This is a guided tour through music and arts coming from various Christian worship traditions around the world, plus a few other things of related interest such as multicultural musics.
Various versions of “Christ whose glory fills the skies”
From Bruce Benedict: “If you are looking for a song to sing for Epiphany I think this must be the one. This text by Charles Wesley has been retuned more than any other ‘epiphany’ text.”
Bruce’s blog post
http://cardiphonia.org/2012/12/29/christ-whose-glory-fills-the-sky/
suggests 6 recent “retunings” (new music) for Wesley’s lyrics. See the comments for 3 more melodies people have used.
My favorite melody out of all the ones suggested is the one composed by Luke Morton in 2012
http://lukemorton.bandcamp.com/track/christ-whose-glory-fills-the-skies
It’s in 6/8 time signature; to give it a multicultural flavor, it would be easy to add a latin groove (using bata drums if you have them, which you probably dont!) or the common double bell pattern in 12/8 from West Africa (your percussionist should know what this is).
Get the lead sheet at
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/1220195/christ%20whose%20glory%20-%20morton%20%28C%29%20-%20Capo.pdf
1. Christ, Whose glory fills the skies,
Christ, the true, the only light,
Sun of Righteousness, arise!
Triumph o’er the shades of night;
Day-spring from on high, be near;
Day-star, in my heart appear.
2. Dark and cheerless is the morn
Unaccompanied by Thee;
Joyless is the day’s return,
Till Thy mercy’s beams I see;
Till they inward light impart,
Glad my eyes, and warm my heart.
3. Visit then this soul of mine;
Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;
Fill me, Radiancy Divine;
Scatter all my unbelief;
More and more Thyself display,
Shining to the perfect day.