New Irish Hymns: New hymns, ancient faith for three CCM hitmakers

Tuesday 1st January 2002

The release of the 'New Irish Hymns' album brings a fresh Celtic dimension to hymnody. Fiona Mcllwaine Biggins spoke to some of its contributors.

Margaret Becker, Joanne Hogg, Maire Brennan
Margaret Becker, Joanne Hogg, Maire Brennan

When three of the finest female voices in contemporary Christian music join forces with a prominent young Irish composer/conductor to create a truly inspirational album of original hymns - heaven doesn't get much closer on earth! 'New Irish Hymns' is a collection of 10 anthemic, meditative and electric hymns of worship birthed in Ireland. Written by Ulster composer/conductor Keith Getty, it is an exceptional recording, featuring Maire Brennan, the voice of the legendary Irish band Clannad, Joanne Hogg of lona and American singer/songwriter Margaret Becker.

Together these three talented women have woven a timeless album of modern hymns for the global Church, capturing the essence of God's heart with their heavenly voices. Keith explained that he principally wanted his selection of poignant contemporary hymns to embrace the different aspects of the life and ministry of God and develop it further in a way that would relate to modern Christianity: "I was excited about creating the modern hymn and the chance to integrate up-to-date language and styles in a fresh way. I wanted to focus on the characteristics of God as the central concept of the collection and to write with a strong biblical background. I feel this emphasis is clearly evident in the 10 hymns which cover themes such as Christ in creation, Christ in perseverance and Christ in suffering; this last moving subject notably apparent in 'Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer'. I also included hymns for the different parts of worship, such as This Fragile Vessel', which is written especially for communion. But ultimately I wanted to highlight the uniqueness of Christ as a whole and I hope this album achieves just that."

After working regularly as a composer, producer and conductor in Ireland, the UK and the USA over the past four years, Keith revealed how he decided last year that he really wanted to write primarily for the Church and to focus on worship and evangelism pieces.

"I felt the biggest need in Church worship was to be more focused on God and I wanted to combine the positive strengths of what I had learnt from other modern music forms and bring those across to Christian works; so that the emphasis of our worship could incorporate things like everyday language, in the way we do, for example, when we pray. For this latest album I used a combination of old hymns and portions of Scripture and reworked them to create modern hymns for the modern Church. Rock and worship, and rock and Celtic sounds have always combined well, but this mingling of worship and Celtic has a unique warm sound to it that I feel adds to the lyrics. And as an Irish composer and with working in Irish music a lot, I suppose all my music is destined to have an Irish feel to it," he laughed. But alongside the Irish and Celtic tones of flutes, bodhrans, fiddles and some Gaelic lyrics in the hymns, there is also other, much more subtle folk styles cleverly incorporated into the melodies; including, for example, flamenco in "Song Of The Kingdom" - simply exquisite unique combinations of music styles that prove themselves to work beautifully together. Keith admitted, "My primary aim was to write great hymns for the Church focused on God. However, if I had to choose only one hope I would have for this album it would be that it would bring new hymns that will really last to the Church. But," he added attentively, "if music is crafted and produced well it has the power to touch anyone and I would hope that beyond Church worship these new hymns would also reach out to secular listeners too."

Outside of praise and worship Keith's work includes studying conducting atTanglewood Music Centre in Boston, founder/conductor of New Irish Choir and Orchestra, and composer for stage and freelance writer or music director on over 40 productions for television, radio, concert music and recordings. He has also worked for Christian artists, including Graham Kendrick and Michael Card, along with many Irish artists such as James Galway and Maire Brennan. And teaming up with Maire again led to her playing a central role, alongside Margaret and Joanne, in the making of this new album; the three generously utilising their own expertise with everything from the album cover design to writing lyrics and throwing in production ideas, as well as the vocals.

Notably the album is not the usual multi-artist type collection of songs, but rather the three women sing together and back each other on the individual tracks, making it a truly integrated whole. "It was an honour to have three of the finest female vocalists in CCM today working on the album with me - their Christian faiths have lasted through the years and they have brought great talent to this collection," added Keith.

American CCM star Margaret Becker, who has recorded 15 number one radio hits and has been nominated for four Grammy awards, was also quick to praise the collection, stressing the significance of the Irish influence: "I think this is a very lush album, due to Maire and Jo and most especially Keith Getty. The flavour is celebratory and mournful all at the same time -only the Irish can do that! In fact, the obvious emotional dichotomy is what, I think, makes this record standout." She considered, "There is a whole new audience of Christians out there who have never heard the 'old hymns' and in fact these would probably sound fresh and familiar to them - all at the same time. I believe these hymns are a modern day interpretation of active faith. They manage to embody both the time honoured principles and language, while subtly introducing modern language that points to relevant faith experience - I hope they become standards."

But Margaret explained that she did not grow up with church music and was not always drawn to Christian music: "No I didn't grow up around this music, not unless you include the Singing Nuns," she jokes. "I was drawn to CCM as a result of my own writing. When I matured as a person, around 19 or 20 years old, I found that my music was maturing also. I was writing then, and I found that everything that I had written had been written through the template of faith. A friend recognised it and told me about a whole industry that was based on that template. It was then that I found CCM and found that the creative voice I was representing was timely and welcome." She said her highest hope of all for this album of new hymns is that the music will touch secular music listeners and that the lyrics will challenge them. "This is a gorgeous project. Some will listen only for the music; but I believe the music will spoon feed the message and that would be the higher purpose. I hope that people who have not considered faith as their basis will be drawn to the peace that emanates from this music and follow that line to its obvious conclusion: Christ."

When asked how she thought such contemporary music could transform the modern day Church she responded thoughtfully: "I think the modern Church will only be transformed by willing hearts. If these songs take a leather heart and rub in a bit of oil for more flexibility - well, yes then, modern church worship could be transformed by new praise like this."

Known for her expertise in music, writing and the entertainment industry, Margaret has enjoyed speaking at educational seminars, colleges and conferences and has also been producing some indie artists and singing on their projects in the last year. Alongside this, she has been involved in other Christian projects, including The Prayer Of Jabez' on Forefront-all adding up, according to her, to a "wonderfully eclectic year in 2001."

Maire Brennan echoed the sentiments of rolling in the changes - as in a career that spans 30 years of music, she is now enjoying the creative freedom and accolades of her burgeoning solo endeavours. "The reason I got involved in this album was to see new style Irish hymns written by Irish people and to be available, not just on the market, but for churches around Ireland. I hope that it might mark a new start for Irish artists getting involved in this kind of thing ... and that we've started developing and forming our own sounds here," she said passionately. And this is not the first time Maire has been involved in singing hymns, although perhaps best known over the years as the singer and ethereal voice of Irish icons Clannad, recent times have seen her emerge as a talented songwriter and innovative composer in her own right; charting new territories of the musical domain and reflecting her influences and personality in her work.

Said Maire, "My last two albums were CCM rather than worship, but on them there are songs and parts in the Gaelic language which I like to think of as being hymn-like in their direct words of praise and worship to Jesus ... and it is quite different writing these kinds of songs from other contemporary Christian ones - you really have to be truly inspired and in a state of worship when you are recording them." Like Margaret, Maire wasn't always drawn to Christian music, in fact only fairly recently did she become aware of the artists around and the wealth and variety of Christian music being produced. "I wasn't really aware of Christian music, particularly where I grew up, all I heard was music in the Church with my Mum's choir -this was mostly in Gaelic, often very beautiful and simple. But I can't remember being really inspired by it.

"However, I do believe that modern Church worship could be transformed by hymns like these, especially in this country - we need to develop an attitude where we're not afraid to establish our own music. People come from abroad expecting to find a lot of Celtic Christian music and strangely find that we're copying the rest of the world ... I think it's going to be increasingly important to use our own music as a basis for praise and worship rather than looking to America, Australia or elsewhere to provide all our needs."

Maire has been almost continually involved with different projects since she started recording CCM: "I've done quite a few concerts and appearances recently and it has been a great opportunity to sing to a Christian audience and talk about my life experiences. There are a lot of great things going on in Northern Ireland at the moment and I've sung at events such as HistoryMakers and FocusFest. I've also done some music for a movie, with a Christian director, entitled To End All Wars, which has a strong theme of forgiveness and redemption in a Japanese POW camp."

Closer to home Maire and her family play regularly in one of the praise and worship groups at their Church (truly a blessed congregation!) and encourage younger members to take up traditional instruments and become involved in worship themselves. And Maire cites another of the reasons she got involved in the 'New Irish Hymns' album as: "It's very much flavoured with Irish instrumentation. Joanne and myself wrote in an Irish style and Margaret really got into the feel of it herself. There's a great feeling when we are all singing together."

When asked whether she thought there is something special about Irish music in general which lends itself towards hymns or enhancing the spirituality of them, Maire immediately responded: "It's got passion, it's got joy and it's got a certain soul that I know from talking to people really touches people in a special way. I think it's something that we have ignored because we thought that it doesn't relate to Christianity, but I feel that there's a lotto be said for putting the two together. People around the world are being drawn towards Celtic spirituality and it's a great joy to bring that back into a Christian dimension. There's a great sense of hope that Celtic music carries and we need to express this in our Christian music."

Although the album has only been released at the end of 2001, Maire hopes that people from all walks of life will enjoy it and be inspired by its inner truths. She concluded: "Obviously I don't really know how people will react to it, but I'd like to think that several of the songs will stand the test of time. If people enjoy singing them as much as we have enjoyed recording them, there's no reason why they won't be around in years to come.

"For secular listeners it really all rests on whether they get the chance to hear them -we have a problem in this country that there is no Christian radio - but it would be great to think that regular stations would pick up some of the songs in the same way that spiritually inspired country and gospel music occasionally have a chance to do. That aside, I have no doubt that there are songs there that would touch people's hearts if they just got an opportunity to hear them."

Keith wrote over 50 hymns spanning a year for this latest project and said it was hugely difficult to choose the best 10 to be on the album. He explained that he is continuing to write as only through that does he believe he can keep on improving. "Kingsway Music will be releasing some more albums of my hymns and worship songs through 2001-2003, which I hope will touch people's hearts and transform modern worship too," he concluded.

So it just goes to prove that you can bring contemporary music, faith and worship together and work a wee bit of Irish folk in too and come up with an exceptionally Divine creation! CR

The opinions expressed in this article are not necessarily those held by Cross Rhythms. Any expressed views were accurate at the time of publishing but may or may not reflect the views of the individuals concerned at a later date.
About Fiona McIlwaine Biggins
Fiona McIlwaine Biggins is an experienced journalist based in Craiglands, Northern Ireland.


 

Reader Comments

Posted by jacqui in riverside @ 12:49 on Mar 19 2019

Over the years i have enjoyed this album, It has carried me thru some very hard times in My life, We sang In Christ alone this week at a Bible study that I lead for a Care and wellness center. one of the residents will be 101in April, she was so blessed to hear and sing all togeather as a group. It was like being in the upper room when the Holy spirit came down. Thank you Shalom



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