Category: Church

As a worship planner, I try hard not to put my own musical preferences over my congregation’s. However, during certain liturgical seasons I insist on singing a short list of songs that are my personal favorites. This could be considered selfish, but they’re all really good songs, so in a way I’m doing everyone a favor. In any case, during Lent and Holy Week any church of mine will sing “What Wondrous Love Is This” (MP3) and “Ah, Holy Jesus” (MP3).

“What Wondrous Love Is This” is from the Shape Note tradition. Like the best of these early American songs, the tune is beautiful but slippery (what key is this in, anyway?), the words are simple yet deep as death, and it loses much of its charm when it moves from the stark Shape Note harmonies to the sweeter harmonies of modern hymnals. People keep writing new arrangements of the song, but I don’t think anyone will ever get it right. It is a song of elusive perfection.

Knowing that I, too, would fail to pen the perfect arrangement of the song didn’t deter me from composing one. I decided to transplant the song from its original folk tradition to a more modern folk tradition of guitar and voice. I’ve been singing this arrangement for a number of years and finally recorded it this afternoon. I also wrote a piano arrangement that we sang at COS a few weeks ago. (You can email me for the PDF.)

“Ah, Holy Jesus” is a song that has fallen out of favor in modern hymnals. That’s too bad, because Johann Heermann’s text and Johann Crüger’s tune are a one-two-Holy-Week punch to the heart. Without being overly sentimental, the hymn personalizes Jesus’ crucifixion and forces the singer to take some responsibility for Jesus’ suffering. This is a song I discovered in the old Presbyterian hymnal when I first began music ministry at Bellefield Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh. I still remember riding the bus into town trying to memorize the song before the Good Friday service.

Even though I know I’m treading on hallowed ground–re-harmonizing Crüger’s music–I’ve continued to sing this folk version through the years. The last time I sang it at COS, an older man–a real straight shooter–came up to me and told me, “You need to know that was a horrible rendition of a great song.” I can’t remember if he went on to describe it as despicable, deplorable, or a sacrilege, but you get the point. Interestingly, that got me written into his will in a roundabout way. It said, “No guitars or drums at my funeral.” I actually liked this man a lot. You knew exactly where he stood on things, and he didn’t seem to harbor any lasting malice–he just didn’t want me messing up a perfectly good hymn or funeral with guitars.

At this year’s Calvin Worship Symposium, I’m planning music for a service that uses the story of Cain and Abel as the sermon scripture. As you can imagine there are a TON of congregational songs about that one…

Neal Plantinga is preaching, and described his sermon as exploring the mark of Cain as punishment and protection. Cain’s “mark of grace” is a foreshadowing of Christ on the cross–the ultimate punishment that leads to the greatest blessing. Though I found a few hymns that got in the ballpark of the sermon theme (“God of Grace and God of Glory” and “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven”), I decided I’d give a go at writing one especially for the occasion.

The result is the appropriately titled “A Mark of Grace.” Check out the PDF score and Finalified MP3. This is still a working draft, but I decided to post it to my music blog so I wouldn’t ruin my Christmas thinking about it. This has been one of the more difficult things I’ve written in a while. In the first draft, the lyrics got the point across, but were too informational. That is, I fit in all the right words, but singing a list of characters from Genesis is not particularly inspirational. Plus, my verses were too long, so it felt tiresome.* In my second draft, I struck upon the idea of taking the original 16 line verses and trimming them to 8 lines of verse and 4 lines of pre-chorus. The pre-chorus provided a musical ramp between the verse and chorus that felt just right. But still, the rhyme scheme was so tight and the theological ideas so expansive that I had very little wiggle room with the lyrics. By draft #3 (this one) I felt like things had started to settle in lyrically and musically, though I’m thinking seriously of changing to 4/4 time throughout the whole song.

I think it’s best that I sit on it for a few days to see how it feels with a little distance. Feel free to give me feedback.

* But I kind of liked this section of the first draft:
Like Adam in the garden
Like Eve eating the fruit
Our family tree grows crooked
It’s poisoned at the root.