Sing a new song, sing a new song

Sing a new song, sing a new song. James Phillip McAuley* (1917-76). This hymn is also known as ‘Creation sings a new song to the Lord’, from the first line of verse 1 (after the refrain, which begins the hymn). It was originally titled ‘A Song of Cosmic Praise’. It was written by Professor James McAuley shortly before its publication in the ‘Living Parish’ series volume Songs of the Promise (1966) as part of a programme in the aftermath of Vatican II to provide new indigenous congregational hymns for Roman Catholic congregations. McAuley, a distinguished poet and a good musician, was determined to provide material that was ‘full of doctrine as well as feeling, and poetically sound’, and...