Arts and Music at Redeemer

The anthem for this Sunday (St. Michael and All Angels) is by William Billings (1746-1800), one of the United States’ first “homegrown” composers. He was an itinerant singing school teacher, and the music books published for those schools include many of his hymns and fuguing tunes. Let Mortal Tongues is actually a hymn, arranged for choir by local conductor Jason Anderson. The text is a hearty paraphrase of the reading for the day from Revelation:

Let mortal tongues attempt to sing
The Wars of Heav’n when Michael stood
Chief General of the Eternal King,
And fought the Battle of our God.

Against the Dragon and his Host
The Armies of the Lord prevail:
In vain they rage, in vain they boast,
Their Courage sinks, their Weapons fail.

Down to the Earth was Satan thrown,
Down to the Earth his Legions fell;
Then was the Trump of Triumph blown,
And shook the dreadful Deeps of Hell.

Now is the Hour of Darkness past,
Christ has assumed his reigning Power,
Behold the great Accuser cast
Down from the Skies, to rise no more.

‘Twas by thy Blood, Immortal Lamb,
Thine Armies trod the Tempter down;
‘Twas by thy Word and powerful Name
They gained the Battle and Renown.

Rejoice, ye Heavens, let every Star
Shine with new Glories round the Sky;
Saints, while ye sing the heavenly War,
Raise your Deliverer’s Name on high.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 5:46 am and is filed under Feast days, Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.