A New Hymn Arrangement for a Troubled World

I wonder how many of you too have been overcome with sadness and grief about recent school shootings, violence against children, abuse, and just evil in general. So many troubling things have been happening in our world lately and yet music continues to be a healing balm. I hope this new arrangement of There is a Balm in Gilead will give you the hope and encouragement you need to continue bringing light and hope to those in your community.

This arrangement is the second in our “New-fashioned 21st Century Hymn Arrangements” series in which we hope to shed new beauty and meaning to old hymns. The first piece released was “This is My Father’s World.”

There’s a personal story behind this arrangement

I never really understood the significance of a “balm in Gilead” though I’ve known this piece for a while. The phrase is from Jeremiah 8:22: “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” The phrase is most notably used in a spiritual referring to the concept of salvation. But you can also find it in the last stanza of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous poem, “The Raven” as well.

But this arrangement has personal significance for me when my grandmother died years ago. The arrangement was already composed, but I kept being drawn to it for comfort. 

When my grandmother died, my heart was broken and sad. This was the first of my grandparents that had died, and I was not sure how to find healing. However, I found that playing this piece was the only thing that helped the tears flow freely, which is what I needed. I need to pour out my soul and still find healing and hope for the future.

I hope this arrangement does the same for you…gives you “hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11

How does the cover art relate to the piece?

The covers in this “New-fashioned 21st Century Hymn Arrangements” series are visual perceptual events. This means that they are designed so that your experience of the visual event differs from the physical stimulus in a meaningful way. This is what we want the music to do for you too: to give you a new experience with the familiar words and melody.

When you look at this cover, you think that you see a well-defined box in the middle. Yet this box is only suggested because of the changes in color and the missing parts of the other shapes that your mind sees. Even though there is no real “border” surrounding the square, you still feel the square has been carefully framed and constructed and you feel that you can clearly see it.

This relates to the music in that it mirrors what many of us can feel even when we do not always see it. We can often feel the supernatural, sense his presence, or see the beauty even in its absence. We still find that it exists, that we experience it, and that it brings comfort nonetheless.

Watch There is a Balm in Gilead: