Have music that can best Pentecost? I don't think so. Carlo gave us Durufle's Veni Creator Spiritus variations as preservice tonight (and tomorrow). Glorious! But my favorite is Luther's hymn: "Come, Holy Ghost, God and Lord!" A more stately, manly wedding of tune and text there is not in the entire corpus of Lutheran chorales.
Looking forward to singing "Come, Holy Ghost, Creator Blest" using the Sarum plainsong setting in LSB. Challenging, yes - but worth the effort.
ReplyDeleteJeff -- ULC, Mpls.
Well... there is Lent. "A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth" is in my mind the greatest hymn written of all time... ever... the last stanza of which is bringing a great deal of comfort to me as I mourn the loss of my niece/nephew (miscarried yesterday).
ReplyDeleteWish I could have been there! Love many of the Pentecost hymns, but alas we sang none of them today! Since we are no longer our grandfather's church, our "hymn" of the day was LSB 808, a catchy, peppy tune, but with rather vapid content--your typical "happy, clappy ditty" included no doubt in the name of the god of multiculturalism.
ReplyDeleteJeff - indeed!
ReplyDeleteMatt - so sorry to hear of it, but that hymn does give comfort in a powerful way.
Dear anon - ON PENTECOST? GAG ME WITH A FORK!!!
808 is entirely appropriate for Pentecost and Trinity... though the Spanish is better (I still haven't figured out why it says "Brazilian" since they speak Portuguese there... and I'm not sure how "Sing to the Lord, praise Him with the harp" becomes "So dance for our God and blow all the trumpets"). It isn't anywhere near as substantive as the Pentecost hymns... but it isn't inappropriate. If my congregation were in a neighborhood with a hispanic population, I'd probably teach it to the Sunday School kids. I'd maybe even have a project of the day asking the kids to write a verse about what Jesus has done for us.
ReplyDeleteMatt, if I were to use it (which I likely won't), it would be on CANTATE Sunday; not Pentecost!
ReplyDeleteI had to look up LSB 808, and when I saw verse 3 "dance for our God", I got an attack of post-traumatic stress, remembering a "liturgical" dancer cavorting down the aisle in the middle of a church service 30 years ago. People always trot out the story of David dancing before the Ark, but that was NOT during a church service then and doesn't belong there now, whether in fact or being referenced in a song!
ReplyDeleteLose verse 3, and I might be able to stay in my pew for this song. Just my opinion as an "old fogey!"