Range: Low
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STLT#403, Spirit of Truth, of Life, of Power
Programming Note: Look for a short Hymn by Hymn Extra later today. Last night, I attended a concert, honoring 50 years of folk music at the Eighth Step in Schenectady, NY. The show was – if you’re into regional and national folk – rather a star-studded event: Reggie Harris, Annie and the Crackpots, Brother Sun,… Continue reading
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STLT#402, From You I Receive
I was about to write something quick about this quick little song, and then go on with my day. I was going to write something like “how sweet and familiar this is” and something else about how some congregations accept the offering by singing this. And then I was going to add a quick note about… Continue reading
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STLT#401, Kum ba Yah (Come by Here)
One of the blessings of my seminary experience was getting to know the remarkable singer and scholar Kim Harris; she was finishing her PhD while I was getting my MDiv. She became a friend and confidant, a mom when I was going through the worst of my heart troubles, a singing partner, and at least once formally, my… Continue reading
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STLT#396, I Know This Rose Will Open
Lovely Update Below! Things I don’t know: I don’t know composer and colleague Mary Grigolia, although I feel like I should. I don’t know when I learned this, but it was sometime between the Louisville General Assembly (summer 2013) and the Florida Chapter UUMA retreat (spring 2015). I don’t know why I never heard it or… Continue reading
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STLT#395, Sing and Rejoice
Friends, I am running out of things to say about these little rounds. This one – another song of unknown origin – is sweet and very pretty when fully sung. Which is a sentence I have typed before and I fear will type again. You see, the thing is – the rounds themselves are good… Continue reading
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STLT#394, Hava Nashirah
This song calls to us: “Come! Let’s be singing!” And what shall we sing? “Sing alleluia!” That’s it. That’s the song. In English and in Hebrew. Hava nashirah. Shirah alleluia! Hava nashirah. Shirah alleluia! Hava nashirah. Shirah alleluia! Come, let’s be singing. Sing alleluia! Come, let’s be singing. Sing alleluia! Come, let’s be singing. Sing… Continue reading
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STLT#389, Gathered Here
Yesterday, as we closed the New York State Convention of Universalists/Hudson Mohawk Cluster gathering, my colleague Sam Trumbore called for us to sing something together. “What shall we sing?” he asked, looking at me because he knows I do this. And embarrassingly, my mind went blank. Fortunately, someone else piped up with a song (Come… Continue reading
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STLT#387, The Earth, Water, Fire, Air
This is not the chant I thought I knew. And thank all that’s holy that no one else was around, because I was blissfully singing the chant I know (very similar, but not exact – the version I know includes a verse of “ai-aaaa, ai-oooo”) and did a cartoon screech to a halt when I looked at… Continue reading
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STLT#370, All People That on Earth Do Dwell
Dear music directors and accompanists: Old Hundredth can be set in D major. I make this an announcement, because it offended at least two musicians I have worked with when I suggested that we might transpose Old Hundredth down at least to F if not to D. “But it’s in G major and that’s where… Continue reading
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STLT#366, Heleluyan
This is an amazing alleluia that comes out of the Muscogee Creek hymn tradition – which appears to emerge from the congregational line singing tradition. In a 2014 story on All Things Considered, Dr. Hugh Foley, a fine arts instructor and Native American history professor at Rogers State University in Claremore, OK, explains more about… Continue reading
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