Tune: HEIDELBERG 1 (Brink)

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HEIDELBERG 1 (Brink)

Composer: Emily R. Brink (1975)
Published in 1 hymnal

Audio files: MIDI

Composer: Emily R. Brink

Emily R. Brink is a Senior Research Fellow of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship and Adjunct Professor of Church Music and Worship at Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Her main areas of responsibility are conference planning and global resources. She is program manager of the annual Calvin Symposium on Worship, which draws more than 70 presenters and 1600 participants from around the world. She also travels widely to lecture and to learn about worship in different parts of the world, especially in Asia, where she has lectured in Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan. Her areas of interest include congregational song from all times and places;… Go to person page >

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Tune Information

Title:	HEIDELBERG 1 (Brink)
Composer:	Emily R. Brink (1975)
Meter:	Irregular
Incipit:	11235 34215
Key:	d minor
Copyright:	Text and music © 1987, CRC Publications

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Texts

My Only Comfort

My only comfort in life and in death
is that I am not my own,
but belong body and soul, in life and in death
to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ.

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All texts published with HEIDELBERG 1 (Brink)^ top

Notes

Emily R. Brink (PHH 158) composed the HEIDELBERG 1 for this text in Champaign, Illinois, in 1975 (the year that the new translation of the catechism was adopted by the Christian Reformed Church). Brink composed the tune, along with a setting for the final "Amen" answer in the Heidelberg Catechism, for a hymn contest celebrating the hundredth anniversary of Calvin College in 1976. Although no submitted hymns were selected as the centennial hymn, eight of Brink's settings for various Q&As of the Catechism (see also 507) were published in Bible Landmarks: A Study of the Heidelberg Catechism, part of the Bible Way curriculum published by CRC Publications in 1977.

HEIDELBERG 1 consists of one flexible chantlike formula, which is applied to stanzas 1-4, and another set of derived motives, which shape stanza 5. Either sing in unison throughout or sing stanzas 1-4 in unison and stanza 5 in harmony. Organ accompaniment initially calls for two manuals and pedal with a clear stop for the soprano part; the increased texture in four parts in stanza 5 suggests a fuller registration.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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