Blake Johnson Artist Statement “Christ is Our Spring”

I discovered this piece, (originally “A Study of Two White Lilies” by french artist Antione Berjon (1754-1843)) while sifting through the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection of public domain drawings. The technicolor grid, placed posthumously beside the image – likely to help “white balance” the archival photograph – caught my eye as an interesting juxtaposition: the gentleness of the artist’s … Read More

Blake Johnson Artist Statement – The Resurrection

Like “Christ Is Our Spring”, I discovered this piece (originally “The Resurrection”, a 16th century German molten glass sculpture) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s open source archives. I was searching for historical art pieces I could digitally reinterpret for an album of songs attempting to do a similar thing – using newer musical technologies to reimagine older hymn texts. … Read More

Rise Heart

Click here for song audio! George Herbert a Priest, music composer, orator, poet and theologian who lived at the same time as King James of England, gave up his worldly ambitions of becoming an elite master of rhetoric and public oration and embraced a delightful burden of extending the message of the cross which is to lift Jesus high so … Read More

Be Not So Tearful

Resurrect, Vol.1 by Bellwether Arts [Feat. Jonathan Gabhart]  From an early age Phoebe Cary (1824-1871) was familiar with the deep pain of life. Her mother died when she was a young girl. They lived a peasant life in rural Ohio. Phoebe and her sister Alice found comfort amidst their struggle by writing. They wrote poetry and verse and eventually found … Read More

Awake Thou Wintry Earth

Resurrect, Vol.1 by Emily Hanrahan  Here in the lyrics of Awake Thou Wintry Earth, we see the personified earth flinging off her sadness. She invites light, flowers, growth, and warmth in the wake of the eternal Spring. The verses present here were first printed in an 1850 edition of a book entitled “Poems for the Sick and Suffering,” written by … Read More

Dear Savior of a Dying World

Resurrect, Vol.1 by Olivia Abdou When I began the process of choosing a hymn to re-tune for Cardiphonia’s Resurrect project, I didn’t have a specific one in mind. But as soon as I saw the title of this hymn by Anna Laetitia Waring, I was intrigued. I had to do a double take. Dear Savior of a Dying World – … Read More

Retuned Hymns: A Brief Description

(The following is a brief primer on the “retuned hymn” movement. If you are interested in hearing more, check out cardiphonia.bandcamp.com or on your streaming platform of choice!) The song of the church has always had an expansive relationship between text and tune. With each generation negotiating the fixed or fluid relationship between prose and praise.  In the last twenty … Read More

Christ Is Your Spring

Click here for song audio This original hymn text was written by EA Washburn in the late 1800s. It was first published as a part of a collection of Easter hymns, compiled by Jane Eliza Chapman in 1876. Jane’s uncle, J. I. T. Coolidge was an Episcopalian pastor in the Boston area and no doubt helped promote her collection of … Read More

Our Paschal Joy At Last is Here

Resurrect, Vol.1 by Liv Lowe “Our paschal joy at last is here!” Each of us have experienced the brutal nature of desperation and weariness. Perhaps you have felt the mundane essence of hopelessness, or perhaps you have forgotten what your faith is for. And it’s not just you – we have all arrived at such a place living in this … Read More

Centering Prayer

Centering Prayer is an ancient Christian practice that helps us move toward a posture/practice of being centered in God. The following reflection is borrowed from “The Praying Church Idea Book” by Douglas Kamstra. Let it be a guide and encouragement to your own prayer practice this Lent! Centering prayer is an attempt to eliminate the “outside noises” (lawns being mowed, … Read More