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Wendell Kimbrough’s setting of Mary’s Song captures the wonder, fear, and obedience of Mary’s response to Gabriel’s message. The song is a perfect fit for Advent, Christmas, and Lessons and Carols services.
Bert Polman counted more than 1000 musical settings of the Magnificat, Mary’s song from Luke 1:46-55. Do we need one more? Yes! Every generation should create new songs based on scripture. In fact, Mary’s song was based on Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, which in turn was based on Psalm 113. Wendell Kimbrough builds on this legacy with a wonderful new version that fills a need for contemporary Christmas songs.
Renewed: Worship songs to refresh your church’s voice
Hosted by Greg Scheer
With Larry Figueroa, piano
Words and Music: based on Luke 1:46-55; Wendell Kimbrough © 2014 Wendell Kimbrough
For more information:
www.wendellk.com
Used by permission.
Hear the original recording on the Cardiphonia compilation Songs for the Incarnation.
(https://cardiphonia.bandcamp.com/track/marys-song-our-king-of-peace)
View Wendell Kimbrough’s website, with links to printed music, instructional videos, and a mailing list. (http://www.wendellk.com/)
Listen online to “Psalms We Sing Together,” Wendell's latest album, or purchase the CD. (https://wendellk.bandcamp.com/album/psalms-we-sing-together)
Email greg@gregscheer.com for an arrangement of “Mary’s Song" for choir, piano, and strings.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
Why and how did psalm singing become such a hallmark of Reformed worship? Join Dr. Karin Maag for a fascinating journey through time, from Reformation Geneva to Scotland and from the Netherlands to New England, exploring the roots and impact of metrical psalm singing. Along the way, we will hear the voices of early modern Christians as they learned how to sing the psalms, both in unison and in harmony.
Vinroy D. Brown Jr.—conductor, musicologist, educator, and minister of creative worship and music at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York City—explores the vibrant intersection of Black sacred music and the psalms. He talks about Black composers and how they have reimagined the psalms through choral music, spirituals, and the gospel tradition for the benefit of everyone.
John Goldingay, an Anglican priest and the senior professor of Old Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary, posits the psalms are the densest material in the entire Old Testament. They expound the nature of God as the compassionate, faithful, and committed one, but also as the one who makes demands upon us. The psalms help us talk to God, even about difficult things—and when we do, we are talking to someone who is in a position to do something about it.
Sister Kathleen Harmon of the community of the Ohio province of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dayton, invites us to be transformed by the psalms and experience them as the whole story God is revealing to us. As we keep praying and singing them, the psalms interpret us, and that’s when the transformation comes.
