"Deep Peace" lyrics and their musical settings

[filiarheni]

"Deep Peace" lyrics exist in totally different musical settings and accordingly differ as well in what they convey. Now I'd like to ask you about your opinion:

So which composition/arrangement (not: interpretation) fits best to what the words express for you personally?
And which version do you enjoy most?

I just post all 4 of them in the order I got to know them. And in case you know further versions, please post them here, too!


1. "Deep Peace" (Bill Douglas)





2. "Deep Peace" (John Rutter)





3. "Attendite" (Robert Prizeman))





4. "Healing Light" (Karl Jenkins)

[Yorkie]

It's difficult to separate the interpretation of each one from what I personally find pleasing musically. I like Rutter but the clear winner for me is Robert's Attendite which has always been a favourite of mine from one of my all time favourite albums. The first and last ones just don't seem to convey the message at all; I find the last one bordering on aggressive!

[john45]

I'm with Yorkie, 3,2,1,4.

[TullyBascombe]

I'll go with #2. Doers anyone know if there is an original version? What does the original sound like.

[Surpinto]

While I agree with John and Yorkie's ratings, I would say that for me to better appreciate those others I would have to either hear them live or have some other direct experience. The Libera version is just right in setting the tone of the song and conveying the lyrics.

[maartendas]

Rutter for me. Listened to it the other day and it really gave me an experience of peace entering my heart.

There is a song with very similar lyrics called "The Peace of the Earth", originally from Guatemala and adapted by John Bell:

We sing a Dutch translation with my choir and I love it

I also found this one:


Btw the Bill Douglas version is no longer available. Here is a different video of that version:

[kinda_k00l]

So which composition/arrangement (not: interpretation) fits best to what the words express for you personally?
And which version do you enjoy most?

Here are my thoughts:
- "Deep Peace" (Bill Douglas): makes me feel blue (a bit empty and lonely and also a bit nostalgic)
- "Deep Peace" (John Rutter): sunshine through the leaves of a tree. Took me some time to get familiar with it though - at first I didn't like this particular piece on the album "Peace"
- "Attendite" (Robert Prizeman): morning landscape with flowers and a river. I don't usually like pentatonic music, but this piece stroke me right at my first listen. And it conveys the message perfectly as for me, the somehow 'Eastern' aspect of the music totally represents a balanced world where everything exists in harmony with others. So clearly this one wins. 10/10
- "Healing Light" (Karl Jenkins): no, just no.

There is a song with very similar lyrics called "The Peace of the Earth", originally from Guatemala and adapted by John Bell
[...]
I also found this one:

These two are nice actually
- The first is hymn-like and does speak of gentleness
- The second one gets me feeling a bit blue, too (somewhat the same as the Bill Douglas' one), but of course more 'secular'