The Story behind the tunes…

1. How Firm a Foundation †§

One of my favorite hymns. The exact origin is unknown but was contained in John Rippon's A Selection of Hymns (1787) where it is attributed simply to “K—”, which could be either Robert Keene or George Keith. The hymn is based on Isaiah 43, part of which reads: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” Brandon Vance plays the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle on this track. A bit of trivia: If you listen closely to the very end of the track (I included a sample below), you will notice the sound of the church bells in the background. We were just ending the last verse of the hymn right when the NOON bells of Assumption Church started chiming. It seemed rather serendipitous, so I decided to leave it in the final track edit!

2. I'll Fly Away / Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah

I’ll Fly Away, composed in 1932 by Albert E. Brumley. Many might be familiar with this song from the movie “Oh Brother, Where art Thou”. The guitarist Martin Simpson has an even better arrangement of this tune, from whom I was inspired to learn this. The second hymn “Guide Me O Thou Great Jehovah” seemed to flow naturally from the first. Composed in in in 1905 by the Welsh composer John Hughes, who served as a deacon and precentor at Salem Baptist Church in Pontypridd.

3. I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say / Kid on the Mountain †

The hymn “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” was written in 1846 by Horatius Bonar, a minister in the Free Church of Scotland. It was one of more than 600 hymns he wrote, many of which appeared in his Hymns Original and Selected, 1846. It is strikingly similar to the well-known Irish song “The Star of the County Down” — in fact, my arrangement of this tune with fiddle player Brandon Vance ended up as a blending of the two.

Further info: (Credit to Jim Gossett for pointing this out!). “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” is based on an old English Folk Tune “Kingsfold”. Here is the note on this from the Psalter Hymnal Handbook:

The tune [Kingsfold] was published in ENGLISH COUNTRY SONGS (1893), an anthology compiled by Lucy E. Broadwood and J. A. Fuller Maitland. After having heard the tune in Kingsfold, Sussex, England (thus its name), Ralph Vaughan Williams (PHH 316) introduced it as a hymn tune in THE ENGLISH HYMNAL (1906) as a setting for Horatius Bonar’s “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (488).

“The Kid on the Mountain” is an Irish Slip Jig in G. Recordings of this tune go back to the 1930s! The tune appears in the classic 1903 O’Neill’s Music of Ireland" . A “Kid” is another name for a baby goat - and possibly refers to a baby goat on a mountain. The title reminded me of the ancient Jewish practice of placing the sins of the people on a goat (The “scapegoat”), or the story of Abraham, in which he takes his son up to Mount Moriah, and God provides a ram as a substitute for sacrificing instead of his son (the ram, goat, or lamb being a foreshadowing of Jesus). An often puzzling story for some, but  Better explained here.

4. Of the Father's Love Begotten †§

One of my favorite hymns that is often sung in Catholic Liturgies. Our arrangement starts with the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle (played by Brandon Vance), which has a wonderfully haunting sound that is well suited to this hymn. The hymn is based on a poem by the 4th-century Roman Christian poet Aurelius Prudentius. Traditionally paired with the chant "Divinum mysterium", that dates from about the 10th century. The first verse is as follows:

Of the Father's love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the Source, the Ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And the future years shall see
Evermore and evermore.

5. St. Stephen's Green*

This is an original tune I named after a park in downtown Dublin by the same name that we would visit often when we were living in Ireland. The name St. Stephen also came to mind after hearing someone noodling a similar riff on piano durign a worshipful time at a men’s retreat with St. Stephen The Martyr Church in Renton, WA.

6. Psalm One* / Rocky Mountain Hymn*

Two more original hymns I wrote. The first one “Psalm One” reminds me a bit of a Scottish tune “The Sweetness of Mary”, and inspired by one of my favorite psalms from the Old Testament, in particular, the 3rd verse: “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.”. I wrote the tune “Rocky Mountain Hymn” while waiting for a plane at Denver International Airport - from where you have a vista of the Rocky Mountains when flying into and out of the airport.

7. Drawings in the Sand* / Road to Capernaum*

“Drawings in the Sand” is actually the completed version of a tune I wrote and recorded back in 2010 for my previous CD “The Communion of the Saints”. On this recording, I had only written a few bars of the tune — literally on the spot in the studio of Rónán Johnston in Dublin, Ireland! My most recent recording of “Drawings in The Sand” is the new, revised version where I essential finished what I began earlier! “Road to Capernaum” is a jig inspired by the town of Capernaum on the north shore of the Sea of Galilee, which was the home base of the ministry of Jesus, and the home town of Simon (whom Jesus later named “Peter”).

8. Going Home (Antonín Dvořák) †§

“Going Home” is part of a movement from Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9, "From the New World," a composition he wrote soon after arriving in America in 1893, with inspirations from Native American song. One of Dvořák’s students, William Arms Fisher, put words to the melody — which has sometimes been sung as a hymn and has been sung at state funerals for various presidents. It describes the longing of our destiny in Heaven. Here is a beautiful version sung by the sonorous voice of Paul Robeson in Carnegie Hall in New York, 1958

9. Simple Gifts / The Peacemaker* / Beidh Aonach Amárach / Ger the Rigger †

This track was one of the most difficult pieces to arrange. The irony in the title track “Simple Gifts”, which comes from a traditional Shaker hymn, was my arrangement was not exactly simple! “The Peacemaker” is more of an interlude than a fully-developed tune. It is inspired by the text in the Gospels (Matthew 5:9), where Jesus says: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” The next one, “Beidh Aonach Amárach”, is a popular Irish school song I first heard sung by Inis Oírr singer MacDara Ó Conaola — who we got to know when our family lived in Ireland for a few years. The title in Irish means “There will be a fair tomorrow”. The last tune is “Ger The Rigger”, which is a traditional Irish barn dance tune. A “rigger” is someone who works on the docks, preparing ships for sailing.

*Original Compositions Dan Carollo

† Brandon Vance: fiddle, Norwegian hardanger fiddle

§ William Braun: cello

(all acoustic guitars by Dan Carollo)