Hymns & Songs of My Mother

This is a premier, audiophile recording, both in interpretation and audio fidelity. Produced by professionals in professional sound studios, with multiple instrumental accompaniments. The results speak for themselves!

What Is This Recording?

This is an album of nostalgic, traditional congregational hymns and religious songs.

It is a hi-definition (audiophile) recording; next to maximum length (for a CD - 78 minutes) recording of 27 nostalgic, traditional hymns and songs. This recording provides a fabulous trip back to when these hymns and songs were popular, using different textures that form a gloriously listenable, intimate collage.

It was professionally recorded in professional sound studios, by professional:

• Singers and musicians;
• Arranger;
• Audio engineers for tracking recording, mixing, and mastering; with
• Post production processings by TortoiseClimbing Audio™.

It is a very extensive collection of 27 historic, nostalgic, traditional hymns and songs (almost 78 minutes in length). It provides truly great interpretations and sonic fidelity for these congregational hymns and songs, performed by professional vocalists and instrumental accompaniments. With the growth in popularity of newer Praise and Worship hymns, these traditional hymns largely disappeared from many hymnals, and from the regular liturgies of many churches.

The impetus for creation of this album of Hymns and Songs was David's father's death in late 1996. Subsequently, in Spring of 1998, (some months before his mother also would die that August) she requested TortoiseClimbing Audio™ create a quality recording for public release containing selections of their favorite hymns and religious songs. David and his mother selected the wide ranging list included on this album.

All the hymns came from hymnals David's parents had collected over the years. The religious songs are drawn from a variety of sources. This album is a homage to both of them.

1. There are 21 widely ranging hymns selected from the hymnals his parents collected over their lives as their respective churches replaced older hymnals with newer hymnals, plus
2. There are 6 religious songs selected from several sources:
   • The first are two benediction, or service songs, from the backs of the hymnals;
   • Another is the 4^th song from Dvorak's 10 Biblilcal Songs, whose lyrics are a translation of verses from the beginning of the 23^rd psalm, and
   • Two religious songs used in weddings, both harkening back to baroque music from J.S.Bach's era.
   • One is a folk style Contempory Christian Music (CCM) song, written for the funeral of his mother's sister by a granddaughter of his mother's sister, Ms. Kathy Brigman Haupt;

A number of professional musicians were involved, both instrumental and vocal, bringing a wealth of experiences and skills to this magnificent recording. Credits for each participant musician and vocalist are included on individual webpages, grouped by the recording phase they participated in.

This magnificant interpretation of the old hymns is performed by a number of outstanding trained singers and instrumentalists in various vocal and instrumental arrangements. David sings lead on all but one hymn, where he provides accented harmony to an original arrangement of "Were You There" by the Phase I Producer, Ms. Heidi Gerber-Salins. The Congregational origin of these hymns is deliberatly honored by singing them as printed in the hymnals, but in a variety of vocal combinations and different accompaniment arrangements, including:

• Solo;
• Duet;
• Multi-part harmony (a number including descants), and
• A cappella,


• A variety of accompaniments are used, including:
  • Orchestral ensemble;
  • Piano;
  • Pipe organ;
  • Celtic harp;
  • Shuttle pipe (baby bagpipe);
  • Acoustic guitar;
  • String bass;
  • Handbells;
  • Various percussion:
    • Cymbals
    • Glockenspeil (orchestra bells)
    • Electronic Timpini
    • Tubular bells/chimes
    • etc.

All 21 hymns, except lyrics for "Morning Has Broken" are now public domain. Lyrics for 1 song ("Be Thou with Them") are also still under copyright. Plus, there is the unpublished Contemporary Christian song ("Welcome Home"), written and composed by Ms. Kathy Haupt. (She gave TortoiseClimbing Audio™ permission to arrange and make this 1^st recording of her song.)

Titles and timings of hymns and songs included are found at Simple Playlist. A more detailed version is available as an Annotated Playlist. Lyrics for all hymns and songs are available for all hymns and songs both from this website and our online audio marketplace. (See Lyrics.)

A limited number of streamings are provided for all tracks from the audio online marketplace product page (see Hymns and Songs of My Mother). At the online audio Marketplace you can also purchase and:

1. Digitally download the album, or
2. Place an order for the CD to be mailed.

Except for lyrics to "Morning Has Broken," all hymns are now Public Domain, i.e., out-of-copyright. Lyrics to the wedding song "Be Thou with Them," are also still under copyright. We are copyrighting the original folk-Contemporary Christian song "Welcome Home" on behalf of the author/composer, Kathy Brigman Haupt.

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