Heaven Playlist 8, and update

[Editor's note: Melody wrote this post in January 2021.]

Update: Well, who knew? I didn't. Crossing the Bar--while trying to find a good version of the Kontakion for the Departed, or, Give Rest, O Christ (I've referred to this in my post about my edited book, Never Enough Singing being made into an open access online book), I ran across a setting of Crossing the Bar by the British musician, Sir Hubert Parry who lived from 1848-1918. He wrote a lot of choral music and quite a bit of it is in various English hymnals; Crossing the Bar was included in Hymns Ancient and Modern (Angela Thirkell, see my post Angela Thirkell as Hymnologist, calls it "our" hymn-book, and says of it, "and Hymns Ancient and Modern were used, from a reasonable-sized book, without the additions that have more than all the demerits of the older hymns and none of their warm familiarity") in 1868, being called Sunset and Evening Star (choir of Jesus College Cambridge singing). Later the title was changed to Crossing the Bar. There are several other versions as well, unsurprisingly, as Tennyson had made quite a name for himself by this time). I'm rather in a quandary about whether or not to have the same hymn or song in my playlist if there are different settings or if I really like different versions, say, of the same song by different singers. But why not? It's my playlist and I can do as I like. 

Now to episode 8 in Heaven Playlist: 

Let's go with a group of English hymns. These are probably not really all English hymns (we'll see), but they are ones I learned as an Episcopalian and that I want to listen to in the English choirs with boys and organ generally. Of course, Sunset and Evening Star fits into this group as well, though I don’t remember singing it at church. 

I would try to rank these by how much I like them, say, but that is impossible. Except that The King of Love My Shepherd Is is perhaps one of my most favorite of any kind of song. The King of Love is an adaptation of Psalm 23, The Lord is My Shepherd. The writer, Sir Henry Baker, is said to have whispered the words of the third stanza on his dying bed. He was not only the editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, but also wrote over thirty hymns for its publication. In addition, he submitted for publication a number of other hymns to Murray’s Hymnal for the Use of the English Church. He is also known as the translator of many of the early church hymns which have persisted to this day. The version I have on iTunes is from the multi-volume recording project, The Complete New English Hymnal, and this volume is from the Choir of The King's School. 

Jerusalem, My Happy Home may be my second favorite (or on a different day, my very favorite). My favorite iTunes version is by the Schola Cantorum of St. Peter in the Loop, Chicago, a church with strong ties to the graduate school where I taught and was the library director. The Schola director is J. Michael Thompson and this is from their recording Music for the November Feasts (they also have a very thorough series of music for various periods of the church year. I think the church service where I found Anglicanism included this hymn which may be a partial indication of why I love it. I am sure I have written about this before but listening to Taylor Swift’s re-recording of the album Red, I am sure this feeling is intensified. Why do some people like the original and some like the new version with her improved vocals and deliberate nature of the copying. But for some the original may have seemed she was more vulnerable due to her young age, or maybe even the listener may go back to that first place where they heard a particular song and I feel like some hymns are like that for me. While this hymn has been sung to several tunes, I learned it as a new Episcopalian in the 1980s and from the 1940 Protestant Episcopal Church hymnal, so we sang the tune Land of Rest, a minor American traditional song known throughout Appalachia (being part Appalachian myself, maybe this increases its resonance with me) and published in Sacred Harp (1844). The tune was known to Annabel M. Buchanan (b. Groesbeck, TX, 1888; d. Paducah KY, 1983), whose grandmother sang it to her as a child. She harmonized the tune and published it in her Folk Hymns of America (1938), noting similarities between this tune and the tune for "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" (616).

I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say--This beloved hymn by Horatius Bonar (never mind that Mrs. Bonar, 2d grade teacher, was one of my least-liked elementary teachers) appears in over 1000 hymnals! This Mr. Bonar was born in Edinburgh in 1808, an ordained minister who joined the Free Church of Scotland in 1843. He was a well-known religious poet, hymn-writer, and wrote prose as well. I Heard the Voice is really about our earthly journey, but it is so beautiful, and I think we can just as easily reflect on life-giving rest, water, and life that Jesus gives to us in heaven as well. I've chosen a recording by Richard Marlow and The Choir of King's College, Cambridge titled Vaughan Williams Hymnal. This is one of my favorite CDs of all time. It not only has hymns, but also has Vaughan Williams's three hymn preludes, Hyfrydol, Rhosmedre, Bryn Calfaria; I could listen to these all day.