Ringing the Church Year

SKU: WD.080689631177

UPC: 080689631177.

Take a trip down memory lane…Let’s go back in time to a place of warm summer mornings, church bells ringing, friends and family dressed in their Sunday best, and the sound of voices singing out those sweet, spirited Gospel songs and hymns that always stirred the soul within. Songs of yearning for the day when we all fly home to the Savior…to a place of joy that never ends. Hymns of gladness, redemption, hope, and promise…

Can you hear them? Blessed Assurance; I Saw the Light; I’ll Fly Away; ‘Til the Storm Passes By; The King Is Coming; I Believe in a Hill Called Mount Calvary; Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus; Precious Lord, Take My Hand…These are just a few of the favorites that Word Music and Church Resources is excited to present in Cliff Duren’s new collection, THE GREAT AMERICAN CHURCH SONGBOOK.

Giving new life to these classic songs, while keeping that forever timeless feel, this collection is a must-have for any choir. With songs that everyone in your congregation will know and love, THE GREAT AMERICAN CHURCH SONGBOOK is filled with a variety of upbeat, harmonious Southern Gospel songs of celebration, and beautiful, gentle ballads that plead for the Lord to come near. Your choir and congregation will be moved by these songs—not only as songs of testimony and worship and praise, but as reminders of the Lord’s faithfulness, goodness, and everlasting love for His children.

Prepare your heart and mind for reminiscing on the Lord’s great love while singing these exciting, timeless songs with your church family…This is THE GREAT AMERICAN CHURCH SONGBOOK!

SKU: PR.114410790

ISBN 9781491112687. UPC: 680160015580. 9 x 12 inches.

THREE MYSTERIES OF NAGASAKI was inspired by the eerie darkness and ambiguous bells of the oldest Western church in Japan. Dorff’s program note describes impressions of his visit to Nagasaki while withholding any explanation of the three movements. The 13-minute work is a duo for violin and one percussionist, with an array of pitched and unpitched ringing metallic instruments plus bass drum.
THREE MYSTERIES OF NAGASAKI was inspired by the ambiguous bells of the oldest Western church in Japan.In an island nation that used to thrive on isolation from the rest of the world, Nagasaki has long been a vulnerable exception. From the 16th through 19th centuries, it was Japan’s only international port, open to Portuguese and Dutch traders. From this sole crossroads, Christianity (along with European food, flowers, and language) began flowing into the otherwise insular culture. The US Navy’s presence in the 1800s added to Nagasaki being Japan’s exposed Achilles’ heel, which may be why Puccini’s Madama Butterfly is set in this city, with Cho-Cho-San’s vulnerability symbolizing the risk of openness to Western influence.I’ve had occasion to visit Nagasaki, and have never felt so haunted. Aside from the unspeakable atrocity of 1945 and the lasting presence of that horror, there also remains a mysterious air of not really being in pure Japan, or in the present day. Nowhere was this more obvious than within the Ōura Basilica, the earliest Christian church built in Japan. Decades after visiting the basilica, I still recall its oddly distorted and slowly pealing bells, and timeless incense floating in relative darkness. The mysterious bells have stayed with me both for their own sonority, and as a subconscious reminder of everything Nagasaki is and was.Composed for a violinist-percussionist couple who ended a decades-long relationship just as I completed the work (and never performing it), it was originally called simply THREE MYSTERIES; I couldn’t make a direct reference in the title because it felt too raw. Looking back years later, the updated title THREE MYSTERIES OF NAGASAKI seems to ask more questions than it answers.