Songs of Devotion

     Songs of Devotion is a book of beautiful hymns composed by Mennonite/Anabaptist composer Simon Filbrun, with words by Lydia Wagoner.
     Mr. Filbrun published this album of forty-seven songs in 2001. The harmonization of the hymns is as sung by Mennonite congregations.
     When in 2005 Mr. Filbrun was asked to compile a second volume of music, Songs of Devotion No. 2, he included many of the songs from the first book. Additionally, there are songs written since then and many new and old hymns that range from European chorales to hymns from the Brittish Isles, from Colonial America to the southern oblong shape-note tune books of the mid-1800s, and from the Harmonia Sacra and Philharmonia to the hymnals of the twentieth century.
     Mennonites have kept alive the hymn-singing traditions, and the second volume contains a treasure of great hymns compiled by a traditional Mennonite composer.
     However, the first Songs of Devotion, pictured here, contains the original harmonizations composed for Mennonite congregations.     

      I spoke with Mr. Filbrun on the telephone in 2020, and he explained that the publisher of the 2005 expanded edition modified Simon Filbruns’ harmonizations in places where “the rules of harmony were violated”, thus making these hymns sound more “correct”. 
      The “rules” of harmony that are taught in our major universities are excellent sources of study, but are long out-of-date. And so, I recommend Mr. Filbrun’s original 2001 edition for the original harmonies, and the second edition as a wonderful treasure trove of great hymns.
     Below, I show a two-measure example from the hymn “When I Consider”:

Don Robertson

In the original edition, there are "parallel fifths" in the tenor and bass parts.
The publishers of the second edition 'fixed' the 'forbidden" parallel fifths with a common cadencial ending.