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¡Gloria, gloria, gloria! Pablo Sosa* (1933—2020).
This joyful chorus comes directly from Luke 2: 14, the canticle of the angels. 'Gloria' (1978) was composed for a Christmas pageant, designed so that the congregation could join in the drama as the chorus of angels. The song-dance is based on the cueca, the national dance of Chile, but also popular in Bolivia and parts of Argentina. The musical style includes a lively three-four (¾) meter melded with a cross-rhythm of six-eight (6/8)...
Cantemos al Señor. Carlos Rosas* (1939-2020).
This is Rosas' best known hymn. It was composed for 'Rosas del Tepeyac: misa en honor de Nuetra Señora de Guadalupe', a setting of the Mass found in Díez Canciones Para la Misa (San Antonio, 1976). It was originally entitled '¡Aleluya!'. Tepeyac is the hill where Juan Diego (1474-1548) is said to have had his vision of the Virgin Mary, Our Lady of Guadalupe, in December 1531. The Basilica of Guadalupe in Mexico City was constructed on this site....
Caribbean hymnody
When one examines the hymns or sung liturgical poetry that are current within the various island states geographically located between North and South America, one must conclude that Caribbean hymnody is an eclectic and a dynamic reality. The people of the region are a mixed entity. By virtue of history, they are the descendants of Amerindians (the original inhabitants) and migrants from Europe, Africa and Asia. Consequently, the Caribbean is often described as a melting pot...
ROSAS, Carlos. b. Linares, Nuevo León, Mexico, 4 November 1939; d. San Antonio, Texas, 12 February 2020. Catholic hymn writer, composer, church musician, and lecturer, and son of Anastacio Rosas and Isabel Delgado, he was the tenth of twelve children. He and his wife María Teresa de León (1940-2011), a citizen of the United States, were married on December 26, 1965. He resided in San Antonio, Texas, near his five children, ten grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Rosas's compositions...
MILLIGAN, Carman Hilliard. b. York, Ontario, 20 March 1909; d. Ottawa, 14 April 1999. He was educated at the University of Toronto (MusBac in composition, 1937), and the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York State (MA in musicology, 1956). In 1982 he was made an Honorary Fellow in the Canadian College of Organists. He served as organist and choirmaster at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Ottawa, from 1937 to 1984. Editor (1964-72) and chair of the Committee for the revision of The Book...
DE CHENEZ, Charitie Lees (née Smith; also Charitie Lees Bancroft). b. Bloomfield, Merrion, Dublin, 21 June 1841; d. (?) Oakland, California, USA, 1923. The daughter of a Church of Ireland rector, Sidney Smith, she lived at home at Aghalurcher, County Fermanagh, and in Tattyreagh, County Tyrone, where her father held the living from 1867 onwards. She married Arthur E. Bancroft in 1869; after his death she married again, and is sometimes known by her second married name of De Chenez (sometimes...
POTTER, Ethel Olive Doreen (née Cousins). b. Panama, 1925; d. Geneva, 24 June 1980. She was a Jamaican citizen, born in Panama, but growing up in Jamaica, where she studied piano and violin at school. She moved to England and trained as a teacher of music at St Katherine's College, Liverpool. In 1957, she gained her Licentiate of Music degree at Trinity College, London, and was violinist for a number of orchestras.
She married Philip Potter, the General Secretary of the World Council of...
El cielo canta alegría. Pablo Sosa* (1933— ).
El cielo canta alegría ('Heaven is singing for joy') was Sosa's earliest hymn to incorporate an indigenous Argentine musical form, the carnavalito, a style derived from huayno, a kind of Argentine folk jazz. The pentatonic melody drawns upon a simpler form of folk music characterized by an arpeggiated base line with an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes (quaver followed by two semiquavers). This celebrative musical dance-song was written...
Eternal Father bless our land. Hugh Sherlock* (1905-1998).
Written in 1962, this was entitled 'Jamaica, land we love'. It has two stanzas, each ending with the same three lines:
Justice, Truth be ours forever,
Jamaica, land we love
Jamaica, Jamaica, Jamaica land we love.
It was given a tune by Robert Lightbourne, arranged by Mapletoft Poulle. Words and music were chosen as the national anthem by a committee of the Jamaican Parliament, and sung at the independence ceremonies of 1962. It is...
PAGURA, Federico José. b. Arroyo Secco, Santa Fe, Argentina, 9 February, 1923; d. Rosario, Santa Fe, 6 June 2016.
Life and Ministry
In the second half of the 20th century Federico Pagura was among the most notable leaders of the church in South America and one of the leading authors and translators of congregational hymnody from this continent. Not only was he a pillar of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina; he was also a resilient and compelling voice for human rights (derechos...
MULRAIN, George MacDonald, b. Caribbean Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, 30 March 1946. Pastor, educator, author, and composer, Mulrain attended the United Theological College of the West Indies (UTCWI), Kingston, Jamaica (Dipl. Ministerial studies, 1973), the University of the West Indies (BA Theology, 1973), and the University of Birmingham, UK (PhD, 1982: dissertation, 'Theological Significance of Haitian Folk Religion'). Mulrain, an ordained elder of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean...
SHERLOCK, Hugh Braham. b. Portland, Jamaica, 21 March 1905; d. 19 April 1998. Educated at Beckford and Smith School (now St Jago High School) and Calabar High School, Sherlock worked as a civil servant before attending Caenwood Methodist Theological College. He was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1932, and served as a missionary in the Turks and Caicos Islands, before returning to Kingston, Jamaica, in 1940. At Kingston he did remarkable work under the name of 'Operation Friendship' in a...
MARASCHIN, Jaci C. b. Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 12 December 1929; d. São Paulo, 29 June 2009. At the end of his career Maraschin was Emeritus Professor at the São Paulo Methodist University and an ordained priest of the São Paulo Anglican Diocese of the Brazilian Episcopal Anglican Church, part of the Anglican Communion. He started his musical education early in life with private tutors for music theory and piano. He held a Diploma from the Instituto Musical de Porto Alegre, Brazil, and...
Jesus es mi Rey soberano. Vicente Mendoza* (1875-1955).
This is the most widely used original hymn by Mendoza. Fernández comments as follows:
The best known hymn to Hispanics is one written by Dr. Vicente Mendoza. It is said that while he was waiting for a bus on a street corner in Los Angeles on a foggy night the words for 'Jesus es mi Rey Soberano' came to his mind. Even today this hymn is sung in all Hispanic churches throughout the world (Fernández, p. 67).
Translated by Esther Frances...
KROEHLER, Lois Clara. b. Saint Louis, Missouri, 9 September 1927; d. Bremerton, Washington, 3 August 2019. Missionary, translator, music teacher, hymn writer, and hymnal editor, Lois Kroehler lived in Belleville, Illinois, Ft. Collins, Colorado, and Lyman, Nebraska during her childhood. She graduated from the University of Nebraska (1949) with a major in Spanish and went immediately to Cuba upon graduation to serve as an English language secretary for the Cuban Director of Presbyterian Schools...
Lord, thy church on earth is seeking. Hugh Sherlock* (1905-1998).
Written in 1965 for the Jamaica District of the Methodist Church, to be sung at a service inaugurating a 'year of renewal'. It was printed in a pamphlet containing seven of Sherlock's hymns (n.d.), with the title 'Renewal'. It had no tune in this printing, but was set to ABBOT'S LEIGH by Cyril Taylor* in the Methodist Supplement Hymns and Songs (1969).
Some subsequent books have used other tunes (EVERTON, by Henry Smart* in HFTC,...
Mary Frances Reza. b. Dawson, New Mexico; 17 January 1932.
Mary Frances Reza, sometimes referred to as the 'godmother' of Hispanic liturgical music in the United States, is a Catholic leader in Hispanic music and ministry. She is known for her bilingual psalm settings and congregational settings of the Mass, her advocacy for unpublished composers of Spanish-language USA congregational song, her workshops on Hispanic congregational song, and her leadership in worship and music for the...
NETO, Rodolfo Gaede. b. Ituêta, Minas Gerais, Brazil; 26 July 1951. Neto, a pastor in the Evangelical Church of the Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB), is a composer and hymnwriter. The son of Herman Carlos Ludwig Gaede and Hilda Dummer Gaede, Gaede Neto pursued the Bachelor of Theology, master's, and doctoral degrees from the Escola Superior de Teologia in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul state.
From 1979 to 1985, Neto served congregations in the Parishes of Alto Jatibocas (Itarana,...
MARTÍNEZ, Nicolás. b. Buenos Aires, Argentina, 7 October 1917; d. 19 August 1972. Born into a Roman Catholic family, he became an evangelical Christian as a young man. He was educated at the Evangelical Faculty of Theology, Buenos Aires, and in Puerto Rico. He was ordained by the Disciples of Christ in 1948, and worked in Argentina and Paraguay. He was one of the editors of Cantico Nuevo, Himnario Evangelico (Buenos Aires, 1962).
Martínez is best known for 'Christo vive, fuera el llanto', set...
O sleep now, holy baby. Mexican carol, translated by John Donald Robb (1892-1989).
This carol, 'Duérmete, Niño lindo', was translated by Robb, a lawyer who changed career to become Professor of Music at the University of New Mexico, and printed in Hispanic Songs of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1954). It is one of many 'lullaby carols'. It was used in a folk play, Los Pastores, sung in villages in New Mexico during the Christmas season. Originally from Mexico, it tells of sorrows to...
CAMPOS DE OLIVEIRA Jr, Oziel. b. Recife, Pernanbuco, Northeast Brazil, 26 July 1946. He studied theology at the Escola Superior de Teologia in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and later at Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA. Oziel has served as pastor of the Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil (IECLB, Igreja Evangélica de Confissão Luterano no Brasil) since 1973. Despite not having any formal training in music, Oziel has always maintained an...
SOSA, Pablo. b. in Chivilcoy, a province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 16 December 1933; d. Buenos Aires, 11 January 2020. Sosa was a composer, church musician and a local minister of the Evangelical Methodist Church in Argentina. He was emeritus professor of Liturgy and Hymnology at the Instituto Universitario ISEDET (Buenos Aires), and Choir Conducting at the National State Conservatory in Buenos Aires (1975-2005). He also established the musical group 'Música para Todos' in 1972, directing and...
Pelas dores deste mundo (For the troubles and the sufferings of the world). Rodolfo Gaede Neto* (1951—).
'Pelas dores deste mundo' was composed in 1999. It is known as the 'Brazilian Kyrie' (Daw, 2016, p. 728). Neto composed the song in the context of a liturgy course taken during his graduate theological studies at the Escola Superior de Teologia, a Lutheran seminary in South Brazil. The class was discussing each portion of the liturgy and, when they focused on the kyrie, Neto realized...
BLYCKER, Philip Walter. b. Chicago, Illinois, 22 March 1939; d. Roseburg, Oregon, 11 June 2023. Philip Blycker (also known as Felipe Blycker J. in Spanish publications), was a missionary, hymn writer, composer, and hymnal editor. He was raised in the evangelical tradition as a Baptist. Taking piano and trumpet lessons during his youth, he received degrees from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina (B.M.E., 1960) and VanderCook College of Music in Chicago (MMus Ed., 1966). He...
Porque él entró en el mundo ('Tenemos Esperanza'). Federico José Pagura* (1923-2016).
Written in 1979, this hymn first appeared in Cancionero Abierto ('Open Songbook') (six editions between 1974-1994) edited by Argentinian Methodist pastor and composer Pablo Sosa*. For many within the church, the hymn is known by its refrain 'Tenemos Esperanza' ('We have hope').
This is the third of three 'Porque' ('Because') hymns authored by Pagura with music by the then young Uruguayan composer Homero...
GUITIÉRREZ-ACHÓN, Raquel. b. Preston (now Puerto Guatemala), Province of Oriente, Cuba; 5 May 1927; d. Los Angeles, California, 5 January 2013. Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón was a church musician, pianist, choral conductor, hymnal editor, and promoter of Spanish-language hymns in the United States and Latin America. She studied music at the Instituto Santiago and the Conservatorio Provincial (Santiago de Cuba), Matin College (Pulaski, Tennessee), George Peabody College for Teachers (Nashville,...
RUÍZ, Rubén Avila. b. Cuautla, Morelos, Mexico, 12 November 1945. The son of a Methodist minister (later a bishop), he was educated at the Instituto Mexicano Madero. During a period in Covington, Virginia, USA, ca. 1972, Ruíz wrote a hymn in Spanish for the choir of the United Methodist Church, 'Mantos y palmas' (literally 'Cloaks and Palms', based on the account in the Gospels of Christ's entry into Jerusalem. The first stanza describes the scene; the second calls on the singers to follow...
MONTEIRO, Simei. b. Belém, Brazil, 28 December 1943. She was born in the capital of Pará in the northern Amazon region of Brazil. As a child she was always listening to music: her father loved music, especially opera. Her mother could sing almost the entire hymnal by heart and was a public reciter of poetry. Both parents sang in the choir of the Baptist Church and also in events outside the church. Her uncle was the main piano tuner at the 'Teatro da Paz' in the city of Belém, and sometimes she...
Introduction
While there is a substantial amount of writing produced on religion and theology in South America, there is surprisingly almost nothing written concerning hymnody and its development. Information about the history of South American hymnody is scarce. Some of the accounts are conflicting, and they are not organized in any formal way. A more complete survey of current and historical South American hymnody and singing would require individual articles on each South American country...
The Virgin Mary had a baby boy. West Indian carol.
This carol, sometimes called a spiritual, reflects one of the varied experiences and cultures encountered by enslaved Africans when they came to the Americas. Since it does not find its origins in the continental United States, 'The Virgin Mary' does not appear in the historical collections of African American spirituals* such as the monumental Slave Songs of the United States* (New York: 1867), the first extensive collection of African...
Una espiga dorada por el sol. Cesáreo Gabaráin* (1936–1991), translated by George Lockwood*.
'Una espiga' ('Sheaves of summer', 1973), a hymn on the theme of Christian unity, first appeared in North America in Alabemos al Señor (Veracruz, Mexico, 1976), a collection published by the Seminario Regional del Sureste. Gertrude Suppe*, a collector of Spanish-language hymnody, described the song's hypothetical transmission from Spain to Latin America: 'Someone evidently came from Spain with a...
Vem, Jesus, nossa esperança. Jaci C. Maraschin* (1929–2009).
This Advent text first appeared in a Brazilian collection edited by the author, O Novo Canto de Terra (São Paulo, 1987), in four 8.7.8.7 stanzas. The musical setting, CRISTO É MAIS (1980), is by Baptist music professor Marcílio de Oliveira Filho (1947–2005). It was originally paired with the text 'Cristo é nossa esperança' (1981) by Guilherme Kerr Neto (1953– ) in the Brazilian Baptist hymnal Hinário para o Culto Cristão (Rio di...
MENDOZA, Vicente Polanco. b. Guadalajara, Mexico, 24 December 1875; d. Mexico City, 14 June 1955. Methodist evangelist, hymn writer, and translator, he was acclaimed by many as the leading evangelist in Mexican Methodism of his generation, and the author of some of the most beloved hymns from this era in the Spanish language. Vicente P. Mendoza should not be confused with two others of his generation with a similar name: Vicente T. Mendoza (1894-1964), a Mexican Methodist musicologist,...
Voices in Praise. This collection, published in 2013, is the authorised hymnal of The Methodist Church of the Caribbean and the Americas (MCCA). It is a significant milestone in the history of the MCCA, as it is the first time it has issued an authorised hymnal since its foundation in 1967. Its preface indicates Caribbean Methodism's longstanding attachment to the British Methodist Hymn Book (MHB, 1933), and, in describing its long gestation, summarises the diverse influences, cultural...