Wednesday, September 02, 2015

MH 118 NEE 606

This is fairly parochial, but most Mennonites and fellow-travelers will be able to decipher the code of this post's title.  MH = Mennonite Hymnal, 118 = "Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow" in the Blue MH, and 606 is the same hymn in the older Red MH.  As noted in this interesting article, "In the 1969 volume The Mennonite Hymnal, number 606 is a four-part choral setting of the doxology ("Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow") that has become wildly popular among North American Mennonites."  It is not the traditional doxology, but rather a juiced-up version that is sometimes know as the Mennonite "Anthem".  I have included two versions below - the first one is sung in a quicker tempo, which I prefer.  The second is not so much for the song, but for the director, our friend Arlin Buller - note how Arlin really gets in to leading the group at the Rocky Mountain Relief Sale in Rock Ford, Colorado.




10 comments:

Bizzy Brain said...

Beautiful music, indeed! Only suggestion I would make is, lose the jeans. In my mind they detract from mature male dignity when worn at a public social gathering. Jeans are for for young men or cleaning out the garage. We have older men who come to my church on Sunday wearing jeans. We are a come as you are church, which they think makes it okay, but I wouldn't be caught dead in them. Also, I won't be caught dead wearing a white belt. Too old for jeans and too young for the white belt set. Lol!

DES said...

Bizzy - chuckle! You gotta remember we are out in the wild west where blue jeans are worn everywhere. Also, the MCC Sale is in a big barn - although I will admit that Arlin's jeans are not particularly complimentary :-)

Too Bizzy a Brain said...

Thanks! That makes sense. Jeans are western wear. Cowboy hat in pic should have been a tipoff.

DES said...

It's interesting that we baby boomers grew up in jeans, often because many of our families were too poor to have any 'fancy pants'. More-worn jeans for school days, and less-worn jeans for Sunday. We wore them through high school, college, graduate school and jobs, often only wearing non-jeans for traditionally dress-up events. Even then, some boomers thought jeans, sport coat and tie was dressy enough. We have a 101 year old neighbor, retired physician, and he still wears jeans! Good enough for Doc Mauer, good enough for me :-)

Bizzy Brain said...

In my high school we had a dress code and blue jeans were forbidden. That was 1956-1960. In the 60's jeans were popular in college, though I wore white or black ones, not the blue. Also, the office jobs I worked, up until about 2005 or so forbade jeans. Interesting you should mention sport coat and jeans. Carmel is a fancy pants suburb north of Indianapolis and the casual wear for the Carmel well-to-do is jeans and sport coat (no tie). Easy to pick out in a crowd ("How did you know I was from Carmel?") For whatever reason, seeing an old man in jeans at church just rubs me the wrong way. As said before, fine for cleaning out the garage, but jarring to see old men wearing them in the house of God. Let Ora "Junior" Miller be our inspiration. He was always sharply dressed and I never saw him in blue jeans. Lol!

Bizzy Brain said...

Hmmm... Just got back from a Stewardship Committee meeting at the church. Five men were in attendance, including the pastor, and I was the only one not wearing blue jeans. I was not the oldest one there either. The two ladies in attendance were not wearing jeans, and hasten to add, I DO like to see women in jeans.

DES said...

Bizzy - I tend to agree that it is a bit disconcerting to see men older than me in blue jeans :-) I also agree that there are certainly occasions where I would not wear jeans, and am sometimes surprised that others do not concur! Funny about Carmel...in Boulder, one hardly ever spots a sports coat - I cannot remember the last time I wore one here. Not complaining!!!!

Bizzy Brain said...

Re: sport coats, Boulder is probably less conformist and less snooty than Carmel. I guess what lies behind my aversion to jeans is that I remember when people dressed nicely for their office jobs and for church. Now, most people go around looking like total slobs the vast majority of the time. I remember when women wore heels and skirts to work. In that same setting, now they wear jeans, sweat shirts and flip-flops. So you can't remember the last time you wore a sport coat? Reminds me, "What am I going to do with all my clip-on ties?"

DES said...

Bizzy - indeed the younger generations have dressed down, especially compared to our parents generation. You likely remember Ed and Mary always being dressed up, and Uncle John still does not wear jeans!!!

Bizzy Brain said...

Yes, I remember when people used to dress up to take an airplane flight. That meant nylons and high heels and dresses and suits and ties. Here is a link to an article about the declining sales in jeans. http://www.businessinsider.com/jeans-are-being-replaced-by-yoga-pants-2015-10.
What I see a lot of young women wearing are what my daughter calls leggings. They are like yoga or dancers tights in that they are very form fitting, and often provocative.