Changing rusted minds through music

 "Music has that ability to cut through our defenses and go straight to our hearts... It brings us to a place where we're reminded of our shared humanity." So comments Christiane Karam, a professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, in an interview reported in The Christian Science Monitor (print version, p. 3 week of November 28, 2022; online version Oct. 18, 2022). 

The print editorial is headlined "Iran's anthem 'for changing rusted minds'". It reports on the widely popular song by Shervin Hajipour, "Baraye", a protest against the arrest and subsequent death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini. The editorial describes the song as "captur[ing] pent-up longing, frustration, and sadness", ingredients that contribute to its becoming like an "anthem".

Hymns are not anthems but they too can be songs of protest - songs that protest God's goodness. This section from a testimony in Fruitage in Science and Health attests to the spiritual power inherent in a hymn:

I was awakened one night by the sound that seems to bring terror to every mother's heart, and found the little fellow sitting up in bed, gasping for breath. I got up, took him in my arms, and went into the next room. My first thought was, “O if only there was another Christian Scientist in town!” But there was not, and the work must be done and done quickly. I tried to treat him, but was so frightened I could not think; so I picked up Science and Health, which lay on the table beside me, and began reading aloud. I had read but a few lines when these words came to me as though a voice spoke, “The word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword.” Almost immediately after, the little one said, “Mamma, sing ‘Shepherd,' ” — our Leader's hymn, that both the big and the little children love. I began singing, and commencing with the second line, the little voice joined me. I shall never forget the feeling of joy and peace that came over me, when I realized how quickly God's word, through Science and Health and the beautiful hymn, had accomplished the healing work.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 619:24–14)

What a joy to turn to our hymns for healing. And maybe make up our own songs of protest and praise. No rusted minds allowed.

Julie Swannell

Shepherd - see hymns 304-309 and 573-576.

 

Hymns in wartime

The thought has been with me for a while now that there is a significant mention of the hymnal in one of the Christian Science Wartime Activities books (First and Second World Wars). As I remember, it states that German prisoners-of-war in England were on the hunt for the music of the German national anthem and it was found in the Christian Science hymnal. It seems that the story must be in the World War I book, because I have not found it in my copy of the World War II one. I will have to borrow the first one from our Reading Room Library. (Ed. The book is available digitally at https://archive.org/details/christianscience00firs/mode/1up?ref=ol&view=theater. Friends may wish to contribute to the upkeep of this free website.)

The War II book has a chapter, Keeping Church Alive in Prison Camps. It is exciting to read of the church activity which developed in Stalag III B. Healings happened (p. 328) –

Healings through Christian Science which took place among the men who were participating in this activity at Stalag III B include appendicitis, two men healed of needing glasses after having worn them for over ten years, two mental cases, one of which was recommended to Christian Science by an American doctor who was held prisoner, and bone disease of the leg which had continued for two months and was healed withing three weeks after the man began to study Christian Science. The greatest demonstration of all under the circumstances was the proof of continual supply—sufficient bread, potatoes, and a few other foods to sustain the men throughout this time.

Another account tells of the Christian Science activity in Zentsuji Japanese prison camp (p. 331).

The Japanese couldn’t understand why we wanted Wednesday evening services when the other religions did not. They were quite obstructive about it, but this was overcome. They wouldn’t let us sing. After we insisted, the Japanese later allowed us to sing at the Sunday services but not at the testimony meetings. We never had a piano or organ in camp.

The singing was important to us, as it had been the result of demonstration. …. We wrote out the words of a few of the Christian Science hymns we could remember but discovered that our recollection of the tunes varied considerably. About this time the Japanese distributed to the other religious groups some music notebooks, so we obtained our share of them. Two musically talented men in the group were assigned to put the music to these words as accurately as they could remember.

This helped a lot. Our singing them began to go more harmoniously. At last, one happy day we had a pamphlet Hymnal. An Englishman was brought to camp who had one of the booklets containing a selection of hymns with the music from the Christian Science Hymnal. The hymns were then rewritten in the notebooks with the true words and music. We made five or six copies of the notebooks and used these hymnals for over two years.

If the reader seeks out a copy of either or both the Christian Science War Time Activities accounts, it is recommended that she or he also finds a copy of The Ultimate Freedom by John H. Wyndham for an account of Wyndham’s marvellous overcoming [of adversity] in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp. [Ed. I have a few copies of Wyndham’s marvellous book and am happy to share.]

Joyce Voysey

Christmas hymns

I’ve just typed the hymns for our church’s Wednesday meeting. And I am reminded of what a valuable help the Words Only Hymnal is. Sometimes reading the words from the music version can be confusing. This is specially so when First Readers use the music version to read part of the hymn to be sung as a sort of preview.

At this Christmas time we go on a hunt for Christmas related hymns for our services and our individual satisfaction. There are quite a number in the 1932 Hymnal, and a few in the Hymns 430-603 one.

A long time ago a friend made a list of the 1932 ones which I copied into the back of my music hymnal.

This may not be a complete list:

11 Angels at the Saviour's birth

17 Be firm, ye sentinels of Truth

23-28 Blest Christmas morn

164, 165, Joy to the world

417 (best tune)

170 Let every creature hail the morn

222, 223 O little town of Bethlehem

236 O peace of the world

310 Sing, ye joyous children, sing

362 A child of hope is born

368, 369 Watchman, tell us of the night

 

There are some carol tunes set to un-Christmas words.

434 A Village humble, still

449-451 Blest Christmas Morn

511, 512 It came upon the midnight clear

538 O come, all ye faithful

544 O little town of Bethlehem

549 O thou joyful, O thou blessed (O du fröhliche, o du selige)  

Our church had a Carol Sing after the service last Sunday. We sang (beautifully) some of these. And added The Little Drummer Boy (with one of our number volunteering (most effectively) on a little drum.

Joyce Voysey

Ed. On the inside front cover of my hymnal I also have the following marked as Christmas-time-suitable-hymns:

122 How blest are they (tune Winchester Old àWhile shepherds watched their flocks by night)

123 How firm a foundation (tune - Adeste Fideles àO come all ye faithful)

158 It came upon the midnight clear

229 O Love divine…light which glowed / Upon the waiting shepherds’ way

Resisting what's unfamiliar

 

Here are some items from my gleanings of the [Christian Science] periodicals – 

ITEMS OF INTEREST

[As published in the Christian Science Sentinel, August 27, 1932]

 

In this issue of the Sentinel the Publishing Society is announcing the long-looked-for new Christian Science Hymnal. Undertaken by The Christian Science Board of Directors more than four years ago, with the aid of competent musicians, committee workers, and contributors all over the world, the revision and compilation of this Hymnal has received much loving devotion, prayer, and earnest labor. We can now avail ourselves of its many inspiring songs of praise.

 

In The Mother Church, according to a plan of its Board of Directors, those of the congregation who care to do so will be invited to remain after the Wednesday evening meetings for a time for perhaps twenty minutes of song practice of the hymns new to this Hymnal. The presiding Reader at the Wednesday evening meetings will announce that after a brief interval just following the meetings, twenty minutes will be devoted for the purpose. In this way it is hoped that the congregation will familiarize itself with the new hymns. [My emphasis,  J.V.] The singing of hymns in Christian Science church services has attracted attention and favorable comment from non-Christian Scientists, and has been declared to be noteworthy and highly inspirational.

 

The Concordance and General Index to the new Christian Science Hymnal is to be ready shortly. Inasmuch as many new hymns have been added to the Hymnal the Concordance will be found to be of great assistance in choosing hymns to fit certain subjects or to meet a specific need.

 

…….

 

In the August 9 issue of The Christian Science Monitor there appeared an article reprinted from the Kingsport Times, Kingsport, Tennessee, with reference to our Hymnal. This article gave interesting statistics regarding the material used in the make-up of the book, and we are repeating these for the benefit of those who may not have read the reprint in the Monitor.

 

The music plates for the 640 pages of the Hymnal were prepared in Boston and all of the type for the plates was set by hand. The Hymnal was printed in Tennessee at Kingsport, and the order for 410,000 books is the largest known single order of hymnals ever placed with a single firm. The printing commenced June 15 with the operation of five large perfecting presses running twenty hours a day, and was completed approximately two months later.

A total of 325 tons of paper, 40,240 yards of book cloth, 39,000 yards of headbands, 7 tons of end paper material, 50 tons of cover board, 210,000 yards of muslin reënforcement for the backs of the books, and 2,280,000 yards of thread were used. Probably the most outstanding part of the manufacturing process was the use of more than 500,000 sheets of the 22-carat gold for the stamping on the cloth-bound edition and for gilding the edges and stamping the de luxe edition.

 

565,000 copies printed  Annual meeting June 17, 1933

 

 

ITEM OF INTEREST

Christian Science Sentinel, Sept. 24, 1932

… Four hundred years ago Martin Luther said of such song, "Music is one of the fairest and most glorious gifts of God, to which Satan is a bitter enemy; for it removes from the heart the weight of sorrow, and the fascination of evil thoughts."

 

 

The Singing Church, Peter Allen, The Christian Science Journal, Jan. 2010

 

When the 1932 Hymnal was released, there was resistance to giving up the 1910 Hymnal, which it had replaced. In a Christian Science Sentinel article dated April 9, 1932, Margaret Morrison, the author of Hymns 179 and 371, wrote: "... let us work and watch and pray that our new messenger of song—this beautiful development of good—be protected from the erroneous beliefs of the carnal mind, the notes of discord which would seek to annul its mission and destroy our joy in taking this revealed step of progress. ...

"... we shall undertake the learning of the new hymns, not as a task, but as a great joy. May we see in this effort to sing our new songs a means of growing closer together in love, making melody in our hearts, praising our God, who is the God of salvation" ("Song and Salvation," p. 625).   

It was somewhat of a balm to me that the 1932 Christian Science Hymnal was resisted by congregations of Christian Scientists, for there was the same resistance to the 2017 printing (Christian Science Hymnal, Hymns 430-603). I was one of those resisters until being made aware that many of the new songs were suitable for the Sunday School.  As Superintendent I had noted that the 1932 book did not have many songs which were really suitable for the children. 

To help us all learn the new hymns, back in 2017 our branch church held “new hymnal” practices after our Wednesday meetings.  I was glad to read that it had also been done at The Mother Church back in 1932.

 

Joyce Voysey

About Christmas Morn, hymn 381, and a canary

As a beginner student of Christian Science, of course my first purchases at a Christian Science Reading Room were the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baer Eddy.  No doubt the next was a Christian Science Quarterly to guide my study of the weekly Bible-Lesson.  (No markers at first!) 

Following those purchases there seems to have been a tight race between the Christian Science Hymnal (1932 edition) and the Concordance to Science and Health.  The hymnal was precious, and I carried it to church services. On reflection I think the hymnal probably won that race.  

The story of the Concordance is interesting.  Over a few years there seemed to be a sort of epidemic of cancer deaths within close adoptive family.  This had been happening for a while before I knew about Christian Science.  Then we visited a loved uncle from Mount Morgan in a Brisbane hospital.  He seemed to be filled with fear, very disturbed.  I went away fearful and disturbed too.  However,  things were difference this time – I knew about the healing Truth, and I had a Concordance to Science and Health to guide me in gaining my peace.  I was such a new student, and it is a surprise that I was guided to citations on Life.  We visited the uncle again.  There was a complete change in his demeanour.  He did pass on soon after, but I was sure that he was at peace – and so was I. 

I was a devourer of the free literature (copies of the weekly Christian Science Sentinel and the monthly Christian Science Journal) available at church, so that after a while I saw the need to own a copy of Mrs. Eddy’s Prose Works other than Science and Health which was referred to in those periodicals.  This copy is still on my desk, although for study I have a new one (purchased in 1991!).  The original is well worn to say the least.  It has the signatures of my fellow Class students (Christian Science Primary Class instruction).  A precious volume. 

I receive emails from the Longyear Foundation and recently I found this gem about one of Mrs. Eddy’s poems being set to music for the church services.

Christmas Morn  In 1903, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Albert Conant, organist of The Mother Church, asking him to set her “Christmas Hymn” to music that could be sung in church services. She wanted a melody “adapted for my words,” as she put it. “They need neither a dirge nor a trumpet blast, but they do require the depths of HARMONY, plaintive and joyous. … I shall never consent to have that Hymn sung in any tune less sweet than the music that moves my heart, not head.” Enjoy this video from Longyear’s 2021-22 series about Mrs. Eddy’s seven poems that appear in the Christian Science Hymnal. WATCH NOW

This item is one of a series of Longyear notes about Mrs. Eddy’s seven poems that appear in the Christian Science Hymnal. I hope that readers of this blog will use this site https://journal.christianscience.com/issues/1993/12/111-12/mary-baker-eddy-s-hymns for an inspiring commentary on the seven poems and their derivation.  

Hymn 381 

Last Friday I spoke with a friend in the Reading Room about the wonderful role played by early worker William McKenzie, and especially his hymn 381, “What brightness dawned in resurrection”.  My friend mentioned that the musical setting of this hymn (written by Clement Cotterill Scholefield around 1894) was included in the funeral service of Queen Elizabeth II.  The words sung on that occasion, [Ed.- and which convey a very different sense from those penned by McKenzie], were most likely the following –: 

1 The day you gave us, Lord, is ended,
the darkness falls at your request;
to you our morning hymns ascended,
your praise shall sanctify our rest.

2 We thank you that your Church, unsleeping
while earth rolls onward into light,
through all the world her watch is keeping
and never rests by day or night.

3 As over continent and island
each dawn leads to another day,
the voice of prayer is never silent,
nor do the praises die away.

4 So be it, Lord! Your throne shall never,
like earth’s proud empires, pass away;
your kingdom stands and grows forever
until there dawns your glorious day.

Another piece from Longyear tells us a little more – 

In 1932, just as the Hymnal was being readied for the printer, the Hymnal Revision Committee encountered an unexpected hurdle. Permission to print a poem by John Ellerton, which was intended for hymn #381, was withdrawn. With not a moment to lose, the committee sent an urgent request to William McKenzie. Would he be willing to write a replacement?

It wasn’t an easy task. The poem’s words would have to match the cadence of the tune. Also, the first line would need to begin with the letter “W” to fit within the hymnal’s alphabetical order.

Mr. McKenzie consented. He pulled out his paper and pen and got to work. The resulting poem, a tender view of the resurrection, has been a much-loved hymn ever since.3 In all, seven of William McKenzie’s poems would be published in that 1932 Hymnal. 

Finally, you may like to read this gem, not related to the hymnal–

Celebrations 

For about two months in the summer of 1891, after completing revisions for the landmark 50th edition of her major work, Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy moved back to Boston from Concord, New Hampshire. In Roslindale, a Boston suburb, she purchased a home across the street from the Knapp family. Ira Knapp and his wife, Flavia, were rock-solid students and friends. Mrs. Eddy would appoint Ira as one of the first directors of The Mother Church. During her brief stay in Roslindale, Mrs. Eddy became aware that her neighbor had developed what his son Bliss Knapp described as “an abnormal sense about celebrating birthdays.” He refused to celebrate them. Mrs. Eddy felt this posture was excessive and needed correction, so, on Ira’s birthday, June 7, she gave him a birthday present! [A] vase …. filled with flowers, was sent across the street to the Knapp home, accompanied by a photograph of the sender in a hand-painted frame. June 7 also happened to be Bliss’s birthday, so she sent him a present, too — her favorite canary in a fine brass cage.

-Photo by Alfred Grupstra-

 Joyce Voysey

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A perfect harp - beautiful possibilities and the New Woman

 As we start our exploration of the 1932 Christian Science Hymnal this month, isn't it lovely that music and harps appear in this week's Christian Science Bible Lesson.

I wondered what David's harp might sound like. UK composer Michael Levy's discussion on the topic is helpful.  

When I looked up the word harp in the Concordance to Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (actually Concord online) i found this interesting passage in the essay "One Point of View - the New Woman", re-printed from The New Century, Boston Feb. 1895:

"She is as full of beautiful possibilities as a perfect harp, and she realizes that all the harmonies of the universe are in herself, while her own soul plays upon magic strings the unwritten anthems of love." (Pulpit and Press, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 81: 20-23) 

The stirring melody and emphatic rhythmic pulse, along with the rousing lyrics of hymn 200 provide an example of the blessings of music. This hymn includes a "harp" reference in the third verse:

O daughter of Zion, the power that hath saved thee, / Extolled with the harp and the timbrel should be;

Then shout, for the foe is destroyed that enslaved thee; / Th' oppressor is vanquished, and Zion is free.

Let's all sing today. 

Julie Swannell