In which I out myself as a heretic.

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I love the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.”  I (mostly) loved the Tabernacle Choir’s most recent version:

I can’t stand Mack Wilberg’s more famous arrangement.

In fact, that version is almost anti-spiritual to me. It drives the Spirit out.

But everyone else in the entire world, it seems, loves Wilberg’s arrangement. So why do I not like it?

Because it’s too loud and demanding. The lyrics of “Come, Thou Fount” are contemplative, prayerful, meek, and humble. Wilberg’s arrangement starts off that way, but mistakes volume for spiritual intensity, and so by the end, the choir and orchestra are at quadruple forte, screaming, shouting, demanding the fount show up now, or else!

The more recent MoTab version has volume, but manages to do it well – there’s clearly spiritual fervor behind the decibels, but it’s not volume for volume’s sake the way Wilberg’s version seems (to me, anyway). Well – the MoTab version does a bit too much volume and intensity on the final repeated refrain – for me, it would have been more powerful had it actually dialed the intensity back and done the refrain as something more contemplative and prayerful.

It’s one thing to be joyous and loud with a celebratory song like the Hallelujah chorus, or “In our Lovely Deseret.” But the reliance on volume to replace spiritual intensity is a problem I see in a lot of Mormon music (it’s a terrible cliche to listen to several “hymns on piano” albums aimed at the LDS market and to hear nearly every, if not every, song start out low and contemplative and end up loud and boisterous, as if every prayer started quiet and ended with yelling).

But Wilburg’s arrangement is so beloved, I am likely a heretic and many of you are fearful for the state of my eternal soul. In the words of Dr. Paul Armstrong: “Oh, well.”

24 thoughts on “In which I out myself as a heretic.”

  1. They say that the first sign of apostasy is thinking that Church art/music is tacky…

  2. Don’t feel alone. There are other arrangements of Mo-Tab music I don’t care for. I love the Messiah, but their latest version, sounds like machine gun fire going off.

  3. A similar technique is used ironically in the 1776 number “Cool, cool, considerate men” – start mellow and genteel, and end in a shouting, angry, near-fascist parade March.

    I get the appeal of the Wilburg arrangement – when you’ve got that many voices to work with, it’s tempting to floor it with the energy. Fill the room, however large.

    But quiet intensity works better for most hymns, than that wall of sound.

  4. It is the exact same arrangement. Only difference is that it is an orchestra accompanying instead of organ. The organ plays almost everything in the accompaniment aside from the timpani and cymbals, and the violin figurations in the final verse.

  5. The arrangements are very similar. I think the MoTab is much more restrained when upping the volume/intensity, though. Perhaps the lack of a loud orchestra also helped it seem more restrained.

  7. So, you are comparing Mack’s arrangement to the average Barry Manilow song?

    Come Thou Font of Every Blessing, is one of my favorite hymns. I think it would be nice to return to an arrangement closer to the original poem, without restating three times “prone to wander…”. As you say, it is best contemplative, but the repetition turns it into a Sousa march.

    I’d also love to see the final verse (5) of the original poem restored to the hymn:

    1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
    Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
    Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
    Call for songs of loudest praise.
    Teach me some melodious sonnet,
    Sung by flaming tongues above.
    Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
    Mount of Thy redeeming love.

    2. Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
    Till released from flesh and sin,
    Yet from what I do inherit,
    Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
    Here I raise my Ebenezer;
    Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
    And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
    Safely to arrive at home.

    3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
    Wandering from the fold of God;
    He, to rescue me from danger,
    Interposed His precious blood;
    How His kindness yet pursues me
    Mortal tongue can never tell,
    Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
    I cannot proclaim it well.

    4. O to grace how great a debtor
    Daily I’m constrained to be!
    Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
    Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
    Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
    Prone to leave the God I love;
    Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
    Seal it for Thy courts above

    5. O that day when freed from sinning,
    I shall see Thy lovely face;
    Clothèd then in blood washed linen
    How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
    Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
    Take my ransomed soul away;
    Send thine angels now to carry
    Me to realms of endless day.

  8. I believe both of those are basically the same arrangement. And I love the song and enjoy both performances.

  10. I think after reading all this my favorite hymn, though never sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is the Stones “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.” For the beginning of their arrangement they used a local English church choir, I believe non-LDS.

  11. When the MoTab started singing this song I told her that when I died, she could get the MoTab to come sing at my funeral. A few minutes later, conceding the unlikelihood of this, I she could just get Mumford & Sons. https://youtu.be/zNzO6LCyiIY

  12. Ivan, are you a singer or an instrumentalist? Your bio mentions a minor in music…

  13. Some of our Millennial Star hymn critics are obviously not opposed to engaging in verbal and visual hyperbole, which in my opinion is much more crass and damaging to one’s sensibilities than Mack Wilberg’s arrangement ever could be.

  15. I enjoy the classic BYU rendition, but can’t listen to it too often, or it loses its power. Probably stems from having a roommate who blared it endlessly on Sundays (over a decade ago).

    Chris Rice performs my favorite arrangement:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hps2_qf8hLk

    Subtle, creative, and not overly repetitive. I love the harmonies, as well as the verses we don’t often hear in LDS circles, as rameumptom mentioned above.

    I highly recommend hymn arrangements by Chris Rice, and those by Fernando Ortega, if you need something a bit different but still reverent.

  19. Taste in art varies, and is often influenced by culture.

    I remember a discussion of President Uchtdorf’s talk where he discussed the painting that hangs on his office wall. It is powerful to him and no doubt many others. But there were some individuals who spent breath in our meeting talking about their distaste for that style of art. I felt that was unfortunate.

    I think that as long as our embrace of a piece of art (including music) is not actively harmful to those around us, it is best to appreciate offerings as a gift from those creating the art, or the one who loved the art and is therefore sharing it.

    Reflecting on the painting in President Uchtdorf’s office, I would not have selected it for my own wall, given a range of choices. But now that I know that painting is precious to him, I will enjoy seeing it. And should he pass before I pass, I imagine that painting will become a sharp reminder to me of what I appreciated about the man who first shared it with me.

  21. “Old Man on April 4, 2016 at 8:17 pm said:

    Some of our Millennial Star hymn critics are obviously not opposed to engaging in verbal and visual hyperbole, which in my opinion is much more crass and damaging to one’s sensibilities than Mack Wilberg’s arrangement ever could be.”

    Agreed.

    My only complaint with Brother Wilberg’s arrangements (of almost any song/hymn) is that he makes the basses sing much too high! (Anything above middle C should be reserved for very special/rare occasions in my opinion. 🙂

    “Meg Stout on April 6, 2016 at 11:49 am said:

    Taste in art varies, and is often influenced by culture.

    I remember a discussion of President Uchtdorf’s talk where he discussed the painting that hangs on his office wall. It is powerful to him and no doubt many others. But there were some individuals who spent breath in our meeting talking about their distaste for that style of art. I felt that was unfortunate.

    I think that as long as our embrace of a piece of art (including music) is not actively harmful to those around us, it is best to appreciate offerings as a gift from those creating the art, or the one who loved the art and is therefore sharing it.

    Reflecting on the painting in President Uchtdorf’s office, I would not have selected it for my own wall, given a range of choices. But now that I know that painting is precious to him, I will enjoy seeing it. And should he pass before I pass, I imagine that painting will become a sharp reminder to me of what I appreciated about the man who first shared it with me.”

    +1

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