This morning at 11 AM Mass, the entrance hymn was "The Church's One Foundation." Came home to discuss the unity issue here again only to find the hymn itself all over the place. This morning's version had music by Purcell. How could you go wrong with him? The words weren't so great, but what the h... you can hum along. Now I see from a quick survey that the words we used weren't standard.
Here's the original, (by S.J. Stong, 1866) observing a division between the C of E and the C of South Africa.
Here's a not-very-good YouTube with complaints of dropped stanzas. And Another with a very badly over-orchestrated version from Duke University Chapel
Whatever Jesus hoped for, the Church's earthly foundation seems to lean toward diversity!
Off topic, but this sent me off youtubing for this hymn, and I ended up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwvpTl88jwI
ReplyDeleteI always get a kick watching the Royals at Prayer. The Queen is always more interesting in looking around than singing, Charles always seems like he is seeing the words for the first time, and Camilla looks appropriately furtive (watch for her at the end).
The only ones who ever seem into the singing at these events are William and Kate, bless them.
Jean, yeah, I like watching those Anglican royal events too. Here's another one for you, at the same wedding. I got a kick out of the nuns standing next to Will(he'd better behave!) at about 30 seconds in, and again at 3:05 or so.
DeleteIt seemed to be quite an ecumenical affair--nuns, an Orthodox patriarch, and Elton John and his spouse.
DeleteThe nuns are actually Anglican, members of the Community of Sisters of the Church. They are chaplains of Westminster Abbey, and according to the article, one of them preaches at the main Eucharist. I had also read that one of them did the marriage prep instructions for Will and Kate, so they are well acquainted.
DeleteI for one want much more Jean Raber commentary on Royal Wedding congregational singing! In my book, that's second only to judging the ties and outfits in presidential debates for ways to make dull television more interesting.
DeleteThere's another wedding coming up in May. I'm sure I'll have comments. Maybe they'll show Edward, the Idiot Brother, at this event. They mostly seem to keep him out of sight.
DeleteKatherine, interesting about the nuns. I still love Rumer Godden's "Black Narcissus," about Anglican nuns run amok in the Himalayas. The movie was pretty good.
"...Anglican nuns run amok in the Himalayas"... going to have to check that one out. I did read " In This House of Brede" by Rumer Godden.
DeleteFor years "Brede" was my favorite book. I also love "Call the Midwife," though I miss Chummy.
DeleteThat's interesting, we sang "The Church's One Foundation" last night at Mass also. It was the standard version in the OCP music edition; to the tune "Aurelia" by Samuel Wesley. We hardly ever get in more than 2 verses for an entrance hymn, so didn't notice anything unusual for lyrics. Do you remember what the Purcell tune was titled? The only thing I could find on youtube was this version of "Christ is Made the Sure Foundation" to the Purcell hymn tune Westminster Abbey. The lyrics to "The Church's One Foundation" don't fit to that. Interestingly, that video featured Pope Benedict and Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams. I have never met a Purcell tune that I didn't like.
ReplyDeleteI notice that hymn lyrics get massaged pretty often to reflect what current winds are blowing, or maybe the publishers just want everybody to buy new hymnals.
Hmmmm! It was Purcell and the tune Westminster...and the hymn title was "The Church's One Foundation." Whatever...our choir and mumbling congregation made the lyrics fit...but of course these were not the standard lyrics. The mix and match of music and lyrics!!
DeleteMargaret, yes, weird to sing a familiar hymn to a different tune, although an Episcopalian friend once pointed out that you can sing the Doxology (Praise God from whom all blessings flow) to the tune of "Hernando's Hideaway," and now that's what I hear in my head at Anglican services.
DeleteI always despise the change in tunes for the Gloria, all of which are equally unsingable.
"...familiar hymn to a different tune..." Here you go.
DeleteMy guess is that Peggy's church uses a printed songsheet? Probably whoever put it together just grabbed the wrong hymn tune and author. I agree with Katherine that you can't sing "The Church's One Foundation" to the tune WESTMINSTER ABBEY. The former is iambic, and the latter is ... whatever the other one is, with the stress on the first syllable. Hmm, "an iota of iambic and a tittle of trochaic." Trochaic?
DeleteThose Church of England fellows (and a few of them were ladies) really wrote some stirring hymns, though, didn't they? A little florid, I guess.
No, Peggy's parish has a hymnal bound in red with the words St. Ignatius stamped on the cover...we inherited them from the rich Eastside Jesuit parish. I haven't looked at the publisher or pub date in a long time. Will check.
DeleteIn the meantime, I am always grateful when we sing an old geezer song. Usually they are singable and usually they take a stab at a serious theological idea. I once loved Marty Haugen et al, but now...not so much, wears thin.
One big mismatch we do is a Mass by Franz Schubert. The music is terrific, but the lyrics are in English and are truly unsingable...too many syllables for too few notes. My guess is that it was originally in Latin...meant to look this up.
Katherine, hahaha! That reminds me if this mash up my kid sent me. I guess it's pay back for all that ZZ Top and Springsteen he used to have to listen to on road trips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UwHlEBlWT-4
DeleteAlso in this silly vein: You can sing Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for death" to "Ghost Riders in the Sky."
DeleteJean! Great hymn...William and Kate actually looked happy.
ReplyDeleteAnd whatever your complaints about the Episcopals,they sure do sing.
Jean's You Tube: Also note that there is an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Help!! of all people hanging on a pillar. And then there's the idiotic, David, "let's have a Brexit Vote," Cameron.
DeleteEveryone sings! How great.
Our Lady of Perpetual Help... And isn't that a tree?
DeleteI didn't see Nigel Farage (as long as we are name-dropping). He was at CPAC. But maybe he is in a Thomas Wolfe period. Surely should be.
The man who will have ruined England...just in case Theresa May succeeds in her impossible task.
DeleteTom, yes, they decorated Westminster abbey with a lot of plants.
DeleteJean, I hope that is not Birnam Wood coming to the Abbey.
DeleteIf so, Betty Windsor and the kids better run and hide. I'm always so torn about all this pomp. I guess as long as the Brits pay for it and we get to watch it free, it's OK.
DeleteI have to admit that I don't immediately see the connection between "The Church's One Foundation" and the Third Sunday of Lent. I suppose you didn't do the Woman at the Well reading today?
ReplyDeleteOur music director doesn't do many classic hymns, so we probably wouldn't do it even if there is a connection. Our entrance song today (and so far throughout Lent) was a Marty Haugen composition called "Return to God". Pretty singable. I sat in on the piano at the choir mass - had some fun.
Deacon Jim, The woman at the well was for scrutinizers. I prepared for the cleansing of the temple (even took along some cords just in case), and then we got the woman at the well. She was supposed to be at 10:30. Either way, I don't get the point of the Church's "One Foundation" Sunday, either. We sang stuff from the LifeTeen Mass because our new music director has been keyboard/organ/piano/tambourine/recorder etc., etc. there for ages. I am not sure he knows geezer tunes.
ReplyDelete"Geezer tunes..." I'm the official geezer song organ player for our choir group (we were off this weekend). For modern stuff which they mostly use, and Mass parts, they play guitars. And we now have a flutist for descants. But for Stations and Benediction we do organ.
DeleteOur Gospel was Jesus banishing the money changers, etc.
DeleteRight, maybe the thought is that the church's foundation is God, rather than money? Then there is that second reading about Jews and Greeks. And the first reading was the 10 commandments. I dunno. To me the hymn just doesn't seem very Lenten. Penitence? RCIA? Covenant? No se.
Delete"God rather than money"? Mass ended with an annoucement that there would be two extra collections next week. And the week before there were pledge cards for The Cardinal's Appeal, extra time left to sign up.
DeleteMy scrutinizers got the cleansing of the Temple, per specific request of the new archbishop. Everybody (priests and nuns) thought that must be a mistake and would be corrected, but he insisted on it. (So the nuns, obedient but nevertheless smart, organized a short catechesis for the catechumens right before Mass, about the woman at the well.)
DeleteHe preached on the temple being our body, and the buying and selling being everything we do that is not about God.
I thought he missed a great opportunity for a directly relevant homily since we were at the Sacré-Coeur of Montmartre, the basilica is full of tourists, and the inside of the church has several souvenirs shops occupying side chapels, so the connection seemed pretty obvious to me. But not to him apparently.
Claire - sometimes those bishops have to bop around to several parishes on a given Sunday. He may not have had time to prepare more than one homily.
DeleteRegarding Church unity, interesting article in Commonweal, 'We were different'. It compares present prejudice against hispanic immigrants to past conflict among Catholics of different national origins. My childhood parish was divided equally among irish and italian with a smattering of outliers like polish me. I still got to hear all the polack jokes, less painful for insult than lameness.
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of the extra Latin injected into the masses at my parish. But I do love the diversity. There are a good number of people of african, latino and asian origins. I've seen baptisms where the parents are of different races. There're masses in spanish and polish. To me, the parish looks like the Church should.
ReplyDeleteMargaret - better bring your whip made with cords for next week's collection.
ReplyDeleteI guess I can sort of see - "The church's one foundation" is a metaphor of the people of God as a church building. And then the Gospel reading was the cleansing of the temple, so it's the temple as a symbol of the church. I think it's problematic from a Christian-Jewish relations perspective. The hymn, at least to my eyes and ears, comes across as pretty triumphalistic. It's not really redolent of Francis's poor church for the poor. I'd say, yuck. But that's just me.
I can see "The Church's One Foundation" as one of those songs that could fit any liturgical season. I didn't think of it as a metaphor of the people of God as a church building. The first line, "The church's one foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord..." to me expresses more that Jesus is the one on whom the church is founded.
DeleteMore singable than "Eagle's Wings."
ReplyDeleteAgree about Eagle's Wings, the "yoo-hoo" song. Not one of my favorites. but our younger son and daughter in law picked it for a wedding song, saying they wanted something "traditional". Traditional to them is the Glory and Praise hymnal, all the St. Louis Jesuit songs. Don't know if Michael Joncas was one of them, though.
DeleteThis is a newer one by Joncas that I like. Not very singable by a congregation, though. The choirs from the three parishes in our town sung it for a welcome for Archbishop George Lucas shortly after he was installed.
Joncas is a priest, but isn't a Jesuit and isn't in St. Louis. He's a diocesan priest of the Minneapolis Archdiocese.
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