It’s the final week of classes at school (exams are next week, followed by a few days of teacher meetings and the like), but I’m still getting pushed to the limit, it seems.
As such, I tossed together a quick little medley of three hymns, all in the key of G major: “How Firm a Foundation,” “I Am Coming to the Cross,” and “Jesus Saves.”
A quick blurb before today’s post: I’ve released my second book, Arizonan Sojourn, South Carolinian Dreams: And Other Adventures. It’s a collection of travel essays I’ve accumulated over the last four years, and it’s available now on Amazon.
Here’s where you can pick it up:
Pick up a copy today! Even sharing the above links is a huge help.
Thank you for your support!
—TPP
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Yours portly is going High Protestant this week. Readers can thank Audre Myers for that one—she sent me the manuscript for her church’s new chant, “Venite, exultemus Domino,” at some point in the last few weeks, and I’ve been playing around with it on the piano.
I’m back in the hymnbook for this edition of Open Mic Adventures, which at this point is pretty much “anything I play anywhere, in any context, that I happen to record.” But that makes for an unwieldy title.
Inaccurate labels aside, I played “Softly and Tenderly” for my church’s Sunday morning service on Sunday, 12 March 2023. It was the invitational (the “altar call” piece, for the rest of you Pentecostals out there), but this recording was made before service. You can hear some chit-chat in the background, but not as much as the recording in “Open Mic Adventures XXII: ‘Blessed Assurance’.”
One of my favorites hymns is “Blessed Assurance,” the beloved tune from blind lyricist Franny Crosby and pianist Phoebe Knapp. They wrote the hymn in 1873. Knapp played the melody on the piano and asked Crosby what the melody “said,” and she said, “Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine.” Thus, history was born.
I love playing this hymn, and had the opportunity to play it with our congregation this past Sunday. I decided to take a quick recording before service.
Hi TPP Readers,
I wanted to send along some Easter weekend updates. To celebrate Holy Week, I’ve released a free collection of recordings on Bandcamp, The Lo-Fi Hymnal II. It is free to download (though you can pay more if you wish).
I’ve also cut the price of ALL of my paintings to $10. Free shipping in the United States. I also have two new paintings for Easter (and soon a third): “Easter Eggs” and “Neon Cross.”
Here’s wishing you all a safe and happy Easter Weekend!
—TPP
The first short week of the new school year is in the books, and assuming I’m still alive when this post pops this morning, I survived!
That’s reason enough to be joyful, but in case my survival of a three-day workweek doesn’t inspire you, here are some more “the joy of” posts of a decidedly musical extraction that might:
That’s it for this weekend’s joyful musings. Here’s to a musically fulfilling Sunday!
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
***NOTE: This link is NOT a subscription to my SubscribeStar Page; it is for a one-time donation/tip via PayPal. To subscribe to my SubscribeStar page, use this URL: https://subscribestar.com/the-portly-politico***
This week I’ve been teaching and learning a great deal about George Frideric Handel, the great German composer who became, over his long life, a great British one. In discussing Handel and other Baroque composers with my students, we also veered into the world of hymns.
Hymns were and are important in Protestant congregations as simple, memorable tunes with theologically rich texts. Hymn melodies are often based on folk tunes or popular compositions. In some cases, such as the lovely Christmas carol “Silent Night,” the text is written first, then set to music (indeed, most hymns, being based on Scripture, evolved this way). Sometimes the tune is written, then an enterprising poet sets the text. Such was the case with Isaac Watts, who set his text for “Joy to the World” to a Handel melody. And, of course, there are hymns written and composed by the same person.
In talking about hymns, I brought to my students a slender little hymnal in my small collection of them, The Cokesbury Worship Hymnal. From what I can gather, my copy was published in or after 1966, when the copyright from 1938 was renewed. There is a stamp on the inside front cover stating that the hymn book once belonged to Carteret Street Methodist Church, which I thought was in Charleston, but appears to be in Beaufort, South Carolina. The hymnal includes 296 hymns, with fifty responsive readings—a good collection, but slim by the standards of a pewback hymnal.
It being October, I tend to focus on the spookiness of the season. I love Halloween, ghost stories, and scary movies, but it’s important not to get too bogged down in the chills.
So as I was going through posts from October 2019, I stumbled upon one of my old favorites: “The Joy of Hymnals.” My small church roped me into playing piano for Sunday morning services maybe two years ago, and it quickly rekindled an old love of hymns and hymnals.
Hymnals are my favorite items to find in old second-hand shops and antique stores (the latter of which often selling them at an egregious markup). It’s fun to see which hymns do—and, more importantly, don’t—show up in any given hymnal. I particularly like slender volumes, the kind that were meant for carrying from service to service or camp meeting to camp meeting, and which tend to possess hymns from the canon, if such a thing exists, of hymnody.
I even recorded and released a very lo-fi EP, The Lo-Fi Hymnal, which consists of crude recordings of my Sunday morning playing. That short collection also includes a PDF version of today’s TBT feature.
Here is “The Joy of Hymnals“:
The past week was largely dedicated to music, as Bandcamp waived the commission it takes on sales of musicians’ work on Friday, 1 May 2020. All of those posts—which were essentially extended ad copy—may have helped remind folks to pick up my full discography (still just $15.75), so I appreciate your patience.
Even more than your patience, I appreciate your support. As of this morning, ten of you—and I know every single one of you (thanks, family and friends)—purchased tunes, nine of those being the full discography. At a time when the traditional avenues for musicians to earn money, like gigs and private lessons, have pretty much dried up, your support means a great deal.
Those ten sales are, I won’t hesitate to admit, the first I’ve made in a decade on Bandcamp. Perhaps I could have twisted arms more tightly in the past, or my music is, ultimately, more forgettable (or, even worse, bad) than I care to admit. But I’m listening to Electrock II: Space Rock again for the first time in a few years while writing this post, and it’s pretty dang good!
Regardless, given the momentum, I figured today I’d look back wistfully at past “Gig Days”:
Well, hopefully live will return to normal-ish soon, and I can get back on the road. I love playing gigs, from singing pop tunes in the background of an engagement party to standing on coffee tables singing “Delilah.” Sometimes, I even get paid to do it!
Anyway, I’m off to play piano at church. They’re broadcasting the service to people’s cars, so I will (apparently) be one of three people in the actual sanctuary, playing hymns from the digital keyboard as people pull up. Sounds fun to me!
Happy Sunday!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
A Special Easter Notice: Pick up my latest release, The Lo-Fi Hymnal, for just $4 (or name your own price).
Way back on 17 March 2019, on just the fourth ever Lazy Sunday, the theme was “Christianity.” I’ve written quite a bit about the One True Faith over the past year, but I haven’t made it another feature of Lazy Sunday since then.
Well, today is Easter, so it’s time to dust off the Christological archives and look at some more Christianity-related posts:
That’s it for today. Happy Easter! He is Risen!
—TPP
Other Lazy Sunday Installments:
The Portly Politico 