"Adam-ondi-Ahman"

[Portland Ute]

The Garden must have been beautiful. Today as I was driving through the Oregon Countryside, my heart was full from the sheer beauty of a bounteous field ready for harvest. I'm sure we all live in nice places, but I have to say, Oregon summers have to be right up there with anywhere in the world.

Oregon does have beautiful summers.

But, to enjoy them, you have to put up with the flaming liberals and the other 9 months of dismal weather.

I love to visit Oregon.

[Uncle Ted]

Arlington is in a whole other county to both of us [Tarrant vs Dallas or Collin counties]. You can reach Cowboys Stadium maybe 15 minutes sooner than I can. I admit your'e much closer to downtown Dallas but I've had few reasons to go there in all my years in the Metroplex. I was ready to jump to your defense of Moliere's comment about "Dallas' only redeeming quality is that amazing interstate interchange that I drove through last night". Until I realized he might be right. Not that Houston is any better....

A quick jump on to I-30 makes Cowboys Stadium a short drive.

There is lot nice redeeming quality about Dallas. You need to get out more. I do have to agree that it is not like living in the middle of a corn field in Nebraska.

The DFW airport is very nice, for example. In fact, the airport was one of the main reasons I moved here in the first place. Yeah, I am sure that you will point out that the airport is not in the some countrycounty either. Of course, Love field is expanding and picking up more flights even with all the protests from my neighbors to the south.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Dallas is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there.

[Paperback Writer]

A quick jump on to I-30 makes Cowboys Stadium a short drive.

There is lot nice redeeming quality about Dallas. You need to get out more. I do have to agree that it is not like living in the middle of a corn field in Nebraska.

The DFW airport is very nice, for example. In fact, the airport was one of the main reasons I moved here in the first place. Yeah, I am sure that you will point out that the airport is not in the some countrycounty either. Of course, Love field is expanding and picking up more flights even with all the protests from my neighbors to the south.

Now that the 121 Tollway has been built out to I-30; getting to Cowboys or Rangers Stadium from BFE, Texas is not that difficult. I do agree that Dallas is nothing like living in a Nebraska corn field or an Idaho potato field for that matter.

Dallas does have it's merits and I agree that I don't get out nearly enough. However, I do my fair share of travel on weekends with my daughter playing select softball in a different Metroplex location almost every weekend. The Dude has it right with his remark that "Dallas is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there". However, I still hold it against my family located in Utah, which number more than a few, for never visiting me in my many years in Texas.

[Uncle Ted]

Dallas is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there.

I would have to agree. We actually spend a good part of our weekends outside of Dallas. Like last weekend we spent a good part of it watching the indy cars race north of cow town.

[Uncle Ted]

Now that the 121 Tollway has been built out to I-30; getting to Cowboys or Rangers Stadium from BFE, Texas is not that difficult. I do agree that Dallas is nothing like living in a Nebraska corn field or an Idaho potato field for that matter.

Yeah, the 121 toll is nice. Of course, there is still that construction mess just north of the airport. I keep wonder when that is going to be done.

Dallas does have it's merits and I agree that I don't get out nearly enough. However, I do my fair share of travel on weekends with my daughter playing select softball in a different Metroplex location almost every weekend. The Dude has it right with his remark that "Dallas is a great place to live, but you wouldn't want to visit there". However, I still hold it against my family located in Utah, which number more than a few, for never visiting me in my many years in Texas.

Yeah, my family doesn't visit me much either except sometimes in the winter. Never in the summer. I wonder why.

[Katy Lied]

I'm kind of bummed because I just found out that seemingly old-tyme "If You could Hie to Kolob" was sung to another tune until 1985, when the hymnal coordinating committee selected the Kingsfold tune to sing this hymn to. Because Kingsfold was based on the Irish fiddle Tune The Star of the County Down, it's always sounded folkishly olde so I always thought that this was one of our LDS early history tunes.

[Commando]

I'm kind of bummed because I just found out that seemingly old-tyme "If You could Hie to Kolob" was sung to another tune until 1985, when the hymnal coordinating committee selected the Kingsfold tune to sing this hymn to. Because Kingsfold was based on the Irish fiddle Tune The Star of the County Down, it's always sounded folkishly olde so I always thought that this was one of our LDS early history tunes.

I'm sure there's some church-related video out there showing the pioneers singing the contemporary version. Any idea how the old version went?

[frank ryan]

I'm kind of bummed because I just found out that seemingly old-tyme "If You could Hie to Kolob" was sung to another tune until 1985, when the hymnal coordinating committee selected the Kingsfold tune to sing this hymn to. Because Kingsfold was based on the Irish fiddle Tune The Star of the County Down, it's always sounded folkishly olde so I always thought that this was one of our LDS early history tunes.

That would be awesome. Star of the County Down is pretty kicking.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

I'm kind of bummed because I just found out that seemingly old-tyme "If You could Hie to Kolob" was sung to another tune until 1985, when the hymnal coordinating committee selected the Kingsfold tune to sing this hymn to. Because Kingsfold was based on the Irish fiddle Tune The Star of the County Down, it's always sounded folkishly olde so I always thought that this was one of our LDS early history tunes.

I wonder if there were a lot of women and/or gays and lesbians on that committee and God's anger over the changing of the tune has Him holding back revelation that would allow for their PHood acceptance?

[Katy Lied]

Actually, we as a people did a lot of substitution in tunes, there are still songs in the hymnal that are sung to multiple tunes. From my lesson today:

In early church history, church meetings were held in private houses, or outdoors. There were no music sheets and no piano to play, so members would sing new words to existing songs, folk songs that they knew and brought with them from the old world. The chorister would call out the name of the tune, and everyone would sing new verses composed by William Phelps or other LDS writers, to the tune of these wellknown songs.

The first hymnal put together by Emma Smith contained no music, only lyrics. This part of our pioneer heritage still remains with us today—if you turn to page 401 in the hymnal, you will see a list of tunes that people knew. We’ve forgotten most of these tunes, but we still post them in the back.

The tune used at the time this song was first published by the Deseret News was composed by Joseph J. Danes. He was the first organist for the specially constructed organ installed in the old tabernacle in 1867 Temple Square at the tender age of 16. He was so short that he had to tie cork extensions onto his shoes so that he could reach the pedals.

Brother Danes’ music was generally considered too complicated for the general membership, so in 1985, the hymnbook committee selected Kingsfold as the tune that we should sing this song to. The Kingsfold melody was around for a very long time, a folksong based on an old Irish tune called The Star of the County Down.

William Wines Phelps was a prolific hymn lyricist, but he was no composer, and selected popular songs to back all of his words.

W. W. Phelps contributed great talent to the Church. He set up the first printing press for the Church in Missouri. He published the first Church newspaper, the Evening and Morning Star. He helped select, prepare, and publish the revelations in the Book of Commandments. And he wrote many hymns, including “The Spirit of God,” Praise to the Man, Now Let Us Rejoice, Redeemer of Israel, O God the Eternal Father, and “Gently Raise the Sacred Strain.”

Brother Phelps is also responsible for slightly changing the words to Joy to the World. If you’ve ever participated in non-denominational Christmas caroling, and you find yourself singing different lyrics than everyone else, it’s because you learned the song in church:

So when everyone else is singing “and heaven and nature sing,” and you’re singing “and saints and angels sing,” or when everyone else is singing “and wonders of his love” while you’re singing “and ever worship God” you can thank Brother Phelps.

If you're wondering why my lesson today goes on and on about Phelps, it's because he was one of JS's chief scribes for his revelations on the Book of Moses. (I don't use the term translations). He wrote If You Could Hie to Kolob sometime during this time, and if you read the text to the hymn, it's all about The Book of Moses. I shall be playing the Lower Lights version of this hymn because the 2 banjos and 1 guitar arrangement is so evocative of the American west.

I'm sort of troubled by the term "race" as used in verse 3:

There is no end to matter
There is no end to space
There is no end to spirit
There is no end to race

I think Phelps was using the term "race" as a proxy for genetic material, or the physical body, as opposed to the spirit in the line above. However, in our super sensitive current day, it sort of infers that everyone will always be stuck in their current racial makeup. The BYU choir sings the last line:

There is no end to grace.

Transformative! I love the change and I suspect in the next version of the hymnal the word will be changed, like the wording in Phelps' Praise to the Man.

[All-American]

Don't you worry, WW. I still think of Illinois as stained.

[falafel]

Actually, we as a people did a lot of substitution in tunes, there are still songs in the hymnal that are sung to multiple tunes. From my lesson today:



William Wines Phelps was a prolific hymn lyricist, but he was no composer, and selected popular songs to back all of his words.



If you're wondering why my lesson today goes on and on about Phelps, it's because he was one of JS's chief scribes for his revelations on the Book of Moses. (I don't use the term translations). He wrote If You Could Hie to Kolob sometime during this time, and if you read the text to the hymn, it's all about The Book of Moses. I shall be playing the Lower Lights version of this hymn because the 2 banjos and 1 guitar arrangement is so evocative of the American west.

I'm sort of troubled by the term "race" as used in verse 3:

There is no end to matter
There is no end to space
There is no end to spirit
There is no end to race

I think Phelps was using the term "race" as a proxy for genetic material, or the physical body, as opposed to the spirit in the line above. However, in our super sensitive current day, it sort of infers that everyone will always be stuck in their current racial makeup. The BYU choir sings the last line:

There is no end to grace.

Transformative! I love the change and I suspect in the next version of the hymnal the word will be changed, like the wording in Phelps' Praise to the Man.

Good stuff, KL. I'd love to read the rest of your lesson. Care to post it?

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

KL, I asked one of the music people in my ward if he knew about the change. He told me that it was a "controversial" change. That musicians viewed the old version as far superior musically, but admit it wasn't as enjoyable to sing.

He offered to play it for me from and old hymn book, so possibly next week I'll have audio/video.