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What are your favourite hymns?
I can think of a couple that I always enjoyed singing at school. I've added the tune name in brackets, for sometimes hymns are sung to different tunes. It would be good if you could do the same.
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (Repton)
Be Thou My Vision (Slane)
St Patrick's Breastplate (Stanford)
O Quanta Qualia
(http://www.gmu.edu/departments/fld/CLASSICS/hymni.latini.html#O sung to the MIDI file on http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/l/blessing.htm)
You can find them, by title, and listen to MIDI renditions of the tune at:
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/ttl/ttl.htm
I can also think of a couple of anthems I enjoyed, but they might be a bit obscure.
Finally, I will also admit to enjoying singing these on occasion, for patriotic reasons:
Jerusalem (Parry)
Land of Hope and Glory (Elgar)
I Vow to thee, My Country (Holst's Jupiter)
David
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 02:59] |
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"Eternal Father, Strong to Save": The Navy Hymn
The song known to United States Navy men and women as the "Navy Hymn," is a musical benediction that long has had a special appeal to seafaring men, particularly in the American Navy and the Royal Navies of the British Commonwealth and which, in more recent years, has become a part of French naval tradition.
The original words were written as a hymn by a schoolmaster and clergyman of the Church of England, the Rev. William Whiting. Rev. Whiting (1825-1878) resided on the English coast near the sea and had once survived a furious storm in the Mediterranean. His experiences inspired him to pen the ode, "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." In the following year, 1861, the words were adapted to music by another English clergyman, the Rev. John B. Dykes (1823-1876), who had originally written the music as "Melita" (ancient name for the Mediterranean island of Malta).
In the United States, in 1879 the late Rear Adm. Charles Jackson Train, an 1865 graduate of the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis was a lieutenant commander stationed at the Academy in charge of the Midshipman Choir. In that year, Lt. Comdr. Train inaugurated the present practice of concluding each Sunday's Divine Services at the Academy with the singing of the first verse of this hymn.
Eternal Father, Strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bid'st the mighty Ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to thee,
for those in peril on the sea.
O Christ! Whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at Thy word,
Who walked'st on the foaming deep,
and calm amidst its rage didst sleep;
Oh hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!
Most Holy spirit! Who didst brood
Upon the chaos dark and rude,
And bid its angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace;
Oh, hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea!
O Trinity of love and power!
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them wheresoe'er they go;
Thus evermore shall rise to Thee,
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
Gary
Navyone
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 03:07] |
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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As a kid brought up in a rural environment, I always liked the hymns that marked the changing seasons.
At Epiphany, my favourite was 'As, with gladness, men of old'.
I had considerable admiration for Mrs. Cecil Frances Alexander, wife of an Anglican clergyman and writer of children's hymns. She reflected the ethos of her time, and though her hymn 'All things bright and beautiful' is now sung without the verse:
"The rich man in his castle,
The poor man at his gate -
He made them high and lowly,
He ordered their estate."
- she was merely reflecting the sentiments of her generation. To my mind, none of this diminishes the quality of her Easter hymn: "There is a green hill, far away, without a city wall."
For Trinity, nothing surpassed the 'Old Hundredth':
"All people that on Earth do dwell,
Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice ... "
... except, perhaps:
"Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!
God in Three Persons, Blessed Trinity!"
For harvest, my favourite was the German hymn:
"We plough the fields and scatter
The good seed on the land -
But it is fed and watered
By God's almighty hand."
At Christmas, I had many favourites, including Mrs. Alexander's 'Once in Royal David's City', but my absolute favourite was 'O little town of Bethlehem." - sung to the traditional tune. At grammar school, our senior music master liked to ponce around with fancy alternatives at our annual service in the cathedral - but the original was undoubtedly the best!
Sorry, David, but I'm no expert on tune titles - perhaps you can help?
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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At last a thread to which I have nothing at all to contribute! Because, if I did no one would have the faintest idea what I was talking about. 
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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Aussie
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Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
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I am also inspired by Fanny Crosby (she wrote over 8000hymns)and I like her Blessed Assurance
Aussie
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 06:52] |
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The first two on your list, David, are at or near the top of mine.
And Cossie, Holy, Holy, Holy is there as well.
At the very top is Crown Him with Many Crowns which I heard done by a boy choir at St. Pauls Chapel near ground zero in New York City. Awesome stuff!
I was never a choir boy, but I currently sing in a men's chorus doing mostly Hymns. The sound is more powerful, but somehow it doesn't have the same impact on me as that of a boy choir.
Teddy
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 08:48]
“There's no grays, only white that's got grubby. I'm surprised you don't know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is.” - Terry Pratchett
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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Some were such awful dirges. "A safe stronghold..." (Ein Feste Burg) was so tedious and seemed to get slower and slower!
I preferred psalms. The fun was knowing which bits to do to which bits of music. But we had or three gloriously fun arrangements of pslams by Malcom Williamson and posisbly by Vaughn Williams
The Te Deum (tedium?) was excellent, as was the Nunc Dimitis. And Psalm 150 great fun and just begging to be jazzed up.
Odd, we enjoyed the singing, but the religion never quite got inside.
St Patrick's Breastplate is lovely, too. I agree with all who like it. Also pretty much anything with a thundering and usually Welsh tune.
I wonder if this is the deep spiritual origin of Karaoke?
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 07:43]
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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Well, finding the tunes is a bit hit-and-miss, but I discovered it was necessary when I visited
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/ttl/ttl.htm
and discovered that those tunes I regard as essential to the hymn are sometimes listed only as "alternative" tunes.
What I did was look up the name of the hymn, then I listened to the MIDI files available until I found the tune that matched. It may be an American thing, to sing some of the greatest hymns of all time to the wrong tune, but it's almost sacrilegious in my book!
In other words, I can't guarantee that the tunes that I would use are the same as the ones you would use. I'm not doing it to be pretentious, only to remove ambiguity.
David
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Ah, yes -- that's another one we used to sing at school, but only ever in the evening, at Preces (prayers). I play it on the piano sometimes.
Personally, I think that rendition is lacking something -- I think it would benefit from a full choir including bass, or a congregation. And while it is intended, because of the subject of the programme, to be as slow and sad as possible, I think that this has been a bit overdone.
I've tried to find another version on Youtube but it all seems to be Libera, unfortunately.
David
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 12:37] |
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Timmy said,
>Odd, we enjoyed the singing, but the religion never quite got inside.
Not odd -- very common, I think. Hymns, especially at Preces (evening prayers), were there to enjoy. That's why I included O Quanta Qualia -- there was one particular way that it was sung (very unconventionally) in my house at school that meant that everyone looked forward to it.
David
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 12:57] |
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We arnt allowed to sing hymns in school, but there is one I like a lot. I dont think there is any hymn that is as good as "Amazing Grace" played with bag pipes. I may be mistaken but I believe it was written to be played with the pipes.
I believe in Karma....what you give is what you get returned........
Affirmation........Savage Garden
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Well, I'd certainly go along with cossie's nominations of "We plough the fields and scatter", and "O little town of Bethlehem".
I also have a great affection for ""Lead us, heavenly father, lead us" ( http://cat-ra.universal-music-group.com/_classics/_ram/s1/028945225227_02_22_00.00-01.30_s1.ram is the tune I know, though I've no idea what it's called).
But the single hymn that says it all for me, and perfectly blends sentiment with sense and sounds, is the 23rd Psalm from the 1650 Scottish Psalter, "The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want ...), Crimond (http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/Audio/thelordismyshepherd1piano.ram). (I discovered a large number of other tunes to this when looking for an audio clip of it, but accept no substitute: this is the real thing!)
For half a term, aged four, I attended the "mixed infants" school my grandmother taught at, and I have great memories of her playing this on a rather elderly school piano.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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I, too, was a school (and church) chorister. I enjoyed "To be a Pilgrim", which was almost counted as our school song.
The hymn which was the school hymn, by Henry Charles Beeching, was simply called "Prayers" I don't remember what the tune was called, I might be able to look it up, but the text was quite fun:
God who created me
Nimble and light of limb,
In three elements free,
To run, to ride, to swim:
Not when the sense is dim,
But now from the heart of joy,
I would remember Him:
Take the thanks of a boy.
Jesu, King and Lord,
Whose are my foes to fight,
Gird me with Thy sword
Swift and sharp and bright.
Thee would I serve if I might;
And conquer if I can,
From day-dawn till night,
Take the strength of a man.
Spirit of Love and Truth,
Breathing in grosser clay,
The light and flame of youth,
Delight of men in the fray,
Wisdom in strength’s decay;
From pain, strife, wrong to be free,
This best gift I pray,
Take my spirit to Thee.
This by the man who wrote another poem; "Going Down Hill on a Bicycle: A Boy's Song"
I enjoy, still, "Bread of Heaven" (I don't remember if that's the first line or not. Oh Age!!!) but as I'm not at home and don't have my English Hymnal to hand, can't say for sure what the tune is; I just remember it was great fun to belt it out!
[Updated on: Mon, 13 November 2006 13:35] |
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You're not allowed to sing hymns at school? Why not?
The only place I ever used to sing hymns was at school. I've never gone to church regularly (and it's unlikely that I ever will, being an atheist, unless I join some sort of choir again).
I don't think I've ever heard it sung, or sung it myself, in church or chapel in the UK, so I can't really judge it on that basis. I've always thought of it as an American hymn (without meaning any disrespect to either the hymn or Americans!).
David
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"Lead us, Heavenly Father" has the tune Tantum Ergo by Samuel Webbe (1792).
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/l/e/leadushf.htm
At prep school, the entire school (about 200, 180 boys and 20 girls) would sing to the piano, played by the Maths master, every day. At Winchester, in the first two years we would have seven short services/prayers with a hymn a week, plus a full Sunday service; thereafter it was two plus Sunday, but then I joined the choir and there was a lot of rehearsing. So I got to know quite a lot of hymns pretty well.
David
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http://www.cyberhymnal.org/ is excellent -- you can find full lyrics, the names of tunes, search for words, etc. Also, you can listen to the tunes in not-so-glorious MIDI, which is good for identifying their names.
David
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Teddy said,
>I was never a choir boy, but I currently sing in a men's chorus doing mostly Hymns. The sound is more powerful, but somehow it doesn't have the same impact on me as that of a boy choir.
I personally feel that a men's chorus of just tenors and basses is missing out; but so is a boy choir without any men -- it's too pure, too high, and lacks bass. The ideal, as far as I am concerned, is a choir with both, like British cathedral or Oxbridge choirs (or the one I was in at school). I'm not a huge fan of boy-only groups like Libera for that reason. (Plus Libera doesn't sing many of the real greats; instead it sings new-age pop-synthesiser stuff, which is nothing in comparison.)
David
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Sorry, JFR. Did you never sing Christian hymns in your youth? I'm not Christian, and yet I've never been able to get away from them! 
David
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Deeej wrote:
Sorry, JFR.
Why apologise? What a dull world we would live in if we are all the same.
Did you never sing Christian hymns in your youth? I'm not Christian, and yet I've never been able to get away from them!
The answer is 'no'. Why on earth would one sing hymns if the words mean nothing at all to you? Also, I find some of the music very 'cloying'. But all this is very dependent on one's upbringing: you, David, like these hymns because they were a part of your 'growing up'. They were never a part of my growing up.
I could post here the words of a Jewish hymn, but it would be meaningless because it would have to be in translation (where much is always lost) and without music. And to tell you the honest truth, I find most synagogue music to be even more banal that most Church music.
And, David, you have tricked me! I said that this was a thread that I would not contribute to and here you have wrung a contribution from me! LOL
Hugs,
JFR
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 14:05]
The paradox has often been noted that the United States, founded in secularism, is now the most religiose country in Christendom, while England, with an established church headed by its constitutional monarch, is among the least. (Richard Dawkins, 2006)
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JFR said,
>Why on earth would one sing hymns if the words mean nothing at all to you? [...] You, David, like these hymns because they were a part of your 'growing up'. They were never a part of my growing up.
Okay. I was not sure, for I know very little about how you grew up, JFR.
In my case, I think appreciating hymns is more than just nostalgia (though I agree that I probably would not like them unless I had grown up with them). Yes, hymns tend not to be technically as good as purpose-written anthems by acknowledged masters of music, but they can still have a certain something when sung by a good choir and a decent-sized congregation. There are only half a dozen hymns out of maybe several hundred I have known that I would actually really enjoy singing; then it is usually because of a pleasant or dramatic melody or chord sequence, and not (just) because I connect them with any particular event from my past.
The patriotic hymns I mentioned I like, partly because the patriotism for me takes the place of the religion. I know I shouldn't go overboard with that sort of thing, but I don't see anything wrong with it in moderation. The Last Night of the Proms, for example, is almost religious in its scope, for the same reason.
In other hymns and other choral music I can regard the religiousness as a flight of fantasy, a sort of wish-fulfilment, and get much of the author's original intent without believing it to be true in a down-to-earth, logical way. It's exactly the same with any form of art -- one does not need to (and in most cases should not) see it entirely logically to be moved by its ideas and concepts and emotions.
David
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 14:47] |
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Disposer supreme - tune Old 104th - EH 178 is probably my favourite for its description of the relationship between the deity and man.
Rock of Ages - tune Redhead No 76 - EH 477 - is an absolute dirge and I was not inspired by Burrington Combe in Somerset even if the Rev'd Mr Redhead was.
Ein' feste Burg - with the eponymous tune - both by Luther EH 363 is a challenge to the voice, but I disagree with Timmy that it is a dirge.
St Patrick EH 212 of Breastplate fame is a challenge because of the irregularities of tune and words. It can be difficult to fit them together.
For all the Saints - tune Sine Nomine [Now there's a double bind if ever I saw one.] EH 641 contains that ridiculous line in verse 6: "The golden evening brightens in the west;" As everyone knows Brighton's in the south.
O quanta qualia is interesting - EH 465. It was written by Peter Abélard (famed for his love to Héloïse some 21 years his younger) who was castrated for getting her pregnant. He later became a monk.
I like Onward Christian Soldiers tune St Gertrude by Sir Arthur Sullivan of Gilbert & fame - EH 643 - for the wrong reasons. A friend of mine played bass trombone in the school orchestra and had a raucous phrase in the refrain beloved of us pupils and hated by the music master.
Interesting how popular this thread is with our registered agnostics and atheists.
Hugs
Nigel
[Updated on: Fri, 03 November 2006 08:14]
I dream of boys with big bulges in their trousers,
Never of girls with big bulges in their blouses.
…and look forward to meeting you in Cóito.
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We are not allowed to sing hymns in school or say prayers becasue of "separation of church and state". I was under the impression "Amazing Grace was written be a Scotish Sea Captain.
I believe in Karma....what you give is what you get returned........
Affirmation........Savage Garden
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Since I played the bells I only know, and like them by the tunes not the words. So some I like are
All Glory Laud and Honor
The morning Trumpet (perhaps not a hymn)
Beneath the Cross of Jesus
Blessed Assurance
Ah Holy Jesus
And no Bird Sang
Thats good enough for now, we'll see if I think of any others.
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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Well, there are two parts to it: the words and the tune.
The words were written by John Newton, who was English, not Scottish (ahem!), around 1772.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Newton
The tune is believed to be Irish or Scottish in origin, but first appeared on paper in America, in a hymnal called "Virginia Harmony".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazing_Grace
It is certainly true that it has been, and continues to be, much more popular in America than in the UK. As I said, I have never heard it sung in an English church service. I would tend to say that qualifies it as American.
From Wikipedia:
"The association with bagpipes is relatively modern; for over a century the tune was nearly forgotten in the British Isles until the folk revival of the 1960s began carrying traditional musicians both ways between the British Isles and the United States (where Amazing Grace had remained a very popular hymn). It was little known outside of church congregations or folk festivals until Arthur Penn's film Alice's Restaurant (1969). Lee Hays of The Weavers leads the worshippers in "Amazing Grace".
David
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I simply do not understand the whole "separation of church and state" thing.
In the UK, many schools (both state-run and private) have a Christian basis, but in the vast majority of cases it does not affect the curriculum and you are not stigmatised if you're not Christian.
In America, schools are strictly not allowed to have a Christian basis, yet nevertheless in many parts -- from what I gather -- Christianity significantly affects the curriculum and you are stigmatised if you are not a Christian.
Is it possible to study theology at an American state school or university? Does this apply to private schools?
David
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Theology can be studied at private schools. I am pretty sure that most religious studies at public universities are more academic study of religion then theology related.
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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I agree with you and it's one of the hymns from the English language tradition which has become very popular here, both in its original language and translated into Norwegian.
[Updated on: Thu, 02 November 2006 20:36] |
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The separation of state and religion was one of the fundamental principles of the American Constitution, to make America a safe haven for e.g. religious minorities from the autocratic monarchies of Europe. Fundamentalists are now trying to perforate that part of the constitution by introducing amendments.
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13751
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Well, we had a Jewish lad at schoool who decided he was simply going to join in because he refused to miss out on anything. He even read the lesson in Chapel! He said it did not conflict with his faith because all he was doing was learning.
I have no idea how they handled the sabbath, since school finished well after dusk on Fridays and also happened on Saturdays, but that is a different issue and would just hijack this thread
It's funny that people believe that rhythmic chanting is what a deity wants, but I do see the point of making the hymns enjoyable. Mind you, some of them truly suck! And others, like "Hark the Herald Angels sqwark" go well for ages but that high note is imposisble!
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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timmy wrote:
>
> It's funny that people believe that rhythmic chanting is what a deity wants, ...
Rhythmic chanting for several hours is (for untrained singers) a pretty good way of inducing unusual breathing patterns ... altering the 02 / CO2 balance and blood acidity ... and in turn giving rise to unusual mental states, risk of hallucination, and out-of-body experiences. Many religions have therefore adopted it as a way of achieving a state where a mystical experience becomes more likely. (More sophisticated breathing techniques are usually reserved for priests / shamen / adepts etc - chanting is for the uninitiated, although Christian monks are a bit of an exception).
I have to say that my own experience of the congregation of the C of E church I used to attend was that they were about as likely to have a mystical experience as they were to fornicate on the font ... from this point of view, hymn-singing has become an obsolete ritual!
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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.. but they can still have a certain something when sung by a good choir and a decent-sized congregation ..
I think I understand what mean, because as a foreigner I know very few texts, but the tunes and the singing convey this "certain something".
A few hymns and songs have been translated into Norwegian and have found their ways into our hymn and song books, but we are without the choral tradition of the Anglican Church, and especially the English/Scottish tunes and their chords are very different from the more 'square' German melodic tradition which still dominates our hymns books. Therefore, every time I cross the North Sea, which is not so often, I visit a church, or more, with a decent choir, often the St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey.
In this recording the choir of the St. Paul's sing the hymn "There's a wideness in God's mercy", to the beautiful tune 'Corvedale' by Maurice Bevan,
http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/MP3Audio/spcc2000-11.m3u
If you'll forgive me for being so personal, I don't want to be intrusive, but in many ways this hymn sums up what is in the centre of my own belief,
For the love of God is broader
Than the measure of our mind;
And the heart of the Eternal
Is most wonderfully kind.
But we make His love too narrow
By false limits of our own;
And we magnify His strictness
With a zeal He will not own.
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Aussie
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Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
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Sailor, Yes they are beautiful words and so true.
Aussie
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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The Wikipedia article is a little too glib in dismissing the bagpipe connection as 'modern'.
The tune 'New Britain' is pretty well universally acknowledged to have originated in Ireland or Scotland precisely BECAUSE it is constructed in a manner which is entirely characteristic of pipe music. Technically, therefore, it COULD be English, as Northumberland has a very long tradition of pipe music using 'small pipes', similar to Irish pipes, with the air supplied by under-arm bellows rather than the lungs of the piper.
There are several very similar tunes in the pipe repertoire, though prior to its re-introduction in the 1970s that exact tune is not recorded. This is not at all surprising, because two or three centuries ago most pipe music was handed down by ear rather than by manuscript. This can be demonstrated by the survival of slightly different tunes with the same title, particulary where tunes spread from Scotland to Ireland or vice-versa, but also between different areas within the same country. Wikipedia does acknowledge this ancestry in the 'History' article, so the 'Bagpipe' article should refer to a 're-connection' rather than a connection.
I have previously (and shamefully!) admitted that I like Northumbrian or Irish pipes better than Scottish Pipes though, to my ear, 'New Britain' is resonates most closely with the Scottish tradition - but that, I stress, is just a personal view.
The English (and especially Anglican) repertoire of hymns was strongly influenced by 'Hymns Ancient and Modern' and its predecessors. 'A&M' differed significantly from 'Songs of Praise', the preferred Scottish hymnal with which I grew up. Quite why 'Amazing Grace' was not included is unclear, but I'd guess that it was simply because, in the UK, it was not then united with the 'New Britain' tune. It is the combination of words and music which makes 'Amazing Grace' so memorable. In Scotland, and in my corner of Northern England, it has certainly come back into use, and it appears in several modern hymnals.
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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'Tantum Ergo', the tune usually associated with 'Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us', has - for a hymn tune - the unique distinction of having served as the introductory music for a cop show! It was the theme of 'Softly, Softly', the fairly long-running spin-off from 'Z Cars', starring Stratford Johns as Charlie Barlow and Frank Windsor as John Watt.
Those were the days!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... non-Christians are allowed to enjoy Christian music! As a folk music enthusiast, I love the Irish rebel songs - even the rabidly revolutionary 'Off to Dublin in the Green' - but that didn't make me an IRA supporter!
In my original post, I mentioned only seasonal hymns. Of course, there are lots of general hymns I like - several have been mentioned by other posters. Timmy mentioned the power of Welsh hymn tunes. (Yes, Nigel, I know that you know that I don't like the Welsh, but that doesn't stop me liking their hymn tunes!) Before I married, we were discussing the hymns for our wedding (I was - then - High Anglican and my wife was Methodist, so compromise was the order of the day!) and I very much wanted to include one of my all-time favourites: 'Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah' (some hymnals substitute 'Redeemer' for 'Jehovah'), to the customary tune 'Cwm Rhondda'. My wife-to-be flatly refused; for her 'Cwm Rhondda' was inextricably associated with ribald rugby songs I had taught her! For non-Brits, I should explain that the sport of Rugby Football, especially at school and college level, is forever associated with a repertoire of humorous, raucous and often very crude songs, sung lustily after each match until no-one is sober enough to carry on singing. A flavour can be gleaned from this first verse of a classic -
"Four-and-Twenty Virgins came down from Inverness,
And when the Ball was over, there were four-and-twenty less."
Enough of that - back to 'Cwm Rhondda'.
I had sung the words of the hymn many times in church, but many more times I had sung:
"We don't play for adoration;
We don't play for victory.
We just play for recreation -
Fifteen merry men are we!
(Chorus)
Balls to Selkirk! (Note: substitute the name of the day's opponents!)
Balls to Selkirk!
We won't play them any more!
We won't play them any more!"
Conscious of the innocence of our younger posters, I cannot possibly continue!
And 'Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah' was NOT sung at our wedding!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Aussie
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Really getting into it |
Registered: August 2006
Messages: 475
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Aye, I remember it well.
S'pose this must mean I qualify for being older (damn it)
Aussie
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cossie
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On fire! |
Location: Exiled in North East Engl...
Registered: July 2003
Messages: 1699
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... and you're definitely listed among the antipodean aboriginal antiquities!
For a' that an' a' that,
It's comin' yet for a' that,
That man tae man, the worrld o'er
Shall brithers be, for a' that.
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Re: Hymns 
