Be Thou My Vision – arr. Parker

Alice Parker (b. 1925) is the grande dame of American choral music, having composed a wealth of original work and occupied a litany of leadership roles. She is perhaps most recognized for her arrangements, notably of American folk music. Melodious Accord – A Concert of Praise is a collection of American folk worship tunes in the ESUMC library [1]. Melodious Accord is also the title of many things Alice Parker, including her publishing concern, benevolent organization, and one of her several books [2]. Early in her career she enjoyed a professional partnership with Robert Shaw, the dean of the American choral scene in the mid-20th century, and later formed her own professional chorale (also named Melodious Accord) in 1985.

Be Thou My Vision is a hymn of Irish extraction, first appearing in English in 1912 and later paired with the now-familiar Slane hymn tune, also of Irish origin, in 1919. Parker’s 1976 arrangement [listen] uses four of the verses that make up the commonly translated text [3]. Parker’s version is a straight-forward statement of the work scored for SATB including a descant along with an accompaniment of harp and organ.

The hymn text is not associated with any particular Bible verse. The infrequently heard “Be thou my breastplate” verse is nevertheless reminiscent of Ephesians 6:11-18 (Put on the whole armor of God).

Be Thou my Breastplate, my Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my whole Armor, be Thou my true Might;
Be Thou my soul’s Shelter, be Thou my strong Tow’r,
O raise Thou me heav’nward, great Pow’r of my pow’r.

The phrase “Be thou my vision” is familiar enough that we likely don’t give it the reflection it deserves. Ephesians 5:1-2 can help put us in the mind of “Be thou the perfect ideal that I aspire to live up to” : “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

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• [1] The choir recorded the work to CD; copies are in the archives.
• [2] The expression Melodious Accord is extracted from a stylized version of Psalm 100, per Parker’s book of the same title.
• [3] The current Methodist Hymnal omits the “Riches I heed not” verse, although it appears in other common hymnals. The prior Methodist Hymnal omitted the hymn altogether.

Other sources:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Be_Thou_My_Vision
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Parker
• https://www.melodiousaccord.org/
• Parker, Alice: Melodious Accord (Gia Publications, Inc., 2014)