Jubilate

Prayers

Bible Praying, compiled by Michael Perry, contains hundreds of prayers and other service material, classified under sections such as Thanksgiving, Confession, Creed. Many of the items contain responses and there are many which are particularly suitable for special occasions and seasons. Use the Liturgy search tab and the Keyword search to find Biblically based prayers suitable for any occasion.
To read more about Bible Praying look here.

NEW NEW NEW

"Last Sunday we sang the hymn you wrote" says a hymn-user to an author. The author groans inwardly - he has written many hymns and people seem to know only this one, his oldest!

Why not investigate the newest hymns from Jubilate hymnwriters - both familiar and unfamiliar? Since October 2004 more than 50 hymns and songs- checked for quality by the Jubilate Text Advisory Group - have been added to this site. The Jubilate writers represented include:

Brian Black; Derek Baldwin; Gordon Langford; John Lawson Baker; John Miller; Noel Tredinnick; David Peacock; Michael Saward; Peter Simpson; Paul Wigmore; James Wood.

Have a look at What's New.

Easter Hymns, Songs and Liturgy

This site offers many ideas for inclusion in Easter services and events.
There are arrangements of traditional Easter hymns and music, modern Easter songs and a whole range of biblically based liturgy especially suitable for the Easter season.

See what is on offer here.

RESOUND!

RESOUNDworship.org is a new project from the Jubilate Group; continuing the vision and values of integrity in music and lyrics, for the next generation. Each song on this unique website comes from a new grassroots writer in a local church context, and has been honed in peer critique to ensure strong biblical lyrics, usable themes and contemporary, singable music.

Recordings of all the songs give you an immediate impression of how they might be played, and the chord and lead sheets are free to download. See for yourself at the Resound Worship website!

Another new carol book

Carol Praise is edited by two members of Jubilate and published by HarperCollins.

This is a major collection of Christmas material that can be used from November to January - Advent, through Christmas, to Epiphany. With nearly 250 items, Carol Praise builds on the strengths of the first edition of the book that was published in 1987 and combines material from that edition with some of the best of Christmas carols, songs and hymns that have been produced since.

All the greats are here. Alongside the traditional carols, now with guitar chords and with fresh arrangements, come the brightest and the best of seasonal worship songs and carols. Users will find here a rich variety of styles matched to all ages and tastes. Of special interest will be new carols set to familiar Christmas melodies. This approach means that visitors to carol occasions can join in straight away, without hesitation, because they know the tune.

There are also new hymn texts suitable for Christmas set to familiar tunes. These give an opportunity to use seasonal music items at services when carols are being saved for other occasions.

The carols are arranged alphabetically, but a story index puts them into narrative order, and a Bible index aids reference, for those who will be busy planning carol services using Carol Praise. On the CD-ROM are a wealth of indices to help the worship designer. You will also find there seven sets of readings and Christmas readings from the Dramatised Good News Bible, as well as all the texts for the items.

The collection also offers a range of instrumental parts. A number of the carols have instrumental arrangements for all ages and abilities and are found on the CD-ROM. You will also find occasional provision of melody and harmony lines for B flat instruments, as well as vocal and instrumental descant lines in the music edition. Also on the CD-ROM are over 20 mp3 recordings of items in the book.

An international line-up of favourites adds yet another dimension to a comprehensive collection, making Carol Praise an outstanding resource for churches and schools, and for the musician to explore.

. . . and yet more carols and other songs

The Carol Book is edited by two members of Jubilate and is published by The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM).

This is a resource for churches and worship leaders in that it provides all you need from Advent, through Christmas to Epiphany.

There are 150 carols in practical arrangements for 2, 3 or 4 parts - though all may be sung in unison. They include all well-known carols and many new carols and arrangements.

As well as this there is an accompanying CD-ROM on which are full indexes - including a biblical index; texts of all carols for downloading to service sheets; readings, prayers and other service material; service outlines; orchestral and instrumental parts; synthesised accompaniments; guitar chords for selected items; clip art to paste into service sheets - and more.

The book is a photocopiable resource - you only need one copy for your church.

The book may be ordered by email from RSCM or find more information from the RSCM website.

Songs for the King is a new publication edited jointly by a team from Jubilate and the Keswick Convention. It is published by Spring Harvest.

The aim of the songbook has been to express in music some values and priorities that are the hallmark of Keswick and Jubilate. Here are songs that celebrate the richness of biblical truth, express our response to that truth and embrace the challenge of biblical living in today's world. If you are looking for songs with integrity, then seriously consider this publication.

The book brings together a number of new songs, previously unpublished in the UK alongside more established material, some provided with fresh arrangements. Notable amongst these are arrangements by Ray Monk.

Stuart Townend writes of the book " strong selection of hymns and songs that combine biblical declaration with worshipful response. I strongly commend it".

New songs

Jubilate Director and Chairman Steve James has produced a new CD. Called Home Tonight, it is a compilation of different types of contemporary songs' some for congregations; others for solos and special seasons, with styles varying from gospel to folk and pop.

Favourites include "Lift my eyes" [Ps 121], "Baby Jesus" and "The Living One Dies", a piece for Easter. There are mp3 versions of most of these songs available on this website. Just enter the title in the Search box - or if you want to see the complete list of songs go to the Publications page and follow the links under Home Tonight.

Recorded in Vancouver Canada and also in the UK, this is a high quality production. Steve's website includes mp3 previews and some music downloads.

Go to the Links page from where you go directly to Steve James' own website.

Themes and Biblical references

The Search box allows you to look for hymn or song lyrics by theme or by biblical reference. More than 8000 themes are listed so it should be easy to find a suitable lyric.

Many of the theme and biblical links are taken from HymnQuest, a CD-ROM resource which lists most hymns and songs (from all publishers) in use today. You can find more information on this resource at HymnQuest's website.

Changes!

This website has been improved and updated. You should be able to navigate round the site more easily - and you can find new songs, hymns and tunes recently written by Jubilate authors and composers. Follow the directions in the paragraph above to view these new items.

Everyone can view part of each of the more than 2000 songs, hymns and tunes and can listen to part of each tune. But ...

• if you want to see the whole item
• if you want to listen to the whole tune
• if you want to download or print the item

... you will need to become a Subscriber. The Subscriber information page will tell you what to do to take out a subscription.

Quality words and music?

One of the phrases we use in Jubilate is 'Quality words and music'. It's a phrase that's hard to define. However, in our world of Christian music, it's a phrase to unpack. Perhaps we will only get as far as defining it by our own standards. So what are Jubilate's standards?

Words

One of our aims is to strengthen the Christian church throughout the world by giving the church truth to sing. We want people to sing what we produce, and we believe that singing the truth to one another, or to the Lord, is something that builds up a congregation. So one of our standards for words is orthodoxy, that is, being biblical. We are, after all, an evangelical group, with our roots going back to Wesley and Watts amongst others.

But it is not quite as simple as that. We could set a bible text to music, faithfully reproducing the text, but with a few exceptions people find this unsatisfactory. This is in much the same way that a preacher could quote a passage but not explain it or amplify it so that its meaning becomes clear.

Could it be then, that a good hymn or song is rather like a good sermon, where a text or doctrine is set out and amplified?

Well, almost! Clearly the medium is not speech, so we are not producing texts for sermons or poetry. The medium is music and so this dictates the kind of text we must use. It has to be sung, either to one another or to the Lord. Nevertheless, there needs to be a development of thought that expands that truth or doctrine with singable memorable words.

One of our standards, then, is that the lyric must convey biblical truth in such a way that it builds up the congregation that sings it. It must mean something, and something that is intelligible. Hence we have a commitment to updating lyrics, whilst retaining the weight and strength of the original.

Good quality words build up a congregation. Words for gathering together; words of praise for Father Son and Holy Spirit; words of humility and reflection before a Holy God who speaks; words of intercession, and words of response in faith hope and love as we are sent out to live for our Lord.

These words have to be true eternally and yet right for the occasion. That's what we strive for.

Music

This brings us to music. Jubilate has in the last 6 years begun to embrace both the traditional hymn style and modern song. Most congregations use some type of blend of both. Some indeed use a fusion of both styles.

The type of music will dictate how the words are formed. Music conveys an emotion or sense that needs to match the words. Whilst not encouraging sentimentality, there is always a sentiment that is attached to a tune. It is worth acknowledging that there are godly and ungodly sentiments, something Jonathan Edwards pointed out in a previous century.

The melody and chordal structure must match the words in such a way that they rightly carry them, just as a set of clothes must work for the person wearing them. There are rules for different styles of music, and we try to follow them. We do not aim to be predictable in our melodies or harmonies, but not overly complex either. Most of all, they need to carry the truth effectively, and wing them into the heart.

Most of us have inbuilt defences for not receiving what is said to us. And we are forgetful too. But the words of songs and hymns have a way of getting through and remaining in our subconscious. Steve Jobs from Apple computers says he has sold 100 million iPods.and the latest incarnation will cost as little as £59! But iPods are really only a mirror for our own subconscious which carries half remembered melodies and snatches of lyrics. A good quality song or hymn will be there, probably for ever.

In my parish there is a lady who has lost most of her speech through a stroke. She is unable to communicate except to make sounds. But when I strike up a hymn she sings the words and tune right through, faultlessly. The endeavour upon which we are engaged is one that goes deeply into a congregation member. And so our aim is to put good quality words and music that reach into the depth of the soul, and then lift it to heaven.

Steve James
Chairman, Jubilate.

Music!

More than 800 tunes, arrangements and descants by Jubilate composers are now on this site. This is in addition to all the 1500 texts by Jubilate authors. You can view the music, listen to it and download to your computer.

Try a few tunes now!

(More tunes are being added all the time.)

Jubilate, Everybody

There's now a history of Jubilate and if you'd like to see what a reviewer thinks of this - and obtain a copy - read below. [The review is reproduced from the Hymn Society Bulletin by kind permission of the author, Dr Bernard Massey.

Jubilate, Everybody: the Story of Jubilate Hymns by Michael Saward. Jubilate Hymns Ltd, 2003. (ISBN 0 9505589 4 X). Available free (except for postage and packing 40p) from Canon Michael Saward, 6 Discovery Walk, London E1W 2JG.

Unquestionably the greatest impact on the world of serious hymnody in the last three or four decades has been that made by the group of writers, composers and arrangers now known as Jubilate Hymns. Their first collective forays were into "youth fellowship" territory with Youth Praise, Volumes 1 and 2 (1966, 1969); the success of these collections then encouraged the team to launch into Psalm Praise, 1973.

Stimulated by the growing demand for 'you' rather than 'thou' language in worship they then decided to embark on a new full-scale hymn-book of which a major feature would be the 'modernization' of older hymn texts. The group may not have been entirely unprepared for the storm of controversy that greeted Hymns for Today's Church on its publication in 1982; nevertheless, there seems to be no reason to doubt the adage that there's no such thing as bad publicity.

Since then the group has issued a continuous stream of publications including carol collections, more psalm books, books of 'world praise' and, on the edge of the new millennium, Sing Glory to supersede Hymns for Today's Church. Jubilate now has some forty members, who, between them, have produced about 1500 new hymn and song texts and over 700 tunes.

From the beginning Michael Saward, words editor for many of the publications, has been very much at the centre of the enterprise.Thus he is particularly well placed to recount the circumstances leading to the formation of the group and their unflagging productivity. Among many fascinating details he relates the problems involved in seeking to modernize Bishop Mant's 'Bright the vision' and the national furore over their alternative (but not substitute!) version of the National Anthem.

Jubilate Hymns certainly have much to celebrate and this 44-page booklet tells their story without undue modesty. It is clearly but a step on the way for we are told that one or two further publications are being planned. Indeed, given the group's unceasing industry and well targeted publicity campaigns, there seems no reason why they should not continue indefinitely.

The present account cannot fail to engage every member of this society. So do send off your 40p (preferably, no doubt, in stamps) without delay.

Definitive texts

The Directors of Jubilate Hymns, faced with various requests seeking to alter the lyrics of their authors' copyrighted hymns and, especially, the alterations of earlier hymns now copyrighted as 'Jubilate Hymns' versions, have decided to adopt a general policy of adherence to all such lyrics appearing on our web-site and/or in SING GLORY. Those requesting further alteration of such lyrics must, therefore, give good and compelling reason for such changes and these requests will be considered by the Directors, on the advice of their Text Advisory Group.

It should be noted that the Directors do not normally expect to give their authorisation for such changes, and in this way, they hope to secure a definitive version of their lyrics.