This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
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Transfiguration
Transfiguration
We do not know you, Christ,
as you stand in glory blazing
on mountain peak so bright
terrifying and amazing.
Shall we build shelters to preserve
this awesome sight we don't deserve?
We do not really grasp
what you say of your departure
to heroes of the past
looking forward to your rapture.
Shall we build tents to keep you here
with Moses and Elijah near?
We do not see you clear,
for the mist obscures our vision;
the heav'nly voice we hear
would incur the world's derision.
But you are Son of God the Lord:
we need to listen to your word.
We do not know your pow'r
helping those whom evil seizes:
we're helpless in that hour,
and our good intention freezes.
Alone we cannot cure despair:
we need to learn your gift of prayer.
Lord Jesus, we concede
that our view of you is partial.
Yet show us more, we plead:
make us wrestle with the bible.
So help us follow as you preach,
be pupils even as we teach.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Mark 9:2-8.
(Verse 4, based on Mark 9:14-27, may be omitted.)
Story behind the song
At the annual conference of the Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland I came across Peter Cutts' tune "Shillingford" to Brian Wren's hymn "Christ upon the mountain peak" (or "Jesus on the mountain peak" in some versions), and I was very struck by it. The words can be found here but with a different tune; the tune is no 260 in the United Methodist Hymnal. As the speaker said, the tune is worthy of Paul Hindemith, one of my favourite composers. I was very impressed with the whole effect, and wondered if it was possible to write something similar. So here it is!
The words are based on the account in Mark's gospel, which seems to say how much the disciples failed to grasp what was going on at the time. I felt it was a well-needed corrective to the Christianity which seems to imagine it has everything cut-and-dried in our generation, and the central lesson that we need to listen to Jesus (verse 7) needs to be drummed in. I felt I should incorporate the following healing miracle, where the disciples were left helpless before Jesus came; but others may wish to omit this verse as it isn't part of the Transfiguration encounter as such.
For the tune, I guess the trick in this type of composition is to have a motif which repeats and unifies the notes. The augmented rising figure is the motif, appearing as notes 3 and 4 of lines 1 and 3 (a tone higher in line 3), and then repeated at the ends of lines 5 and 6 in subdued form. The tune is trying to express the fact that the vision was a stretching experience for the disciples.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.