More about the 2010 Hymn Conference

On Tuesday night, we were all at Birmingham's Sixth Avenue Baptist Church for a remarkable hymn festival on the subject of "Unsung Hymns by Black and Unknown Bards". The festival was led by the 100-plus member choir of the church, under the direction of coordinator James Abbington and organist Nathaniel Gumbs.

Dr. Abbington is Associate Professor of Church Music and Worship at Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Atlanta, and Executive Editor of the African American Church Music Series.

Nathaniel Gumbs is native of the Bronx, NY. He is a graduate of Shenandoah Conservatory of Shenandoah University in Winchester, Virginia where he received the Bachelor of Music Degree in Organ Performance, Excellence in Organ Award and was a student of Dr. Steven Cooksey. Currently, Nat is a candidate for the Master of Music degree in Organ Performance at Yale University, Institute of Sacred Music in New Haven, Connecticut and is a student of Martin Jean.

The festival began with everyone singing the processional "We Are Walking in the Light". As the evening unfolded Dr. Abbington featured works such as "Lift Every Voice and Sing", "Nobody Knows de Trouble I've Seen", "Prayer is de Key of Heaven", "A Little Talk with Jesus (Makes it Right)" (fantastic!), "Slav'ry Chain", "Give Me Your Hand", "I Ain't Goingt' Study War No More", "A Better Day is Coming", "Where Shall I Be?", "Let Me Stay Close to Thy Side", "Peace Flowing Like a River", "We Shall Walk Through the Valley in Peace", "Free at Last", and, as our closing hymn, "We Shall Overcome". The sound and the power of the words--indescribably moving.

Oh, there was one more selection and I must say I laughed aloud when I sang for the first time the line in "You Goin' to Reap Jus' What You Sow" that goes like this: "Let the sinner sin right on; Upon the mountain, down in the valley, You goin' to reap jus' what you sow..."

All I could think was, "Amen to that!"

Before we had entered the sanctuary, we were wowed by the beautiful leaded glass windows in the narthex, which is a double-height space with a trellis like open ceiling.

Some thoughtful members of the congregation had taken quotations from well-known hymns and made simple banners displaying those quotations. I am not sure if these are on display at all times, or not; I suspect they were made with the Hymn Society's visit in mind. 

This congregation was founded in 1881 and has strong ties to the civil rights movement. On September 18, 1962, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., preached the funeral sermon for Denise McMair, Addie Mae Collins, and Cynthia Wesley,three of the "Four Little Girls" who had been killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Avenue Baptist Church, at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church. One of the most famous sermons of the Twentieth Century, "A Knock at Midnight," was delivered at Sixth Avenue Baptist Church on December 9, 1962 by the Rev. Dr. King. This next photo is of the exterior of the church, which makes a very strong architectural statement with its geometric forms and dark brick:The next photo gives you a good look at the series of windows at the back of the sanctuary which are also the narthex windows. 

Tuesday afternoon had been a "free" afternoon. No plenaries or sectionals--and there were three outstanding choices for getting to know Birmingham. However, Judy and I had opted to go it on our own on Tuesday afternoon, making our way to the Birmingham Museum of Art, with its rare and comprehensive collections. Birmingham is an easy city to navigate--excellent roads that are very well marked. We got to the museum around lunchtime and thought we might look in the area for a place to have lunch. But then we hit on the idea that perhaps the museum has a cafe... Sure enough, it does. 

On Wednesday afternoon I presented a sectional on my new collection of hymns. 

There were many other fine new hymnals, collections and hymn resources provided at the plenary sessions and the sectionals. 

"Celebrating Grace" is a big, brand new hymnal which was introduced in a hymnal showcase on Monday, by David W. Music, Professor of Church Music and Graduate Program Director in the School of Music at Baylor University. Dr. Music served as one of the editors of this hymnal.

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"God Gives Us a Song" is a collection of hymns by Mary Kay Beale, most of them with music by her husband, composer John Carter. Judy and I attended Mary Kay's sectional and enjoyed each on of the dozen or so songs we sang. I have to confess I have been singing the title hymn again and again in my mind in the intervening weeks. All of her music is uplifting and so singable and it was a joy to be directed by MK as she presented this brand new book.

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The third book pictured here is "Within the Maddening Maze" by John Core, who is a Library Associate at West Virginia University. In addition to our first names, John and I have several other things in common. Among the honors John's hymns have received are first place in the Macalester Plymouth United Church hymn search, and John's work is also published by Wayne Leupold Editions.

2010 Conference of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada

I want to share my impressions of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada's 2010 Annual Conference, which was held the week before last on the campus of Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama.

The conference was held on the campus of Samford University. This is a particularly gorgeous campus, dating from the early 1950s but looking as if it were created in the 1700s. All of the buildings on campus reflect a red-brick with white limestone Colonial / Georgian / Federalist period architecture, not unlike the campus of the University of Virginia. It is a collection of finely conceived and executed academic buildings with steeples and domes reminiscent of architects such as Sir Christopher Wren and Thomas Jefferson, and places like Independence Hall and Colonial Williamsburg.

The A. Hamilton Reid Chapel is where most of our hymn festivals and plenary sessions were held. As as we gathered together for the start of the conference, the light was remarkable; it reminded me of the famous Constable painting of Salisbury Cathedral.

This year's theme was "Sing of Justice - Sing of Peace". All of the hymn festivals and plenary sessions were designed around this theme, as were many of the sectionals. These words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. served as inspiration for the week: "We will reach the goal of freedom in Birmingham and all over the nation, because the goal of America is freedom." ("A Letter from Birmingham Jail", 1963).

For the opening hymn festival on Sunday, July 11th, our opening Hymn Festival was entitled "Free at Last: Spiritual Songs of Liberation", coordinated by HSUSC's president Mary Louise "Mel" Bringle, Andrew Donaldson and HSUSC's Executive Director Deb Loftis, with James Clemens at the piano and David Eicher at the organ. We began with the hymn "Deep in Our Hearts" by John Oldham and Ron Klusmeier, a hymn about our shared vision of unity in faith and mission. Many of the hymns were familiar favorites, including "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me", "Free at Last" and "We Shall Overcome" which left no one dry eyed. Imagine about four hundred musically enthusiastic people singing in SATB. We also sang spiritual songs of liberation from Central and South America, directed by Andrew Donaldson's joyous guitar leadership.

After the hymn festival, there were refreshments just outside the main door of the chapel. Looking up, one could see this nighttime view of the steeple..

WE TURN TO GOD - A Book of 53 New Hymns by John A. Dalles

Here is news of my brand new book, just off the presses. It is a collection of 53 of my hymns that have not been published up until now, except in worship bulletins.  

“We Turn to God” will be introduced at the 2010 Annual Conference of The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, of which I am a Life Member. The book includes hymns for many worship occasions and liturgical seasons, teacher dedication, funerals, weddings, Mother’s Day, Pentecost and more. The hymns are drawn from scripture in both the Old and New Testaments and are written to be sung to well-known hymn tunes. 

Among the more unusual hymns is one called “Go Forth from Here” which is written as a congregational benediction response, What makes it unusual is that the suggested tune is by Stephen Collins Foster, the great American songwriter, and is familiar, but is not often thought of as a hymn tune, since the words normally sung to it are “My Old Kentucky Home”.

Several other pleasant surprises are in the book, including hymns set to the tune that is best known as the tune for “Danny Boy”.

Also in this collection is a hymn called “We Gather to Recall” which was created for Hospice of Lancaster County, PA, for their annual service of remembrance. Written to the ancient Jewish tune YIDGAL (which is in most hymnals with the words "The God of Abraham Praise"), the words are accessible to persons of many faiths, as befits a hymn intended for community-wide use. It has been sung annually in Lancaster since 1996.

I have been writing hymns since 1983 when my first hymn, “Come, O Spirit” (which is #127 in the 1990 Presbyterian Hymnal) was created for worship of Wabash Valley Presbytery. Since then, my hymns have appeared in many hymnals in the USA, Canada and Australia.

“We Turn to God” is published by and can be purchased from Wayne Leupold Editions, of Colfax NC, 1-800-765-3196. The cost is $15.

Christmas Anthems by Glenn Osborne and John Dalles

This morning, Glenn Osborne sent me a link to his web page on which he has placed recordings of the three anthems with my hymn texts:

Babe of Bethlehem, Draw Near!

See a Baby, See a Manger!

God We Would Hear the Angels Sing!

You can listen to them by clicking on this link and then opening each anthem in the column on the right.

http://wmglennosborne.com/audio2.html


There are other works by Glenn on the page, and I encourage you to listen to them all.