Mark Graham

Who is this Mark Graham?

In his own words:
" I was born in Wiesbaden, Germany, in 1953. Grew up mostly in western Pennsylvania and Ohio. Have a degree in forestry from the University of Montana, 1974. Lived in Pasadena 1975-78. Married Thea Clay from the Netherlands. Was baptized in Missoula, Montana, in 1973.

We moved to Cleveland in 1978. Have two kids, Emily, 15, and David, 13. Have played piano from age 7, currently work as a piano technician for Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory of Music in Berea, Ohio. Hobbies are gardening and writing music."

A letter from Mark Graham about his hymnal project

As readers of the Journal know, I completed a hymnal designed for the churches of God in April 1997. It included 29 songs by Dwight Armstrong. We received written permission from the board of the Worldwide Church of God to use those hymns, but for reasons of his own their attorney, Mr.Ralph Helge, has not found time to issue us the necessary license.

I have accepted as reality the fact that such a license is not going to come. (Other groups are also having difficulty obtaining one.) So, I have decided to produce another hymnal, without the Dwight Armstrong hymns. I know that they are of great emotional and traditional value to many, including myself, but I was excited to find that there are plenty of other hymns with texts from the psalms and other scriptures, that are as good as or better than the Dwight Armstrong hymns. Also, I was able to track down hymnals that prove beyond question that Mr. Armstrong often used existing lyrics and simply set them to music. This means that we can still use the familiar words if they are sung to different tunes.

Furthermore, I have decided to make the entire hymnal royalty-free. This is a little different from public-domain, in that some of the hymns are copyrighted, but are available free for any non-profit use. It means I will have to omit some very good hymns, but there is no shortage of equally good hymns to replace them. It is amazing how many wonderful, little-known hymns are out there for our use, which seem as though they were written specifically for law-keeping Christians who eagerly await the return of Jesus Christ to establish His kingdom. I think that those of you who see the finished product will see how custom-made it is for our people. I am also trying to make it suitable for Christians anywhere in the world by leaving out nationalistic hymns and including songs from international sources.

When it is finished, I will notify everyone who has contacted me. The plan is to print it and sell it at near cost, but because it is royalty-free, anyone who wishes to will also be able to photocopy it or post it on a web page. If someone with more energy than I have wishes to make tapes of the hymns and distribute them (they're available in MIDI format), or translate them into other languages (they're currently all in English), they can do so without worrying about royalties or lawsuits. I am very excited about this hymnal, and I think that every song is a winner.

Unfortunately, I have to do this in my spare time. I'm making good progress, but it probably will be finished after the Feast of Tabernacles this year. I appreciate your patience, and hope that others are as enthusiastic about it as I am.

Mark Graham
P.O.Box 770261
Lakewood, OH 44107-0019
U.S.A.
Phone (216) 529-1380
email magraham@bw.edu

Songs for the Family of God Hymnal
By Mark Graham (Jan/Feb 1999)

The hymnal I have been working on for two years is finished! It contains 88 hymns, each one of them a winner. 47 are taken directly from the Psalms. Many of the rest are directly based on other scriptures, and about 30 of them are based on New Testament scriptures or teachings. It is a very “Church of God” oriented, forward-looking collection. Many of the hymns are about Christ returning to establish his kingdom, and other parts of what we know as the plan of God, including His Sabbath and keeping His commandments.

Some melodies are by the old masters—Mozart, Haydn, Tallis. Others are based on melodies from England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Finland, Spain, China, Peru, Holland, Israel, the Ukraine, and Greece. There are two African-American spirituals, and one from the Kentucky Harmony collection. Many are ancient or from older psalters. Some, though still quite melodic and easy to sing, push the envelope of rhythmic structure. It is definitely a modern hymnal, yet it relies heavily on the beauty and majesty of old hymns. I think it stands on its own as a work with a distinctive flavor, and if one were to read the lyrics from beginning to end, it even preaches the gospel.

I wrote about a dozen of the hymns, and contributed to the lyrics or harmonies of a few more. My work is copyrighted, but available free for any non-profit use. There are so many advantages to having a royalty-free hymnal that I felt is was worth forfeiting the use of other beautiful hymns that are copyrighted. As a result, there are no Dwight Armstrong hymns, but I was able to find many old hymns which are just as good, often using exactly the same lyrics Mr. Armstrong did. This hymnal can be photocopied by anyone in its entirety or in part, or can be posted on a website for downloading. There are plans to produce a CD of MIDI files of all Of the hymns, soon. (I will record them myself now that I know the final contents of the hymnal.) Also, because there are no royalties, the cost of the hymnals will be quite low.

In addition to the regular index, the hymns are grouped by meter as well. This means that the words of any hymn in a group may be sung to the tune of any other hymn in that group, producing literally hundreds of combinations of music and lyrics.

Jim Hopkins has done a great job of figuring out paper stock, binding style, and size. The finished hymnal is roughly the size of the current UCG hymnal or the old WCG gray hymnal, but with a sewn and glued binding that is very durable (I think it’s called perfect binding). Christy Hooper of Cleveland designed a beautiful cover and title page.

Up to this point, we have done everything for free. All the editing, typesetting, artwork and layout, and printing preliminaries have been donated. by the people involved. Just for comparison, the WCG and UCG hymnals cost tens of thousands of dollars to produce. The major costs of printing and postage are too much for any one individual to bear. Thanks to many people who either loaned us money, or bought advanced copies, we were able to make the initial payment for printing. We intend to sell the hymnal at a price sufficient to recover our costs.