Sung by the Gospel Choir of St. Michael's parish, Kiel, recorded at  St. Michael's Church, Kiel Germany another song from More Voices.

Over My Head I hear Music in the Air 

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This song is in Voices United I believe. Sung by one of the World's Greatest Gospel Choir, The Union United Church's Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir.

singing at St James United Church "Joy to the World"

 What Does Your Lord Require of You.  

#701 in Voices United

Music by Jim Strathdee

Here is how it is often performed in a UCC

This is a nicer version, but I know of no UCC that uses Bells

Alex,

Hymns are NOT "performed".  Hymns are sung.  Worship is not, nor should it bee a performance.  ANd many congregations seem wholly incabable of singing that piece that way -- the basics of a round (a musical form which they all sang as children I am sure) seem to escape them without very strong leadership for each part.

More correctly, Gord, hymns are "attempted".  To say that hymns are "sung" implies a level of competence that, from what I gather, is not often achieved.

Chansen - are you implying that one has to be a competent musician to 'sing'.  I've sung all my life.  I love singing.  I sing when alone, doing the dishes or making the beds, I sing with small groups around a campfire on a beach, and I sing in church.  The fact that I am tone deaf, and cannot carry a tune does not stop me from 'singing'.    The best hymns are those in which the congregation can join in with the choir and yes'bellar it out'. 

Yes, I'm implying that one has to be a competent musician to sing.  What I wrote above was clearly not meant to be a joke, as I don't make jokes, and was purely commentary about the sad state of singing voices in churches across the land, which concerns me greatly.

Why should it matter whether a person sings well or not. Praise is from the heart and comes out through the mouth.

ms,

it doesn't.  Chansen is thinking of singing as a performance.  And that sort of thinkiing is partially responsible for the lack of public singing in our society today (there are a lot of other factors too).

One need not be competent to sing, but I think if you're going to do it solo on a stage, then some degree of competence would be expected. However, I think it's quite natural for any of us, whether we are of sound voice or not, to sing for joy, sorrow, celebration and, yes, in church.

And, as I've joked on WC before, my voice can drop a lion at 20 paces and that still doesn't stop me from singing if I've got a song in my head that's screaming to get out.

Lighten up and ... uh ... sing, chansen!

Mendalla

What started out as a nice post by Alex with some Youtube music by various groups has turned into  nit -picking  about whether it is a performance, sung, a gig , showing off,  pretending you are Anne Murray  or whatever.

Let's identify more Utube hymns from Voices United and quit  the one upsmanship.

Alex wrote:

This is a nicer version, but I know of no UCC that uses Bells

First St. Andrews here in London has a bell "choir" called the Laudamus Bells. They participate in services several times a year and do concerts as well. One of the highlights of the music program there.

Have never figured out how to embed video here, but this Youtube video for "Spirit of Life" is nice. The song appears near the end sung by the choir of All Souls in Washington, DC. This song appears in VU and in the UU hymnbook "Singing the Living Tradition" so it neatly bridges both the churches I attend.

Mendalla

I used this as special music at worship earlier this year.

That is a great version. Listening to after 6 minutes of nature sounds, gave it a very interesting effect.

To embed videos see http://www.wondercafe.ca/discussion/social/how

Basically just switch to the plain text editor before pasting the embed code in the message where you want the video to appear.

 On Eagle Wings

 Here I am Lord

Thank you Alex for starting this thread and keeping it going.  It has some of my favourite hymns and I've been singing along in the privacy of my den.

Can anybody post "Lord of the Dance", and "I Was there to hear your Borning Cry"  and maybe "Part of the Family".  All favourites of mine.

 Lord of the dance is the only hymn I can remember that was in the old United Church/Anglican Hymnal. It is still in Voices United, althrough some say it is anti-semitic.  I find it a little bloody, but I still enjoy the music and ignore the lines "They whipped and they stripped and they hung me high; And they left me there on a cross to die. "

Here is first a version of it without the words, but full of dancing and music. It's fun to watch.

The second one has the lyrics. This intricate arrangement by Larry L. Fleming is presented by Cardinal Singers from Fond du Lac High School for their 2008 tour of California.

 Here is a video of This is The Day The Lord Has Made.  It's from Pakistan and sung in Urdu. The recording  is not the best, however of all the other versions I found on Youtube, it seemed more beautiful; to my ears.

 here is a Celtic Version of    Spirit of the Living God.

 Two versions of Ode To Joy

As The Deer Pants by the Maranatha Singers

For The Beauty of the Earth This song is sung by the Paya Lebar Methodist Girl's School Choir Their youthful voices are beautiful...

I'd forgotten about Rutter's setting of "For the beauty of the earth". It's beautiful. Thanks for the reminder. I do think the traditional melody works better for congregational (as opposed to choral) singing, though:

 Not a great video, but I like the a capella singing.

Mendalla

n/a. I'm a Baptist.

So, what is it you are trying to say, Jae?????

While I love Alex's idea of sharing youtube videos of songs, I choose to look elsewhere than VU and MV when I want to sing to the Lord. I prefer contemporary praise music with good, solid, biblical messages. I say "no thank you" to goopy liberal p.c. hymnody.

Um, jae, many of these hymns are old, much older than "liberal p.c. hymnody" and have messages that are as Biblical as they come. "For the beauty of the earth", posted just before you started posting, is one (although the Rutter setting is contemporary). "Spirit of Life", which I posted, is an exception but that's because the writer was UU when she wrote it.

To be honest, I don't like singing some of the hymns in VU but for the opposite reason to you: they're too much rooted in classical Christian theology, ie. not liberal enough. Fortunately, the UCC I go to doesn't tend to use those ones much.

Now, go threadcrap somewhere else and let us get on with posting our favorite hymns. If you want to dump on our choices, then post some of your own to show us the error of our ways.

Mendalla

And, to take my own advice. 

I'm assuming that this is in VU by the way, although I'm not sure we've sung it at the UCC I go to. I use "Wake Now My Senses", which is the same tune with different lyrics, and "Be thou my vision" in my UU services a lot:

 Mendalla

Thanks Mandella for finding Be Thou My Vision.  It is #642 in Voices United, and I note that it is an Irish melody with words dating back to the 8th century, translated in 1905 and alt. in 1912.  That should give it pretty deep roots.

I am planning to use it in the service of worship I am leading tomorrow, mainly because of the second verse "Be thou my wisdom . . ."   I'm preaching on Wisdom from the Bible, Proverbs, ch. 8.

Alex - I note that you have been invited to share some music videos from your Baptist hymn books.  That might be interesting.  But please open a different thread to do so.   You surely don't want your good Baptist hymns contaminated by being too closely associated with those from VU or MV.   And I've been enjoying this thread. 

Beautiful, Mendella. "Be Thou My Vision" is in VU. Posting a couple of versions of one of my favourite "Praise Songs". 

That's jae who's Baptist, not Alex. Alex and Baptist would not be a good fit.

Mendalla

I'm enjoying this thread - uplifting and inspirational music instead of people bashing each other with words. Andrea Bocelli singing The Lord's Prayer. He has a powerful voice - gives me goose bumps. Also love "Ave Maria".

My appologies to both Jae and Alex.  Of course I know that Jae is a Baptist.  He tells us that at least once on every thread.  How could I forget.  And Alex attends a UCC in Ottawa area.  But I've been mixing up names a lot lately.  Can we put it down to stress or carelessness?

 No apologies neaded or wanted. If I had to apologise everytime I mixed up things that were obviously mixed up (such as names) I would be never be able to keep up.

Besides (here goes my ADD) my Grandfather was a a Baptist growing up until he married my grandmother and joined the Anglican Church. They joined the United when my mother joined the United Youth group in Amherst with her best friend.  The Anglicans did not have a youth group in town at the time. Of course if you were to insinuate to my other Grandparents that there was anything other then pure  Presbyterian (and than United) blood in my family my grandmother would be upset.  She played the organ in the UCC at Kilmere and than Montague PEI for close to 40 years. If anyone goes to Montague you can see a stain glass window in the church dedicated to her and my grandfather. The UCC church music and her garden were her favorite things after her family.

She lived into her late eighties and had outlived most of her contemporaries, however the church was still full at her funeral and the entire choir showed up to sing.

 I never understtod her faith until I read Saving Paradise, by Rita Nakashima Brock. When she was in the hosptial during her last months, she asked me to plant her Dahlia bulbs. They had to be put in exactly at the time I was visiting, she insisted. Unless planted each year dahlia bulbs are likely to die. As a twenty someting I could not understand. her very large dahlia bed was at the cottage,  a place she would be unlikely to return.  The rest of the family would likely be too sad that year when they bloomed to enjoy them. We could just buy newer varietes of dahlia's (which surely we needed since my grandmother's were likely all over 20 years old, if not fifty) the next year.  However when I told her I did plant her bulbs, her smile lifted up the room. I felt ashamed, I had resented doing a simply chore,and it  had brought so much joy to her. 

Her many very large flower gardens were  the most beautiful ones I have ever seen, most of which were at her cottage along the Montague River.  After reading and hearing Rita I knew the cottage and it's gardens were her paradise, it was where she had spent the best times (summer) and created the most beauty. It was where she and her children were the freest and happiest.  It was where she could see God the easiest.  

She now understood that Paradise would endure after her passing.   Today my brother, my sister and my two nephews and I share the cottage when we return to PEI.   My father still plants mostly the same dahlia bulbs, that I did that year, every year in a large bed near  the cottage.  Paradise still exists along the banks of the Montague River in PEI.

 I think there are almost 10 Amens in Voices United.  the first music  posted is likely in it   I assume, while the second is likely not.

However I post the second Amen because it is really good and it  has the  "most famous loop af all times! "Amen Break," a six-second drum sample from the b-side of this chart-topping single from 1969. This sample was used extensively in early hiphop and sample-based music, and became the basis for drum-and-bass and jungle music -- a six-second clip that spawned several entire subcultures."

Watch this video about the Amen Break:

 Concert in the church of S. Pietro in Perugia's Choir, University of Perugia.Soprano: Lucia Giannini 

Does anyone know if Handel's Amen from the Messiah is in Voices? It is is really good.

Never heard that version before - visuals are awesome. Offhand I would say Handel's version is not in VU. Posting an upbeat version of "How Great Thou Art" - an old favourite in my congregation. Original Swedish text was a poem, written in 1886. The English words were written in 1899-

Just to be clear here, it's okay if I share songs I like that are not in VU and MV?

 It would be nice if you shared non Voices Music on another thread, to have some kind of continuity here. However you might find that many songs you know are in Voices United and More Voices.

http://www.united-church.ca/files/sales/ucph/vu_firstlines.pdf

 Jesus Savior Pilot Me VU 637

I've Got Peace Like a River VU 577

A  nice piano version, all jazzed up. 

i just realised why our Hymn books in the UCC evoke such strong reactions at time. it's not just personnel likes and dislikes, They are likely the most widely used theological statements by the church. Thus have likely been much more debated than in other churches that are more centralised.

This song is a good example of how the words and the theology can change their meaning when song by different people using different arrangements.

My favorite version was a version that used the Johnny and June Cash version with a video in claymation that acted out the story. I can not find it anymore. It was very kitchy, funny, and seemed to me to mock the cultural approbiation of negro spirituals, by whites. It also showed me how when Johnny Cash's claymation figure was singing it was about atonement theology.  While when when sang by African Americans as the negro spiritual composition, it became about the fight for liberation of oppressed people. Two very different meanings, that are linked but not usually anymore. Yet only the arrangement and the singers change.

EDIT:  I found the claymation version, however it was not done in claymation as I remembered but in LEGO!  I still laugh, I am not sure if it was intended to be funny, or if it was done by a Lego nut, who is a fan of Johnny Cash's version

Here is the Johnny and June Carter Cash Version. in LEGO

Here is a version by Paul Robeson. What was a good song by Cash is spectacular and great  when sung by Paul Robeson  

I discover Paul Robson in an introduction class to Roman Catholic Theology. It was also the first time I really listened to jazz music. We did one whole class on racism and music. The teacher was illustrating the history of jazz, and racism and how it was opposed and not considered equal to "white classical music". She played a song by Paul Robson and told us his story.

From Wikipedia

Paul LeRoy Bustill Robeson (April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an internationally renowned American bass-baritone concert singer, actor of film and stage, All-American and professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator, scholar and lawyer who was also noted for his wide-ranging social justice activism. A forerunner of the civil rights movement, Robeson was a trade unionist, peace activist, Phi Beta Kappa Society laureate, and a recipient of the Spingarn Medal and Stalin Peace Prize. Robeson achieved worldwide fame during his life for his artistic accomplishments, and his outspoken, radical beliefs which largely clashed with the Jim Crow climate of the pre-civil rights United States. He became a prime target of the right during the McCarthyist era.  Despite his being one of the most internationally famous cultural figures of the 20th century, persecution by the US government and media virtually erased Robeson from mainstream US culture and subsequent interpretations of US history, including civil rights and black history.

Robeson was the first major concert star to popularize the performance of Negro spirituals and was the first black actor of the 20th century to portray Shakespeare's Othello on Broadway. As of spring 2010 Robeson's run in the 1943–45 Othello production still holds the record for the longest running Shakespeare play on Broadway. In line with Robeson's vocal dissatisfaction with movie stereotypes, his roles in both the US and British film industries were some of the first parts ever created that displayed dignity and respect for Black film actors, paving the way for Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.

At the height of his fame, Paul Robeson chose to become a primarily political artist, speaking out against fascism and racism in the US and abroad as the United States government and many Western European powers failed after World War II to end racial segregation and guarantee civil rights for people of color.   Robeson thus became a prime target of the Red Scare during the late 1940s through to the mid-1960's. His passport was revoked from 1950 to 1958 under the McCarran Act and he was under surveillance by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Central Intelligence Agency and by the British MI5 for well over three decades until his death in 1976. The reasoning behind his persecution centered not only on his beliefs in socialism and friendship with the Soviet peoples but also his tireless work towards the liberation of the colonised peoples of Africa, the Caribbean, Asia and the Australian aborigines, his support of the International Brigades, his efforts to push for anti-lynching legislation and the racial integration of major league baseball among many other causes that challenged white supremacism on six continents.

Condemnation of Robeson and his beliefs came swiftly from both the United States Congress and many mainstream black organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). To this day, Paul Robeson's FBI file is one of the largest of any entertainer ever investigated by the United States Intelligence Community, requiring its own internal index and unique status of health file. Despite persecution and limited activity resulting from ailing health in his later years, Paul Robeson remained, throughout his life, committed to socialism and anti-colonialism as a means to world peace and was unapologetic about his political views. Present day advocates and historians of Paul Robeson's legacy have worked successfully to restore his name to many history books and sports records, while honoring his memory globally with posthumous awards and recognitions

Robin Mark sings "All who are thirsty", which I'm glad to see is in MV.

 I believe it is a different tune, with same name. There seems to be few of the MV songs on Youtube. I found my favorite song from MV "Called by Earth and Sky" on youtube, but the music had been removed from the video.

I might have made a similar mistake with "Jesus Savior Pilot Me" and "I got peace"

I think Brenton Brown and Glenn Robertson wrote the "All Who Are Thirsty" lyrics, and that they appear in MV and are sung by Robin Mark. I may be wrong, but I think the words are the same.

The MV website says that Brown & Robertson also composed the music used in MV. However, I don't know if Robin Mark used their music in his performance. I may be wrong, but the tune may very well be different.

 It's hard sometime to remember certain songs. The hymns we use during Sunday Services are easy, but we tend to stick to the same ones. I am more likely to hear other songs from Voices and Voices United during alternative services, when people get to gift songs. (that is they choose to share one that they like) Often I will only get to hear it once, and the arrangement that the musican knows will be different from Voices or Youtube. Also sometimes we do not have a musician and we will sing accapella (sp) 

We might be singing, but they likely sound different than what the writers intend.

Here is a punk version of "Here I am Lord"

Prayer Of Saint Francis, Make Me a Channel of Your Peace. VU 684

Sinead O'Connor version

Westminster Abbey Choir singing Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" during Princess Diana's Funeral.

Great Is Thy Faithfulness - 2 versions