“In times like these you need an anchor.”
Hymn: “In Times Like These”
Text and Tune: Ruth Caye Jones ()
Tune: TIMES LIKE THESE
In the lexicon of musical terms, you’ll find “tonal center”
listed as that place in a melody to which all the other notes seem to
gravitate, particularly related to the listener. It’s the note (or tonality)
that gives stability to the listener. It is best understood when one is listening
to a song, and we know when it is complete because it lands on the final note.
Try singing “Happy Birthday to You” and stop just before the last note; your
ear is unsatisfied until the last note is sung. Now you get it?
This tonal center is often referred to as the “home” note or
the “key” note (because that final note is usually the name of the key: e.g.
E-flat). Most commonly, it’s called the “anchor” – the pitch or harmony that
keeps the tune from going too far askew!
Enough of the music theory lesson for now, but in times like
these, we really do need our life-song to have some stability. We find
ourselves adrift in the unknown right now; we will do well to drop anchor so we
won’t float away into fear or even despair.
Ruth Caye Jones’ only commonly-known hymn (published in 39 major
hymnals) is a listing of what she thinks we need in these times: a Savior, a
Rock, the Bible… and of course, an anchor. But the phrase we come away with –
the one that goes with us when we finish singing this hymn – may be: “Be very
sure, be very sure your anchor holds.”
For the next few days or weeks, don’t let the stress of life
steal your song. Keep singing… stay in the key and realize that the tonal
center is stabilizing the melody… and believe that the home note will soon
arrive, and THIS part of the song will finally come to an end.
In case you haven’t caught on to this already, Christ
himself is our Tonal Center, keeping us in tune – keeping our sequestered
existence from becoming a dissonant mess.
Without sounding trite, let me say: “The Great Musician now
is near, the stabilizing Jesus!”
Fresh Setting of This Hymn by the Cadet Sisters
A More Typical Singing
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