Wednesday, April 9, 2014

The Many Arrangements of Beach Spring

About two and a half years ago, a friend and I started talking about Be Thou My Vision, and she proceeded to post about three dozen versions of the song to my Facebook wall

As I mentioned in the last post, Beach Spring is one of my favorite tunes ever, and it's the tune to a lot of hymns. Off the top of my head: "Lord Whose Love Through Humble Service," "Sunday's Palms are Wednesday's Ashes," "Come and Find the Quiet Center," "As a Fire Is Meant for Burning," "God of Day and God of Darkness," and "Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters."

This weekend I went through all those Be Thou My Vision links and listened to them again, and I was inspired. So, you get many versions of Beach Spring and the various hymns to which it is a tune. They're below the fold!

This one is really long, but it's some really pretty piano improvisations.

Appalachian Dulcimer. Enough said.

A little faster, on guitar.

Guitar and "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy." Beach Spring is listed in the United Methodist Hymnal as an alternate tune for this hymn. I prefer the other tune -- Restoration -- but I love the lyrics of this hymn.

Mandolin!

Organ to "God of Day and God of Darkness."

"God of Day and God of Darkness" with harp, penny whistle, and vocals. It's pretty fantastic.

"Wash, O God, Our Sons and Daughters" sung by Oleta Adams

Because everyone needs a little flute+harp.

I love organ music.

"Beach Spring Stomp" on handbells. This is awesome.

Central Oklahoma Honors Orchestra!

More dulcimer, and "Come and Find the Quiet Center."

"Come and Find the Quiet Center." Absolutely beautiful.

1 comment:

  1. I've discovered a new hymn to this tune, which we sang in Maundy Thursday service. It's first line is "As we gather at your table," and it's pretty fantastic.

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