10 May 2008

A New Pentecost Hymn

Holy Spirit, the wind of great power,
Source of strength and of peace and of love,
Truest Comforter, plead,
As You bring all our need
To the throne of God's glory above.
Be the light that enlightens the Scriptures;
Keep our feet from each devilish snare;
Only You can make whole
All that troubles our soul;
By Your chrism, Christ's triumph we share.
[LSB 502:4]

Cindi loves this song. I must confess, though, that I just can't get over the one part where the music is an exact match for "chim-chim-cherie-chim-cheru!"

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's funny.
I always think Man of La Mancha or Fiddler on the Roof.
Hard to take a song seriously as a hymn when it suggests Broadway.
Susan R

Anonymous said...

So I'm not the only one who is reminded of Mary Poppins by this song. (And there are lots of weird connections there. Just something really wrong with that movie. Gives me the creeps.) Oh well, enough of my personal psychoses. A good hymn, but a wretched tune.
Peace

Rev. Gerson Flor said...

My problem with this hymn is not so much the tune (hey, there ARE Christians in other cultures, too, and they may have different tastes!), but with the tongue-twisting vocabulary. "Devilish snare," "chrism," "resting serene" are some unexpected wording (which is even more noticeable in the Spanish words).
That said, a young lady in our congregation reffered to the tune as "piratish" ...
Anyway, I guess we can all agree that "Oh, enter Lord Thy temple" and "Come, Holy Ghost, in love" would have a place in any Lutheran hymnal.

Anonymous said...

I fully understand the 'different cultures-different tastes/styles' idea.
What troubles me is such a hymn, and a few others in LSB, stand as curiosities, and appeal (or repel, I suppose) solely on the basis of style.
And I too find it wordy and unwieldy.
Similarly, as much as I love the use of Holst's rousing tune Thaxted for the Te Deum, it too is wordy and awkward, with different rhythmic emphasis required from verse to verse in the same place.
Makes it not very accessible to laymen. I wonder if it will ever flow as effortlessly as I'd hope a hymn would.
It was very inspiring to hear all those glorious male voices singing it in the glorious acoustics of Kramer Chapel; but it's hard for my choir to wrap themselves in the same gusto, in our smaller, less resonant space.
I humbly submit...
Susan R

William Weedon said...

Susan,

On that one I'll have to disagree - on the basis of my experience with it at St. Paul's. We taught it to the kids for chapel, and they can really belt it out. They often ask for it at hymn sings, of all things. The congregation quickly picked it up and mastered it too.

William Weedon said...

Oops - my reference above was to the Starke Te Deum.

Anonymous said...

My reference as well, pastor Weedon: Starke's setting to Holst's tune.
Thanks for the response. I haven't given up on it yet, my normally cooperative choir notwithstanding.
As I said, it was very inspiring in Kramer Chapel. One would think men would love to sing it--it's a manly hymn, with a manly setting. Same with St. Patrick's Breastplate.
I'd love to make the Te Deum a centerpiece at our congregation's anniversary celebration service this Oct. But I have a ways to go, just with the choir.
Maybe we'll try the children route. We no longer have a children's choir, but when we did, they mastered Isaiah Mighty Seer well ahead of the grownups. The Sunday School would be a good place to start.
Many are the battles we church musicians choose to fight, or must fight...many are the strategies at our disposal...
Susan R

Rev. Gerson Flor said...

Hi Susan,
a uhmble suggestion... you can always use LSB 940, the traditional versification of the Te Deum, if the new version doesn't fly. I, myself, see no pressing need to teach my congregation a new one (it's not like we have nothing else to learn, beginning with Luther's Catechism hymns).

Anonymous said...

Thanks, rev. gerson flor.
And there's always the setting in Matins.
SR