I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say (Baptism of the Lord)

contemporaryworship92

The Baptism of the Lord seems to me to be a bit of an odd feast without a lot of songs that are familiar to people. I gave writing new verses for I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say a try. Does this make theological and musical sense? The vision here is to go from hearing the voice of John the Baptist, to the Father, to hearing Jesus call you to Baptism.

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1.(NEW) I heard the prophet's voice cry out
"Prepare the way of the Lord
Make straight for Him thy crooked paths
For the Kingdom is at hand"
I came to the Jordan and I saw
John the Baptist prophecy:
"Behold the Lamb of God who takes
Away the sins of the world"

2. (NEW) I heard the Father's voice resound
"You are my beloved Son"
I saw the Holy Ghost descend
Upon Him like a dove
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
One majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
Jesus Christ's Divinity

3. (NEW?) I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
With living waters I baptize;
With Holy Spirit and fire”
I came to Jesus and I found
My longing heart's desire
I found in him a resting place
And he has made me glad.

3. (ORIGINAL) I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Come unto Me and rest;
Lay down, O weary one, lay down
Thy head upon My breast.”
I came to Jesus as I was,
Weary, and worn, and sad;
I found in him a resting-place,
And he has made me glad.

4. (ORIGINAL) I heard the voice of Jesus say,
“Behold, I freely give
The living water; thirsty one,
Stoop down, and drink, and live.”
I came to Jesus, and I drank
Of that life-giving stream;
My thirst was quench'd, my soul revived,
And now I live in him.

MatthewRoth

It's in part because other than the two changes made to the Mass of January 13, the Baptism of the Lord in the West is already a part of the office of the Epiphany, above all the magnificent antiphon of the Magnificat from II Vespers, but it is largely subordinated to the visit of the Magi; the wedding at Cana is at least on its own Sunday, outside of the (former) octave, where it is the day's Gospel.

I mean, that's actually not that much different compared to the Byzantine rite…it's just that the Byzantines do the blessing of the waters and have a somewhat more prominent place for the Baptism of the Lord in their celebration of Theophany as a result.

chonak

For the added verses, they'll work best musically if they can follow the rhyme scheme and meter of the original version.

"I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" is a beautiful and beloved hymn, though some people have misgivings about it, since it presents 'words of Jesus' that aren't in Scripture, but are clearly the poet's invention.

If you end up with a hymn about the Baptism that stays close to the account given in the Gospels, it might become a valued contribution on its own.

contemporaryworship92

So I workedshopped this with a friend, and we made it all rhyme, at the expense of some paraphrasing:

1. I heard the prophet's voice cry out
"Prepare for Christ the way;
Make straight for Him thy crooked paths
For the Kingdom comes today"
I came to the Jordan and I saw
John the Baptist prophesy:
"Behold the Lamb of God who comes
To suffer and to die."

2. I heard the Father's voice resound
"You are My Son whom I love"
I saw the Holy Ghost descend
Upon Him like a dove.
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
One majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
Jesus Christ's Divinity.

Another option for verse 2 would be something like:

2. I heard the Father's voice resound
"You are My beloved Son"
I saw the Holy Ghost descend
Upon the anointed one.
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
One majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
Jesus Christ's Divinity.

GerardH

Rhyming is an improvement (as is currently being discussed elsewhere about Benediction hymns), but you've fallen into a pitfall of not following the original meter. I heard the voice uses the meter 8686D, i.e. the lines alternate eight and six syllables. There are a few spots where you have too many syllables, probably because you're singing along to KINGSFOLD, which occasionally puts two notes on one syllable.

For:
For the Kingdom comes today."
I came to the Jordan and I saw
John the Baptist prophesy:

Try:
The Kingdom comes today."
I came to Jordan and I saw
The Baptist prophesy:

For:
"You are my Son whom I love."

I have no good suggestion.

For:
One majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
Jesus Christ's Divinity.

Try:
Majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
The Christ's Divinity.

Another pitfall is inconsistent and incorrect use of thee/thou/thy. Those are first-person singular pronouns; ye/you/your are the corresponding plural pronouns. Not sure if 'prepare thy crooked paths' is meant to be singular or plural, but I suspect plural; 'You are my Son' should be 'Thou art my Son' if we're committing to the early-modern usage.

Liam

The meter of the text fails: it's not iambic, trochaic, or something else that I can fathom, and is thus too irregular for a regular tune (texts with irregular meter usually have custom tunes for this reason).

That said, the Baptism of the Lord is the first theophany of the Most Holy Trinity, and expressly celebrated as such in the traditions of the Eastern Churches.

Don9of11

Just as a suggestion, there is a composition for I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say by Louis Berge if you wish to give it a try. Oldhymns from this forum supplied the music to me and I transcribed it for him. This arrangement was published in 1912 in song sheet form and did not appear in any of his hymn books.

contemporaryworship92

Rhyming is an improvement (as is currently being discussed elsewhere about Benediction hymns), but you've fallen into a pitfall of not following the original meter. I heard the voice uses the meter 8686D, i.e. the lines alternate eight and six syllables. There are a few spots where you have too many syllables, probably because you're singing along to KINGSFOLD, which occasionally puts two notes on one syllable.

For:
For the Kingdom comes today."
I came to the Jordan and I saw
John the Baptist prophesy:

Try:
The Kingdom comes today."
I came to Jordan and I saw
The Baptist prophesy:

For:
"You are my Son whom I love."

I have no good suggestion.

For:
One majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
Jesus Christ's Divinity.

Try:
Majestic Trinity
I saw before my eyes revealed
The Christ's Divinity.

Another pitfall is inconsistent and incorrect use of thee/thou/thy. Those are first-person singular pronouns; ye/you/your are the corresponding plural pronouns. Not sure if 'prepare thy crooked paths' is meant to be singular or plural, but I suspect plural; 'You are my Son' should be 'Thou art my Son' if we're committing to the early-modern usage.

Hi Gerald, thank you very much for this, I was looking for this kind of feedback! I've done my best to integrate the advice from you and the others on this forum into the work. Here's the latest version:

------------------------------------

1. I heard the prophet's voice cry out
"Prepare for Christ the way;
Make straight for Him thy crooked paths
For the Kingdom comes today"
I came to (the) Jordan and I saw
John the Baptist prophesy:
"Behold the Lamb of God who comes
To suffer and to die"

2. I heard the Father's voice resound
"You are My Beloved Son"
I saw the Spirit come to rest
On God's Anointed One
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
One Blessed Trinity
I saw in Jesus Christ revealed
The Son's Divinity

------------------------------------

I'm a little torn between "Jordan" which preserves the meter and "the Jordan" which I think makes more sense. To me "Jordan" refers to the modern Kingdom of Jordan, which is less than ideal. But it definitely sounds better. What do you all think?

contemporaryworship92

Alternatively, this small variant:

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1. I heard the prophet's voice cry out
"Prepare for Christ the way;
Make straight for Him thy crooked paths
For the Kingdom comes today"
I came to (the) Jordan and I saw
John the Baptist prophesy:
"Behold the Lamb of God who comes
To suffer and to die"

2. I heard the Father's voice resound
"You are My Beloved Son"
I saw the Holy Ghost descend
On God's Anointed One
The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
One Blessed Trinity
I saw in Jesus Christ revealed
The Son's Divinity

------------------------------------

Liam

I will respectfully suggest: the effort is not ripe enough to have a congregation sing.

It takes more effort to marry a good metrical text and metrical tune that are worthy musically, liturgically (theologically), and ritually (pastorally). A long time. It's best to withhold until fully ripe, when everything is Just Right in all three dimensions. Closer is not ripe enough.

ServiamScores

The other option, of course, is to keep the original 8888 conception and choose another tune.

GerardH

Sorry to nitpick - you may judge for yourself how far to take the perfectionism - but there are still several issues.

Stanza 1 lines 4 and 6, and stanza 2 line 2 still have seven syllables, not six. Try singing them to THIRD MODE MELODY (Tallis, which is frequently used with the original text) or another DCM tune, and the issues will become evident.

Also, and this is a real nitpick, the lines:

I saw in Jesus Christ revealed
The Son's Divinity

sound to me like they imply Nestorianism: the belief that Jesus Christ was two persons, the divine Son of God and the human Jesus of Nazareth.

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