I have wanted to share my thoughts on the first batch of hymns and songs released by the Church as candidates for the New Latter-day Saint Hymnbook (and I would love to hear your thoughts as well).
My first comment is that I’m finding that it is easier to love the choices that I already know. E.g., “Come, Thou Fount” and “It is Well with My Soul” are the ones that seem to have seen the most use already and were probably the ones I personally was most excited about (along with “Gethsemane”). Joey Stanley, for example, found that out of 204 wards surveyed that “Come, Thou Fount” has been sung in 11.70% of wards surveyed since June 2, 2024 (almost as much as the next three hymns combined), with “It is Well with My Soul” in second at 4.72% and “As Bread is Broken,” next at 4.53%. In contrast, “When the Savior Comes Again” (1.13%) and “Think a Sacred Song” (0.57%) are sitting at the bottom of the list.[1] Thus, there is a tendency to favor hymns that are already known and loved.
The Christmas and Easter hymns fall in this category of known entities as well. Among the Christmas hymns, I will note “Star Bright” is particularly exciting as a Latter-day Saint specific Advent carol with some existing history. It was introduced in the Instructor back in October 1959, with both English and Spanish text (Spanish translation by Eduardo Balderas). It was incorporated into the 1995 Spanish Children’s Songbook as “Estrella de luz.” In the original article, the author and composer (Lorin Wheelwright) offered the following explanation about the song:
Almost two thousand years ago a Lamanite prophet named Samuel cried out from the walls of Zarahemla for the people to prepare for the coming of Christ. He spoke of “… a new star . . . such an one as ye never have beheld; . . .” He told those ancient peoples that “. . . whosoever shall believe on the Son of God, the same shall have everlasting life.” He described the “sign” when “great lights” in the heavens would banish darkness for a day, a night and a day. (See Helaman 14:1-8.)
Only a few believed Samuel. Just as in our own day, when missionaries cry out to the world, “. . . repent and prepare the way of the Lord” (Helaman 14:9), few there are who humble themselves and change their way of living. But, judging from those who are converted today, we can imagine the great change that must have come into the lives of those few ancient peoples who lived by faith. Great must have been their joy of anticipation as they looked into the heavens, awaiting the sign and hearing over and over again the words of Samuel echoing in their minds.
“Star Bright” is a song which sings of that joy of anticipation. It can help us look with delight to the coming of Christmas. For us who are tied closely by tradition to the European music of Christmas, the rhythm of this melody might transport our hearts from the old world to the new. In an easy, flowing tempo, the long tones suggest long nights of looking upward. They remind us that in these latter days, we, too, live in anticipation. Those of us who really believe, continually search our own hearts and the heavens for a sign of that great day when Christ will again return to the earth and in all His glory rescue mankind from the evil of transgression.
This song tells us to search the heavens. It says to find a bright star and let it symbolize the light of conscience — ever shining, ever reaching across the eons of time, ever telling us that in this vast universe we are not alone.[2]
This fun Advent carol will now enter the global corpus of hymns.
Second, I am grateful for more sacrament hymns. As I’ve discussed before, the sacrament hymns are among the hymns that see the heaviest use as a consistent portion of sacrament meetings and there is less variety than there could be. I felt like the music for “As Bread is Broken” is very much in the style of many of the sacrament hymns that are in our current hymnbook, so will be right at home, while “Gethsemane” is hauntingly beautiful.
Along those lines, I am particularly excited to see more focus on Gethsemane as part of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, since inclusion in hymns has lagged behind emphasis on Gethsemane in our teachings by several decades.[7] And that idea not only makes an appearance in “Gethsemane,” but also in “As Bread is Broken,” (“We drink the water in memory / Of blood Thou spilt in Gethsemane.”) and in “Bread of Life, Living Water” (“In the Garden, Jesus suffered / Ev’ry sin and ev’ry woe— / Bleeding drops from ev’ry pore, / That we might forgiveness know.”). This aligns well with statements like the following from President Joseph Fielding Smith that emphasize Gethsemane:
The driving of the nails into his hands and into the Savior’s feet was the least part of his suffering. We get into the habit, I think, of feeling, or thinking that his great suffering was being nailed to the cross and left to hang there. Well, that was a period in the world’s history when thousands of men suffered that way. So his suffering, so far as that is concerned, was not any more than the suffering of other men who have been so crucified. What, then, was his great suffering? I wish we could impress this fact upon the minds of every member of this Church: His great suffering occurred before he ever went to the cross. It was in the Garden of Gethsemane, so the scriptures tell us, that blood oozed from every pore of his body; and in the extreme agony of his soul, he cried to his Father. It was not the nails driven into his hands and feet. Now do not ask me how that was done because I do not know. Nobody knows. All we know is that in some way he took upon himself that extreme penalty. He took upon him our transgressions, and paid a price, a price of torment.[3]
Up till now, the emphasis on Gethsemane has been virtually absent from our hymnal, so it’s a notable change that we’re seeing.
The one that I wasn’t familiar with that has grown on me the most is “His Eye Is on the Sparrow.” I know a lot of people who were speculating about it being included after the Tabernacle Choir performed it at the General Conference this April, so kudos to those who picked up on that. I love the message of the hymn as well as its origin story. As Brooke Hirst explained in a recent Church News podcast:
It was written by an author, her name is Civilla D. Martin: “Early in the spring of 1905, my husband and I were sojourning in Elmira, New York. We contracted a deep friendship [with] a couple by the name of Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle — true saints of God. Mrs. Doolittle had been bedridden for nigh 20 years. Her husband was an incurable cripple who had to propel himself to and from his business in a wheelchair. Despite their afflictions, they lived happy Christian lives, bringing inspiration and comfort to all who knew them. One day while we were visiting with the Doolittles, my husband commented on their bright hopefulness and asked them for the secret of it. Mrs. Doolittle’s response was simple: ‘His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me.’”[4]
That statement inspired Martin to write the hymn.
The ones that I’m still working on liking are “When the Savior Comes Again”, “I Will Walk With Jesus”, and “Think a Sacred Song”. These ones just haven’t jumped out at me. In the Church News podcast, though, Brooke Hirst shared an interesting story about “When the Savior Comes Again”:
I’ll share a little inside story, a little bit about this one. When the new submissions got to the final round, which is hymnbook and songbook committee looking through them, of course all hymnbook and songbook committee members approach their task very prayerfully — even, I know, many of them fast before they do their work associated with the hymnbook and songbook committee. They were reviewing the first packet of children’s songs, and afterward, as they were meeting, many of them said, “There’s one song I feel should be in this,” and another would say, “Oh, me too. There was one that I’m really pretty sure should be part of the collection.”
And that was a theme that we heard. And this was the song: “When the Savior Comes Again.” Independently, people had reviewed it, and they all felt that this was a needed message. And I love it. It’s a beautiful children’s song about when the Savior comes again. And I think in this new hymnbook for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, where a purpose of our Church is to help prepare the world for when the Savior comes again. I love this song and its message.[5]
That being said, one disappointment I had was with the song, “I Will Walk With Jesus.” It fails to deliver on the promise to use more inclusive language with its statement that “Jesus walked in wisdom / Jesus grew in truth, / Showing love to God and man while in His youth.” I’m pretty sure that Jesus interacted with more than just men during his youth (we know his mother was involved at least), so it’s disappointing to see that type of historical erasure among the first batch of hymns that they released. They could have easily swapped it out for something more gender-neutral (like “folk” or “us”). This goes against the type of inclusivity that President Susan H. Porter outlined in the recent podcast interview at Church News:
When we receive our new hymnbooks, one thing members of the Church will notice is in existing hymns, perhaps there might be a few words that have been changed. And so that’s another thing that’s gone on behind the scenes, and it’s been so carefully done, is the lyrics of every existing hymn that will stay in the hymnbook has been reviewed, for a couple of reasons. Perhaps the song was written in the 1600s or 1700s and word meanings have changed. Perhaps the language is not as inclusive as we would desire. And so I think Church members will also rejoice in some of their favorite hymns where there might be a few words, a few phrases changed to invite joyful singing as a global, unified Church.[6]
I love that vision of inclusivity and unification across the global Church, so it’s frustrating to see that they are violating that idea already.
Overall, though, I am excited about the new hymns that have been released so far and look forward to using them with my ward choir and in Church meetings.
What are your thoughts and reactions to the new hymns?
[1] Joey Stanley, “The First Batch of New Hymns!”, LDS Hymns Stats, June 25, 2024, updated July 3, 2024, https://hymnstats.joeystanley.com/posts/new_hymns_batch1/.
[2] Lorin F. Wheelwright, “Star Bright (Estrella de luz),” Instructor Vol. 94, No. 10 (October 1959): 322–323, https://archive.org/details/instructor9410dese/page/322/mode/2up.
[3] Seek Ye Earnestly, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. (1970), 118–20. See also Teachings of the Presidents of the Church: Joseph Fielding Smith (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 2013), 63.)
[4] Ryan Jensen, “Episode 190: As Church releases 13 new hymns, leaders discuss ongoing hymnbook project and sacred music,” Church News, May 30, 2024, https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2024/05/30/church-news-podcast-new-lds-hymnbook-songs-elder-morrison-president-porter/.
[5] Ryan Jensen, “Episode 190: As Church releases 13 new hymns, leaders discuss ongoing hymnbook project and sacred music,” Church News, May 30, 2024, https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2024/05/30/church-news-podcast-new-lds-hymnbook-songs-elder-morrison-president-porter/.
[6] Ryan Jensen, “Episode 190: As Church releases 13 new hymns, leaders discuss ongoing hymnbook project and sacred music,” Church News, May 30, 2024, https://www.thechurchnews.com/podcast/2024/05/30/church-news-podcast-new-lds-hymnbook-songs-elder-morrison-president-porter/.
[7] See, for example, John Hilton III and Joshua P. Barringer, “The Use of Gethsemane by Church Leaders, 1859–2018” (2019). Faculty Publications. 3671. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/3671. John Hilton III, “Joseph Smith, Gethsemane, and the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ,” in How and What You Worship: Christology and Praxis in the Revelations of Joseph Smith, ed. Rachel Cope, Carter Charles, and Jordan T. Watkins (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 303-30, https://rsc.byu.edu/how-what-you-worship/joseph-smith-gethsemane-crucifixion-jesus-christ.
I like many of the new hymns (I think the Sacrament hymns are especially lovely,) but I cringe just a little at the mixing of Primary songs with congregational hymns. It seems to validate a recent practice of singing Primary songs in adult meetings, which I find unfortunate for at least two reasons.
1. Primary songs can be beautiful, simple, and engaging–even moving, but their simplicity may excuse many congregations from doing the work necessary to learn the more weighty and substantial hymns. I would hate to see excellent (but maybe more difficult) hymns become neglected.
2. The primary songs are deliberately arranged to be played on a piano and are out of place on an organ. Many Ward organists will have trouble adapting the music to suit the instrument, or they may feel that moving to the piano might be inappropriate. (It’s not.)
1) As a former French student, I was delighted to see the traditional French Christmas carol “Il Est Ne, Le Divin Enfant.” However, I find the (LDS) English translation extremely clunky and highly disappointing.
2) Why are the official Church recordings solos only? I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to hear them performed by a congregation (SATB)!
3) KMarkP, that’s another reason to cut back on Primary songs adult meetings–they generally lack harmony, or if they do it’s just SA. As a former Primary chorister (twice) I love Primary selections, but they shouldn’t dominate every Sacrament meeting. When I was in Primary the children always learned at least one hymn every year, which hopefully will be continued.
4) “Gethsemane” can easily become schmaltzy and saccharine (especially the chorus). Be careful!
5) A number of people have noticed that “I Will Walk With Jesus” violates the “inclusive words” rule. Not good for one of the very first batch released! Susan Porter, where are you?? (This is especially egregious since it’s a Primary song, Susan!)
6) All Church meetings need more music and less talking!
I don’t have anything new to add, but want to add my vote for being disappointed by non-inclusive words. I’ve been looking forward to ditching unnecessarily gendered language in the hymns and already in the first batch it’s clear that the definition of “inclusive” the committee is using doesn’t seem to match mine (maybe most people’s?).
Technically, President Porter said that language was being evaluated to see if it was “not as inclusive as we would desire,” so it might not be a different definition of inclusivity so much as a difference of level in how desirable inclusivity is to the “we” in her statement compared to the folks in this conversation. (Being a little tongue-in-cheek, but there might be some truth to it.)
Also, just want to say that I’m right with you on pretty much everything you said NYAnne.
My ward has sung “Come Thou Fount” once, which was nice, and “His Eye Is on the Sparrow” twice, which I decided was rather insipid. If I have to sing that hymn for another thirty years, I think I’ll gag.
I’m rolling my eyes at all of you with your comments on ‘inclusivity’. ‘Man’ has meant ‘humankind’ – men and women – since the beginning of the English language; our culture has deliberately obscured that to find something to gripe about. It is the least clunky option of the many that have been floated specifically when a rhyme scheme calls for one syllable not many. ‘Us’ doesn’t make sense in context, neither does ‘all’, and ‘folk’ just sounds wrong.
I agree that Gethsemane can become saccharine if played (or sung) badly, which is why I didn’t initially like it. The message, however, is definitely important. Like ‘Come, Come, Ye Saints’ it can be a powerfully moving song when played and sung reverently and with joy.
My gripe is that the music is badly formatted, with many of the words clashing with notes, which makes it hard to read. One would think that the Church could afford better music editing before even a soft release of the new hymnbook.
It’s an unpopular view I know, but I tend to feel “It is well with my soul” as highly traumatic, especially given the back story (yeah, I don’t like “come, come ye saints” either). Just the idea that traumatic events shouldn’t be disturbing is… “Be still my soul” is a saner approach I think, it admits the disturbance, whilst providing comfort.
I love “His eye is on the sparrow”, particularly the emphasis on being free.
Another downvote for having children’s songs and hymns in the same book.
My ward primary have performed Gethsemane so many times before the release (they love it), that I’m done with it before we’ve even started.
I love “Bread of Life, Living Water”.
So far our congregation has sung “Come thou Fount” and “Bread of Life, Living Water”, My daughter was nonplussed her congregation opted for “What Child is This?” in June (I don’t suppose that’s been a common choice).
E.C., thank you for demonstrating my tongue-in-cheek comment in real time!
I am a music fan but not a super fan (looking at you ward choristers who want to preform songs way beyond the wards abilities) Now that the new songs are trickling in I ask myself what is the point…Do we really need 1000+ hymns to pick from? We tried a new one recently and we slaughtered it. (as in it was super bad and we were all lost) Is this Sister Nelsons pet project? Anyone know who came up with this? Please share if you do.
Can we even hold a book with that many songs in it? Will it be like holding a dictionary?
I am guessing Jesus will be on the cover…
REC911, there will only be around 500 hymns and songs in the new book (so less than we currently have in the hymnal and children’s songbook). I’ve not heard of any involvement by Sister Nelson, but there are a few legitimate reasons to do this:
Addressing copyright issues that affect the hymnbook
Having the same page numbers for every hymn in every language (in some multicultural areas, they have to keep up 3 or so hymn lists so different language groups can find each hymn)
The hymnbooks in our Church are usually updated every 30 – 50 years anyway to adjust for changing contexts
The Church has become a lot more globally focused in the last 40 years and it was thought that the hymnbook should reflect that shift
Good hymns have been written in the last 40 years
There are some hymns that legitimately should die in our tradition. E.g., ones based on Adam-God Doctrine (“Sons of Michael, He Approaches”), ones about Utah’s geography (“The Wintry Day” “Our Mountain Home So Dear”) and ones about taking up arms to kill and despoil non-members (“Up, Awake, Ye Defenders of Zion,” “O Ye Mountains High”)
“‘Man’ has meant ‘humankind’ – men and women – since the beginning of the English language.” Sure, but just because gendered language usage was understood in some situations to be universal (and it most definitely was only in some situations, and the resulting ambiguity has rarely if ever favored gender equality!), doesn’t mean that it means that now; language changes. Modern usage favors the word “humankind,” as you noted, and disfavors using gendered language to refer to mixed gender groups. It’s hard to see that disregarded in modern written works.
Funnily enough, though, I reread the song lyrics and this time around recognized that the line about “showing love to God and man while in His youth” is almost certainly a deliberate echo of Luke 2:52. As long as we’re still using the KJV with its gendered language as our official Bible translation, I feel more leniency to gendered language in modern hymns that is deliberately making linguistic connections to scripture.
REC911 It’s entirely common for other church’s hymnals to have 600+ hymns. I’m excited for as many hymns as possible as long as they are at least mostly good ones.
I like most of the choices that appeared in this first batch. I wasn’t initially excited about His Eye is on the Sparrow, but it’s the one that’s been stuck in my mind the most. I love It is Well with my Soul and Come Thou Fount. I love both new sacrament hymns. (I don’t see Gethsemane as a sacrament hymn, though.) I like all three new Christmas hymns and the Easter hymn. I like I Will Walk with Jesus, and it was part of the Primary’s recommended songs a few years ago, so the children know it. I think it is fine to have unison hymns along with 4-part ones. I’d like to do more unison singing in church anyway; I think it’s very powerful.
One of the new hymns is really called “His Eye Is on The Sparrow”? I thought that was the theme of the TV show Baretta. I mean, if you are going to choose a classic theme from TV for the hymnal, shouldn’t it be something like “Believe It or Not”. made famous by Greatest American Hero and George Costanza?
“His Eye is on the Sparrow” is only “new” to us. It’s a classic gospel hymn that has been around since the 19th century. It’s been sung by Whitney Houston, Gladys Knight, Mahalia Jackson, and others. It was featured in the movie Sister Act 2.
Correction, it was written in 1905, so barely 20th century.
My ward hasn’t sung any of the new hymns. :(
I’ve only sung one new hymn so far, Come Thou Fount. I was sitting next to my Mom at the time and I had to smile when she started looking for it in the hymnbook as usual–it’s been in the hymnbook for about as much of her life as it’s been out, so I’m not surprised she didn’t think of it as a “new” hymn.
Don’t underestimate the difficulty of Gethsemane just because it’s a Primary song and doesn’t have harmony! The rhythm and intervals are a lot less predictable than traditional hymns. My guess is that a congregation that tried to do Gethsemane cold would crash and burn much worse than on Come Thou Fount or It is Well With My Soul. Of course I don’t know that any congregation will be doing Gethsemane cold given how much Primary kids love it, but the same applies to His Eye Is On The Sparrow.
We sang both Come Thou Fount and Bread of Life this morning. It went amazingly well! I have been playing the new hymns for sacrament meeting preludes since they were released. Our ward choir sang Bread of Life in late June. The Bishop emailed a video to everyone in the ward explaining how to find the new hymns in the app, and then briefly described the process at the beginning of today’s meeting. I played the hymn a little louder than I normally would for a sacrament song so that the congregation could easily hear the music. A lot of work and preparation paid off beautifully.
Based on my personal experience, I think many organists are going to struggle. The arrangements tend to be rather challenging to play. As said earlier, many of the songs are piano music, definitely not organ friendly. Yes, it is completely acceptable for the organist to move over to the piano. However, it is a reality that the piano does not support congregational singing well in a full sized chapel open to the cultural hall. That would likely make quite a difference for an unfamiliar hymn.
I am almost totally deaf and have to use headphones for Sacrament Meeting. Is there a rule that an organ must be used for congregational singing? I much prefer piano accompaniment. because it doesn’t drown out the singing and makes it easier for me to follow along. For some reason our organist here in our little Virginia ward doesn’t drown out the singing like our organist does in our larger Arizona ward. My son says it’s because our Virginia organist doesn’t pull out all the stops and also our little Virginia ward actually sings. Nevertheless, hello, I love all the new hymns/songs, but would like “His Eye is on the Sparrow” to be my sung more like a spiritual.