Singing the Apostles Creed: The Early Years

Over at jwinters.com, there are music posts every Friday.  Last Friday featured a blast from the 80's past, "Creed" by Petra.  Of course I asked about the Rich Mullens' "Creed".  JW noted he knew of Petra because of his dad, but had not been exposed to much Rich Mullens.

This led to some thinking on my part, and this post featuring non-traditional settings of this historic creed.  Now it's turned into a two-part series (potentially three).

NOTES ABOUT THE TRANSLATIONS:

In the second article, the ICET text states, "He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit."  The correct translation is "Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit." 

Latin word order differs significantly from English, and articles are rarely used, but here is the direct translation. 

     qui  conceptus est   de    Spiritu Sancto

     who  was conceived  by/of   Spirit  Holy

The use of the term "catholic," i.e. "the holy catholic church" refers to the "universal" church, the church of all times and all places, and does not refer to any particular denomination.

     sanctam   Ecclesiam      catholicam

     holy       Church    universal/catholic

The Lutheran Hymnal, Lutheran Worship and Lutheran Service Book chose to translate the phrase as "holy Christian Church."

Here is a guy giving us the Latin text, first spoken and then chanted.  A couple things: yes that is a rosary (I give no endorsement to this practice) and no, this is not the best way to chant.  The video is a tutorial for learning Latin, so each note of the chant is given a succinct beat.

Moving ahead a few hundred years, here is a choral version.  If it sounds to your English ear that the text picks up in the middle of a thought, that is because it does!  During this time, a cantor would intone the first phrase, and the choir would continue with the rest of the creed.

Cantor: Credo in Deum

        I believe in God

Choir: Patrem omnipotentem, 
            Creatorem caeli et terra...

       the Father almighty, 
            Creator of heaven and earth...

I am not sure of the composer of this setting, but I would place it in the later middle ages, possibly very early Renaissance era.

In the next post, English versions, both spoken and sung.

A Multitude of Mighty Fortresses: To Be Continued...

As you may remember, this blog started with a series called "A Multitude of Mighty Fortresses," revolving around the great Reformation hymn, "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."

I had originally planned to do 4 posts, one for each stanza.  This post makes #13, and I have only gotten to lines 3 and 4 of the first stanza.

The series will pick up again sometime in the new year, possibly towards the end of Epiphany and the beginning of Lent.  The hymn is the appointed Hymn of the Day for Lent 1.

For now, let's settle in for Advent.

Introducing WorshipConcord

Here is the discription of WorshipConcord from the blog.

WorshipConcord is a resource for worship leaders, lay and ordained. It is a “go-to” place for acquiring the necessary tools to make worship choices that are good for the church. It is a safe place for asking questions, sharing resources, and discussing each other’s work in a non-threatening way.

The goal of WorshipConcord is twofold:

● to promote harmony by fostering respect between those who appreciate different worship forms, and . . .

● to equip worship leaders with the tools they need to evaluate contemporary forms for use in the local congregation.

The most recent posts feature "Chemnitz on Traditions" (so far there are 11 posts in this series) and "My Favorite Thanksgiving Hymns" (four posts in this series).

Thanks to All for Hymn's Facebook follower Micah, who also follows WorshipConcord on Facebook.  I found this blog by clicking on his icon.

You, too, can check out All for Hymn on Facebook and become a follower!

While you are there, check out WorshipConcord's Facebook page as well.

If you know of other worship or music blogs of note, please drop the link in any comment box.

Advent I: Sound of Majesty

One of the features got me hooked on Sound of Majesty was its Advent programming.  Each Sunday in Advent features readings from the historic lectionary and quotes from one of Luther's sermons for that day.

Listen live at wmbi.fm on Sundays at 11:00 pm Central.  Alternately, you can listen to this week's broadcast here and follow along with the playlist.

Advent I: Savior of the Nations, Come

Dating back to Ambrose (340-397)and translated to German by Martin Luther, "Savior of the Nations, Come" is a wonderful way to ring in Advent and the "new year" of the church.

Not by human flesh and blood,

By the Spirit of our God,

Was the Word of God made flesh - 

Woman's offspring, pure and fresh.

For a word-for-word translation of the German text, check out the first half of this video. The translation appears in text while the organ plays the chorale.

Here's a guy just having fun with the tune. I call it "Hymn and Toccata in G-Dorian."

And this guy has fun with the tune and likes the harmonies in both Lutheran Worship and Lutheran Service Book.

For all you orchestral fans out there, this is a lovely instrumental arrangement by JS Bach. If it ain't baroque, fix it!

From Cantata 61, in German. This is not your ordinary church choir; they can do a trill in unison!

For You are the Father's Son

Who in flesh the vict'ry won.

By Your mighty pow'r make whole

All our ills of flesh and soul.

Just for Fun: Muppets take Bohemia

Introducing Wordwise Hymns

Wordwise Hymns takes a different approach to hymn blogging.  Scrolling through the archive, you will notice that blogger Robert Cottrill often provides historical background on hymns and hymn writers.

If it happened on a given day, he blogs about it on that day!  Its kind of like having a commemoration day for a hymn or hymn writer.

Robert recently weighed in on a Sound of Majesty broadcast here on All for Hymn.  That particular broadcast featured the tune "Miles Lane" with the text "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name."

Today marks the anniversary of the birth of James Ellor, who wrote the tune, "Diadem" for this piece.  Neither of these tunes made it to Lutheran Service Book, so I will feature Diadem plus the tune "Coronation" from LSB below.  For the tune "Miles Lane" check out this broadcast of Sound of Majesty.  You can also follow along with the playlist for that show.

Read Robert's post on James Ellor here.  You can read about Robert's faith journey here.  Robert has served as parish musician, parish pastor and educator.  In our tradition he would probably be called Kantor.

Tune: Coronation

Coronation with a contemporary twist

Tune: Diadem

Diadem with a Mens Chorus

Diadem with Mahalia Jackson