Music and Choir
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The Music Ministry is an exciting place to be called. |
Advent Meditations Music Corner:Information from our newsletter about music and our program. Composers Page: The stories of the composers who create the music we sing. Music Photos: Music pictures around All Saints |
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Every now and then we can experience a season that is filled with awe.
Such was the summer that I just had. There were two things that made this summer different from other summers. And to share the experience, I must confess something. I can become like a schoolgirl smitten with awe when she gets to see a movie star. Even though I know that these people are just like you and I, I still get a little knock-kneed when I get the honor of working with them. And such was the case while I was at my continuing education event in August.
For many years I have been in awe of the work of Rosephanye Powell. She is hailed as one of America’s premier women composers of choral music. She has composed for large choirs as well as small; in classic styles as well as Spiritual and Gospel, Sacred as well as Secular.
This year, Dr. Powell was a featured clinician at Tuning @ Tahoe and I was blessed to be able to work with her and sing under her direction. What an honor it was to learn from such an accomplished woman.
Please take time to look up her music online. You can hear many choirs singing many of her pieces. Our choir has sung “Ascribe to the Lord” which she composed in 2003.
I
n looking for interesting information about a Hymn, I came across the gem, “To God Be the Glory” and its story. It is not in our hymnal but it may be familiar to you. It was written by Fanny Crosby, who we have learned about before. (For more information on Miss Crosby, you can find a brief description on the “Composer” page of the Music Ministries area of our website.) As I read this brief description and then the words of the hymn, I was struck by the deep love and faith exhibited by this woman whose life was changed at the hands of incompetence. Oh, that I may walk though each day with praise for our Lord and Savior as deep as it is expressed in this hymn.
It was hard to discourage Fanny Crosby. Joy was a characteristic of her life. When English hymnwriter Frances Havergal asked someone about Crosby, she received the reply, “she is a blind lady whose heart can see splendidly in the sunshine of God’s love.” Crosby herself acknowledged, “Darkness may throw a shadow over my outer vision, but there is no cloud that can keep the sunlight of hope from a trustful soul.”
Probably written in 1872, this song was taken to England by Ira Sankey, who led the singing for D.L. Moody’s evangelistic campaigns. The hymn became immediately popular in England, but was published in only a few American hymnals until Billy Graham re-discovered the song during his 1952 British crusade. It then became as popular in America as it had been in England.
To God by the glory – great things He hath done!
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened to life-gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory – great things He hath done!
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood!
To ev’ry believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be
Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.
Fanny Jane Crosby (1820-1915)
**The One Year Book of Hymns, Tyndale Publishers
