Tacky Hymns 120

Once more (at least) unto our review of the hymnal supplement All Creation Sings, resuming with the "Prayer" section ...

1073 is "Kyrie eleison," a.k.a. Haitian Kyrie, words and music from Haitian tradition as adapted and arranged by Andrew Donaldson (b. 1951). I don't know if it's a French thing or a Caribbean thing, but the "-rie" of "Kyrie" and the "-lei-" of "eleison" both seem to be treated as a single syllable, which might throw off some folks who are accustomed to the standard singers' diction for the liturgical Greek. The non-Greek lyrics are all in French, with a translation and a pronunciation guide reserved for the tiny, eye-straining footnote. Unless you're already francophone, putting the French lyrics together with the Caribbean rhythms might be quite a trick. This isn't a hymnal for a French-speaking church, you know. And also, it's supposed to be a pew book for the congregation, not a collection of choir pieces. For these fumbles, 2 tacks.

1074 is "Óyenos, Señor," words and music by Bob Hurd (b. 1950), "alt." – which is amazing, since there is so little of it to alt. It's four brief phrases of melody (on two staves at the bottom of a page), accompaniment omitted. Three of the phrases say the above text, which (the squint-worthy footnote informs us) means "Hear us, O Lord." If eye-strain permits, you may also pick up an alternate version of the text from the same footnote, as well as a pronunciation guide. The remaining phrase says, in English, "Listen to your people." Have I mentioned once or twice that this isn't a hymnal for a Spanish-speaking church? And have I mentioned what a hymn is, and what it's good for, and how little the purpose of a hymn is served by a little flake of a thing like this? For uselessness on so many levels, 3 tacks.

1075 is "O God, we call," words and music by Linnes Good (b. 1962). It's a single-stanza in five phrases, four of them quite short. The first two are the same; the remaining three gradually amount to "from deep inside we yearn for you"; and that's it. The accompaniment is included, for a treat; the harmony is unusual, with a warm, touching type of dissonance running throughout it before resolving to bare octaves on the final word, "you." I hate to say it, though: even at its brief length, it starts to get monotonous before the end. And that's before either repeating it to the point of self-hypnosis or, failing to do so, wondering why we used a slot programmed for a hymn on such a tiny chip of a thing. 1 tack.

1076 is "Search me, O God," words and music by I-to Loh (b. 1936) based on Psalm 139:23-24. It's four phrases of lyrics and melody, accompaniment omitted, like a refrain in search of a chant setting of the rest of the Psalm. If the intention is that it be used that way, the makers of this book show a certain lack of initiative in not laying out the rest of the Psalm accordingly. As it is, it belongs more in the liturgical part of the book and its usefulness in that hymn-slot that I keep describing is rather dubious. 2 tacks.

1077 is "Mercy, we abide in you," words and music by Bret Hesla (b. 1957). It's another unusual number, with a refrain for "all," then three stanzas of solo melody for "Leader" accompanied by four-part singing by the "Assembly." Which amounts mostly to humming and repetitions of "Stir in us, we pray." The Leader's three stanzas are a compressed litany, though for all its compression, it gets off to a slow start, leading off with three slightly varied ways of saying "In peace let us pray to the Lord." And the concluding line, "Move within each heart," hits me as a most unsatisfactory alternative to "Lord, have mercy." But then, we're not addressing the Lord; remember? We're addressing "Mercy." For bizarre and un-asked-for liturgical innovation, 2 tacks.

1078 is "There is a longing in our hearts," words and music by Anne Quigley (b. 1955). It's another litany sort of thing, with a touchy-feely refrain assigned to "All" and four stanzas for "Leader or All," accompaniment omitted. I think the stanzas are fine, but the refrain bugs me. It just doesn't rise to the same level of (cough) inspiration. Also, don't try to fool me; this is liturgy, not hymnody. I'd excuse it if the hymn section was over and this was set off as a separate section of service music, but it ain't. 3 tacks.

1079 is "Open my heart," words and music by Ann Hernández (b. 1957) – my goodness, what a prevalence of Baby Boomers one can observe in this book's hymn credits! Scored in three-part harmony a capella (on three staves, emphatically marked "Part I," "Part II" and "Part III"), to start with the music, it's an awkward bit of part-writing because the middle part is often higher than the melody. It's definitely not a round, however; Parts 2 and 3 are totally harmony parts, not countermelodies, and besides, Part III is notated in bass clef. I'd have described it as an SAB choir piece, but it's unclear which part is S and which is A. Also, you could almost save two phrases (and hence a whole system of music) by putting a repeat sign after the first two, except the B line (Part III) keeps going while Parts I and II repeat the same two phrases note-for-note. I hate to pick apart such a tiny little pencil-shaving of a piece, but I've got to comment on something and the lyrics, which entirely comprise four repetitions of "Open my heart," don't require analysis. It would be nice to see the author explore more deeply the Person we are asking to open our heart, if any, and what we want Him to open our heart to. But then this piece would be in danger of becoming a hymn. 4 tacks.

Going onto the "Trust, Confidence" section, 1080 is "Total Praise" (first line: "Lord, I will lift mine eyes to the hills"), words and music by Richard Smallwood (b. 1948) with a assist from arranger Stephen F. Key (n.d.). It's totally a contemporary worship jingle, despite its deceptively chorale-like opening phrases. It initially promises to be a paraphrase of Psalm 121, but almost immediately gives up on fulfilling that promise and just becomes your standard praise song, with a repeat sign to make it feel like there's a second stanza and a long coda with more Amens than you can shake a stick at. The keyboard setting is self-evidently piano music, not organ, and after that fake-out chorale texture at the beginning, it commits heavily to pop music stylings that will demand the services of a miked soloist or a well-rehearsed ensemble, except in the (I think) still rare instance where a congregation is so well-drilled in this style of music that they can sing the pants off of it. Get real. It's not a congregational hymn. 4 tacks.

1081 is "When memory fades" by Mary Louise Bringle (b. 1953), set to the tune HEGER by Jayne Southwick Cool (b. 1947). My sight-reading and -singing tells me it's a lovely tune. It's a hymn around the topics of dementia, the physical infirmity that comes with aging, and the end of life. I'd say it was a blameless hymn, except the last half of stanza 3 leans so much into the good works of the people for whom we pray that, I feel, it loses its grip on the gifts that Christ brings to the aged and those who care for them. It's like a funeral sermon that's all eulogy and no gospel. And sadly, that sours it for me. 2 tacks.

1082 is "O God, you search me," words and music by Bernadette Farrell (b. 1957). It's a paraphrase of Psalm 139. I think it has a pretty good thing going, particularly the line "With love everlasting you besiege me." Because the accompaniment is omitted, 1 tack.

1083 is "Be still and know," a setting of Psalm 46:10 by John L. Bell (b. 1949), accompaniment omitted. It has score text and a footnote suggesting that it may be sung as a two-part round. It's a tiny little scrap of a thing that only stands a chance of occupying enough time to replace a hymn on the condition that the round be kept going untl no one can stand it any longer. It isn't, and I'll be blunt, well written. It isn't "just has to be in the pew hymnal" material. 3 tacks.

1084 is "God, be the love to search and keep me," words and music by Richard Bruxwoort Colligan (b. 1967). With five stanzas and a refrain that twice says "O Christ, surround me," it seems to be a version of St. Patrick's Breastplate. It might be easier than singing the more complicated Breastplate version known to (some) users of LW, LBW, LSB and ELW. It even has a nice little Irish lilt to it. But I'm not sure that people who have gone to the trouble of learning that older setting will appreciate Colligan's effort to improve on it. And the accompaniment is omitted, so 1 tack.

I'll bet I can get through the rest of the book next time. Till then, we're taking a break. We've added 28 tacks in these 12 hymns, making a running total of 381 tacks in 184 hymns. Faith and begorrah, that's a tackiness quotient of 207 percent! (Pardon me. A little Irishness caught on my sleeve from that last hymn.)