This week: The Songs That We Sing Edited by: NaNoKit  
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What is your favourite religious song? What do you like about it?
There are some songs that last through the ages. What makes generations of us want to sing them?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about the songs that we sing.
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I love me a good Christian Christmas carol. Silent Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen… My favourite carol is O Holy Night, written in 1847 by Placide Cappeau. He was originally asked to write a poem to celebrate his church organ’s renovation, but felt that it should be accompanied by music. He asked his friend Adolphe Charles Adams for assistance, and I am glad that he did, because the result is rather beautiful.
When I was little I accompanied my great-aunt and great-uncle to the Salvation Army and I still recall one of their songs. The translation from Dutch to English goes something like G-o-o-d – good. G-o-o-d – good. I wish to be just like Jesus: g-o-o-d – good. I guess I remember it because it’s simple, and therefore memorable. It’s the same with a church I attended for a while with a friend of mine. They had some modern songs with drums and guitars and some of them were quite catchy. The one I remember had a part that went God is a good God. Yes He is! God is a good God. Yes He is! Which, in hindsight, may be slightly patronising towards both singer and the Lord, but it’s effective as well, because it still pops up in my mind decades later.
There are churches and religious organisations, then, who write and sing their own songs, but there are only some religious songs that make it beyond the community, into the wider world. A few get translated into other languages. Growing up, I knew Silent Night as Stille Nacht. I love Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo’s Cantique de Noel - the French version of O Holy Night.
What is it about these songs specifically that captures people’s hearts and minds? What makes them so special that even people of no faith are happy to sing them? Is it the music? The lyrics? The unique combination of the two? I don’t have the answer, but I certainly find it interesting.
I also find it interesting that many of the religious songs that are played over the holidays are older. I am not aware of any contemporary Christian carols that have made it anywhere near as big as the ones I already knew as a child. I know that there are contemporary Christian bands, and festivals, but I don’t know of any big hits. Which may be down to my lack of knowledge about the contemporary music scene in general – I have, unfortunately, hit that age where I’ll grumble that back in ‘my day’ music was much better.
Growing up in a Christian family I have also been somewhat sheltered from musical influences of other faiths. I would love to hear the songs loved by people of your religion or faith. There no doubt is music that is as special to you, perhaps even a part of your childhood, as the above songs are to me. What do you love about them? How do they make you feel?
If there aren’t many – or any? – modern religious songs that have struck the right chord that means that there’s room for you to create one. You may not be a musician, but neither was Placide Cappeau – what he did was write a poem that is still loved 177 years later. There are many poets on this site, of a variety of faiths and spiritual paths. You never know… perhaps, 177 years from now, children will feel their hearts lift as they sing your words.
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Spiritual: July 03, 2024 Issue [#12627]
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