Singability: Choir or Soloist
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STLT#321, Here in the Flesh
Let me start off by saying I feel significantly better today, with just a leftover fog from the meds and sleeping a lot. Phew – what a weird siege that was. Yet even a clearer head and lack of pain won’t help me today. Let me say for the record that I am glad we have… Continue reading
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STLT#319, Ye Earthborn Children of a Star
I’m not sure if it’s the muscle relaxers and anti-viral meds I’m on because of a weird virus that hit me late last week, or Charlottesville, or something else, but I just can’t grok this hymn this morning. I don’t get the tune (by Dede Duson, commissioned for this hymnal), and while I intellectually understand… Continue reading
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STLT#314, We Are Children of the Earth
I’ve been sitting here trying to troubleshoot a problem with the site in an attempt to avoid writing about today’s hymn. But I know I must, so here goes. I have problems with this hymn. Not because it’s set to an unfamiliar tune by noted Vietnamese composer Nguyễn Đức Toàn. (We also have from him… Continue reading
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STLT#310, The Earth Is Home
I don’t think I’m awake enough yet. I’ve been puzzled by hymns before, but I’m not sure I’ve been baffled by them. I swear, I am sitting here, having actually tried to sing this and wondering what just happened and can I get those five minutes back, please. I know you’ve all come to expect… Continue reading
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STLT#296, O Ye Who Taste That Love Is Sweet
Confession: sometimes I sing a hymn and all I really have to say is, ‘yep, it’s great’ and then I look for more to say. I love this hymn. It’s great. The melody, a late 15th century French tune by Franciscan monk Jean Tisserand, is lush and a bit bittersweet, and provides a perfect mood… Continue reading
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STLT#292, If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking
Last night, friend and colleague Erika Hewitt brought a message of love to evening worship here at SUUSI. It was not an easy message – she challenged us to flex our heart muscles in new ways, to lean into empathy, to see love in part as being willing to look past events and out into… Continue reading
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STLT#218, Who Can Say
As with any art form, the more you engage it, the more familiar you become with those who practice it – sometimes it’s easy, like discerning Picassos in the Modern Museum of Art. Sometimes it’s less so, requiring some familiarity – signature dance moves mark the difference between Jerome Robbins and Bob Fosse, signature word… Continue reading
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STLT#198, God of Many Names
Artists of all stripes have a signature style, a turn of phrase or brush or pen or finger that marks them as distinctive, a common theme or mood that repeats throughout a body of work. If we are seeing a representative sampling of Brian Wren’s hymns, then his signature is a propensity for expanding the… Continue reading
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STLT#195, Let Us Wander Where We Will
I like it when I have eureka moments with hymns I have never sung – those moments when I wonder “where has this song been all my life” or at the very least “wow, did I need this lyric this morning.” I am sorry to say there was no eureka today. Maybe a moment of… Continue reading
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STLT#173, In the Branches of the Forest
This is our happy, light Hymn. Not. A short post today, as I am traveling and typing this on my phone. I will say that the tune was deceptively harder than I expected – the intervals didn’t flow gracefully for me, and were at times discordant. Maybe that’s the point. This lyric is clearly not… Continue reading
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links
Learn more about my ministry at The Art of Meaning
Read my thoughts about congregational life at Hold My Chalice
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