Heaven Playlist 7--Anonymous 4 add a hefty chunk of songs
Today I'm going to write about one group of songs that all have the same performance group singing them and was I ever surprised a few years or so ago when I found this music. I just happened to see a notice that 2015-16 would be Anonymous 4's last year of performing together. They started singing in 1986 and have only had one change in personnel, an amazing feat.
Then I discovered that, as last projects, they had made a trilogy of Americana. Surprise, because over the years, A4 has forged ahead as a quartet of women singing mostly medieval music, with some newly commissioned works thrown in. They have won award after award for their impeccable style and attention to details of historical research.
And it is no surprise that the Americana trilogy has been equally researched and equally praised by classical and folk music aficionados. The trilogy consists of American Angels: Songs of Hope, Redemption and Glory; Gloryland, with folk artists Darol Anger and Mike Marshall; and 1865: Songs of Hope and Home from the American Civil War, with folk performer Bruce Molsky.
1865 need not concern us (though it does include "Shall We Gather at the River?"), but the other two are jammed full of hymns and songs for this playlist. My playlist would almost need to be renamed A4 Heaven Playlist and I really don't want that, so what I think I'll do is write about the ones I have chosen to go onto my Heaven Playlist and then list the other songs and hymns from the two CDs that would easily fit (for most of those I had already chosen a different performing artist or style).
The thing about the A4 versions is though these are four very talented women who typically sing classical music, they don't overdo it on these more simple songs. They don't gussy things up too much—not too much ornamentation, for example. They just sing the songs with the respect they deserve in their lovely voices, much more lovely, let's say, than the typical church congregation!
From the CD American Angels I had chosen these three: RESIGNATION, "Sweet By and By," and INVITATION. There are several other songs on this CD that I have in my playlist but with different performers ("Wondrous Love"—Jars of Clay; THE MORNING TRUMPET—Watersons; "Angel Band"—Johnny Cash; ) And there are a few I need to give another listen to see if I might have missed something I want to add. The A4 version "Wayfaring Stranger" leaves out some of the language I really dislike.
One I'm not choosing because I just cannot make myself like it is "Sweet Hour of Prayer." I have always disliked this song feeling it was too saccharine. I had never focused on it having a connection with heaven, but the last verse is this:
Sweet hour of prayer! sweet hour of prayer!
May I thy consolation share;
Till from Mount Pisgah’s lofty height,
I view my home, and take my flight;
This robe of flesh I’ll drop, and rise
To seize the everlasting prize;
And shout, while passing through the air,
Farewell, farewell, sweet hour of prayer.
There were clearly times as a young person being beat over the head about establishing a regular prayer time I would have been ecstatic to shout "Farewell sweet hour of prayer," but that seems a very strange thing to have on one's mind as one is flying up to heaven to meet our Lord with all the adventures in mind I want to have there. I'm more likely to be shouting, "Where are my grandmas and grandpas?", or "Take me where I can start being the theological librarian in this place!"
Another I don't think I'll add is IDUMEA, a folk hymn by Charles Wesley, very surprisingly to me, and published oddly enough in his Hymns for Children. This seems the farthest afield from a child's hymn than I can think of. IDUMEA became fairly well known through its performance in the Civil War film Cold Mountain with the star-studded cast of Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Renee Zellweger, and Natalie Portman. It was recorded at an actual Sacred Harp singing (you should definitely listen if you haven't heard it, probably one of the the most raw, true Sacred Harp experiences available) at Liberty Baptist Church in Alabama and was used, and one doesn't need to see the film to realize how effective this would be, to show the destruction from the battle at Petersburg. Far better use than as a hymn for children, for goodness sake. What I do love is the line, "O thou who wouldst not have one mourning sinner die." Again, though I'm not advocating for universalism, if we believe this of the Christ who died for us, can we not believe that he will find any way possible for us to achieve heaven rather than consigning to a hell anyone who say, hasn't heard his name, who doesn't get on his or her knees and ask Jesus specifically to be his or her personal savior, who has danced when taught it was sinful to do so, who doesn't go to church, but helps the poor and needy more than most other Christians. Why are some Christians so quick to assert that Christ doesn't want to have one sinner die, but equally quick to promote the belief that 99% of the world is going to hell in a handbasket.
"Shall We Gather at the River" is another song I had thought to leave off my list—it seems rather trite. Too pat. But a re-reading of this Robert Lowry gospel song has left me thinking that it is beautifully poetic and should be reconsidered, but I think I'll search for another version that maybe creates a different way for me to think about this.
But, finally, those I did choose: RESIGNATION (My Shepherd Will Supply My Need), a folk hymn whose text is by Isaac Watts. Clearly a restatement of Psalm 23 which I can never get enough of. Though I've never been in charge of any sheep, I watched a lamb dying as a first-grader and clearly became one with it and was very upset to see this, even though I knew a good shepherd had cared for it and was also sad it was dying. But over the years, as I then learned to love to watch the lambies gambol and frolic in the fields with their mothers, I have become even more in tune with the shepherding life from afar. Then as toddlers, my children did the Catechism of the Good Shepherd where they are taught so lovingly that the Good Shepherd knows each of us by name and will go in search of us if we are missing and take care of us in every way possible. This Watts retelling ends like this:
O may thy house be mine abode,
And all my work be praise!
There would I find a settled rest,
(While others go and come,)
No more a stranger nor a guest;
But like a child at home.
I am so blessed to have been lovingly nurtured with a solid secure home, so that I can delight in the knowledge that I will be like a child at home in the heavenly city.
Sweet By and By—this gospel song was not a favorite of mine as a child (let's just say that for the most part, the word 'sweet' doesn't apply to me or appeal to me (except in chocolate), but I love the beautiful calming voices of this version (not to be found on YouTube, sorry!). And I do love the verse:
We shall sing on that beautiful shore,
And our spirits shall sorrow no more–
Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.
The Sacred Harp camp revival song, Invitation (Hark! I Hear the Harps Eternal) I really also chose because I love the sound of this version (and sadly not on YouTube). Written from the perspective of a person getting ready to cross over the shore to the other side, the traveler hears faintly the blessed saints in heaven singing in the mansions of the land of perfect rest. I hope that I hear the saints singing "Hallelujah" instead of shouting out "Farewell, Sweet Hour of Prayer!"
Then we have the CD Gloryland. The ones I have with other performers are Ecstasy—Chelsea Moon; Where We'll Never Grow Old (haven't chosen version yet); Green Pastures—A4 have a lovely version of this with banjo and guitar, but you really have to be stupendous to beat out Emmylou, Dolly, and Ricky Skaggs for a song like this.
One of my favorite choices is not without some contradiction as the singer is a "pilgrim stranger" on the way to a home in the skies. I already mentioned in my diatribe about not choosing "Wayfaring Stranger" that I don't believe I'm a pilgrim stranger; I believe God made me for THIS world and this is where I'm to be getting on with the task of becoming like God, and that this world will in some way be the world to come. But SHINING SHORE, or My Days are Gliding Swiftly Past is just otherwise so lovely that I'm willing to overlook this little bit of language. It features the playing of the two folk musicians.
This hymn was written by David Nelson, from Eastern Tennessee (the home of some of my ancestors) who had become an "infidel" (per Julian, the hymnologist) whilst serving as a surgeon against Great Britain in the war of 1812. Later he returned to the faith and became a Presbyterian minister and wrote a few hymns. The tune, THE SHINING SHORE, is by George Root, a Massachusetts native who was a music educator and extremely important in the musical life of this country. He wrote both popular and sacred music and several of his tunes were used in Sankey's hymn book. In a verse A4 do not sing is the sublime line, "Our King says, "Come," and there's our home, Forever."
Where friend holds fellowship with friend,
tho' sundered far; by faith they meet
around the common mercy seat.
The last song I chose from this whole cornucopia of hymns by A4 is Just Over in the GloryLand. This gospel song (written in 1906) is one I've known all my life and I was despairing of finding a version I really liked until I heard this one (and it is not on YouTube either; resort to your music app, please; now I just discovered it is not available in Spotify—I must have had it in iTunes. While not any congregations I was ever a part of would sing it as beautifully as this, it comes as close in my mind to how I want it to be sung as I can imagine. This was written by Church of Christ man in Texas, James Acuff. Of the sixteen hymns listed by him in Hymnary.org, almost all of them are about heaven. This is the only one I think I know and I have absolutely no idea how many times I have sung this in my lifetime! This song does nothing but reiterate in four verses and refrain that we will be with our Savior and proclaim his praise, but it does it in the best happy-making way. Just starting off with the line, "I've a home prepared where the saints abide," takes me back to how happy I would be singing this song!
The ones I'm still thinking about are the Sacred Harp song, "I'm on My Journey Home," PLEADING SAVIOUR (I'm more used to singing the Catholic hymn, "Sing of Mary," to this tune oddly enough), plus another Sacred Harp, SAINT'S DELIGHT ("I Feel Like, I Feel Like I'm on My Journey Home). I recommend listening to the full CDs of each of these—they are just loaded with beautiful music to be cherished.
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