As November Is Not TOO Far Away...

[Weedon]

...I have to commend this stunning piece for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. It's been under our noses for a long time - in The Hymnal 1940, #224. And this setting is pretty much a straight up singing of its harmonies from that work on stanzas 1,3,5, with 2 and 4 allowing women and men's unison over the softly ooed or hummed harmonies. I have no idea why it is not in our book. I suppose some might say that it could be heard as "soul sleep" but it in point of fact confesses conscious consolations of the blessed dead:

https://youtu.be/ZZOkj6sjxis

Text:
1 Now the laborer's task is o'er;
Now the battle day is past;
Now upon the farther shore
Lands the voyager at last.

Refrain:
Father, in thy gracious keeping,
Leave we now thy servant sleeping. A-men.

2 There the tears of earth are dried,
There its hidden things are clear,
There the work of life is tried
By a juster judge than here. [Refrain]

3 There the penitents, that turn
To the cross their dying eyes,
All the love of Jesus learn
At his feet in Paradise. [Refrain]

4 There no more the powers of hell
Can prevail to marr their peace;
Christ the Lord shall guard them well,
He who died for their release. [Refrain]

5 'Earth to earth, and dust to dust,'
Calmly now the words we say;
Leaving him to sleep, in trust,
Till the resurrection-day. [Refrain]

[Mark Brown]

...I have to commend this stunning piece for the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. It's been under our noses for a long time - in The Hymnal 1940, #224. And this setting is pretty much a straight up singing of its harmonies from that work on stanzas 1,3,5, with 2 and 4 allowing women and men's unison over the softly ooed or hummed harmonies. I have no idea why it is not in our book. I suppose some might say that it could be heard as "soul sleep" but it in point of fact confesses conscious consolations of the blessed dead:

https://youtu.be/ZZOkj6sjxis

Text:
1 Now the laborer's task is o'er;
Now the battle day is past;
Now upon the farther shore
Lands the voyager at last.

Refrain:
Father, in thy gracious keeping,
Leave we now thy servant sleeping. A-men.

2 There the tears of earth are dried,
There its hidden things are clear,
There the work of life is tried
By a juster judge than here. [Refrain]

3 There the penitents, that turn
To the cross their dying eyes,
All the love of Jesus learn
At his feet in Paradise. [Refrain]

4 There no more the powers of hell
Can prevail to marr their peace;
Christ the Lord shall guard them well,
He who died for their release. [Refrain]

5 'Earth to earth, and dust to dust,'
Calmly now the words we say;
Leaving him to sleep, in trust,
Till the resurrection-day. [Refrain]

That is gorgeous.  Let me show my ignorance though.  What is The Hymnal 1940?  I'm at a loss as to what that one is.

What is the hymn tune used there?  It would seem like a perfect contemplative complement to the Standard Hymn "For All the Saints".

[Steven Tibbetts]

What is The Hymnal 1940?  I'm at a loss as to what that one is.

The hymnal of the Episcopal Church previous to the current one.

Pax, Steven+

[RPG]

The tune is REQUIESCAT, which doesn't appear in LSB, LBW, or ELW.

A quick search on hymnary.org (a GREAT free resource; if you've never used it, check it out) shows that a slightly modified version of the hymn appeared in SBH and the Common Service Book (1917). The fourth verse is left out in both hymnals and a new fifth verse for burial at sea substituted.

I've attached an image which I assume is well out of copyright from The Church Hymnal: revised and enlarged in accordance with the action of the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America in the year of our Lord 1892. (Ed. B) (1898), p.323

RPG+

[Eileen Smith]

This is beautiful; thank you!

[MaddogLutheran]

What is The Hymnal 1940?  I'm at a loss as to what that one is.

The hymnal of the Episcopal Church previous to the current one.

Pax, Steven+

Thanks for confirming...I wasn't sure if there was possibly more than one with that designation across denominations.  My Anglican-phile pastor use hymns out of that (and the 1982) often, especially on commemoration days where the LBW comes up short...take "Sing We of the Blessed Mother" for Mary related festivals.  I don't think he's ever selected one that I have disliked.  Sometimes he will even choose to use the 1940 version of a hymn versus what LBW/ELW has to offer.

[Brian Stoffregen]

6 verses here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/n/t/l/ntlabtio.htm

[Weedon]

Yes, The Hymnal 1940 is full of musical treasures. This particular one I hope we can use at the Synodical Convention when we do the service of remembrance and commemorate those church workers who passed away in the previous triennium. I can see those faces fading in and out on the screen as these words wash us in Christ's peace. Anywho, the whole thing was so beautiful I just had to share. P.S. The whole album from which it is taken is also a winner, conducted by J. Michael Thompson, whom I am honored to call a friend (Rich Shields would no doubt remember Jim).

[Mike in Pennsylvania]

I know the Book of Common Prayer is NOT copyrighted and can be freely used by anyone.  I don't know if that's true of the hymnals -- I expect not.

[Mark Brown]

Well, due to the House of Mouse, if the copyright is renewed, anything published between 1923 and 1963 remains copyrighted for 95 years.  Anything prior to 1923 is public domain. There are other breaking points due to the ever increasing need to keep Mickey under copyright.  But the case here appears that the vast majority of that hymnal is available. There are even PDF copies of it that state any copyrighted material has been removed. This particular hymn had been published much earlier in other hymnals.  So there are plenty of public domain settings of it.

https://hymnary.org/text/now_the_laborers_task_is_oer?extended=true#instances   

[Harvey_Mozolak]

to escape the soul-sleep problem and the he is not sleeping, he is dead truth

how about changing sleeping to reposing or even better resting  (rest from their labors)

[Weedon]

"The Child is not dead but sleeping..." "Our friend Lazarus sleeps, but I go to waken him."

Jesus has no problem with it!

Now, let me toss in an additional verse from the author that I discovered. It's stanza 3:

There the Angels bear on high
Many a strayed and wounded lamb,
Peacefully at last to lie
In the breast of Abraham...

NICE.

[Weedon]

Mark,

That's the other tune, though. It's specifically the question of whether or not the tune PAX and that setting of it is under copyright that I'd be curious about. I'm kind of assuming since it's published on a CD that it's public domain. I'm going to ask Jim Thompson.

[Harvey_Mozolak]

back in the day, was it Prof. Tepker who described soul-sleep as souls like mason jars on the fruit cellar shelf awaiting...   

[NGB]

Well, due to the House of Mouse, if the copyright is renewed, anything published between 1923 and 1963 remains copyrighted for 95 years.  Anything prior to 1923 is public domain. There are other breaking points due to the ever increasing need to keep Mickey under copyright.  But the case here appears that the vast majority of that hymnal is available. There are even PDF copies of it that state any copyrighted material has been removed. This particular hymn had been published much earlier in other hymnals.  So there are plenty of public domain settings of it.

https://hymnary.org/text/now_the_laborers_task_is_oer?extended=true#instances

The 95 year rule is true for most works published during that period, but there are exceptions for works published between 1950 and 1963: "Copyrights in their first 28-year term on January 1, 1978, still had to be renewed to be protected for the second term. If a valid renewal registration was made at the proper time, the second term will last for 67 years. However, if renewal registration for these works was not made within the statutory time limits, a copyright originally secured between 1950 and 1963 expired on December 31 of its 28th year, and protection was lost permanently."

A small point, perhaps, but worth mentioning as I know of some churches that had been paying for permission to reprint works that were actually in the public domain.

As for the tune in question, if Hymnary.org is to be trusted, it is still under copyright, having been copyrighted in 1929. On the other hand, they have a recording and pdf score of the tune on their website, so who knows?