October Hymn of the Month
Hymn of the Month
Many and Great, O God, Are Thy Works
TEXT Joseph R. Renville 1842 trans. Philip Frazier, 1929
MUSIC Dakota Melody; harmonized Emily R. Brink, 1995
Many and great, O God are thy works,
Maker of earth and sky.
Thy hands have set the heavens with stars;
Thy fingers spread the mountains and plains.
Lo, at thy word the waters were formed.
Deep seas obey thy voice.
Grant unto us communion with thee,
Thou star abiding One.
Come unto us and dwell with us.
With thee are found the gifts of life.
Bless us with Life that has no end,
Eternal life with thee.
I absolutely love and admire this hymn. Is it the beautiful arching melody reaching for communion with God? Is it the plaintive repetitive notes that open the hymn in an almost chant like prayerful way? I love the simple text that contains multitudes. Thy hands have set the earth with stars. What an image to contemplate! Fingers that spread mountains and plains apart. The sheer awesomeness overwhelms the singer. I think, given the immensity of the text, the straightforward melody has to happen to bring balance to it all. The final benediction: Bless us with Life that has no end, ETERNAL life with thee. Isn’t that the hope for us all?
Here is some background from hymnary.org about the Sioux who gave us this awesome text.
A full blooded Sioux, Frazier was born in a tepee, coming from a line of missionaries.
His grandfather was Artemas Ehnamani, a Santee Dakota who was converted to Christianity by missionaries while in prison after the U.S.-Dakota conflict of 1862. Ehnamani became pastor of the largest Dakota church, Pilgrim Presbyterian.
Philip attended the Santee Indian School, Yankton College Academy, the Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, and Dartmouth College (leaving the latter to join the army).
He received degrees from Oberlin College (1922), Chicago Theological Seminary (BDiv 1925), and Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (DD 1964). Ordained in 1926, he ministered among the Sioux, and at the end of his life, was supervisor of the Sioux Indian Mission of Standing Rock Reservation, North Dakota. What an incredible life of service to God among the Sioux tribe!
Even more compelling is the brief history of the origins of the actual tune itself. Joseph R. Renville’s mother was Dakota and his father, French. An explorer, fur trader, and Congregational minister, Renville helped found the Lac qui Parle Mission in Minnesota in 1835. This song, which is also known as the “Dakota Hymn,” was sung by thirty-eight Dakota prisoners of war as they were led to execution at Mankato, Mennesota, on December 26, 1862. This song was first published in the Dakota Indian Hymnal (1916)
The text, while immense also has scriptural ties as well. Jeremiah 10:12-13: "He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion. When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures." (KJV)
The tune name LAC QUI PARLE (lake that speaks) comes from a long, narrow lake running northwest to southeast near the present border of Minnesota and South Dakota. From a settlement at the southeast foot of the lake, Renville made annual treks to Fort Snelling at Mendota at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, near what is now Minneapolis and St. Paul.
In 1835 Maj. Taliaherro, an agent at the fort, persuaded Renville to permit a missionary presence at Lac qui Parle, perhaps as a way to deal with the ongoing conflicts between the Ojibway and Dakota in the region.
These missionaries, according to scholar Monte Mason, organist and musical director at the Episcopal St. Martin's by the Lake, Minnetonka Beach, Minn., "took part in an experiment in cross-culturalism the likes of which the prairies had not seen."
According to Mr. Mason, the results of the encounter between the missionaries included a Dakota/English dictionary, Dakota translations of the Bible, a Dakota grammar, a Dakota translation of John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, a Dakota newspaper and school curriculum, and most important for our purposes, a Dakota hymnal, Dakota Odowan (Dakota Song), produced by the missionaries -- minister Stephen Riggs, physician John Williamson and composer James Murray.
Dakota Odowan is still used today. It contains primarily 19th-century English hymnody in translation, hymns that the Presbyterian missionaries would have known.
A words-only edition appeared in 1841, and a music edition appeared sometime after 1854. A more recent printing in 1969 confirms the hymnal's continued use and includes photographs of the Dakota community.
Mr. Mason notes that "six of the 108 hymns are of Dakota derivation and the missionary journals proclaim they were written by Joseph Renville himself." Additional research indicates that these six hymns may have been arranged from pre-existing Dakota sources by Renville.
Enjoy this haunting and stirring reflection on the tune. You will hear in the distance the haunting drum beat of the pedals throughout as the strings provide a stark accompaniment while the flute stop sings over it all!
