“I bind my heart this tide” is another one, words by Scottish minister, Lauchlan Watt (1910). Here are the words and music, to which you can listen here – now changed to choral link.
It includes the lines: “I bind my soul this day to the neighbor far away; and the stranger near at hand; in this town and in this land.” …which seem appropriate, composed as it was on one side of the puddle and now sung by choirs on the other.
…Just beautiful. “…till He returns, or calls me home … here in the power of Christ, we stand.” Grand instrumentation too!
Unfortunately this link is prevented from loading in the U.S. because of copyright laws. Too bad. The Frank Martin piece sure is relaxing. And you’ve got me curious about “holy minimalism”. I’ll have to look into that some more.
That’s the kind of spare piano playing I can listen to again and again.
Boo. I thought the copyright issues were just here where I am… usually copyright blocks don’t affect the US like they affect other countries…
Well, I’ve just spent altogether far too long trawling the interwebs for another version of that song. Good on the performers — it seems there aren’t any cheap YouTube-y ways to hear it. If you have Spotify, check it out.
Meanwhile, for a somewhat less BioLogos-themed, more popular selection of Pärt’s work, check out his Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, written as a meditation on death in the wake of fellow composer Benjamin Britten’s passing. It has been featured in a number of movies, so it seems, which is probably why this piece in particular strikes me as particular soundtracky-sounding. Here you’ll hear his signature style, repeating simple themes to create a layered effect. I find it quite pleasing, but ymmv.
What do you mean6? I like to sing, but quietly.
they did not invite me back to the med school glee club. 
“I love “Hold Me Jesus” and think of the lines from that bridge often.”
Mullins’ lyrics are so penetrating and down to earth, aren’t they. I sometimes wonder if he would have been a skeptical Evolutionary Creationist. “Lord, it’s hard to be like Jesus…Well, His eye is on the sparrow,/And the lillies of the field I’ve heard; /And He will watch over you, And He will watch over me, /So we can dress like flowers and eat like birds.” But his honesty actually strengthens my faith. I don’t have to make things up when I’m listening to him!
My sister told me that Andrew Peterson is a lot like Mullins. The minimalist sounds good. Thanks.
My all-time greats are hymns:
I’m not very interested by the contemporary Christian music scene. What I enjoy is discovering spiritual gems lurking in background of our culture. God is not absent from “secular” music. He creeps in through every window, door, and crack in the floorboards. A few recent faves, but listen at your peril … You won’t hear these songs in church:
I’ll see your Rich Mullins and raise you a Mondo Cozmo:
Leon Bridges on Austin City Limits:
A Skrillex (dance DJ) remix and mash-up:
Yeah – but you missed the choral blending. I changed the link so that voices could be heard instead. Again: “I bind my heart this tide” – this musical arrangement from 1965 by J. Randall Zercher, may be peculiar to Mennonite hymnals and not the arrangement others may know.
Without even having gotten to Peterson, Applegate, or Haarsma yet … I discovered a treasure in Andy Crouch’s talk among those you linked to. It’s really good, and would probably warrant a thread discussion of its own here. He posits that the best time to be an intellectually satisfied atheist may have peaked around 1917 or so and has been in decline ever since, and that intellectually-fulfillled theism has been in something of a recovery. Not that theism has chased the atheism off the stage, not by a long shot. But he suggests that a hundred years later (now), both believers and nonbelievers have plenty to be disturbed about when they are honest about it. [The main power of his talk, I think, is in the latter portion when he speaks of how Christians ought to go forward from here …]
I also liked Waybright’s talk – speaking of “intellectual hospitality”.
Oh, I figure your voice broke long ago. I just thought maybe you knew a little boy who would be interested in our choral boarding school.
Audrey Assad, “I Shall Not Want”–learned about it from Pete Enns. I appreciated his prayer of Zacchaeus too.From his website:
"The membership card I keep in my wallet for future consideration is of little use. I need salvation right now.
Deliver me, O Lord. Save me . . .
from broken relationships
from fear for my family
from the fear of what might be or might not be
from not knowing
from the need to know
from the need to be right
from this horrid and subtle self-centeredness
from looking down on any other human being
from feeling misunderstood and undervalued
from being defined by my past
from judging others by their past
from manipulating my neighbor with clever words
from feeling not enough
from what I cling to
from all my failings
from all my accomplishments
Not later. Not at some point in time. But now.
Right this minute. I want change, deliverance, peace . . . salvation.
I don’t want things to continue as they are.
Save me. Now. Do it."
There are many candidates on his Rambling Boy album. But this one “Spiritual” features the great jazz bassist singing and is performed live on television. Oops, that must be his son singing because there he is playing base in the background. Boy they look a lot alike.
I’m not familiar with jazz so much, but this is quite easy listening it’s nice! thanks.
Andrew Peterson is a great lyricist. I had bought his Clear to Venus CD a long time ago when it first came out, but I didn’t really like it much. But about a year ago, my husband said he really liked some of the songs and wanted to get some more. So then I started listening to his other albums and I felt bad that I had been missing out all these years. Now we have a pretty good “best of” collection and it has been the soundtrack of our last few road trips.
This topic was automatically closed 6 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
Thought I’d share a favorite Good Friday hymn here:
O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, thine only crown:
how pale thou art with anguish,
with sore abuse and scorn!
How does that visage languish
which once was bright as morn!
What thou, my Lord, has suffered
was all for sinners’ gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve thy place;
look on me with thy favor,
vouchsafe to me thy grace.
What language shall I borrow
to thank thee, dearest friend,
for this thy dying sorrow,
thy pity without end?
O make me thine forever;
and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love for thee.
I saw the thread title, thought “O Sacred Head”, not having thought about it or sung it for a long time, nor heard it, and guess what I first saw upon opening the thread. 
And I wasn’t consciously thinking Good Friday, either.
Its ancient authorship and that it was harmonized by Bach doesn’t detract from it, either. (←understatement 
)
https://hymnary.org/hymn/TH1990/page/258
[ETA: Trinity Hymnal: The Orthodox Presbyterian Church]
“Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” -Colossians 4:6
This is a place for gracious dialogue about science and faith. Please read our FAQ/Guidelines before posting.