“Fragrance of Springtime”
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by Leupold Editions will be posted on the opening page of the website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month. The Hymn of the Month will often be thematically appropriate for a particular season of the church year or it may be related to a more general theme about the church’s mission in contemporary society. Thus, pastors and/or musicians may wish to have the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then invite the congregation to join with the choir in singing the hymn on each of the remaining Sundays. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday in the church year or for annual commemorations, such as the liturgies of Holy Week; such hymns may only be appropriate on the designated day, or they might be used as a Hymn of the Month in anticipation of or in response to the particular day observed on the church calendar.
For those congregations who observe The Ascension of Our Lord, the text, “Fragrance of Springtime” by Gracia Grindal (b. 1943) set to the tune I WILL RETURN by Amanda Husberg (1940-2021) is actually a dialog between Christ and the disciples based on the Gospel appointed for Ascension Day in the Revised Common Lectionary (Luke 24.44-53). Thus, the hymn might be most effective if the alteratim praxis is employed to differentiate between words of Jesus in the second half of Stanza 1 and the entirety of Stanza 3 (perhaps the low voices of the congregation) and the thoughts of the disciples in Stanza 2 (perhaps the high voices of the congregation) with the narrative of the first half of Stanza 1 and all of Stanza 4 being sung by the entire congregation. Such an approach can bring the text of a dialogical hymn to life in a way that is not possible when the entire congregation sings the entire hymn. Of course, other alternation possibilities are possible between a children’s choir and an adult choir (on the day the hymn is introduced) or by a soloist (Jesus) and the choir (disciples) and congregation (narrative), etc.
Grindal is a native of North Dakota educated at Augsburg College in Minneapolis and the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. She taught at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, for sixteen years before being before joining the faculty of Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, in 1984. Upon her retirement in 2013, she was named Professor Emerita of Rhetoric. Active as a hymn writer since serving on the Hymn Text Committee of the Lutheran Book of Worship (1978), Grindal rose to the challenge of Wayne Leupold to write a hymn on every text for the Gospel, and Old Testament lessons in the Revised Common Lectionary, the result of which was A Treasury of Faith, a multi-volume collection of hymns covering all three years of the RCL.
Husberg studied organ at Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska, and early childhood education at Hunter College in New York City. She served for some five decades as Director of Music for Saint John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in Brooklyn, NY, and worked for thirty-six years as an Educational Director in New York City’s publicly-funded day care system. Three collections of her delightful hymn tunes have been published by Leupold Editions: When You Pass through the Waters (2005), A Treasury of Faith—Lectionary Hymns, New Testament, Series B (2012), and A Treasury of Faith—Lectionary Hymns, Old Testament, Series C.
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