This is one of Enya’s first songs, and the lyrics and video are both sufficiently nebulous.聽 I have no idea what the song’s about, but I really like it. I believe it’s from a BBC documentary about the Celtic peoples, so feel free to speculate.
Category: music
Hymn of the Week – Jesus Is Mine
Borrowing a blogging tradition from The Common Room (arguably my mother’s favorite blog), I am going to begin posting the words to a selected hymn every Lord’s day.聽 The first in this series will be “Jesus Is Mine,” which I sang with the Pinson congregation this morning.聽 I was really moved by the lyrics (especially the third verse), and I hope you will be too.
Poetry by Jane Bonar (1845)
Music by Theodore Perkins (1858)
Fade, fade, each earthly joy, Jesus is mine!
Break every tender tie, Jesus is mine!
Dark is the wilderness, Earth has no resting place,
Jesus alone can bless, Jesus is mine!
Tempt not my soul away, Jesus is mine!
Here would I ever stay, Jesus is mine!
Perishing things of clay, born but for one brief day,
Pass from my heart away, Jesus is mine!
Farewell, ye dreams of night, Jesus is mine!
Lost in this dawning light, Jesus is mine!
All that my soul has tried left but a dismal void;
Jesus has satisfied, Jesus is mine!
Farewell, mortality, Jesus is mine!
Welcome, eternity, Jesus is mine!
Welcome, oh, loved and blest, welcome sweet scenes of rest,
Welcome, my Savior鈥檚 breast, Jesus is mine!
(Accessed at the Cyberhymnal)
Be Thou My Vision
Here in Tennessee I have been learning a great many songs that I’ve never heard before, and I would like to share one of them with you.聽 This particular song is actually Irish, and both the music and the words are very lovely.聽 I hope to introduce this one to my home congregation someday (providing that it is in our songbooks).聽 Here are the lyrics:
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul鈥檚 Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.Riches I heed not, nor man鈥檚 empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven鈥檚 joys, O bright Heaven鈥檚 Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Musical Adventures
As you may or may not be aware, I have begun my time in college as a part of the University Chorale. I am still getting used to the rigidity of choral singing, but I am having a blast and I look forward to the day when it becomes old hat and I don’t have to focus on the mechanics of it all.
Today we started learning a piece that is very unique, to say the least. It’s called “Water Night,” and it is a loose translation of Octavio Paz’s poem “Agua Nocturna” set to music. In case you haven’t read Octavio Paz, he wrote some pretty vague stuff, and Eric Whitacre (the composer) is a “20th Century” composer, as our choral director put it. So the product of these two singular people is this song, which will be quite difficult from what I judge (perhaps more for some parts than others).
The harmony (or shall I say, dissonance?) of the piece is really odd, and jarring to the ears in certain places. One chord is made up of 14 adjacent notes, and were it not for all the pretty voices, my consonance-loving ears might just rebel.
So this is my most recent adventure. The song is not particularly horrible-sounding like some “modern” music, but it will be challenging. Fortunately iTunes had a recording for download, so I got that to listen to to help me along.
The Shamrock Soil No More
I am now situated at college in Tennessee, and my classes began today. I am very excited about the things I’ll be able to study and participate in, but all the same, my thoughts turned to my native land when I was listening to this song today. Not that I will never again see Texas, but it will be a while and I shall miss it greatly.
Oh while I live I’ll never forget the troubles of that day
When bound into a foreign land our ship got underway
my friends I left in Belfast town, my love in Carrickshore
and I gave to poor old Ireland my blessings o’er and o’er.Oh well I knew as off to sail what my hard fate would be
for gazing on my country’s hills they seemed to fly from me
I watched them as we sailed away until my eyes grew sore.
And I felt that I was doomed to walk the Shamrock soil no more.Oh where, oh where’s that careless heart I once could call my own?
It bid a long farewell to me the day I left Tyrone.
I wonder will I return again to my love, my dearest friends.
No pleasure my old absent home can bring to me again.
This song is found on the album Norland Wind by Thomas Loefke. Kerstin Blodig sings on this particular track.