“Spring Forth from the Desert Rock
This month we continue our Hymn of the Month series in which one or more hymns drawn from collections published by The Leupold Foundation will be posted on the website for consideration by pastors and musicians who may wish to introduce the hymn to their congregations the following month, perhaps by having the choir introduce the hymn on the first Sunday of the month or season and then inviting the congregation to join the choir in singing the hymn on each subsequent Sunday. Additional hymns will occasionally be suggested for a particular Sunday or festival in the church year; 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 on the church calendar.
Hymn of the Month for May 2025:
Text: “Spring Forth from the Desert Rock,” John Core, Through the Ceaseless Web, p. 52. Tune: FEEDING WATER, Iteke Prins, Murmurings of the Soul, p. 53. Alternate Familiar Tune: SONG 13
The Hymn of the Month for May 2025 might more aptly be considered a Hymn of the Season for Late Easter, specifically intended for introduction on the Fourth Sunday of Easter and sung every Sunday through Easter 7. On those four Sundays, the appointed Second Readings are from the Book of Revelation, with each reading containing a reference to “the water of life”: “the spring(s) of the water of life” in Revelation 7.17 and 21.6, “the river of the water of life” in Revelation 22.1, and “the water of life as a gift” in Revelation 22.17. The hymn for late Easter, combining the text, Spring Forth from the Desert Rock by John Core (1951-2017), with the tune, FEEDING WATER, by Iteke Prins (b. 1937), is filled with similar water imagery, thus drawing attention to those readings, which are often overlooked by preachers. While the Prins’ tune readily accommodates Core’s shift from the trochaic metrical foot established in the first three lines of each stanza to a dactyl followed by three spondees in the final line, more familiar tunes tend to be problematic; the suggested SONG 13 only works by shifting the slur on the eighth notes in the penultimate measure to the two quarter notes that conclude the measure, a change most parishioners would never notice. However, if the hymn is sung four Sundays in a row, why not teach the new and very accessible tune composed specifically for the text?
John Core was born at Camp (now Fort) Rucker, Alabama, and earned a B.A. in Speech Communication from West Virginia University in Morgantown, where he served as a Library Associate cataloging music from 1975 until his death in 2017. Core was a member of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and published four collections of texts with The Leupold Foundation. Iteke Prins was born in Holland and immigrated to the United States in 1949. After achieving her career goal as a registered nurse, Prins later served as organist and music director for Blooming Grove Reformed Church in Rensselaer, New York, from 1969 until 2005. Prins has published ten volumes of hymn tunes with The Leupold Foundation.
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