Christmas Praise!
Christmas Praise! is an excellent resource – seasonal crackers in good piano arrangements, with many more recent or even entirely new hymns/songs on Christmas themes. It sets out to offer the key classic hymns alongside other traditional carols, as well as the best of what’s recent and modern, including some specifically written for this publication, and in this fully succeeds. Four aspects are specifically excellent: the variety, arrangements, words and new discoveries.
Variety: here are carols old and new, slow and fast, most are naturally piano-based (though some would work led from the guitar), the majority suitable for whole congregations, with others easily fitted to choir, ensemble or soloist – the mix within this volume is a real strength.
Arrangements: these are accessible but high-quality, whether a simple 2-bar link for Angels from the Realms of Glory or In the Bleak Midwinter to the traditional descants and last verses for Hark the Herald, Once in Royal and O Come all ye Faithful with achievable piano parts, the music is generally excellent and to an appropriate technical level. This goes too for the settings of the new carols – the vast majority can be played by regular church musicians without too much of a sweat.
Words are likewise strong: those to new songs can be sung with confidence that good doctrine is carefully and appropriately expressed, and some old familiar moments are improved (the New Creation will be much better than waiting around, so “there his children gather round, bright like starts with glory crowned” is a better climax to Once in Royal). The excellent 4th verse of Hark the Herald is a personal favourite of mine, yet unknown to many and here included. Wonderfully, the poetry of O Holy Night is up-dated to ensure that the rich theology of the original French is caught – themes of redemption, grace, sin, peace and fellowship rightly articulated – with that rolling tune which has been voted Classic FM’s ‘Nation’s Favourite Carol’ for a few years in a row.
Much of this book was new music to me, and that’s a great strength. Some of the newer songs were familiar, such as O Come all ye Unfaithful or a setting to Suo Gan or What Kind of Throne? and Guess what Happened Long Ago. Yet there were also excellent new songs/hymns from a wide variety of writers: Emu Music, the Gettys (including Matt Boswell and Matt Papa), Phil Moore, Susie Hare, Resound Worship, Sovereign Grace and others, not least a number of Praise! stalwarts. Every congregation will find here a number of top-quality new songs to add to their repertoire, refreshing their praise and stimulating their devotion.
Excitingly, the introduction expresses hope for other hymnbooks with focussed themes, and these will no doubt be an excellent resource for the church too. Whether they require duplication of hymns/songs from the original Praise book (especially since online access is available) is for the editors to consider. For me, losing direct duplication in this volume could have made room both for some more informal children’s songs – Colin Buchanan and Awesome Cutlery - and perhaps more of the older (80s and 90s) songs such as Like a Candle Flame and Come and Join the Celebration.
As the famous car sticker says, a dog is for life not just for Christmas, and so it is with much of this music because God incarnate is a truth for every day of our Christian walk. This book will therefore serve the church not only in December, but throughout the year, with many new songs for us to teach and enjoy all year round. We owe a debt of gratitude to the editors and arrangers, and I wholeheartedly commend this excellent resource.
Andrew Towner, Vicar, Houghton and Kingmoor, Carlisle