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Text authorities

Unless the LORD the House Shall Build

Meter: 8.8.8.8 Appears in 21 hymnals Topics: Ascents Lyrics: 1 Unless the Lord the house shall build, the weary builders toil in vain; unless the LORD the city shield, the guards a useless watch maintain. 2 In vain you rise at morning break, in vain your late-night vigils keep, and draining days of work partake— those whom God loves fall fast asleep. 3 Yes, children are a great reward, a gift from God in very truth; as quiver full of arrows stored are children giv'n in days of youth. 4 How blest are those whose lives are cheered by children's growth in strength and grace. Within their house no foes are feared, for God keeps watch within that place. Scripture: Psalm 127 Used With Tune: O WALY WALY Text Sources: Psalter, 1912, alt.

Children Are a Heritage

Appears in 2 hymnals Topics: Ascents First Line: Unless the LORD builds the house Refrain First Line: Children are a heritage from the LORD Scripture: Psalm 127 Used With Tune: [Children are a heritage from the LORD]

Our Help Is in the Name of the LORD

Appears in 2 hymnals Topics: Ascents First Line: If the LORD had not been on our side Scripture: Psalm 124 Used With Tune: [If the LORD had not been on our side]

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Tunes

Tune authorities

[It is in vain that you rise up early]

Appears in 2 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: Phillip Magness Topics: Ascents Tune Key: D Major Incipit: 53455 31116 65432 Used With Text: Unless the LORD Builds

[Blest are those who love you]

Appears in 11 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: Marty Haugen Topics: Ascents Tune Key: F Major or modal Incipit: 32312 6 Used With Text: Blest Are Those Who Love You

[O come, bless the LORD]

Appears in 8 hymnals Composer and/or Arranger: Howard Hughes, SM Topics: Ascents Tune Key: e minor or modal Incipit: 11111 71471 Used With Text: In the Silent Hours of Night

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Instances

Published text-tune combinations (hymns) from specific hymnals

In Anguish to the LORD I Cry

Author: David G. Preston Hymnal: Christian Worship #120A (2021) Meter: 8.6.8.6 Topics: Ascents Lyrics: 1 In anguish to the LORD I cry, my desp'rate prayer is heard: "Save me, O LORD, from lips that lie and ev'ry untrue word!" 2 What just reward will God command for such deceitful souls? A warrior's sharpest arrows and the broom tree's burning coals! 3 Why must I spend this present life with godless men like these? Their savage hearts are set on strife: my words are words of peace. Scripture: Psalm 120 Languages: English; Latin Tune Title: WINDSOR

Save Me, LORD

Hymnal: Christian Worship #120B (2021) Topics: Ascents First Line: What will he do to you Scripture: Psalm 120 Languages: English Tune Title: [What will he do to you]

I Lift Up My Eyes to the Mountains

Hymnal: Christian Worship #121A (2021) Topics: Ascents Scripture: Psalm 121 Languages: English Tune Title: [I lift up my eyes to the mountains]

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People

Authors, composers, editors, etc.

C. Hubert H. Parry

1848 - 1918 Topics: Ascents Composer of "REPTON" in Christian Worship Charles Hubert Hastings Parry KnBch/Brnt BMus United Kingdom 1848-1918. Born at Richmond Hill, Bournemouth, England, son of a wealthy director of the East India Company (also a painter, piano and horn musician, and art collector). His mother died of consumption shortly after his birth. His father remarried when he was three, and his stepmother favored her own children over her stepchildren, so he and two siblings were sometimes left out. He attended a preparatory school in Malvern, then at Twyford in Hampshire. He studied music from 1856-58 and became a pianist and composer. His musical interest was encouraged by the headmaster and by two organists. He gained an enduring love for Bach’s music from S S Wesley and took piano and harmony lessons from Edward Brind, who also took him to the ‘Three Choirs Festival in Hereford in 1861, where Mendelssohn, Mozart, Handel, and Beethoven works were performed. That left a great impression on Hubert. It also sparked the beginning of a lifelong association with the festival. That year, his brother was disgraced at Oxford for drug and alcohol use, and his sister, Lucy, died of consumption as well. Both events saddened Hubert. However, he began study at Eton College and distinguished himself at both sport and music. He also began having heart trouble, that would plague him the rest of his life. Eton was not known for its music program, and although some others had interest in music, there were no teachers there that could help Hubert much. He turned to George Elvey, organist of St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, and started studying with him in 1863. Hubert eventually wrote some anthems for the choir of St George’s Chapel, and eventually earned his music degree. While still at Eton, Hubert sat for the Oxford Bachelor of Music exam, the youngest person ever to have done so. His exam exercise, a cantata: “O Lord, Thou hast cast us out” astonished the Heather Professor of Music, Sir Frederick Ouseley, and was triumphantly performed and published in 1867. In 1867 he left Eton and went to Exeter College, Oxford. He did not study music there, his music concerns taking second place, but read law and modern history. However, he did go to Stuttgart, Germany, at the urging of Henry Hugh Pierson, to learn re-orchestration, leaving him much more critical of Mendelssohn’s works. When he left Exeter College, at his father’s behest, he felt obliged to try insurance work, as his father considered music only a pastime (too uncertain as a profession). He became an underwriter at Lloyd’s of London, 1870-77, but he found the work unappealing to his interests and inclinations. In 1872 he married Elizabeth Maude Herbert, and they had two daughters: Dorothea and Gwendolen. His in-laws agreed with his father that a conventional career was best, but it did not suit him. He began studying advanced piano with W S Bennett, but found it insufficient. He then took lessons with Edward Dannreuther, a wise and sympathetic teacher, who taught him of Wagner’s music. At the same time as Hubert’s compositions were coming to public notice (1875), he became a scholar of George Grove and soon an assistant editor for his new “Dictionary of Music and Musicians”. He contributed 123 articles to it. His own first work appeared in 1880. In 1883 he became professor of composition and musical history at the Royal College of Music (of which Grove was the head). In 1895 Parry succeeded Grove as head of the college, remaining in the post the remainder of his life. He also succeeded John Stainer as Heather Professor of Music at the University of Oxford (1900-1908). His academic duties were considerable and likely prevented him from composing as much as he might have. However, he was rated a very fine composer, nontheless, of orchestrations, overtures, symphonies, and other music. He only attempted one opera, deemed unsuccessful. Edward Elgar learned much of his craft from Parry’s articles in Grove’s Dictionary, and from those who studied under Parry at the Royal College, including Ralph Vaughn Williams, Gustav Holst, Frank Bridge, and John Ireland. Parry had the ability when teaching music to ascertain a student’s potential for creativity and direct it positively. In 1902 he was created a Baronet of Highnam Court in Gloucester. Parry was also an avid sailor and owned several yachts, becoming a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1908, the only composer so honored. He was a Darwinian and a humanist. His daughter reiterated his liberal, non-conventional thinking. On medical advice he resigned his Oxford appointment in 1908 and produced some of his best known works. He and his wife were taken up with the ‘Suffrage Movement’ in 1916. He hated to see the WW1 ravage young potential musical talent from England and Germany. In 1918 he contracted Spanish flu during the global pandemic and died at Knightsscroft, Rustington, West Sussex. In 2015 they found 70 unpublished works of Parry’s hidden away in a family archive. It is thought some may never have been performed in public. The documents were sold at auction for a large sum. Other works he wrote include: “Studies of great composers” (1886), “The art of music” (1893), “The evolution of the art of music” (1896), “The music of the 17th century” (1902). His best known work is probably his 1909 study of “Johann Sebastian Bach”. John Perry

Christopher M. Idle

b. 1938 Person Name: Christopher Idle Topics: Ascents Author of "Those Who Rely on the LORD" in Christian Worship Christopher Martin Idle (b. Bromley, Kent, England, 1938) was educated at Elthan College, St. Peter's College, Oxford, and Clifton Theological College in Bristol, and was ordained in the Church of England. He served churches in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria; London; and Oakley, Suffolk; and recently returned to London, where he is involved in various hymnal projects. A prolific author of articles on the Christian's public responsibilities, Idle has also published The Lion Book of Favorite Hymns (1980) and at least one hundred of his own hymns and biblical paraphrases. Some of his texts first appeared in hymnals published by the Jubilate Group, with which he is associated. He was also editor of Anglican Praise (1987). In 1998 Hope Publishing released Light Upon the River, a collection of 279 of his psalm and hymn texts, along with suggested tunes, scripture references, and commentary. Bert Polman

Iona Community

Topics: Year A, B, C, Easter, Ascension of the Lord, Ascention Day (Thursday or 7th Sunday of Easter) Author of "Psalm 47 (A Responsorial Setting)" in Psalms for All Seasons Iona Community, an ecumenical Christian group of men and women based on the small island of Iona off the coast of Scotland. The community began in 1938 when the Rev. George MacLeod of the Church of Scotland began a ministry among the unemployed poor who had been neglected by the church. He took a handful of men to the island to rebuild the ruins of a thousand-year-old abbey church. That rebuilding became a metaphor for the rebuilding of the common life, a return to the belief that daily activity is the stuff of godly service – work, and worship. The Community has since grown to include a group of members, associates, and friends all over the United Kingdom and many other countries. In addition to many conferences that attract people to Iona from around the world, the Community is known for its publishing of new songs and prayers for worship, both developed in community and gathered from around the world. For more information on the Iona Community, check their website: www.iona.org.uk. John Bell is probably the community’s most well-known member, having composed and arranged much of the community’s music. Sing! A New Creation

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