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Sing Praise to God, - Ian Kellam
MSM-90-36, $13.00

Pastoral Music “Reviews”, October-November 2006 issue
by Marie Kremer

This is a collection of eighteen new hymn tunes written for existing texts. The composer was born in Sheffield, England, in 1933 and was a chorister at the cathedral for most of his boyhood. In his preface to this volume, Kellam writes: “There are lovely shades of colour to be found in judicious use of some ‘dissonances’ (sevenths, ninths, and so on) and further colour in moving away from the home key…. So melody, colour, and shape are vital in the writing of my hymn tunes, but all must try to reflect and compliment [sic] the influence and paramount importance of the text. So I suppose all I’m trying to do is give choirs and congregations some enjoyable and uplifting tunes in celebration.”

He succeeds in doing this admirably in the hymn tunes in this volume. The Christmas hymn “Christ Is Come! Let Earth Adore Him,” for example, is set with a strong, joyful melody with lots of intervals up to sixths, sevenths, and octaves. The accompaniment supports the harmonic changes in the tune extremely well. Another powerful, festive, very rhythmic tune accompanies the text for Ascension, “Christ High-Ascended,” but there is a rather rhythmically surprising ending of the melody. Two melodies in a gentler mode—for “Christ Pours His Grace upon His Own” and “O Christ, the Healer”—fit the texts and are very singable. The first of these, in G minor, is a flowing stepwise tune, and the second is a lovely rather poignant melody beginning stepwise but with a wonderful upward leap of a sixth near the end. The resurrection hymn “From the Night of Ages Waking” has been given a strong melody which is supported by a wonderful accompaniment which breaks into eighth notes in the middle of the second phrase and then comes to a slow cadence before ending with a burst of joy. A very effective alternate accompaniment is given for verse four. This hymn could be a wonderful choir piece, if your congregation isn’t ready for it yet. “Sing Praise to God Who Spoke the Word” has been given an exuberant tune with many leaps which ends with a joyful crescendo at “To God be thanks, to God be thanks and Glory.”

These hymn tunes, whether sung by choir or congregation, would enrich worship. Get acquainted with these wonderful melodies.

Sing Praise to God: The Hymntunes of Ian Kellam—Ian Kellam
MSM-90-36, $13.00

The Hymn, Summer 2006
by Larry Wolz

Ian Kellam (b. 1933) was born in Sheffield, England and has been steeped in the English cathedral tradition ever since his days as a boy chorister at Sheffield Cathedral. Most of his published music is vocal. His bio accompanying this collection states: “Writing for voice or voices…remains his chief pleasure and inspiration.” This is, however, Kellam’s first collection of hymns, and hopefully not his last.

Sing Praise to God is a collection of eighteen hymns. Kellam’s tunes have been inspired by a wide variety of texts ranging from the seventeenth century to the present. The majority of the hymns have texts by twentieth century authors: Timothy Dudley Smith (6), Carl P. Daw, Jr. (3), Fred Pratt Green (1), and Martha Postlethwaite (1). The seven remaining texts are familiar to students of English hymnody and include Samuel Wolcott’s “Christ for the World We Sing,” and John Newton’s “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.” The composer speaks to the “paramount importance of the text in his Preface, and his text setting is impeccable throughout. Whether the text is the high flown “Rise Up and Shine! Your Light Has Come” (Daw) or the intimate “As Pants the Hart for Cooling Streams” (Tate & Brady), Kellam has created a well-crafted tune, always evoking the spirit of the text.

Kellam’s melodic and harmonic practice is rooted firmly in the English cathedral tradition of the first half of the twentieth century (think Parry and Holst). While others might consider the style to be archaic in the twenty-first century, the Anglophile in me still thrills at the majestic contours of these melodies and the always interesting and idiomatic organ accompaniments. The hymns employ unison tunes with organ accompaniment almost exclusively. Kellam has provided optional settings and descants for some last stanzas, and these reveal his gift for choral writing as he writes parts for the choir to sing and provides even more elaborate free organ accompaniments. Playing through these hymns, even on the piano, the mind’s ear can easily perceive how effective they would be in large cathedral settings.

Phillip Brunelle, writing in the Foreword, states that “Singing an Ian Kellam hymn on Sunday morning is something the congregation [Plymouth Church] delights in.” Of course, the congregation there is not your average congregation, and those more average congregations might find Kellam’s tunes rather challenging with their wide ranges, disjunct motion, and wide leaps. Kellam also follows the English tradition of utilizing the half note as the beat. Despite his choice of poetry in a variety of poetic meters, most of his hymn-tunes end up in 4/2 musical meter.

Most of Kellam’s tunes, along with their texts, lend themselves to festival processional / recessional hymn use, and I would highly recommend the collection as source material in finding some great hymns for special occasions. That is not to say that Kellam’s writing is one-dimensional. His quiet, sensitive settings of “As Pants the Hart” and “Breathe on Me, Breath of God” are equally effective. But the composer’s imagination seems to soar (along with the melodies) in those grand and glorious festival hymns.