Clearing a backlog of copyright-free hymns from my music files. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I’ve just uploaded PDFs of 6 more copyright-free hymns to this Google Drive folder<\/a>: “The Growing Light,” “A Hundred Years Hence,” “Peace, the Perfect Word,” “Prayer for This House,” “There Are Numerous Strings in Your Lute,” and “Turn Back.” Most of these hymns have appeared in UU hymnals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why copyright-free hymns? Because you don’t need a license, which smaller congregations may not be able to afford. Because you can do anything you want with them, including recording them, altering them, projecting lyrics and\/or music, etc., etc. In this multiplatform age, we need more copyright-free hymns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of this batch of copyright-free hymns, you may be most interested in “There Are Numerous Strings in Your Lute.” Lovely words by Rabindranath Tagore, the Nobel prize winning author who was associated with the Brahmo Samaj, a South Asian spiritual movement which both was influenced by Anglo-American Unitarianism, and which had a powerful influence on Anglo-American Unitarianism. The music supplied for this text in Singing the Living Tradition<\/em> is pleasant, but I don’t know anyone who’s ever actually sung it in congregational worship \u2014 it comes across as more of a choir anthem. I found two 19th century shape-note tunes that fit Tagore’s text reasonably well. I hope these two easy-to-sing tunes make it more likely that this lovely text is actually sung in worship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of the other hymns included here, “A Hundred Years Hence” is a feminist hymn; and both “Peace, the Perfect Word” and “Turn Back” are peace songs. Full information about tunes and texts is below the fold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now online: 87 total hymns, including 61 from the two current UU hymnals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n The text is by Samuel Longfellow, from his hymn \u201cEternal One, Thou Living God.\u201d This version is from Hymns for Church and Home<\/em> (American Unitarian Assoc., 1896), verses 3 and 4. Verse 3 in the original said: \u201cWe bless thee [i.e., God] for the growing light.\u201d In Singing the Living Tradition,<\/em> this is rendered as \u201cWith joy we claim the growing light.\u201d The present version renders this, \u201cMay we now bless the growing light\u201d (retaining \u201cbless\u201d while not adding \u201cjoy\u201d or \u201cclaim\u201d), thus hopefully staying closer to the original text. If you prefer, you could simply sing, \u201cWe bless God for the growing light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tune is from Hymns for Church and Home<\/em> (American Unitarian Assoc., 1896), where it is attributed to the Hamburger Musikalisches Handbuch (1690). The tune\u2019s name is \u201cWinchester New.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text was taken from History of Woman Suffrage,<\/em> vol. III, ed. Elizabeth Cady Stanton et al. (1886), p. 39n. Frances Dana Barker Gage wrote the poem c. 1851 for the Ohio Women\u2019s Convention, Akron, Ohio (this was the convention at which Sojourner Truth gave her famous \u201cAin\u2019t I a Woman?\u201d speech). I have changed the text slightly to remove gender-specific language; I release all such changes into the public domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tune, an American folk hymn, was probably first printed in the shape-note hymnal Genuine Church Music<\/em> (Winchester, Va., 1832). It appears as 334, \u201cThe Christian\u2019s Farewell,\u201d in The Southern Harmony<\/em> (William Walker, 1854). The present arrangement is a public domain adaptation of the 1854 version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text is a poem by Caroline Miles Hill, as printed in The World\u2019s Great Religious Poetry<\/em> (Macmillan, 1923).<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tune, known as \u201cCharlestown,\u201d comes from Amos Pillbury\u2019s United States Harmony<\/em> (1799). The arrangement is from the \u201cJames Edition\u201d of The Sacred Harp<\/em> (1911); melody moved from tenor to soprano, and soprano part given to tenors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tune is #7876a in Nicholas Temperley\u2019s Hymn Tune Index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text is the poem \u201cPrayer for This House\u201d by Louis Untemeyer, first published in This Singing World: An Anthology of Modern Poetry for Young People,<\/em> ed. Louis Untemeyer (Harcourt Brace, 1923), p. 67. The wording and punctuation are exactly as they appear in the 1923 version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The music is the hymn tune \u201cOldbridge,\u201d by R. N. Quaile, 1905. This arrangement appeared in The Riverdale Hymnal,<\/em> 1912.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text is a poem by Rabindranath Tagore from his Love\u2019s Gift and Crossing<\/em> (Macmillan, 1918), p. 147. Tagore\u2019s poem is in free verse, and required a few minor changes so that it would fit into a hymn tune with a regular meter: \u201cThen amidst\u201d for \u201cAmidst\u201d; \u201csmall\u201d for \u201clittle\u201d; in the last verse, \u201cand then my life\u201d for \u201cand my life\u201d. These changes are released into the public domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This text is set with two different tunes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first tune and arrangement, named \u201cStill Better,\u201d is by Israel Bradfield and J. L. Meggs (1869), and is taken from the 1911 James edition of The Sacred Harp<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The second tune and arrangement are from Amos Pillbury\u2019s United States Harmony<\/em> (1799), where it is named \u201cCharleston.\u201d The tune is #7876a in Nicholas Temperley\u2019s Hymn Tune Index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text is by Clifford Bax, written for Gustav Holst\u2019s motet on the tune Old 124th. The motet was published c. 1919, though apparently Bax wrote the text around 1916. The First World War undoubtedly influenced Bax\u2019s poem, and this may be considered another hymn for peace. The text has been degenderized, and those minor alterations are released into the public domain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tune is by Louis Bourgeois, from the Genevan Psalter, and the arrangement comes from the English Hymnal<\/em> (1906). Holst\u2019s motet is now in the public domain<\/a>, and could serve as a choir anthem. (Youtube video of the motet<\/a>, but watch out for ads.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The tune is #123a in Nicholas Temperley\u2019s Hymn Tune Index<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Clearing a backlog of copyright-free hymns from my music files. I’ve just uploaded PDFs of 6 more copyright-free hymns to this Google Drive folder: “The Growing Light,” “A Hundred Years Hence,” “Peace, the Perfect Word,” “Prayer for This House,” “There Are Numerous Strings in Your Lute,” and “Turn Back.” Most of these hymns have appeared … Continue reading “Six more copyright free hymns”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-9241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-practical-religion","tag-hymnody"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9241"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9243,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9241\/revisions\/9243"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.danielharper.org\/yauu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Growing Light, The \u2014 345, Singing the Living Tradition<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Hundred Years Hence, A \u2014 not in hymnals<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Peace, the Perfect Word \u2014 161, Singing the Living Tradition<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Prayer for This House \u2014 1, Singing the Living Tradition<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
There Are Numerous Strings in Your Lute \u2014 197, Singing the Living Tradition<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Turn Back \u2014 120, Singing the Living Tradition<\/h4>\n\n\n\n