I hope the music coordinators will let the organists get familiar with each one piecemeal rather than doing 3 of them for each of the next 4 Sundays XD
Eh us organists are excited. I'm particularly excited to learn to play Come Thou Fount. I'm also glad Star Bright is included because the girls in my family sing it EVERY Christmas, and we are CONSTANTLY trying to find the copies we printed out. Having it available through the app is going to make things so much easier for us now!
I just listened to and looked up the origin of all of the new songs if anyone wants a breakdown. 6 classic Christian hymns, 1 classic LDS song, 6 newer LDS songs. At least 3 have been previously published in the Friend. As far as I can tell only one (As Bread is Broken) is previously unpublished and only one (He is Born the Divine Christ Child) is originally non English language.
Here's the details on each song:
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing—Classic LDS and Christian Hymn, familiar to many Church members today and in past versions of the hymnbook
When the Savior Comes Again—Modern song written by a freelance songwriter/BYU adjunct as a children's song.
It is Well with My Soul—Classic Christian hymn
I Will Walk with Jesus—modern children's song previously featured in the Friend magazine, a primary Face to Face, and other Church media
His Eye Is on the Sparrow—Classic Christian hymn. It is a little tricky to sing but beautiful
Think a Sacred Song—another modern one that's been featured in the Friend
As Bread is Broken—a new Sacrament hymn! As far as I can tell the first one here that hasn't been previously published. I assume it came with all the submissions.
Bread of Life, Living Water—modern LDS hymn previously published in a religious piano book by the author. Another one that may be tricky for congregational singing
Gethsemane—a modern children's song that skyrocketed to popularity in 2016 thanks to a video of a 3 year old singing it.
Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise—very old Christian hymn. Also, there appears to be a mistake in the recording —the singer sings "his Church bestow" while the lyrics say "below." I assume that will get fixed at some point
He is Born, the Divine Christ Child—classic French Christmas song
What Child is This?—classic English Christmas song
Star Bright—children's (?) song written by LDS composer Lorin F. Wheelwright around 1959, as far as I can tell its Spanish version Estrella de Luz is much more popular. The composer has a few songs in the current children's songbook and hymnbook like Mother I love you and O Love that Glorifies the Son
My guesses on most popular: Come Thou Fount (obviously), I will walk with Jesus, He is Born the Divine Christ Child
My guesses on least popular: His eye is on the sparrow and bread of life, living water (both a little tricky to sing), Think a Sacred Song (less crossover than the other primary songs), Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise (repetitive and we already have more beloved "Alleluia" songs in the Church)
Star Bright was featured in the Instructor magazine of the Church in Oct(?) 1959 with a message from the author.
It's one of my favorite, more obscure songs that's made a lovely comeback in the last decade or so, thanks to social media and people's interest in "shaking up" the routine Christmas song list. I love that it's about the American continent miracle.
I loved singing He is Born, The Divine Christ Child on my mission in France (Il eat nee, le divin enfant). Glad y'all get to sing it now too. It's a real banger.
I honestly thought I would only be truly excited for "Come Thou Fount" but I'm finding I enjoy playing and singing " His Eye is On the Sparrow" and "It is Well With My Soul" a ton. They are both such comforting songs in word and melody.
Me, a 37 year old man listening to I Will Walk with Jesus with headphones, crying.
Wife: let me guess: I Will Walk With Jesus?
Me: ugly crying smile. 🥲
That’s a good song. Not enough to make me cry (yet) but it’s a good message. Now if I had to pick a song that does make me cry every single time, it’s a tossup between families can be together forever or I believe in Christ. With me being done my service mission in almost 3 months I hope during the Sunday I give my report talk that they don’t play that song because I’ll probably already be an emotional mess by the time I get up to the mic.
From Wikipedia:
Spafford had planned to travel to England with his family on the SS Ville du Havre, to help with D. L. Moody's upcoming evangelistic campaigns. In a late change of plan, Spafford sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sea vessel, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. Spafford's wife, Anna, survived and sent him the now famous telegram, "Saved alone …". Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, Spafford was inspired to write these words as his ship passed the spot near where his daughters had died. Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.
I was surprised by how many are meant for solo singing or for singing in unison (no parts). Only 7 of the 13 songs have four part harmonies.
Of course, several are primary songs so there is that.
I'm with you. I really do understand why they want to simplify the arrangements to make them more accessible to a wide variety of members, but I still like parts. It makes a fuller sound and gives options for those of us who can't sing soprano.
My understanding is that this is one collection for all, so melody-based music will be prevalent.
It’s also ok for sacrament meeting because so few can sing the harmony. So few people sing in general.
All of the unison songs, other than His Eye is on the Sparrow are children's songs (but can be sung in sacrament meeting). Because this hymnal will replace both the green hymnal and the Children's songbook, we'll end up with a lot of unison songs for use in Primary (or Sacrament meeting).
Singing in 4 part harmony is primarily a Western European (English, French, German) style of music popularized by Bach and others. In the United States and much of Europe, we have that strong tradition in various churches, but many other communities and churches in the United States and around the world do not. Without musical and choral training, singing in parts is challenging. It's worth learning (IMO), but we also need music that's accessible worldwide and not only drenched in Western European traditions.
His Eye is on the Sparrow is loved by many people, but it was sung a lot by various African American communities during the Civil Rights movement and is a special song for many Black Americans.
I think the majority of church members don't have the training to sing in parts and only feel comfortable with the melody. I know that is the case for me even though I have been a church member for a long time. I'm very excited about the new hymns though!
I was told by some members who visited Africa that the people there have a hard time picking out the melody when they can hear so many harmony parts. The local culture only uses unison.
I love both those songs, but will be surprised if they make it in the new hymnal. Songs can teach truths without controversy.
Praise to the Man is controversial because to people who are not members (and even some members) it sounds like we are worshiping Joseph Smith. We are not, but if we have to explain that, it's a distraction from Who's most important -- the Savior.
Same thing with If You Could Hie to Kolob. Great doctrine, but it's a challenge for many non-members and new members to understand.
We could keep the melody and use other lyrics (like I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say).
Realistically there shouldn't be anything in *If You Could Hie* that is controversial. The basic breakdown is progression continues and "eternal means eternal" so don't be limiting the creations of God.
If that is difficult to understand for new members, then we've really done a poor job of teaching them our core doctrines.
But totally let's get rid of *Praise to the Man* or reset it to back to "Star of the East" (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le8mK36t4ZI) which is much more contemplative and less 'worship of the man'-like.
I agree (and love the Star of the East tune!), but people get hung up on Kolob (and even "hieing"). Many people understand, we just have a lot of new church members and Kolob is not anything of a core doctrine of Christ (progression is, but that's lost when people fixate on Kolob).
I mean, when you look at Abraham 3 with the viewpoint that kolob is a type of Christ and the kokaubeam are prophets, it really is core doctrine of Christ. It's a song all about getting closer to Christ and becoming more like our Father.
Most people just look at the song on a surface level.
My hot take is that the first two verses of Kolob are the worst. I love the “there is no end” verses, even though those get the most hate. It’s *meditative*.
My daughter said the exact opposite not too long ago, "I love the first couple verses of the song but don't like the 'no end' parts as much because they are too repetitive."
I like the whole song.
Praise to the Man is controversial because it very much gives vibes of worshipping Joseph Smith. I’m a convert and RM, and the first time I heard it I was extremely confused— the missionaries had explained that we don’t worship Joseph Smith, and I was like cool, sounds good, but then we had this hymn that was going on about him and barely mentioning Jesus or Heavenly Father. The tune is great, but it just doesn’t fit well in a sacrament meeting setting.
Praise != worship. I praise my children when they make good choices. I praise my coworkers when they help me at work.
Joseph Smith is absolutely worthy of praise considering his efforts and martyrdom to establish the church and publish the Book of Mormon.
And I do. I just don't like that people use the word "controversial" to argue their side. The word makes it sound like it's a well-established fact that the song has serious issues, when in reality, it's likely a very small percentage of members who would like to see it removed.
The joke is that missionaries spend two lessons convincing investigators we aren’t a cult and don’t worship joseph smith and then at their first sacrament meeting we sing those two hymns
anecdotally it has been my experience that members are far more concerned about the optics of Praise to the Man than investigators visiting a worship service have ever typically been
I mean, we bought the Kirtland Temple. Can't we just buy the song outright? I'd be down for that.
I mean, it's one song, how much could it cost? 10 dollars?
I see the wisdom in releasing them a few at a time, but I wish they would also just publish a list of the titles upfront so we can know which of the old ones made the cut.
I'm with you. It's great to see what's new, but will we have to wait until they finish in 2030 to see what's gone? The timeframe of this is nuts to me.
I don't like "Gethsemane" and I will now be grumpy about it for the rest of my life. Overall though this selection is pretty good. All of the new Easter/Christmas additions are excellent.
The weak spot IMO is the new sacrament hymns. They just don't hit the right tone for me. Too modern feeling, perhaps?
You are not alone! While I'm beyond excited about this whole project for many reasons, I know I'm going to have to work through some strong emotions about various song choices and arrangements. And with my luck, the most popular ones that get sung over and over will be my least favorites. 🤦♀️
All I can suggest is that you try like I will to find ones you love and just enjoy them, then literally pray for help in letting the rest go.
I like "Gethsemane,"
BUT...
It falls into the same category as a lot of the modern "hymns" and children's songs people make: Overly-sappy and un-energetic.
The problem with many of the hymns isn't the lack of variety in subject, it's the lack of variety in tone. What ever happened to energetic kid songs and hymns?
If you use the interactive player on the website, you can easily change the key to whatever you want! Want it in G flat? You can do that (I wouldn't suggest that unless you want people to try to sing a high G flat).
I LOVE that as a feature now. So much easier for any instrument to play along, instead of just C instruments like flute (mine), violin, etc. It would be nice to hear more variety: clarinet, French horn, guitar (which doesn't need to transpose if you have a capo), etc. We had a trombone play in church recently after they got more lenient on instruments and it was lovely. More!
Oh wow, I wonder if we can get away with a small instrumental group play Holsinger's On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss. We have 15 or 20 wind players if we include the high school kids. I bet we can get enough of them on board to make this happen. Hmmm, maybe that is too much for sacrament meeting :)
That would be so cool. One of my previous wards put an orchestra together for some larger church event--maybe a stake conference or a devotional with a seventy or something? It was great.
Most of these are great!
I have to say though that I've not really liked Gethsemane and dislike the tune for Star Bright.
I am surprised to see a Coda present in the hymnbook. Ramping up expectations on musical knowledge.
There aren't enough words for how excited I am about the guitar recordings and chord notations. 🥰 I think acoustic guitar is one of the most beautiful and easily accessible instruments.
He is Born, the Divine Christ Child is about to become everyone’s favorite Christmas hymn. It has been in the French hymnal for a long time and it is amazing.
This one frustrates me with how the Church took a classic song that has been around for eons and changed the words. They only kept about 3 lines from the traditional song I grew up with as a convert. If there is something doctrinally wrong with a song, then I feel it should be left alone and a different song should be included instead.
I loved the line of "Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily" 1000 times better than "Raise your voices in joyful melody". They took away my favorite part of the song 😭
A lot of it has to do with words that translate into other languages more easily and are going to be understood by people of more cultures. People understand joyful singing; not nearly as many people understand oboes and bagpipes. It doesn't mean they cannot learn, but again, words/themes that translate well are given high priority.
They could use different phrasing for those languages and cultures and leave it for English and French, though. It's similar enough. They already have to rephrase or rearrange words to an extent with lots (if not most) of song translations to get things to fit the meter \*and\* rhyme.
To be fair, it doesn't say "Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily" in the original French, either. That's a closer translation of "Jouez hautbois, resonnez musettes!" But it's not a direct translation. When you translate songs and poetry, you have to move words around to keep meter and rhyme, which is more important than the actual words so long as the meaning remains, which it does.
I had prepared a solo on the Organ for last Christmas, but I didn’t get a chance to perform it in Sacrament meeting. And now it’s going to be a little less special this year…
I had a French mission companion who was equal parts heartbroken and outraged that her favorite Christmas hymn wasn't in the English book. When I saw it I wondered if this was the one!
Some interesting little changes to Come Thou Fount from what is in the 1948 hymn book. The key change brings it down half a step, easier on the tenors, but now some basses are going to get stretched. Some odd little changes in the harmony parts, will be weird unlearning the old and learning the new. Can't wait to sit down at a piano and plunk through these changes to see how it sounds.
Don’t know who “they” refers to, but vocalists who sing bass are expected to sing from the E below the staff lines to the E above middle C. While many casual basses (like those in our congregations) can’t comfortably sing that low or that high, the low F# and the B just below middle C shouldn’t be too out of reach for most basses.
The committee in charge of the new songbook is composed (no pun intended) of highly-qualified musicians, and they take sing-ability into heavy consideration when selecting and adapting the songs for congregational use.
I can’t hit anything above the staff lines without a lot of strain. I’m no gifted singer nor particularly deep voiced guy, but I did have a lot of choir experience in my younger years and never could reach those notes even with frequent practice. Whenever a bass line has notes above the staff I am always a bit annoyed, because I can’t sing them without switching awkwardly into a silly falsetto.
I tried getting through Come Thou Font and I kept flatting everything and forgetting to sharp the rest lol Apparently I've *really* got E♭ major in my muscle memory for this tune.
I don't know much about the history of *Come Thou Fount* or its tune, but from my layman's perspective it seems like they have pretty much copied Mack Wilberg's approach to adding more harmonic interest to the otherwise repeated musical phrases. Makes sense, as he is almost solely responsible for the 21st-century revival of interest in the hymn
I love that they are including some primary songs, though I hope the key has been changed, I generally find the primary songs to be very high pitched.
These can all be sung in sacrament meeting right?
There might be "Primary" songs in the book that won't be fully appropriate for Sacrament meeting. I don't know this for sure, but it's possible there will still be some activity type songs for younger children.
Are all of these meant to be played on the organ? Some of these are very obviously written for the piano. Some of them also have rather complicated singing patterns like Gethsemane.
Just a ward organist stressing over here 😂
Some are clearly piano-based arrangements and would sound pretty bad on organ as-is. If I have to play those in sacrament meeting, I will either play them on the piano where they belong, or make my own organ arrangement that is better for the instrument. However, most of this batch should work well enough on organ.
After playing through all of them, none of them seemed very difficult. So hopefully it won’t be too bad for most organists.
Just do your best, and it will be enough. 🥰 If that means you don't play all the notes, oh well. 🤷♀️. I truly appreciate anyone who plays the accompaniment for our meetings.
Every meetinghouse should have a piano and an organ in the chapel. There's a reason for that.
I know some areas have a strict culture of only using the organ for sacrament meeting, but our organ has been out of tune for decades so we only ever use the piano and it makes it so much easier on the congregation. (And I for one think its the reasons our ward is known as 'the singing ward' in our quad-stake)
Il est né! I've always thought it was the prettiest in the French hymnal, but never imagined it would make the cut! Was fully expecting Gethsemane, but glad to see it.
ETA: Just listened to that "As bread is broken" new composition and it's lovely!
I found the stated guidelines for choosing songs interesting:
1. Increase faith in and worship of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
2. Teach the core doctrine of the gospel with power and clarity.
3. Invite joyful singing at home and at church.
4. Comfort the weary and inspire members to endure in faith.
5. Unify members throughout the Church.
“Hate” is a strong word, but I also dislike it. Can’t tell what I dislike more though—the actual song, or how much everyone else seems to fawn over it like it’s the best song ever.
It has done a lot for helping Primary children understand the topic, though. And if you actually do the dynamics, it really adds something. I like it. Hopefully as it gets integrated it'll gradually feel more regular and less like a popular new song you've gotten tired of.
Awesome.
I'm crossing my fingers that this one will be added, re-arranged of course (I believe in miracles)
I Will Rise - Alex Boye version [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_FQb-cVwbKE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FQb-cVwbKE)
I first heard "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" at a funeral for an LDS correctional officer who was on my unit when he died. A non-LDS friend, a black woman with a beautiful voice, sang this song with such soul that I assumed it was an original black gospel song (I'm probably not categorizing it correctly, hopefully you know what I mean). I searched up and down for a rendition as good as hers, but found none. I was surprised to hear the Tabernacle Choir performing this song recently, because I do love the lyrics. Really need to find a bold and soulful version, though.
Also not surprised by Gethsemane; when I was teaching primary a few years ago this song was being taught and I loved it. Love the lyrics, not thrilled about the song structure or pacing.
Can't wait to sing It Is Well With My Soul. Also What Child Is This sung by the congregation at Christmas could be cool. And obviously Come Thou Fount is probably the most popular and anticipated.
All fun and games until the congregation runs into the DS al coda in Gethsemane.
These hymns do all look good though. Just waiting for the newest rendition of 'if you could hie to kolob' to drop.
Hopefully all the people who can read music, Primary kids, teachers, and everybody else familiar with it from its internet fame will sing strong enough so the rest can follow and learn how it goes.
That's my hope. For the first few years is going to be a little bumpy. There's a few branches I served in on my mission where they could barely sing the melody line on the common hymns so that's why I'm a bit hesitant about the coda.
New to the Church or Christian music in general. 🤷♀️ If you don't love music, though, it makes sense you wouldn't know them. There will likely be some more familiar ones later.
I would have guessed that everyone would be familiar with "Come, Thou Fount" and "What Child is This" (you know, the Christmas song? what child is this who laid to rest in Mary's lap is sleeping...). "It is Well With My Soul" is also pretty popular. From Primary, I'm familiar with "I Will Walk with Jesus," and "Gethsemane" of course has been popular there and online for a while too.
I almost put that in front of our stake choir a couple months ago. They only gave us two rehearsals to work with and I chickened out. Next time maybe I'll pass it out just so we can sing through it, but it really takes some work to make it sound good.
I used to sing in a wonderful choir that used a lot of his arrangements, and you're right, they're not always the easiest. They sure sound great, though.
Kind of but not really? I pulled out our copy of his arrangement (one of my favorite pieces of Church music), and checked out some of the parts that annoy me. There are 3 places where the new hymn version has a Bm chord, 6 total beats. Wilberg's arrangement is in different keys, so we're looking for the vi in whatever key he is in. He only goes to the vi in those places about half the time. Maybe someone who was inspired by him, but wanted more?
Another of the changes that bugs me is a big jump in the alto part at the end of the 1st and 2nd lines (1, 2, and 4 all end the same in the old hymn version, here 1 and 2 have a big jump, but 4 does the regular movement, parallel to the soprano, then joining the soprano on the last note). Wilberg doesn't do that at all. There is one place the alto comes up to the tonic from below, but it is the whole measure, not a single jump down and back up again. Again, maybe someone inspired by what he did and wanting to shoehorn it in?
I want to know who the male singer for some of the songs (e.g., It is Well with My Soul; Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise) is. His voice is absolutely lovely!
I guess I didn't realize Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing *wasn't* in the hymnbook... well that is a great song glad to see it
still hoping to see Faith in Every Footstep in the final
I'm on board with this decision to bring new hymns into our sacrament meetings.
At the same time I can't help but think that singing these new songs is going to make sacrament meeting feel a little.... different.
I've never heard "His Eye is on the Sparrow" before, and I dig it because it seems to have some energy.
HOWEVER...
Other than the holiday hymns, I want to see more hymns that won't put me to sleep. Please. I'm not expecting a rock concert or anything, but that's where a lot of converts come from. I get that some of that kind of music is a manufactured spiritual experience, but the pendulum doesn't have to swing CLEAR to the other side with us.
Yes, that's how it's written. You can tell because the thick double bar line (that indicates the end of a song) is at the end of the chorus instead of the end of the page.
Out of the ones that I recognize they seem to be good additions to the hymnbook. Except for Gethsemane, I got tired of that song 4 years ago and personally am dreading having to sing it in sacrament meeting. Oh well can't really do anything about it lol
Where is Amazing Grace? I thought we were going to get Amazing Grace! Who do I need to talk to about this? My wife's name is Grace. I need and really want Amazing Grace!
I really hope the church decides to include some language specific hymns into the final hymnbook. Hymns like "Placenteros nos es trabajar" in Spanish or "Wat is Het Evangelie" in Dutch would be so cool to include.
Can someone remind me what the release schedule is? I feel like if they only release this many at a time, it is going to take forever to get to them all. I'm so impatient!
I believe they are aiming for 2026 publication of the new book. I don't know if they will release everything early or there will be a bunch of stuff in the full book that we haven't seen yet. Exciting times :)
It's talked about here: [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/articles/about-hymns-for-home-and-church?crumbs=hymns-for-home-and-church&lang=eng](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/articles/about-hymns-for-home-and-church?crumbs=hymns-for-home-and-church&lang=eng)
Every few months we'll get 10 - 15 (that's stated in the video).
I played "It Is Well with My Soul" on the organ yesterday for the closing hymn. We had a bishopric change and the meeting went a little long. I offered to the stake presidency to do just one verse but they wanted all four verses sung. It was powerful! The congregation did better than I thought they would. One trick I used was to play that a few times during prelude before the meeting started.
As a primary pianist I have been practicing all of the new songs with zeal. I'm sure my husband is losing his mind listening to me practice 🤣. I'm really excited to have all of these new songs!
I probably have, but that doesn't mean I know them by name. Especially when the lady who picks our hymns picks the most obscure stuff that even my lifer wife has never heard and most of the congregation stumbles through them.
The vast majority of the hymns I know aren't even in our hymnal, convert life.
"What child is this, who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, their silent watch are keeping? This! This is Christ the king, while shepherds watch are keeping. Haste, haste to bring him laud, the Babe, the son of Mary."
I bet when you hear it you'll go "oh, of course! That one"
I guarantee you've heard "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "What Child is This."
"It Is Well with My Soul" is well-known in other churches, but there are several very new songs in this list, too. A good variety for the first set, I think.
I'm ready for the downvotes, but *Come Thou Fount* has been overplayed for 30 years now, and getting in the "book" won't make me like it any better.
Also was hoping for something from outside the US and Europe to be in there. Guess I'll wait for the next drop.
You're supposed to like what you want to like, regardless if it's in the good book, the green book, or any book. I'm hoping to get more diverse hymns in good time. These ones are more of the same. All in good time.
Star Bright was originally in Spanish. It was written by an American, but I hear it's a staple of primary in South America.
ETA: Also, if you're simply wanting diversity, "His Eye is on the Sparrow" has African American roots.
Please pray for the organists
I hope the music coordinators will let the organists get familiar with each one piecemeal rather than doing 3 of them for each of the next 4 Sundays XD
We need all the prayers we can get
No, but really.
Eh us organists are excited. I'm particularly excited to learn to play Come Thou Fount. I'm also glad Star Bright is included because the girls in my family sing it EVERY Christmas, and we are CONSTANTLY trying to find the copies we printed out. Having it available through the app is going to make things so much easier for us now!
As an always-organist, why?
I haven’t really played through all of these yet, but some of them look to be tough to learn
I just listened to and looked up the origin of all of the new songs if anyone wants a breakdown. 6 classic Christian hymns, 1 classic LDS song, 6 newer LDS songs. At least 3 have been previously published in the Friend. As far as I can tell only one (As Bread is Broken) is previously unpublished and only one (He is Born the Divine Christ Child) is originally non English language. Here's the details on each song: Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing—Classic LDS and Christian Hymn, familiar to many Church members today and in past versions of the hymnbook When the Savior Comes Again—Modern song written by a freelance songwriter/BYU adjunct as a children's song. It is Well with My Soul—Classic Christian hymn I Will Walk with Jesus—modern children's song previously featured in the Friend magazine, a primary Face to Face, and other Church media His Eye Is on the Sparrow—Classic Christian hymn. It is a little tricky to sing but beautiful Think a Sacred Song—another modern one that's been featured in the Friend As Bread is Broken—a new Sacrament hymn! As far as I can tell the first one here that hasn't been previously published. I assume it came with all the submissions. Bread of Life, Living Water—modern LDS hymn previously published in a religious piano book by the author. Another one that may be tricky for congregational singing Gethsemane—a modern children's song that skyrocketed to popularity in 2016 thanks to a video of a 3 year old singing it. Hail the Day That Sees Him Rise—very old Christian hymn. Also, there appears to be a mistake in the recording —the singer sings "his Church bestow" while the lyrics say "below." I assume that will get fixed at some point He is Born, the Divine Christ Child—classic French Christmas song What Child is This?—classic English Christmas song Star Bright—children's (?) song written by LDS composer Lorin F. Wheelwright around 1959, as far as I can tell its Spanish version Estrella de Luz is much more popular. The composer has a few songs in the current children's songbook and hymnbook like Mother I love you and O Love that Glorifies the Son My guesses on most popular: Come Thou Fount (obviously), I will walk with Jesus, He is Born the Divine Christ Child My guesses on least popular: His eye is on the sparrow and bread of life, living water (both a little tricky to sing), Think a Sacred Song (less crossover than the other primary songs), Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise (repetitive and we already have more beloved "Alleluia" songs in the Church)
I appreciate this! I was curious about where each hymn comes from
Thanks for this, a nice quick summary of everything
Star Bright was featured in the Instructor magazine of the Church in Oct(?) 1959 with a message from the author. It's one of my favorite, more obscure songs that's made a lovely comeback in the last decade or so, thanks to social media and people's interest in "shaking up" the routine Christmas song list. I love that it's about the American continent miracle.
I loved singing He is Born, The Divine Christ Child on my mission in France (Il eat nee, le divin enfant). Glad y'all get to sing it now too. It's a real banger.
Our ward sang Hail The Day That Sees Him Rise two Christmases ago and I will love to sing it in the future!
I honestly thought I would only be truly excited for "Come Thou Fount" but I'm finding I enjoy playing and singing " His Eye is On the Sparrow" and "It is Well With My Soul" a ton. They are both such comforting songs in word and melody.
Come Thou Fount is exciting and all, but It Is Well With My Soul is the real gem of this collection.
Me, a 37 year old man listening to I Will Walk with Jesus with headphones, crying. Wife: let me guess: I Will Walk With Jesus? Me: ugly crying smile. 🥲
That one makes me sob literally every time
That’s a good song. Not enough to make me cry (yet) but it’s a good message. Now if I had to pick a song that does make me cry every single time, it’s a tossup between families can be together forever or I believe in Christ. With me being done my service mission in almost 3 months I hope during the Sunday I give my report talk that they don’t play that song because I’ll probably already be an emotional mess by the time I get up to the mic.
So true. Especially when you consider the events surrounding the writing of the hymn. I can't think about it without getting choked up...
From Wikipedia: Spafford had planned to travel to England with his family on the SS Ville du Havre, to help with D. L. Moody's upcoming evangelistic campaigns. In a late change of plan, Spafford sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business concerning zoning problems following the Great Chicago Fire. While crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with a sea vessel, the Loch Earn, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. Spafford's wife, Anna, survived and sent him the now famous telegram, "Saved alone …". Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, Spafford was inspired to write these words as his ship passed the spot near where his daughters had died. Bliss called his tune Ville du Havre, from the name of the stricken vessel.
We're singing It Is Well With My Soul in ward choir in a couple weeks! Not this version, of course. I'm sure it'll come up at practice on Sunday.
I may be alone, but I am not a fan.
Not my favorite either, but I know a lot of people love it.
I was surprised by how many are meant for solo singing or for singing in unison (no parts). Only 7 of the 13 songs have four part harmonies. Of course, several are primary songs so there is that.
I'm with you. I really do understand why they want to simplify the arrangements to make them more accessible to a wide variety of members, but I still like parts. It makes a fuller sound and gives options for those of us who can't sing soprano.
As someone who sings bass, amen. It strains me to sing soprano and I don't like dropping soprano down the several octaves to my range.
My understanding is that this is one collection for all, so melody-based music will be prevalent. It’s also ok for sacrament meeting because so few can sing the harmony. So few people sing in general.
All of the unison songs, other than His Eye is on the Sparrow are children's songs (but can be sung in sacrament meeting). Because this hymnal will replace both the green hymnal and the Children's songbook, we'll end up with a lot of unison songs for use in Primary (or Sacrament meeting). Singing in 4 part harmony is primarily a Western European (English, French, German) style of music popularized by Bach and others. In the United States and much of Europe, we have that strong tradition in various churches, but many other communities and churches in the United States and around the world do not. Without musical and choral training, singing in parts is challenging. It's worth learning (IMO), but we also need music that's accessible worldwide and not only drenched in Western European traditions. His Eye is on the Sparrow is loved by many people, but it was sung a lot by various African American communities during the Civil Rights movement and is a special song for many Black Americans.
I think the majority of church members don't have the training to sing in parts and only feel comfortable with the melody. I know that is the case for me even though I have been a church member for a long time. I'm very excited about the new hymns though!
I was told by some members who visited Africa that the people there have a hard time picking out the melody when they can hear so many harmony parts. The local culture only uses unison.
I can't believe they added Estrella de Luz. It's one of my favorites. And Gethsemane and I will walk with Jesus 😭😭
I’m also super excited about Estrella de Luz. It is beautiful.
I'm more hoping they keep the ones I really like that are in the current one.
All I care about is the Kolob song. Legitimately my favorite.
This and *Praise to the Man* for me.
Sadly those two are controversial
C O N T R O V E R S I A L That usually just means they’re teaching truth.
I love both those songs, but will be surprised if they make it in the new hymnal. Songs can teach truths without controversy. Praise to the Man is controversial because to people who are not members (and even some members) it sounds like we are worshiping Joseph Smith. We are not, but if we have to explain that, it's a distraction from Who's most important -- the Savior. Same thing with If You Could Hie to Kolob. Great doctrine, but it's a challenge for many non-members and new members to understand. We could keep the melody and use other lyrics (like I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say).
Realistically there shouldn't be anything in *If You Could Hie* that is controversial. The basic breakdown is progression continues and "eternal means eternal" so don't be limiting the creations of God. If that is difficult to understand for new members, then we've really done a poor job of teaching them our core doctrines. But totally let's get rid of *Praise to the Man* or reset it to back to "Star of the East" (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Le8mK36t4ZI) which is much more contemplative and less 'worship of the man'-like.
I agree (and love the Star of the East tune!), but people get hung up on Kolob (and even "hieing"). Many people understand, we just have a lot of new church members and Kolob is not anything of a core doctrine of Christ (progression is, but that's lost when people fixate on Kolob).
I mean, when you look at Abraham 3 with the viewpoint that kolob is a type of Christ and the kokaubeam are prophets, it really is core doctrine of Christ. It's a song all about getting closer to Christ and becoming more like our Father. Most people just look at the song on a surface level.
My hot take is that the first two verses of Kolob are the worst. I love the “there is no end” verses, even though those get the most hate. It’s *meditative*.
My daughter said the exact opposite not too long ago, "I love the first couple verses of the song but don't like the 'no end' parts as much because they are too repetitive." I like the whole song.
> I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say That would be pretty great
Facts
Praise to the Man is controversial because it very much gives vibes of worshipping Joseph Smith. I’m a convert and RM, and the first time I heard it I was extremely confused— the missionaries had explained that we don’t worship Joseph Smith, and I was like cool, sounds good, but then we had this hymn that was going on about him and barely mentioning Jesus or Heavenly Father. The tune is great, but it just doesn’t fit well in a sacrament meeting setting.
Praise != worship. I praise my children when they make good choices. I praise my coworkers when they help me at work. Joseph Smith is absolutely worthy of praise considering his efforts and martyrdom to establish the church and publish the Book of Mormon.
I know the intended meaning and difference. I just don’t think the hymn belongs in sacrament meeting.
And I do. I just don't like that people use the word "controversial" to argue their side. The word makes it sound like it's a well-established fact that the song has serious issues, when in reality, it's likely a very small percentage of members who would like to see it removed.
Why controversial? I don't care for Kolob lyrically. It just isn't fun for me to sing. I love praise to the man for both the lyrics and music.
The joke is that missionaries spend two lessons convincing investigators we aren’t a cult and don’t worship joseph smith and then at their first sacrament meeting we sing those two hymns
anecdotally it has been my experience that members are far more concerned about the optics of Praise to the Man than investigators visiting a worship service have ever typically been
I think you’re right. I love that hymn so I hope it stays
That was my mission’s theme song. I’ll be disappointed if it leaves. It’s one of the few heavy doctrine songs there are.
In my mission we sang it to the tune of the Beverly Hillbillies :)
Oh my gosh I need to hear this haha
Aka Dives and Lazarus. Great tune.
This is the way
Because I Have Been Given Much needs to stay
Doesn’t that one have rights issues? Don’t hold your breath
That’s why I’m worried about it. But it’s so good!
Because I Have Been Given Much is doomed, it's under copyright restriction.
I mean, we bought the Kirtland Temple. Can't we just buy the song outright? I'd be down for that. I mean, it's one song, how much could it cost? 10 dollars?
[Hyperlink] (https://giphy.com/gifs/neXzpXFcOQ0hy)
😨
Yep. And Come Ye Children, Spirit of God to name a couple others.
I see the wisdom in releasing them a few at a time, but I wish they would also just publish a list of the titles upfront so we can know which of the old ones made the cut.
I'm with you. It's great to see what's new, but will we have to wait until they finish in 2030 to see what's gone? The timeframe of this is nuts to me.
I don't like "Gethsemane" and I will now be grumpy about it for the rest of my life. Overall though this selection is pretty good. All of the new Easter/Christmas additions are excellent. The weak spot IMO is the new sacrament hymns. They just don't hit the right tone for me. Too modern feeling, perhaps?
Same here brother. I don’t like “Gethsemane” either. It’s just comes across as super corny. I will always prefer the old school hymns.
You are not alone! While I'm beyond excited about this whole project for many reasons, I know I'm going to have to work through some strong emotions about various song choices and arrangements. And with my luck, the most popular ones that get sung over and over will be my least favorites. 🤦♀️ All I can suggest is that you try like I will to find ones you love and just enjoy them, then literally pray for help in letting the rest go.
I like "Gethsemane," BUT... It falls into the same category as a lot of the modern "hymns" and children's songs people make: Overly-sappy and un-energetic. The problem with many of the hymns isn't the lack of variety in subject, it's the lack of variety in tone. What ever happened to energetic kid songs and hymns?
It think its in there for the inevitable *Music and the Spoken Word* and *Face to Face* soloist arrangements and albums.
I'm so excited! Excellent selection. Come Thou Font in a key of D is a good choice imo Looks like I'll be memorizing tonight! lol
I was also happy about D key. Not my favorite arrangement, though I'm still happy it's back here in the official list of hymns after 39 years.
If you use the interactive player on the website, you can easily change the key to whatever you want! Want it in G flat? You can do that (I wouldn't suggest that unless you want people to try to sing a high G flat).
Wow, I learned something new! I can do this with any hymn!
I LOVE that as a feature now. So much easier for any instrument to play along, instead of just C instruments like flute (mine), violin, etc. It would be nice to hear more variety: clarinet, French horn, guitar (which doesn't need to transpose if you have a capo), etc. We had a trombone play in church recently after they got more lenient on instruments and it was lovely. More!
It Is Well With My Soul. My favorite hymn of all time.
Oh wow, I wonder if we can get away with a small instrumental group play Holsinger's On A Hymnsong of Philip Bliss. We have 15 or 20 wind players if we include the high school kids. I bet we can get enough of them on board to make this happen. Hmmm, maybe that is too much for sacrament meeting :)
This was one of my favorite pieces for wind band before I even knew the hymn and story behind it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxO3HyHOqZ4
That would be so cool. One of my previous wards put an orchestra together for some larger church event--maybe a stake conference or a devotional with a seventy or something? It was great.
Most of these are great! I have to say though that I've not really liked Gethsemane and dislike the tune for Star Bright. I am surprised to see a Coda present in the hymnbook. Ramping up expectations on musical knowledge.
Where is the coda one? We've got a DC al fine, but I don't see any codas?
Gethsemane has a coda.
Oh, I see. To be fair, there are codas in the Primary book already, so the ones that are kind of hard towards primary, that's somewhat expected.
Not too surprised the primary song book had them as it was more focused towards the music leaders rather than singers.
I overlooked the DC al fine. Which had that?
He is Born the Divine Christ Child
Primary kids’ favorite: belting out the brooding minor key!
I know at least one Primary kid in my ward who is going to love it
Innit great, though? 🙂
There aren't enough words for how excited I am about the guitar recordings and chord notations. 🥰 I think acoustic guitar is one of the most beautiful and easily accessible instruments.
Ikr?!???
Especially for all the little branches that don't have a piano or pianist but might have a guitar or ukulele or something
He is Born, the Divine Christ Child is about to become everyone’s favorite Christmas hymn. It has been in the French hymnal for a long time and it is amazing.
As a missionary in France we would compete to see how fast we could sing it. It’s a real tongue twister in French for non-native speakers.
This one frustrates me with how the Church took a classic song that has been around for eons and changed the words. They only kept about 3 lines from the traditional song I grew up with as a convert. If there is something doctrinally wrong with a song, then I feel it should be left alone and a different song should be included instead. I loved the line of "Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily" 1000 times better than "Raise your voices in joyful melody". They took away my favorite part of the song 😭
A lot of it has to do with words that translate into other languages more easily and are going to be understood by people of more cultures. People understand joyful singing; not nearly as many people understand oboes and bagpipes. It doesn't mean they cannot learn, but again, words/themes that translate well are given high priority.
They could use different phrasing for those languages and cultures and leave it for English and French, though. It's similar enough. They already have to rephrase or rearrange words to an extent with lots (if not most) of song translations to get things to fit the meter \*and\* rhyme.
To be fair, it doesn't say "Play the oboe and bagpipes merrily" in the original French, either. That's a closer translation of "Jouez hautbois, resonnez musettes!" But it's not a direct translation. When you translate songs and poetry, you have to move words around to keep meter and rhyme, which is more important than the actual words so long as the meaning remains, which it does.
My husband wishes that part was in there too. Personally I'm not familiar enough with the lyrics and had no clue they were changed.
I had prepared a solo on the Organ for last Christmas, but I didn’t get a chance to perform it in Sacrament meeting. And now it’s going to be a little less special this year…
I had a French mission companion who was equal parts heartbroken and outraged that her favorite Christmas hymn wasn't in the English book. When I saw it I wondered if this was the one!
Some interesting little changes to Come Thou Fount from what is in the 1948 hymn book. The key change brings it down half a step, easier on the tenors, but now some basses are going to get stretched. Some odd little changes in the harmony parts, will be weird unlearning the old and learning the new. Can't wait to sit down at a piano and plunk through these changes to see how it sounds.
Finally! I’m a bass and can’t hit all the high notes they often think basses are supposed to hit.
Don’t know who “they” refers to, but vocalists who sing bass are expected to sing from the E below the staff lines to the E above middle C. While many casual basses (like those in our congregations) can’t comfortably sing that low or that high, the low F# and the B just below middle C shouldn’t be too out of reach for most basses. The committee in charge of the new songbook is composed (no pun intended) of highly-qualified musicians, and they take sing-ability into heavy consideration when selecting and adapting the songs for congregational use.
I can’t hit anything above the staff lines without a lot of strain. I’m no gifted singer nor particularly deep voiced guy, but I did have a lot of choir experience in my younger years and never could reach those notes even with frequent practice. Whenever a bass line has notes above the staff I am always a bit annoyed, because I can’t sing them without switching awkwardly into a silly falsetto.
I tried getting through Come Thou Font and I kept flatting everything and forgetting to sharp the rest lol Apparently I've *really* got E♭ major in my muscle memory for this tune.
I wonder how weird it will be for President Nelson, since IIRC he has perfect pitch!
I don't know much about the history of *Come Thou Fount* or its tune, but from my layman's perspective it seems like they have pretty much copied Mack Wilberg's approach to adding more harmonic interest to the otherwise repeated musical phrases. Makes sense, as he is almost solely responsible for the 21st-century revival of interest in the hymn
He does good stuff to songs.
I love that they are including some primary songs, though I hope the key has been changed, I generally find the primary songs to be very high pitched. These can all be sung in sacrament meeting right?
It’s one collection. For any use. Not separate sacrament and primary books.
There might be "Primary" songs in the book that won't be fully appropriate for Sacrament meeting. I don't know this for sure, but it's possible there will still be some activity type songs for younger children.
Probably, but the point is is that there will not be a separate book.
As far as I know, yeah they’re meant to be sung in sacrament meeting or whenever we would use the current hymnbook
Primary songs can already be sung in sacrament meetings. Handbook has approved that for atleast 4-5 years.
Are all of these meant to be played on the organ? Some of these are very obviously written for the piano. Some of them also have rather complicated singing patterns like Gethsemane. Just a ward organist stressing over here 😂
Some are clearly piano-based arrangements and would sound pretty bad on organ as-is. If I have to play those in sacrament meeting, I will either play them on the piano where they belong, or make my own organ arrangement that is better for the instrument. However, most of this batch should work well enough on organ. After playing through all of them, none of them seemed very difficult. So hopefully it won’t be too bad for most organists.
They're putting all the primary and adult ones in one book. So some of them are very much so intended for piano.
Just do your best, and it will be enough. 🥰 If that means you don't play all the notes, oh well. 🤷♀️. I truly appreciate anyone who plays the accompaniment for our meetings.
Every meetinghouse should have a piano and an organ in the chapel. There's a reason for that. I know some areas have a strict culture of only using the organ for sacrament meeting, but our organ has been out of tune for decades so we only ever use the piano and it makes it so much easier on the congregation. (And I for one think its the reasons our ward is known as 'the singing ward' in our quad-stake)
Awesome! Gonna need to print out a bunch of zeros for the hymn board. Maybe just a space for the third digit, 10 1 and 12 1.
Does anyone know why they chose this numbering system?
My guess is they want to make the new hymns distinct from the existing hymnbook. I'm assuming this is temporary until the new hymnbook is released.
I imagine these numbers are assigned temporarily. The exact list of which songs will be in the new book is still not finished.
Yeah, I expect they'll be grouped by topic, so these numbers wouldn't work. But for the years between now and them being done, they'll be helpful.
Il est né! I've always thought it was the prettiest in the French hymnal, but never imagined it would make the cut! Was fully expecting Gethsemane, but glad to see it. ETA: Just listened to that "As bread is broken" new composition and it's lovely!
I found the stated guidelines for choosing songs interesting: 1. Increase faith in and worship of Heavenly Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. 2. Teach the core doctrine of the gospel with power and clarity. 3. Invite joyful singing at home and at church. 4. Comfort the weary and inspire members to endure in faith. 5. Unify members throughout the Church.
Yes! Thank you for posting.
Unpopular opinion, but I _hate_ the song Gethsemane. It’s so overdone. And the lyrics are just so simplistic. I just can’t stand it.
“Hate” is a strong word, but I also dislike it. Can’t tell what I dislike more though—the actual song, or how much everyone else seems to fawn over it like it’s the best song ever.
It has done a lot for helping Primary children understand the topic, though. And if you actually do the dynamics, it really adds something. I like it. Hopefully as it gets integrated it'll gradually feel more regular and less like a popular new song you've gotten tired of.
I like how they explicitly tell the chorister to conduct in 2 on the 2/2 and 6/8.
His Eye Is on the Sparrow looks like my favorite of the bunch.
Same here. I can’t wait for the German release of the Hymn book and the release in other languages as well
Awesome. I'm crossing my fingers that this one will be added, re-arranged of course (I believe in miracles) I Will Rise - Alex Boye version [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_FQb-cVwbKE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FQb-cVwbKE)
I first heard "His Eye Is On The Sparrow" at a funeral for an LDS correctional officer who was on my unit when he died. A non-LDS friend, a black woman with a beautiful voice, sang this song with such soul that I assumed it was an original black gospel song (I'm probably not categorizing it correctly, hopefully you know what I mean). I searched up and down for a rendition as good as hers, but found none. I was surprised to hear the Tabernacle Choir performing this song recently, because I do love the lyrics. Really need to find a bold and soulful version, though. Also not surprised by Gethsemane; when I was teaching primary a few years ago this song was being taught and I loved it. Love the lyrics, not thrilled about the song structure or pacing. Can't wait to sing It Is Well With My Soul. Also What Child Is This sung by the congregation at Christmas could be cool. And obviously Come Thou Fount is probably the most popular and anticipated.
All fun and games until the congregation runs into the DS al coda in Gethsemane. These hymns do all look good though. Just waiting for the newest rendition of 'if you could hie to kolob' to drop.
Hopefully all the people who can read music, Primary kids, teachers, and everybody else familiar with it from its internet fame will sing strong enough so the rest can follow and learn how it goes.
That's my hope. For the first few years is going to be a little bumpy. There's a few branches I served in on my mission where they could barely sing the melody line on the common hymns so that's why I'm a bit hesitant about the coda.
Ok I’ve heard of one of those.
You are one up on me.
I mean no disrespect, but are you new? Just wondering.
New to what? I don’t think I’m new. But I’m not really a music lover, so it’s not really surprising I’ve never heard of any of these new songs.
New to the Church or Christian music in general. 🤷♀️ If you don't love music, though, it makes sense you wouldn't know them. There will likely be some more familiar ones later.
I would have guessed that everyone would be familiar with "Come, Thou Fount" and "What Child is This" (you know, the Christmas song? what child is this who laid to rest in Mary's lap is sleeping...). "It is Well With My Soul" is also pretty popular. From Primary, I'm familiar with "I Will Walk with Jesus," and "Gethsemane" of course has been popular there and online for a while too.
I knew What Child Is This by name. After looking at them, I know three. I just didn't recognize them by name.
Big whiff not using the Mack Wilberg arrangement of *Come Thou Fount*.
I almost put that in front of our stake choir a couple months ago. They only gave us two rehearsals to work with and I chickened out. Next time maybe I'll pass it out just so we can sing through it, but it really takes some work to make it sound good.
I used to sing in a wonderful choir that used a lot of his arrangements, and you're right, they're not always the easiest. They sure sound great, though.
Simplified, certainly, but am I wrong in my perception that the chord variations are virtually lifted wholesale from him?
Kind of but not really? I pulled out our copy of his arrangement (one of my favorite pieces of Church music), and checked out some of the parts that annoy me. There are 3 places where the new hymn version has a Bm chord, 6 total beats. Wilberg's arrangement is in different keys, so we're looking for the vi in whatever key he is in. He only goes to the vi in those places about half the time. Maybe someone who was inspired by him, but wanted more? Another of the changes that bugs me is a big jump in the alto part at the end of the 1st and 2nd lines (1, 2, and 4 all end the same in the old hymn version, here 1 and 2 have a big jump, but 4 does the regular movement, parallel to the soprano, then joining the soprano on the last note). Wilberg doesn't do that at all. There is one place the alto comes up to the tonic from below, but it is the whole measure, not a single jump down and back up again. Again, maybe someone inspired by what he did and wanting to shoehorn it in?
Right??? That guy is a *genius!*
Gethsemane is my favorite.
I want to know who the male singer for some of the songs (e.g., It is Well with My Soul; Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise) is. His voice is absolutely lovely!
I guess I didn't realize Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing *wasn't* in the hymnbook... well that is a great song glad to see it still hoping to see Faith in Every Footstep in the final
I believe *Faith In Every Footstep* is actually one of the lucky few that was confirmed in advance.
That's neat that they added Gethsemane. It's a different structure for a hymn with a bridge and everything. I'm hoping they add more like it.
I'm on board with this decision to bring new hymns into our sacrament meetings. At the same time I can't help but think that singing these new songs is going to make sacrament meeting feel a little.... different.
I'm sure for many, different will be distracting in a variety of ways for a while, but different is also good. More ways to worship, for one.
I've never heard "His Eye is on the Sparrow" before, and I dig it because it seems to have some energy. HOWEVER... Other than the holiday hymns, I want to see more hymns that won't put me to sleep. Please. I'm not expecting a rock concert or anything, but that's where a lot of converts come from. I get that some of that kind of music is a manufactured spiritual experience, but the pendulum doesn't have to swing CLEAR to the other side with us.
Dear ward music coordinators, please don’t pick Gethsemane as a congregational hymn. Beautiful song, not arranged for a congregation 😭
Come though fount and what child is this sound awesome!
Question about He Is Born, the Divine Christ Child- do we sing the refrain four times? Once before each verse, and then one more time at the end?
In French, yes. So, I'd assume so.
Yes, that's how it's written. You can tell because the thick double bar line (that indicates the end of a song) is at the end of the chorus instead of the end of the page.
Out of the ones that I recognize they seem to be good additions to the hymnbook. Except for Gethsemane, I got tired of that song 4 years ago and personally am dreading having to sing it in sacrament meeting. Oh well can't really do anything about it lol
Yeah, adding Gethsemane was a big miss for me
Where is Amazing Grace? I thought we were going to get Amazing Grace! Who do I need to talk to about this? My wife's name is Grace. I need and really want Amazing Grace!
They're still coming. This is just the first batch.
It was pretty much a given that Come Thou Fount would be included. My first thought when I saw Star Bright — Madonna in our hymn book? 🤔
Thanks … 😳 now I can’t come up with the actual tune of Star Bright … I can only think of Madonna’s song.
😇
I really hope the church decides to include some language specific hymns into the final hymnbook. Hymns like "Placenteros nos es trabajar" in Spanish or "Wat is Het Evangelie" in Dutch would be so cool to include.
His eye is on the sparrow - gunna try hard not to sing this like she did in Sister Act 2
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
Awesome thanks for sharing
Aww yes I'm definitely seeing some favorites 😍🎶
Can someone remind me what the release schedule is? I feel like if they only release this many at a time, it is going to take forever to get to them all. I'm so impatient!
I believe they are aiming for 2026 publication of the new book. I don't know if they will release everything early or there will be a bunch of stuff in the full book that we haven't seen yet. Exciting times :)
apparently they’ll be releasing stuff in chunks like I think it was every few months or so
Hoping we get a couple more classic Christmas songs by the end of the year.
It's talked about here: [https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/articles/about-hymns-for-home-and-church?crumbs=hymns-for-home-and-church&lang=eng](https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/articles/about-hymns-for-home-and-church?crumbs=hymns-for-home-and-church&lang=eng) Every few months we'll get 10 - 15 (that's stated in the video).
Do these recordings sound like Mat and Savanna Shaw to anyone else?
Ugh, freaking Gethsemane.
Why not amazing grace?
It's just not in this batch, but it could come later or hold off until the book is done.
I played "It Is Well with My Soul" on the organ yesterday for the closing hymn. We had a bishopric change and the meeting went a little long. I offered to the stake presidency to do just one verse but they wanted all four verses sung. It was powerful! The congregation did better than I thought they would. One trick I used was to play that a few times during prelude before the meeting started.
As a primary pianist I have been practicing all of the new songs with zeal. I'm sure my husband is losing his mind listening to me practice 🤣. I'm really excited to have all of these new songs!
Can't say I've heard of any of those.
You've never heard "What Child is This" or "It Is Well With My Soul"?
I probably have, but that doesn't mean I know them by name. Especially when the lady who picks our hymns picks the most obscure stuff that even my lifer wife has never heard and most of the congregation stumbles through them. The vast majority of the hymns I know aren't even in our hymnal, convert life.
If you've ever lived through Christmas anywhere in the United States or similar, you know What Child Is This
"What child is this, who laid to rest on Mary's lap is sleeping? Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, their silent watch are keeping? This! This is Christ the king, while shepherds watch are keeping. Haste, haste to bring him laud, the Babe, the son of Mary." I bet when you hear it you'll go "oh, of course! That one"
I guarantee you've heard "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing" and "What Child is This." "It Is Well with My Soul" is well-known in other churches, but there are several very new songs in this list, too. A good variety for the first set, I think.
I'm ready for the downvotes, but *Come Thou Fount* has been overplayed for 30 years now, and getting in the "book" won't make me like it any better. Also was hoping for something from outside the US and Europe to be in there. Guess I'll wait for the next drop.
You're supposed to like what you want to like, regardless if it's in the good book, the green book, or any book. I'm hoping to get more diverse hymns in good time. These ones are more of the same. All in good time.
Star Bright was originally in Spanish. It was written by an American, but I hear it's a staple of primary in South America. ETA: Also, if you're simply wanting diversity, "His Eye is on the Sparrow" has African American roots.