Joseph Cruger 1598-1662
harmonized by Felix Mendelsohn 1809-1847
My apologies to Felix for adding a few more passing tones (the second time through) to his fantastic harmonization.
WHY WE SHOULD SING MORE HYMNS
1. Our youth are being denied the ability to sing in four part harmony. Many kids today are not in music at school and church might be the only place they can sing in a structured situation. We are "dumbing down" the praise of our Lord.
2. Hymns preach a sermon and have a message while many of the 7-11 chorus (seven words, repeat them 11 times) are both musically weak and have unsound doctrine.
3. Hymns are our heritage. How can a conservative church have any credibility with totally opposite music?
4. Why did churches switch to choruses? Well, it worked somewhere up north but so what. It saves having to buy hymnals and we appear to be "with the times" by projecting the words with an LCD projector. Anyone can be given the label "praise leader" but many are not really "choir directors".
5. We should be putting forth our best product for the Lord and using our talents for the best and not "fluff" which is what most of these praise choruses are perceived as.
If the music doesn't play automatically, or you want to download the file (for personal use only) try clicking here.
Hymn with Variation number 2 copyright Jim Taylor, all rights reserved (posted 19 Sep 2007, 09:39)