{"id":1280,"date":"2008-04-15T21:24:50","date_gmt":"2008-04-16T02:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2010-03-25T15:50:23","modified_gmt":"2010-03-25T22:50:23","slug":"more-on-spirit-of-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/?p=1280","title":{"rendered":"More on “Spirit of Life”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today I dug out my copy of Songs for Congregational Singing<\/em> by Carolyn McDade (1991), with harmonizations by McDade and Marian Shatto. After writing a post earlier this week on the popular hymn “Spirit of Life” which appears in the Unitarian Universalist hymnal with a harmonization by Grace Lewis-McLaren, I decided to look at another harmonization.<\/p>\n

McDade’s and Shatto’s harmonization of “Spirit of Life” for piano uses a chord progression that can be interpreted as follows (one chord per measure):
\n   C Dm G7 C Am Dm G7 Cadd9
\n   C Dm G7 C Am Dm G7 Csus4
\n   Cadd9 Dm G13 Cadd9 Am Dm G7 Cadd9 C5
\n(N.B.: the last note is held for an extra measure.)<\/p>\n

The harmonies are somewhat more complex than this — for example, you could read a CM7 for the fourth, ninth, and twelfth measures; and a Dm9 for the twenty-second measure.<\/p>\n

And the rhythm is somewhat more complex than the version in the hymnal — the left hand on the piano part plays arpeggio-like figures that vary from straight eighths to syncopated figures like this: | 1 & 2 &   &   & |.<\/p>\n

Also of interest in this little book is the song “Spirit of Justice,” with words that include:<\/p>\n

Your people call, in faith we call — Be with us now
\nthat we may make of this pained and captive land
\na city just, a people free, strong with hope
\nand cast our lot with those who face the storm
\nand don’t turn back but dare go on….<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Personally, I’d have more interest in singing these words than the words to “Spirit of Life.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today I dug out my copy of Songs for Congregational Singing by Carolyn McDade (1991), with harmonizations by McDade and Marian Shatto. After writing a post earlier this week on the popular hymn “Spirit of Life” which appears in the Unitarian Universalist hymnal with a harmonization by Grace Lewis-McLaren, I decided to look at another […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[131],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberal-religion","tag-hymns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6588,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/6588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}