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Hymns Based on Psalms

12/27/2025

When choosing choir numbers for next year's study of the Old Testament, the choir director may wonder where to start. Well, one tried and true method is to go with hymns based on the Psalms. So many hymns quote famous passages from the Psalms and are definitely Christ centered. We all know many versions of The 23rd Psalm (The Lord Is My Shepherd), but there are many other beautiful, praising quotes that have been used to inspire hymn texts, as well.

"Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart." --- Psalms 32:11

"Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power... Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord." --- Psalm 150: 1, 6

"O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people...For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever. Praise ye the Lord." --- Psalm 117

"Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved." --- Psalm 55:22

"I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel... I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, and I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh shall also rest in hope." ---Psalm16:7-9

"For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds." --- Psalm149: 4-5

Here are a few choral selections from my catalogue:

"Rejoice, the Lord Is King" SATB ---Psalm 32

"With All the Power of Heart and Tongue" 2-Part Mixed --- Psalm 138

"I Need Thee Every Hour" SATB ---Psalm 143:1

"Lead Kindly Light" 2-Part Mixed --- Psalm 43:3, 119: 132-135

"Did You Think to Pray" SATB --- Psalm 5: 3, 12

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Disappointing Children's Christmas Sings

12/18/2025

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Once again I was underwhelmed by a Christmas Sing concert at my grandson's school. In fact, I was very disturbed hearing most of the Elementary School classes singing to pre-recorded music with vocals. Why would that be a good thing? Don't we, the parents, grandparents and interested others, come to hear our own children do the singing? This can be irritating to view the program where the little children cannot even match pitches with the pre-recorded vocals!!!!

The Kindergarteners were first. They looked cute, but couldn't match pitch. They sang a song that was very repetitive and used just the lowest five notes of the major scale. That is a good idea since little children have trouble matching pitches beyond an octave. However, those 5 notes were TOO LOW for them. A G below Middle C is 'way too low for 5 year olds!!! Any notes below Middle C are too low for that young of children.

First graders were next. They sang a rap song and did cute actions, but also could not match pitch. Their song used just six pitches, but also most were below Middle C. Obviously, the songs were in a comfortable range for the adult teachers, but not for the children. Like the Kindergarteners, they basically yelled in monotone. No wonder the teachers thought they should use the vocal track of the song.

There were just two grades that actually sang without a vocal track and they actually sang songs that fit their vocal ranges. The 6th graders were grown-up enough that they could sing in a broader range. Then, the 2nd graders sang a song that was pitched appropriately for them -- one octave between Middle C and Treble C.

I just wonder why songs labeled FOR CHILDREN would even be pitched out of their range in the first place. It doesn't do the children any favors to have them shout in monotone and not even try to learn to MATCH PITCHES.

The contrast of the lighter, higher voices of children against the lower, heavier voices of adults can be so charming. This recording of "The Christmas Alphabet" is from our family Christmas show. Our little kids and grandkids may not have come in right on time or sung the right words, but they could certainly MATCH PITCHES!

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Janie Thompson Arrangements

12/15/2025

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For the past few weeks I have been going through many boxes and files of music trying to make space for proper storage of just the things I need in my file cabinets. I have been trying to be very deliberate about what to keep and what should go. (I confess that when it comes to music, I think it is all important. So this has been a real challenge!)

Janie Thompson

But as I have gone through this process, there have been some real surprises. For example, I inherited several boxes of my aunt Janie Thompson's music. I discovered that I have many of her tendencies. She was rather meticulous about saving many tens of copies of the "Vocal Parts Only" for entire shows in file packages, carefully dated and labeled. Sometimes she'd have 25, 50, to 100 performers in a show. No wonder she only gave them the vocal parts of the songs. (Obviously, that was much more economical, hence why she saved them -- just in case she'd need them again.)

Then she also saved the working director copies/accompaniments of those shows in three-ring binders -- complete with lists of performers, line ups, stage directions, and cues. It was like she just closed the binder and stuffed it in the box to come back and sort it later. (I hate to admit it, but I do that, too.)

Yet in reality, those have been the most important finds out of all of her files. We have thought for years that Janie rarely wrote out accompaniments to her zillions of "Vocal Parts Only" copies that the performers got. Come to find out, she actually has a few originals of the handwritten arrangements with PIANO ACCOMPANIMENTS. (Much abbreviated with sections of just chord symbols and perhaps the bass line, but still it's enough to be understandable to a pianist.) To me, that is GOLD!

One song in particular was quite the find. Late in her career, Janie was once again asked to perform often as a guest artist. One song became her most requested out of all her vast repertoire, "I've Been Everywhere." Apparently that novelty song had been around since the early 1960s. It was written by an Australian writer named Geoff Snow and was popularized by various singers including Johnny Cash. It started off by mentioning (in rapid fire) place names of towns only in Australia. Then other performers created versions mentioning places names in the areas they lived, like the United States and Canada.

Janie could top them all, because her version mentioned places ALL OVER THE WORLD where she had performed!!!!!! She had to include EIGHT VERSES to contain them all. I am delighted to have found the original.

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The Privilege of Singing Handel's Messiah

12/7/2025

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My mother sang with the Tabernacle Choir when I was a small child. She was part of the choir when they recorded selections from Handel's Messiah with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1959. She woke us up every Sunday by playing that album. I had those selected choruses and solos memorized by the time I was 8 years old.

Something that was fun about when my mother's family got together for holidays were the spontaneous "Messiah" sings. My Mother and three of her brothers all sang on that Tabernacle Choir album. But everyone else in the family sang, too. So when we got together for Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter, we liked to sing the entire Oratorio complete with the recitatives and solos -- and those big voices made us sound good!

That tradition has continued on in our family traditions through the succeeding generations, as well. We have enough instrumentalists now to be able to swell the orchestral ranks, too. We were known to take a few of the choruses to sing at rest homes and for Christmas caroling. (Doesn't every caroling group end by singing the Hallelujah chorus?)

I have personally sung the "Messiah" (with my family, Church groups. Community Chorales, High School and College choirs, and the Tabernacle Choir), more times that I can count. I know from experience that every conductor is very opinionated in how they want their group to sing it. Some are more traditional and have let styles relax and evolve over time. Then, there are the ones who want to go back to pure Baroque historical styles and push the tempos and dramatic effects to the limits of human abilities.

The Wasatch Chorale and the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra collaborated in concert this past weekend. Our conductor Dr. Douglas Pew pushed us towards the drama of Baroque Opera. Our choruses were the fastest I have ever sung them. It actually made it hard not to just concentrate on singing technique. I usually try to keep the Spirit of the message foremost in my performance. BUT IT WAS DIFFICULT at such a fast pace.

When I have sung Messiah with other community Chorales, I wondered if the spiritual message of the music was coming across. It wasn't until we really worked to memorize the entire Oratorio for the Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square's 2016 recording that I really felt that as a group we were concentrating more on conveying the Spirit of the text than just executing the music. I felt a part of a massive group bearing our testimonies of the Savior and His divine mission. That was so powerful.

I have sung with groups that did not invite the Spirit to be with them when they sang. I have also sung with groups, even "Messiah Sing-ins" where the Spirit was so strong. That's what fills me when singing "Messiah," when I can join with angel choirs singing, "For unto us a child is born, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." Hallelujah!!!

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Christmas Day Round

12/3/2025

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Janie Thompson (1921-2013)

My aunt Janie Thompson has been gone now for 12 1/2 years, yet I still think of her often at Christmas time. She really shined at planning and performing Christmas shows. Since the early 1950s, she worked at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, taking almost anyone who walked through her doors and teaching them to sing and dance.

In those days just after WWII, BYU was just recovering from being basically a girl's college. During the 1940s, very few young men were NOT off at war. The college was small, comparatively speaking, to what it is now. The President of BYU, Ernest L. Wilkinson, had asked her to come to BYU, organize entertainment shows to tour around Utah and the neighboring states to recruit students to enroll at BYU. She wasn't thrilled to leave her glamorous touring life as a Big Band singer, but she knew that was what she needed to do. (It's still hard for me not to picture her in sequins...)

Janie could organize shows with anybody, polish them up, and take them on the road. After a time, she gained a reputation of doing quality shows and was approached to take touring groups all over the world. Janie had contacts in the U.S. State Department that sponsored her student touring groups to mainly go out entertaining the troops over seas. Often her tours would last several months at a time.

Cory, Tanya, and Betsy singing for a Christmas Show

However, very few students stayed in Provo over the Christmas break and that was when the Program Bureau (that she established) got many calls for student Christmas shows. Janie would just use the few students that were in town and filled in with her neighbors and family members. I remember as a young child singing on many of her Christmas shows.

By the 1990s, she was nearing her retirement and she did fewer and fewer big tours. But she still did Christmas Shows for special gatherings and parties all over the state. She also did a big show with the Youth in her own Ward every year. Those kids did a lot of the material she had first had the BYU kids do on Christmas shows. Then she started writing more and more original songs.

Her "Christmas Day Round 3-Part" was one of the songs she wrote during that later period of her life. I offered it on my website just for fun, having no idea that it would become so popular. Because it is FREE, I don't get to know who downloads it or how they use it. Would be fun to know, though...

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Are You Famous?

12/2/2025

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Yesterday I sat in a waiting room while my car was in the shop. Two other customers were willing to engage in some friendly chat as we waited. The man wore a Missionary Badge and explained how he was getting his car serviced before they left for their mission to New Zealand. He and his wife were called as medical support for the missionaries in that region. The lady next to me had a cute small dog with her. She spent most of the time hoping the dog would be well behaved as we all waited.

The man asked questions about me and as sometimes happens, I mentioned that I served my mission as part of the Tabernacle Choir. As we chatted, we shared stories about how we loved music. He had played flute in the Mormon Youth Symphony for 17 years, even during his time in Med School. We shared about kids and grandkids and how being grandparents is a full-time gig. In the process I told him about how I write Choral Music as well as Children's Theater. He even asked for my web-site to send to his daughter who helps with the school plays in her kid's school. Then his car was ready and he left.

Suddenly, the lady next to me asked, "Are you famous?"

I said, "No, not at all."

Then she said, "You look so familiar. I wonder how I would know your face?"

She asked if she would have known me from watching Music and the Spoken Word. I said probably not because I sat in a place that got very little camera time. Then I had to explain how the cameramen planned their shots for TV.

Then her car was ready and she left. So random. You never know how conversations will go with friendly strangers.

Messiah Concert Dec. 5th and 6th

That interchange got me thinking about those wonderful times singing with the Tabernacle Choir, especially when we recorded the entire oratorio of Handel's Messiah. We worked long and hard to have it memorized for our performances and recording.

So now, I am singing with the Wasatch Master Chorale of Provo, Utah, in a performance of Handel's Messiah along with the Timpanogos Symphony Orchestra led by Dr. Douglas Pew.

I have to admit that having the choruses we are singing memorized makes singing less stressful, even if we are singing at very fast tempi.

For some Christmas joy, please come to our performances this weekend DEC. 5-6th 7:30 pm at the Orem High School Auditorium.

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Hymns Based on Psalms

Disappointing Children's Christmas Sings

Janie Thompson Arrangements

The Privilege of Singing Handel's Messiah

Christmas Day Round

Are You Famous?

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