Last week’s post concerned The Dream of Gerontius. That work is dedicated using the abreviation A.M.D.G. of the Jesuit motto Ad maiorem Dei gloriam (To the greater glory of God). Benjamin Britten set words of Gerard Manley Hopkins using A.M.D.G. as a title. The same initialism is sometimes asociated with J S Bach, though inacurately: he used S.D.G (Soli Deo gloria) arguably with a similar intention.

This week I am giving a short thought about a very short piece inspired by Spirituals, American folk music and Gospel singing, which celebrates the glory that can be given to God in music.

Undine Smith Moore had been raised in Virginia, and remembered community singing linked to prayer in a childhood filled with music. Having studied at Fisk and earned a Julliard scholarship, she began work as a music supervisor in public schools, returning to Petersburg and the music department of Virginia State College (now University). It seems she wrote much of her own choral music largely out of need, with a limited budget to purchase music for her choir. She was a proponent of aspiration and opportunity for musicians, especially those who happen to be female and/or black.

Her short piece entitled Tambourines to Glory is a clear shout of praise. ‘Tambourines to the Glory of God’ is not quite the entirety of the text set, but it is most of it. I have occasionally been accused of being too cerebral, but this sort of music which is unapologetically joyful is also important to me theologically. Praise is, after all, a keystone of the Christian response to God.