Music Notes 11-22

If you missed the Halloween or Nasty Women concerts, they are available on demand at www.countrysideucc.org/concerts

Nun Danket Alle Gott – Sigfrid Karg-Elert

Come, You Thankful People, Come

This hymn is an interesting exercise in editorial judgement by hymnal committees. Come, Ye Thankful People Come was written by Henry Alford (1810-1871) and published in 1844. The first stanza of his text focuses on physical harvest, but the other three stanzas shift to apocalyptic vision and imagery. The editors at Chalice Hymnal, as well as a few other publications scrap the other verses, and instead use words by a successful hymn writer named Anna Barbauld (1743-1825) that actually precedes the writing of Come, Ye Thankful People Come, but its unitarian language speaks to the topical nature of the first verse in a much more coherent way.

Come, you thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
all is safely gathered in, ‘ere the winter storms begin;
God, our Maker, does provide for our wants to be supplied;
come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

All the blessings of the field, all the stores the gardens yield,
all the fruits in full supply, ripened ‘neath the summer sky,
all that spring with bounteous hand scatters o’er the smiling land,
all that liberal autumn pours from its rich o’erflowing stores,

These to thee, my God, we owe, source whence all our blessings flow;
and for these my soul shall raise grateful vows and solemn praise.
Come, you thankful people, come, raise the song of harvest home;
come to God’s own temple, come, raise the song of harvest home.

Now Thank We All Our God

This hymn was written during the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) during which the writer, Martin Rinckart (1586-1649), one of the few surviving ministers in Eilenberg, was responsible for officiating up to 50 funerals a day. This period was one of famine, disease, and war, and where we often think of this as a bombastic hymn to sing before enjoying hearty Thanksgiving meals, for Rinckart it was sung with his family before eating whatever meager dinner they could come up with – the text serving as an expression of gratitude and a petition for guidance during a difficult time.

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
who wondrous things has done, in whom the world rejoices,
who from our mothers’ arms has blessed us on our way
with countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
with ever-joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer us,
and keep us full of grace, and guide us when perplexed,
and free us from all ills in this world and the next.