NzIY: Nos. 2-25

This post deals in a cursory fashion with the first 26 musical pieces in Nyimbo za Imani Yetu:

• 2 Baba, Mwana, Roho – Holy, Holy, Holy
• 3 Watu wa Yesu – O Worship the King
• 4 Mungu Mtukufu Aliye Bwana – To God Be the Glory
• 5 Msifu Mungu – © 1994 M G Mutsoli (words & music)
• 6 Mungu ni Pendo – traditional tune
• 7 Ni Siku Tukufu – Come, Christians, Join to Sing
• 8 Zaburi 100 – traditional tune
• 9 Jina la Yesu Sifuni – All Hail the Power (Coronation)
• 10 Bariki Baba – traditional tune; words © 1994 M G Mutsoli
• 11 Jina la Yesu Salamu – All Hail the Power (Diadem)
• 12 Yesu mwema mno – Fairest Lord Jesus
• 13 Twamsifu Mungu – We Praise Thee, O God (Revive Us Again)
• 14A Mungu Ndiye Mwamba Wetu – O God, Our Help (tune © 1994 David Makathimo)
• 14B Mungu Ndiye Mwamba Wetu – O God, Our Help (St. Anne)
• 15A Watu Wote Duniani – All People That on Earth Do Dwell (Old 100th)
• 15B Watu Wote Duniani – All People That on Earth Do Dwell (tune © 1994 David Makathimo)
• 16 Bwana Mungu, Nashangaa – How Great Thou Art (authorized translation, © 1994 Kingsway’s Thankyou)
• 17 Zaburi 67 (tune © 1994 Nathan Corbitt)
• 18 Niongoze, Bwana Mungu – Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (Cwm Rhondda)
• 19 Wimbo wa Shukrani – tune (traditional?) Haya
• 20 Mtukuzeni Bwana Pamoja Nami (tune © 1994 Glenn Boyd)
• 21 Nakusifu Bwana Yesu – Channels Only
• 22 Tangazeni Neno Lake – Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Nettleton)
• 23 Tangazeni Neno Lake – Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (Warrenton)
• 24 Jina Lake Yesu Tamu – traditional tune
• 25 Walimwengu Waimbe – traditional Malawi tune, translation by David Makathimo

Random Notes:
• some of the pieces listed here as translations are at best very loose paraphrases, indeed seem to me more like independent texts set to the tunes associated with the English incipits
• David Makathimo’s tunes for “Mungu Ndiye Mwamba Wetu” and “Watu Wote Duniani” seem to work very well for the Swahili texts, but so far I haven’t been able to make them work with the English
• except for #24, translators are uncredited
• #19, a version of Psalm 136, has 18 verses
• #11 seems to differ from #9 more than the corresponding English texts do; I am guessing they are independent translations, also, contrary to the English custom, more stanzas are given to Diadem than to Coronation
• To sum up, we have out of 26 pieces, 15 texts (two of them set to two tunes each) that are presented as (from faithful to barely recognizable) translations of English hymns; 4 unattributed texts set to traditional tunes; 2 unattributed texts set to copyrighted tunes; 1 copyrighted text set to a traditional tune; 1 song where the tune is traditonal (from Malawi) and the translator is credited but without a copyright notice; and 1 song where both text and tune are copyrighted

I’m sure I’ll have more comments, but I’ll enter them as comments as I think of them.

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