Pachelbel’s Canon, also known as Canon in D major, is the most famous piece of music by German Baroque composer Johann Pachelbel. It was originally scored for three violins and basso continuo and paired with a gigue in the same key. Like most other works by Pachelbel and other pre-1700 composers, the Canon remained forgotten for centuries and was rediscovered only in the 20th century.

Several decades after it was first published in 1919, the piece became extremely popular, and today it is frequently played at weddings and included on classical music compilations, along with other famous Baroque pieces such as Air on the G String by Johann Sebastian Bach. (Wikipedia)

This is my beautiful granddaughter Aurora. Enjoy the show, it is best in full screen mode.
If you cannot see the video click here.
Download the original OpenOffice Presentation (78.9 Mb).
Source of All Things Bright And Beautiful is the Young Women Camp Songs web page.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is a Christian hymn composed by the 18th century Methodist pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson. He was born 27 September 1735 in Swaffham, Norfolk, England. Robinson’s wi­dowed mo­ther sent him to Lon­don at 14, to learn the trade of bar­ber and hair dress­er. How­ev­er, after hearing a Methodist sermon he turned from his life of recklessness and hooliganism and be­came a Methodist min­is­ter. He lat­er moved to the Bapt­ist church and pas­tored in Cam­bridge, Eng­land. In lat­er life he en­count­ered a wo­man who was stu­dy­ing a hymn­al. She asked how he liked the hymn she was hum­ming. In tears, he replied:

Madam, I am the poor unhap­py man who wrote that hymn ma­ny years ago, and I would give a thou­sand worlds, if I had them, to en­joy the feel­ings I had then.

Robert Robinson died 8 June 1790 at Show­ell Green, War­wick­shire and is buried in Key Hill Cem­e­te­ry, Birm­ing­ham, Eng­land.

There is a curious phrase at the beginning of verse 2: Here I raise my Ebenezer. How many times have I sung that without knowing what it means? Apparently it refers to 1 Samuel 7:12:

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

Samuel took a lamb and made an offering to the Lord asking that He would help the Israelites defeat the Philistines. When the Philistines were beaten, Samuel erected a stone and called it Ebenezer so as to remind Israel of what the Lord had done. The Ebenezer stone is a source of inspiration and reminder to many, as witnessed by The Heart Of The Matter, A Life Worthy, and Another Think. There is even a blog called Ebenezer Stone.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings the hymn as follows, in an arrangement by Mack Wilberg. It is essentially the modern hymnal version, except that verse 2 is split into two parts and the last half of verse 3 is appended to each part to form two verses. See this Wikipedia article for the different versions, including the original. Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Also consider Mark Mabry’s spiritual journey to recreate and photograph the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is rendered in his Reflections of Christ video.

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Robert Robinson

2. Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Musopen’s Musical Mission

Musopen tells us that it is their mission is to set music free:

Musopen is an online music library of copyright free (public domain) music. We want to give the world access to music without the legal hassles so common today. There is a great deal of music that has expired copyrights, but almost no recordings of this music is in the public domain. We aim to record or obtain recordings that have no copyrights so that our visitors may listen, re-use, or in any way enjoy music. Put simply, our mission is to set music free.

Musopen was founded by Aaron Dunn while attending Skidmore College. The project began as an experiment and has since become one of the most popular public domain music sources on the web. Musopen’s goal is to be the largest online repository of music in the public domain. A good start is the release of the complete recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas, all 32 of them, for free and without any copyrights. There are also many other classical works represented.

A Musical Sampling

Here are a few of my favorites I have downloaded from Musopen:

Johann Sebastian Bach — Minuet — Notebook for Anna Magdalena
Johann Sebastian Bach — Partita No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006
Ludwig van Beethoven — Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor Moonlight, Op. 27 No. 2
Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67
Ludwig van Beethoven — Symphony No. 6 in F Major ‘Pastoral’, Op. 68
Edvard Grieg — Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16
Felix Mendelssohn — Symphony No. 4 in A Major ‘Italian’, Op. 90

Sheet Music

Of interest too is the access to public domain sheet music. It is simple to obtain with no strange formats or random wiki text. You can preview before you download or print, and there are live previews of sheet music. There is also available for order public domain sheet music for the cost of printing and shipping.

Bid For Music (no longer available)

Don’t see the music you want, then help bid for it. Here’s how it works. Decide how much you would be willing to pay for a piece of music to be in the public domain (copyright free). Musopen will combine your donation with others who want the same piece then find a professional to record and donate the work. It is then added to the website. A lot of small donations can be combined to contribute a great deal of new music. Musicians have the option to be considered to be paid to record for Musopen.

I love to listen to music. I joy in my children’s music, especially my daughter’s. She plays the piano beautifully and confidently, even before large audiences. Sarah is accomplished with the French horn, a difficult instrument to play. In marching band she played the mellophone which looks like an over-sized trumpet. It is only half the length of a normal horn, making it lighter to carry. While playing in the same range as the French horn, it is played lower in the harmonic series, where the harmonics are not so close together and it is easier to play the right harmonic.

For Christmas 2004, Sarah produced a CD of her own to give to friends and family. On the front of the CD case she placed a picture of Jesus Christ. This is a gift that I treasure. Derek received a disk while he was serving his mission in Guatemala. Would that not lift your spirits?

On the inside of the CD case are these words of testimony:

I love music. I love how closely the spirit is tied to it. I believe in Christ. I know that He died for us and He is risen. I’m grateful for the atonement and I know that His sacrifice makes all things possible. He is the way to return back to our Heavenly Father and He has shown us the way. I’m grateful for His love, His example, and the knowledge that the gospel principles are eternal. What joy this brings to my heart!

The following table has MP3 and Ogg Vorbis soundtracks made from Sarah’s CD. Lastly I have included links to the hymns on lds.org.

Sarah produced all her music for the CD on a Yamaha Clavinova CVP-207.

In my childhood in England I belonged to no church and religion was not part of my life — except in school. Religion was a required subject and it was in school that I learned many Bible stories. I didn’t believe in God and to me these religion classes were merely educational. However, I would be a poor, rickety specimen of manhood if I had not learned about the courage of David and Daniel, the history of the Jews, and the great moral lessons that flow from Christianity. In my Mormon faith some of my favorite hymns are those I would sing long ago at school assembly each day. Hymns such as All Glory, Laud, and Honor, Onward, Christian Soldiers, and Angels We Have Heard on High.

In some American schools the Pledge of Allegiance is recited complete with the 1954 addition of “under God.” In some quarters this is seen as very distasteful. But to me the addition seems to be more of a correction, an alignment with history. Consider the lyrics of “The Star-Spangled Banner” written in 1814 by Francis Scott Key. I direct you to a part of the fourth verse:

Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: ‘In God is our trust.’

So it seems the Pledge was lacking until it was configured to reflect our dependence upon our God. Further, with the numerous times daily one is subjected to the taking of the Lord’s name in vain just one positive reference to God should be welcomed by all. I would hasten a guess that all this fuss about trying to remove, or not to hear two words would boggle the minds of my school friends, now grown, back in England.