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Sunday, August 12, 2007

Sunday Afternoon Music Videos: How Can I Keep From Singing

My life goes on, in endless song, above earth's lamentations...
No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock I'm clinging...

A 19th century Baptist hymn - made famous again in the 60's by Pete Seeger (though minus much of the Christian text). Enya has a cover of it - but the Seeger version, not Rev. Robert Wadsworth Lowry's original.

May your week be free of storms and full of song!

15 comments:

  1. Michelle, this is beautiful.
    Right now the storms are a brewing here and it is music to this drought stricken area. Praying for it to rain the rest of the day.

    Thank you for sharing this beautiful hymn.

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  2. It's gorgeous.
    My daughter's choral group sang it in a past season, a high moment in their program.

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  3. I love this. If I'm not mistaken this is the Bradley Ellingboe arrangement. (The best one, IMHO) The combined choirs of St Stoic and Little Home Church sang it at my ordination, at my request. They even hired a clarinet player. I bawled the whole time. Then I had to get up and preside at table for the first time ever.

    Thanks for that memory today...

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  4. So beautiful. Our choir has been rehearsing a different (and also lovely) arrangement of this hymn.

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  5. I love this hymn... it's one of those "keep me on the road" tunes... when I am discouraged it is often brought into my mind.

    THANKS
    deb

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  6. Cathy, I'm so glad the storms are bringing you the much needed rain.

    cheesehead...it was the clarinet that made me pick this arrangement of the hymn to post! The Holy Spirit has been in my computer again, apparently.

    grace and peace to all...

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  7. Should mention that Chris Tomlin does a version of this song... he's a contemporary Christian singer and songwriter.

    There is an endless song
    Echoes in my soul
    I hear the music ring
    And though the storms may come
    I am holding on
    To the rock I cling

    How can I keep from singing Your praise?
    How can I ever say enough?
    How amazing is Your love!
    How can I keep from shouting Your name?
    I know I am loved by the King
    And it makes my heart want to sing!

    Ok. It's not Lowry. Or Ellingboe. But when you are at St. Arbucks church of Contemporary Worship, you go for the deeper lyrics when you can... :)

    I'm just singin...

    d

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  8. Deb - you beat me to it!
    I have been singing the Tomlin song for the last couple of months... in my head, in the shower, in the car.

    And now I have a whole new appreciation!

    Thanks for the post!

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  9. This is really beautiful! Thank you for posting it.

    Not to be a stickler, but as a clarinet player I feel compelled to tell you that this is with oboe, not clarinet. A very good oboist indeed, but oboe nonetheless.

    You made my night. And now I must go to bed (it being very decidedly morning at this point...).

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  10. Sorry Teri: bad video, and I am used to hearing it with clarinet. (I've never heard it with oboe.)

    As someone who played clarinet a thousand years ago, I understand the confusion. And the distinction.

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  11. Teri....thanks for clarifying the clarinet!

    A couple of videos of Chris Tomlin singing his version are on YouTube, too.

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  12. Thank you! This is one of the songs that is forever associated with my "Epiphany" experience. Shortly after I was given a CD of the choir of the church I was joining that became the Church of my Heart...this song was one of the most beautiful on it. I can never hear it dry-eyed.

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  13. O Wow! I just read this today (Tuesday) and when I was selecting music yesterday for the upcoming Sunday, this song rose to the top and made it into the service. It's a God thing, surely!

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  14. Thanks for sharing this. I love this song, and enjoyed hearing this one.

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