Learning the 144 Secular Hymns

♪♪♪ SING ALONG ♪♪♪ as a piano plays the chords and melody (from the SOLO Edition of the Secular Hymnal). Singing along to a simple, chorded melody like this is an ideal way to develop your harmonizing skills!

Lyrics:

Our garden full of flowers, of veg'tables and greens
Of onions and tomatoes, of peppers and of beans
We fertilize and weed them and water ev'ry row
The more that we attend them, the more that they will grow

The hates and fears within us all want attention too
And ev'ry time they get it, they do what they will do
When hates and fears control us and never want to go
The more that we attend them, the more that they will grow

Our peace we keep it living by tending to its needs
By practicing nonviolence in thought and word and deed
Our peace requires we care for the people we don't know
The more that we attend them, the more our peace will grow

 

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Here's the same hymn in 4-part harmony (from the SATB Edition of the Secular Hymnal). If you and your choir prefer to print out your own score of this hymn, click here to access a beautiful PDF file.

To research the history of this hymn tune: http://www.hymnary.org/hymnal/SH2014

 

Out of respect for our diverse society, please work to keep our public school and community choirs "secular" (comfortable and welcoming to both religious and nonreligious singers). For more information, please visit the secular choirs webpage.

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(Page last updated: January 16, 2016 )