GodSongs news - August 2021

New Year, New Newsletter!

It's not even near New Year - but it is time for a new GodSongs newsletter format.

Mainly because there are some things, which simply don't fit into the old song-requests format, and I didn't have time to keep up with that  anyway.   

The new-format newsletter should be released about once a quarter, and will focus just on the more interesting hymn requests, as well as other news about hymns and this site.

Well-formatted, free, SATB arrangements of some traditional hymns

Recently I was contacted by Isaac Reefman, who is the Liturgical music coordinator at a parish in Australia, who said:

It seems to me that there is often a lack of well engraved SATB music for traditional hymns - they take up unnecessary pages, have uncomfortable line breaks, the text doesn't line up well, etc etc etc. Therefore I have begun re-engraving many hymns as I need them in my capacity as . I make special effort to keep them to one page where possible, and make them legibly and logically laid out. 

Issac has offered to make these engravings available here, and I'm delighted: because these layouts are done by a working church-musician, they are designed so as to make them easy for ordinary people to use. He had done about 30 hymns so far, and I'm slowly working on adding these to existing hymn pages: You can see examples so far here:

• Now Thank we All our God
• All Glory, Laud and Honour

Many, many thanks to Isaac for this generous sharing of his work, which will be appreciated by church-musicians and singers in many parts of the world.

I've made a new "download" icon to represent files like this.  In future, it will be used for all four-line arrangements - but it will take some time to apply this to older pages.

New email subscription service

The email subscriptions on this website were provided by Feedburner.  

Unfortunately Feedburner's updates-by-email feature is being turned off, so I've been working on a replacement.  There's a new Subscribe by Email button in the right-hand sidebar, and a subscribe option in the About page.

For the few-hundred people seeing this message in an email because they signed up month / years ago - this is the last message you will get in this format.  As soon as this message is sent, I will turn off the old service, and then automatically transfer you to the new service, which is run by MailChimp.   

And for the three people who have already signed up using Mailchimp - Welcome!   I'm sorry that you have been getting duplicate messages for the last few days, and I've just fixed that now.

Once the new feed is working, you can unsubscribe at any time - and please do, if you don't want the messages any more.  But rest assured, I don't plan to use the email tool any differently, it will just have a slightly different (nicer, I think) format.

As with Feedburner, if you ask for updates by email, there will be a confirmation message sent to you after you enter you email address and click Subscribe.   You need to click on the link inside this message, in order to be subscribed.   (This stops other people from signing you up for emails that you don't want.)

Interesting hymn and song research requests

As the number of hymns on this website has increased, more and more requests are for hymns that are already "done".   Instead of listing all of these, I'm going to focus on the more interesting or difficult requests, ones that I've not been able to help with.    Hopefully with the combined knowledge of the visitors to this site, we might be able to find some of them.

If you can provide any information about the hymns and songs listed here, please leave a message in the Comments box near the bottom of the page.

Adapt Yourselves

This is a direct quote from Romans 2:12, which a visitor heard sung in the USA.    However no musical settings have been found - do you know of any?

Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect.

 

Catholic Action Anthem

A reader is looking for information about  this song, which was written by Harry Payne.  Copyright was registered on May 8 1939, when the song was published by  Columbian Music Co. Toronto in 1939.

Unfortunately none of the words are known.

Heaven's my Home?

A reader called Susan heard a hymn with this phrase, in a Catholic church in the United States during the 1970s. She doesn't know the title, though I'm guessing that it is probably "Heaven's my Home" - but cannot identify the hymn:

I wandered unceasing I travelled afar, I stood on a mountain to look for a star. Why do I yearn. Why do I roam. How long the journey before I am home. So weary from travel unsure what to do I stood on a mountain and suddenly knew. Heavens my home. Heavens my home. For God is my father and heavens my home.

Here in Your Presence

This song starts with the phrase "Chains are broken" and was written by Dave or Dale Garrett in New Zealand.  Do you know where to find it?

High above the landing sea

This request didn't have many details, just the short phrase "High above the landing sea".   I've not been able to identify any matching hymn though - do you know of any?

I’m Sending You

This song was heard in the mid 1970s in the USA.    The words which are available are:

To witness in the ghettos; To sin-sick modern man; Where city walls rise high above the people; you will not go alone

This is a familiar type of hymn from that time, but so far the complete version hasn't been found.

In the morning of light 

This was sung in a Methodist choir in the 1980s - and the writer may have been called Owen (spelling may not be correct).   Do you have any ideas what hymn is may be:

In the morning of light is the time to choose 

How the rest of the day will be spent

Sad the faith of the one who lives all alone

Never knowing what life might have meant

But for those who choose Christ 

As their Lord and King.

Jesus, Thou of Loving Grace 

This hymn was sung in a youth SATB choir in a Presbyterian church in the USA during the 1960s/70.  

Oh, Jesus, Thou of loving grace, though darkness hides us from Thy face, grant us thy peace from heaven above, and fill our hearts with joy and love.  Forgiving us our sins that we, filled with thy love, forgiving be

I haven't found any references to it so far - do you have any suggestions?

Others

There are plenty of other hymn-requests that I cannot answer, because there a lot of hymns which match the same phrases provided.  For example "Remember your mercies O Lord  or "One Lord, One Body", "Come Lord Jesus".

For these, it's best to try again, providing more words from the hymn.

Getting updates about requested songs and hymns

If you subscribe to the GodSongs.net mailing list, you will get an email when new hymns and hymnal-listing are added, and when new newsletters are posted:

Please note that shortly after you subscribe, Mailchimp will send you a verification-request message - be sure to click on the link, so your subscription is complete.

Are you looking for a hymn or song?

Are you searching for the words or sheet music for a particular song or hymn - especially from the last 50 or so years?

The Hymn Finder tool is your first port of call.   It is a customized search tool, which lets you search for any words from the hymn - and looks for them in a set of websites that are known to contain hymns.    This means that you get results which are hymns - instead of sermons and newsletters which just contain snippets, or pages about totally different topics which just happen to contain those words.

If this doesn't help, then submit a request using the hymn research request tool, and I will try to find the hymn:   if it's already on the website, it will likely be moved to the top of the "New on this site" list on the homepage for a day or two.
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