One of my
favorite hymns is When in our music God
is glorified. The tune and the text really speak to me and explores the
main reason behind why I love working in the church. The hymn text was written
in 1972, and it is set to Charles Villiers Stanford’s tune ENGELBERG, which was
composed in 1904.
This hymn
text encompasses what our music should bring to the worship service. Our music
should always glorify God and the entire creation should rejoice with music
toward God. Music is sound, and as musicians, we take the sound and compress it
into time through rhythm, notes, dynamics, and words to take the sound to a deeper
meaning, which hopefully stirs our hearts closer to God. Through our music, we
speak the Truth, and we can learn much about our faith through music. Singing and music in the church have been around for hundreds of years. David
wrote the psalms, which were
set to music, and he played the lyre, calming Solomon. Mary, the mother of Jesus, rejoiced in song
when she learned she would birth Jesus. Jesus sang a hymn the night He was betrayed. Cathedrals around the world have sustained choirs for hundreds of years. Through the centuries, music has always been an avenue to draw us
closer to God.
At Christ
Church Cathedral, our choirs - Girls, Boys, Mens, Singers, Schola, Imps - and music staff spend hours upon hours each week on the details of music to produce beautiful, artistic music
on a weekly basis that ensures we will be able to give our highest praises and
worship to God on Sunday. Our prayer is that through our worship, music, and
sound, you will be moved to a more profound alleluia and draw closer to the One
who gave us the gift of music.
When in
our music God is glorified,
and adoration leaves no room for pride,
it is as though the whole creation cried
Alleluia!
How often, making music, we have found
a new dimension in the world of sound,
as worship moved us to a more profound
Alleluia!
So has the Church, in liturgy and song,
in faith and love, through centuries of wrong,
borne witness to the truth in every tongue,
Alleluia!
And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night
when utmost evil strove against the Light?
Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight,
Alleluia!
Let every instrument be tuned for praise!
Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise!
And may God give us faith to sing always
Alleluia! Amen.
and adoration leaves no room for pride,
it is as though the whole creation cried
Alleluia!
How often, making music, we have found
a new dimension in the world of sound,
as worship moved us to a more profound
Alleluia!
So has the Church, in liturgy and song,
in faith and love, through centuries of wrong,
borne witness to the truth in every tongue,
Alleluia!
And did not Jesus sing a psalm that night
when utmost evil strove against the Light?
Then let us sing, for whom he won the fight,
Alleluia!
Let every instrument be tuned for praise!
Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise!
And may God give us faith to sing always
Alleluia! Amen.
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