Singability: Moderate
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STLT#105, From Age to Age
I swear I didn’t set this up this way, but I am so glad that I’m singing this hymn today. It’s not my favorite melody (as much as I love Tom Benjamin and have waxed poetic about him before). But if we don’t sing a paean to the prophet souls on Martin Luther King Jr.… Continue reading
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STLT#102, We the Heirs of Many Ages
Welcome to another edition of Hymns I Have Never Sung and Plan To Use Now. We have now entered the next section of our hymnal; for those keeping track, we’ve finished the First Source songs and are now entering the Second Source, Words and Deeds of Prophetic People. (I hear you saying “people? Isn’t it… Continue reading
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STLT#82, This Land of Bursting Sunrise
It’s Christmas Eve – time for another litany of things that are cool about the earth, and oh, before we forget, a little of humanity too, because we’re not actually part of nature. Sigh. I know why we have this World of Nature section, and why we have these hymns that praise said nature. And… Continue reading
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STLT#78, Color and Fragrance
Wherein I think about process, relationship, and resistance – set to a quaint tune. I don’t know how many congregations sing this hymn. I know that my home congregation sang it exactly once a year – at flower communion, a ritual devised by Unitarian minister Norbert Čapek in Prague in the 1920s and later brought to… Continue reading
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STLT#75, The Harp at Nature’s Advent
Let’s just tuck right in, shall we? This is a pretty and light tune (albeit with an odd harmonic choice in the second phrase), and it accompanies pretty and light lyrics, almost. Because while everything is lovely and wonderful in nature, from star to sea, from earth to sky, apparently our lyricist, John Greenleaf Whittier, thinks… Continue reading
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STLT#68, Come, Ye Thankful People
I’ve been watching the series The Crown on Netflix – it’s the story of the first few years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, told in that predictably sweeping BBC style that endears to us such shows as Downton Abbey and Call the Midwife. It’s full of beautiful scenery, palace intrigue (literally in this… Continue reading
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STLT#63, Spring Has Now Unwrapped the Flowers
I’m not sure I have much to say about this one – partly because I’m jetlagged and got too little sleep thanks to a trip to Phoenix. Yay. What I know is that the lyrics are fine – another praise for spring. Yay. This set is from the Renaissance, so it’s historical. Yay. And I… Continue reading
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STLT#62, When the Daffodils Arrive
This hymn has genuinely surprised me. First, let’s talk tune: it’s set to an Hasidic melody that holds in its phrases a secret and unspoken longing – certainly an intriguing choice for a hymn called “When the Daffodils Arrive.” I will also say that at first, I plunked it out fairly slowly – but then I… Continue reading
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STLT#58, Ring Out, Wild Bells
I love being surprised by a hymn. I opened the page and groaned a little at yet another hymn I don’t know – wild bells? Clouds? Frosty light? Oy vei. Here we go again, I thought. Another fairly fluffy lyric that doesn’t go anywhere. And oh, look, another tune I have never sung. I decided… Continue reading
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STLT#57, All Beautiful the March of Days
There’s a funny opening in an episode of Family Guy, where the guys are sitting at the Drunken Clam, and a Barry Manilow concert is announced. At first they make fun of it, but slowly, they are comfortable enough to confess how much they love Manilow and are soon like excited teenagers as they plan to see… Continue reading
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