The thoughts below were prepared for the “Devotions on the Hymn of the Day” project of the Center for Church Music at Concordia University, Chicago. This devotion is on “Son of God, Eternal Savior,” the Hymn of the Day for the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany on Sunday, February 1, 2015. For a downloadable PDF version of this devotion,… Read More »
The hymn “My Song is Love Unknown” features a text from the 1600s coupled with a melody composed in the early 1900s by the English composer and church musician John Ireland (1879-1962). This haunting and beautiful melody was apparently composed casually one day over lunch at the suggestion of fellow church musician and composer Geoffrey Shaw (1879-1943). The… Read More »
“When Morning Gilds the Skies” was originally the German hymn “Beim frühen Morgenlicht” (literally “By the Early Morning Light”) that first appeared around 1744. In the mid 1800s, an English translation was made by the Reverend Edward Caswall (1814-78), an Anglican priest and in 1899 another appeared by the famous poet and playwright Robert Bridges (1844-1930). The original… Read More »
In many cases, key thoughts and insights are lost in translation. This is especially true when translating poetry while at the same time trying to maintain the original poem’s meter and rhyme scheme. A case in point is Martin Luther’s popular Reformation hymn “A Mighty Fortress,” of which there are numerous English translations. The first line is fairly… Read More »