He is Lord, he is Lord

This short item by Marvin Frey, clearly combining Philippians 2:11 with the ‘resurrection’ texts, is almost a model of what a simple song can (and cannot) do; cf also 539. It has no space to set the scene of its sources, but balances its stated theme, briefly repeated, with a final line providing the fuller name of the one who is called ‘Lord’. Although variant stzs have sometimes been developed (‘He’s my Lord … He is king’ etc), these are not necessary and may detract from the meaning as well as the simplicity of the original. The date has been claimed as early as 1952 at Portland, Oregon, USA. Sound of Living Waters (1974) introduced it to Britain, giving it as ‘Anon: Broad and full’, in Betty Pulkingham’s arrangement, and it was soon being widely sung here. Jesus Praise (as arranged by Norman Warren with Angela Reith’s descant) and HTC, both in 1982, were followed by many other books including mainstream hymnals. The music, HE IS LORD, is attributed to the author in (for example) MP, which uses an arrangement by Roland Fudge.

b Sherwood, Oregon, USA 1918, d N Tarrytown, New York, USA 1992. He was an ordained American evangelist and songwriter who wrote over 2000 ‘songs of faith’. One short but notable and Scriptural chorus has outlasted the rest, detached from its original stanzas and travelling the world from Portland, Oregon in 1952. Edward Darling and Donald Davidson (Companion to Church Hymnal, 2005, p157) point out that the claim to authorship ‘cannot be substantiated’. With similar uncertainty, Frey has been credited with the authorship or adaptation of ‘Kum Ba Yah’ (Kumbaya) in his 1939 Portland collection The Revival Choruses of Marvin Frey. The folk-singer Pete Seeger says that it was adapted (even ‘tamed’) in 1936–37, possibly from an African-American original, then taken to Angola by missionaries, returning with an African flavour to become an instantly recognised camp song, recorded by some star names but evoking widely varying responses. What part Frey had in any of this may never be known. No.487.