Wonderful choice for Hymn of the Week--one with a remarkable origin, as described by the fine, accompanying essay. Especially in its bluegrass rendering, this has been one of my favorite hymns from Evangelical Christianity for many years. It expresses directly and simply the fundamental spiritual reality that we are pilgrims atravelin' through our present lands, toward our true, eternal home.
Lovely arrangement. I'm more familiar with the more raucous version recorded by Delaney & Bonnie, which did me much good in the first few months of being a widower.
I lived in Nashville for 10 months so this style of music is very familiar! I love to harmonize and that song gave me a chance to fill in the harmony so I sang the whole song with them, filling in the alto part between their melody and the tenor! (I do miss this in congregational singing in the Catholic Church as no one harmonizes with me!! At least, I never hear anyone singing harmony as I did in Protestant churches.) Even in our Consolation church choir that I’m in for funerals, the men only sing the melody so sometimes I sing tenor as we do have women altos in that choir.
Nancee, no apologies needed for loving harmonization in congregational singing. I, too, lived in Nashville for two years, and one thing my friend there introduced me to was full congregational singing of beautiful hymn harmonization at the Belmont Church of Christ. There, no musical instruments were permitted, but boy! It was like singing in an angel choir to go there. I LOVED it. And as an alto myself, I had learned early on to harmonize in congregational (and folk) singing, simply because the soprano part was often too high. If you hear me (and I do this in Catholic churches) singing in the congregation, I sing my own harmonizations of the hymns. What you have heard me do in the loft at Our Lady of the Apostles is what I call my "faux soprano." I have to really stretch my voice for that, and whether or not I can hit the high notes (never above the staff!) has to do with the duration of the note and if the tune leads gently to it. Jessica tells me NEVER to tell a choir that I can sing in the tenor range, because I'd be permanently put there -- because aging choirs are always shy on male voices, particularly tenors. As for singing harmony in your Catholic Church, I say go for it! I do it ALL THE TIME mostly by myself since people largely don't do harmony anymore. Let's face it, a lot of folks don't sing the hymns at all. Our pastor in RI had a wonderful baritone voice, and I often sang harmonies to meld with that. To me, "choirs" that don't do harmonizations are simply not choirs. Sing on!
Having been raised in Churches of Christ, I have found that a lot of us don't understand how precious our congregational singing is.
Here's a video from the Market St. Church of Christ singing Where the Soul Never Dies. I'd say it's pretty typical of what you'll hear on a Sunday morning!
Thank you…Great hymn and great choice of artists.
Wonderful choice for Hymn of the Week--one with a remarkable origin, as described by the fine, accompanying essay. Especially in its bluegrass rendering, this has been one of my favorite hymns from Evangelical Christianity for many years. It expresses directly and simply the fundamental spiritual reality that we are pilgrims atravelin' through our present lands, toward our true, eternal home.
Lovely arrangement. I'm more familiar with the more raucous version recorded by Delaney & Bonnie, which did me much good in the first few months of being a widower.
I lived in Nashville for 10 months so this style of music is very familiar! I love to harmonize and that song gave me a chance to fill in the harmony so I sang the whole song with them, filling in the alto part between their melody and the tenor! (I do miss this in congregational singing in the Catholic Church as no one harmonizes with me!! At least, I never hear anyone singing harmony as I did in Protestant churches.) Even in our Consolation church choir that I’m in for funerals, the men only sing the melody so sometimes I sing tenor as we do have women altos in that choir.
Nancee, no apologies needed for loving harmonization in congregational singing. I, too, lived in Nashville for two years, and one thing my friend there introduced me to was full congregational singing of beautiful hymn harmonization at the Belmont Church of Christ. There, no musical instruments were permitted, but boy! It was like singing in an angel choir to go there. I LOVED it. And as an alto myself, I had learned early on to harmonize in congregational (and folk) singing, simply because the soprano part was often too high. If you hear me (and I do this in Catholic churches) singing in the congregation, I sing my own harmonizations of the hymns. What you have heard me do in the loft at Our Lady of the Apostles is what I call my "faux soprano." I have to really stretch my voice for that, and whether or not I can hit the high notes (never above the staff!) has to do with the duration of the note and if the tune leads gently to it. Jessica tells me NEVER to tell a choir that I can sing in the tenor range, because I'd be permanently put there -- because aging choirs are always shy on male voices, particularly tenors. As for singing harmony in your Catholic Church, I say go for it! I do it ALL THE TIME mostly by myself since people largely don't do harmony anymore. Let's face it, a lot of folks don't sing the hymns at all. Our pastor in RI had a wonderful baritone voice, and I often sang harmonies to meld with that. To me, "choirs" that don't do harmonizations are simply not choirs. Sing on!
And Nancee, I always joke that heaven is the place where altos get to sing the melody!
Having been raised in Churches of Christ, I have found that a lot of us don't understand how precious our congregational singing is.
Here's a video from the Market St. Church of Christ singing Where the Soul Never Dies. I'd say it's pretty typical of what you'll hear on a Sunday morning!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUorE0JRsxg&list=RDyUorE0JRsxg&start_radio=1
Take Six: a great a Capella gospel group do a wonderful rendition, too.
This is a perfect hymn for a cappella singing.
Beautiful