Composing Music, Paris Zone Conference




Bonjour à tous nos amis. 

We have been in Paris for a month now. What an amazing mission we are having. At the end of every day we can name three or five or seven ways we see a heavenly hand in our day. We will share some of these stories in future blogs.


Phil Bearing Testimony at Zone Conference

But today I, Delys, am going to share with you some ideas about music.

I wrote a hymn in 2009 about the Holy Ghost. Phil and I were in England for a literary conference, and we traveled to the Cotwolds to hike in the beautiful countryside. But Phil got ill and had to rest and sleep to recover, so as I sat by his side, I thought I should use this downtime to write the lyrics for a hymn (a first for me). At home I revised the lyrics and wrote the music, and I turned it in to the Church's yearly Music Submission contest. I won an award for this hymn.

The lyrics draw on 2 Nephi 31-33, so the words should sound very familiar if you are doing the Come Follow Me readings.  Now the hymn is published on the Church's website under Music Library, Submitted Hymns.  Here is the link. Note to my children and grandchildren--sing this hymn this week! It will count as your scripture reading for the day!

Cool news: This month I received an email telling me my choir arrangement of "Come, Ye Children of the Lord," written for my stake conference last year, won an award in this year's competition. I don't really have anyone to tell here in France, so I'm letting my friends know. Sometime this year it will be published on the Church's website.

The saints in France love to sing a hymn that doesn't exist in the English hymnal: "Souviens-toi," with the music by Dvorak. The melody is very familiar to you, I'm sure. It's from Dvorak's New World Symphony. The French sing it with power and joy. Try singing it yourself. It is beautiful.

À la prochaine

The Snyders



The Paris and Nancy Zone Conference 
Picture taken in the courtyard of our St. Merri Church Building (built in 1600s)
We are on the far right, second and third rows.






Comments

  1. DianneMarch 20, 2024 at 8:40 PM

    Thank you for posting! Thank you for the photos, and for sharing your hymn, DeLys. Congratulations on the awards!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 22, 2024 at 6:30 PM

    Love reading about everything you are doing! And loved to hear about your music. I shall try to get things together and start sending out a bit about our mission in Argentina one of these days! We love serving!

    ReplyDelete
  3. JuddSeptember 23, 2024 at 2:53 PM

    Thank you for letting us know about your hymn writing. It brings me happiness to see your work recognized.

    ReplyDelete

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