years ago," but "humans and their sin" did this; but if you add another verse about "Were you there when God raised him from the tomb" it contrasts human agency with God's awesome agency. Although that verse isn't in this edition, so who knows.

Same composer for both the text and music, which in this case means he has the tune name named after him. The writing style is the kind of "tender"/possibly over-the-top sweetness I associate with a lot of 1800s US (white, southern) gospel. The refrain also has a "call and response" part on the "come home, come home"s. It's more of an echo, I guess? It's less of a leader/follower vibe and more of the "evermore" ("evermore"). Maybe I need a tag for this.

Is there an "echoy" part in the harmonization?

Yep! "I want Jesus to walk with me (walk with me)."

What is the significance of the hymn tune name?

Well, "Sojourner" is "someone who goes on a journey," so that makes sense in the context of "walk with me." But it's also the name of a prominent African-American abolitionist of the early 1800s, and this is an African-American spiritual, so I'm guessing this arrangement was made with an eye to her.

How's the Shannon density?

Fairly low; lines one and two are a repeat of each other, and the last line is the same in all three verses.

Is this actually a metaphor for death?

I'm not sure? We're in the "Sending" section which is mostly hymns for like the end of church services, and the verses are mainly generic requests for God's love and support towards another person/people. But then the refrain is "till we meet at Jesus' feet," which uh, feels a little more ominous than "next week, same time, same place."

What's up with the bass clef?

The men (tenor/bass) have an "echo" type response in the harmonization: "Till we meet (till we meet), till we meet (again)." A little bit like the "evermore (evermore)" from "Guide Me Ever, Great Redeemer."

But this is an American Gospel song?

Sounds like it. Just looking it up, it looks as if the text was written by Jeremiah Rankin, who also wrote, uh, fanfic from the point of view of Aaron Burr's mom...!!

What language is the original text in?

This was surprisingly hard to track down; it's just cited as a traditional East African text, and many of the words aren't on wiktionary. :p But my best guess is Swahili.

Is it in unison-only or harmony?

Both! The first two lines we just have a melody line, with a couple small notes (firstly for splitting up two syllables in verse 2 that correspond to one in verse 1, then a harmony part on "Believe!"). But then the last two lines have a four-part harmony, again with the optional "Believe!"

Does the composer have a cool name?

Not necessarily the composer but one of the indirect sources of a traditional South African melody: Gobinca George Mxadana!

What's the Shannon density?

Text-wise, very repetitive; music-wise less so.

Do you only sing it once or over and over again?

I'm not sure because I don't know it, but this arrangement is attributed to the Iona community, who I think are on the "repeat" side of things.

Does the writer have a silly name?

Not silly as in hard to spell, but "William Williams" makes me giggle.

Is that just a Welsh thing?

I...guess? Maybe? It's a popular hymn in Wales.

How has this influenced UK culture?

The first verse ends in the familiar melody "Bread of heaven, bread of heaven, feed me now and evermore (evermore*), feed me now and evermore." This has been famously riffed on for opposing teams' football (soccer) chants; when one team's fans go quiet after things aren't going their way, the refrain is "you're not singing anymore, you're not singing anymore."

There are many variants, ie, if the home team has been drowned out by the visitors there's "you're supposed to be at home." And then from that, if the referee is on the short side, "you're supposed to be a gnome." :D

*the harmony "evermore" part is printed in small text as an optional alto-bass thing :)