Tune: MERLE MARIE

Composer: Carol Doran

Carol Doran was a musician, author, scholar, loving wife, mother, and grandmother. She was also a woman of unwavering faith, integrity, kindness, curiosity, beauty, good humor, and fearlessness who inspired those she loved and who loved her so much in return. Carol’s early exposure to the study of music became a lifelong passion and professional dedication as she went on to earn a Doctor of Music Arts degree in Church Music and Organ at The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY. Dr. Doran taught and was a professor of Music and Liturgy at Colgate Rochester Divinity School/Bexley Hall in Rochester, New York; Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, Virginia; the School of Theology at Boston University; Episcopal Divinity Scho… Go to person page >

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Tune Information

Title:	MERLE MARIE
Composer:	Carol Doran (1983)
Meter:	8.8.8.8
Key:	C Major
Copyright:	Text and music © 1984, Oxford University Press, NY

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Texts

These Things Did Thomas Count as Real

All texts published with MERLE MARIE ^ top

Alternative Tunes

More tunes with meter 8.8.8.8 ^ top

Notes

Carol Ann Doran (b. Philadelphia, PA, 1936) composed the unison tune MERLE MARIE for this text in Rochester, New York, in 1983. The tune is named in honor of Troeger's wife. The symmetrical melody shifts between C major and B-flat major. Doran intended that this shift depict the two realities with which Thomas was struggling. Because this tune may not be easy for many congregations to sing, it would be helpful if organists could provide clear enunciation of the tune on a solo registration. A number of more familiar tunes might make this text more accessible, including BISHOP (227) or TRURO (413). MERLE MARIE works well with this text as a choir anthem.

Doran received a degree in music education from West Chester State University, Pennsylvania, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in organ and church music from the Eastman School of Music, Rochester. She was organist and choir director at the Twelve Corners Presbyterian Church, Rochester (1964-1969), and at the Episcopal Church of the Incarnation in Penfield, New York (1969-1982). Since 1975 she has taught church music at the Colgate Rochester /Bexley Hall/ Crozer Theological Seminary. Doran has published three collections of her hymn tunes in cooperation with Thomas Troeger (listed above). She has written many articles and has established programs of study for both professional and amateur church musicians. Doran and Troeger frequently conduct workshops together on church music and renewal in worship.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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