tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-207026712024-03-07T05:50:28.718+00:00Bad things in new hymn books and other sad talesWhy, oh why, do the editors of hymns books think that it is a good idea to try to 'improve' on the poetry of the original hymn writers and poets? And why, oh why, do churches buy new hymn books that have ruined the old hymns and substituted garbage for fine words?Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-31624680633581398922018-08-27T12:17:00.001+01:002018-08-30T10:21:48.554+01:00How sweet the name of Jesus soundsThere is a hymn by John Newton, dating from 1779, that begins "How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear!". We sang it this morning, which is an odd coincidence because I had just woken up in the night last night trying to remember which hymn it was that I thought still deserved a blog post in relation to the messing up of its words.
The original seems to be like this:
1 How sweet Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-23963535740799820722012-01-24T12:25:00.002+00:002012-01-24T12:25:39.037+00:00HymnathonFriends and followers may be interested in this hymnathon at St Michael and All Angel, Bedford Park:
http://www.smaaa.org.uk/news_events/Hymnathon.html
which has been brought to my attention by one of our followers.
Since they are singing the whole of the New English Hymnal, it will include the editors' mishaps (as so often reported on this Blog) and omissions (occasionally also lamented here)Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-23614818355429553492011-04-03T21:47:00.003+01:002011-04-06T21:48:50.357+01:00For Mary Mother of the LordThere is a hymn beginning "For Mary Mother of the Lord", which is set in the NEH (number 161) for the Annunciation (March 25th), though we sang it today because we were doing Mothering Sunday, it seems. This hymn was not known to me before I started going to a church afflicted with the New English Hymnal. It wasn't included in the English Hymnal.
In fact there's only one place that I can find itCatherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-55034394485341662902011-03-20T21:13:00.004+00:002014-08-15T10:10:50.548+01:00My God I love theeThere is a hymn that begins "My God I love thee not because" which has always been something of a source of amusement, because so far as the words themselves go, you can't exactly tell, by the end of the first line, whether you are about to explain to God what exactly is the reason why you don't love him, or what exactly is not the reason why you love him. Indeed the text remains unclear about Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-43111617111235878292009-01-02T22:33:00.006+00:002009-12-28T11:27:35.475+00:00God rest you merry (again)The first line of that carol deserves a comment regarding grammar and punctuation.People comment on two things about it. First, that the word is always "you" and not "ye", and second, that there should be a comma after the word merry, not after the word you, so it goes God rest you merry,... Gentlemen, not God rest you, ... Merry Gentlemen.The two points are related.You is the accusative case of Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-73339833229776013702008-12-27T17:37:00.006+00:002014-12-28T23:41:13.189+00:00God Rest You Merry GentlemenOn Christmas morning I found myself singing (in the last line of the last verse of God Rest You Merry Gentlemen) "This holy tide of Christmas all other doth deface" but, realising that everyone round me was singing "all other doth efface", I felt rather stupid. Because, after all, Christmas doesn't deface things. (Well, it does but that can't be what the song is talking about). Momentarily, I Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-27785953372937950092008-12-01T21:29:00.002+00:002008-12-01T21:43:00.848+00:00The words of well known carolsA little flurry of messages from friends distressed by being presented with rubbish words at advent carol services round the world alerts me to the fact that the creeping habit of ignorant and offensive interference has now become so prevalent that even the words of things everyone knows off by heart are being messed up. Now what is the point of that? If people really know the words by heart, Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-67726264661458650072008-11-17T22:01:00.006+00:002008-11-24T11:23:32.279+00:00In Christ there is no East or West"In Christ there is no East or West" is one of the hymns that was not included in the English Hymnal but has made an entrance into the New English Hymnal, having become popular by way of Songs of Praise, Hymns A & M New Standard, and a few other twentieth century books. Or at least a bit of it has got into the New English Hymnal, mutilated but not quite so badly mutilated as in some other Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-80887426011342368072008-05-01T22:50:00.004+01:002008-05-04T20:38:00.169+01:00And did those feetSo, the Dean of Southwark has banned the use of the William Blake Hymn "And did those feet..." from Southwark Cathedral. Time, it seems, to write a protest in defence of that great hymn on this Blog. The campaign is, of course, not helped by the rather ill-informed and badly written article by Julian Lloyd Webber in the Daily Telegraph.Here are my thoughts:Sadly, William Blake's great mystical Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-20050195166495358692008-02-17T18:08:00.010+00:002008-02-18T16:30:15.726+00:00A thing most wonderful This year, unusually, I was at Little St Mary's on Ash Wednesday, and we sang the hymn that begins "It is a thing most wonderful". Unfortunately we sang the badly corrupted version of it that appears in the New English Hymnal, so I was not sure whether to be delighted (because it's one of my favourite hymns that I first learnt at Little St Mary's in the good old days before they burned their Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-18791700863327528702008-01-01T18:26:00.000+00:002008-01-03T14:15:51.939+00:00Conquering Kings their titles takeA year ago I promised that I would one day write a bit about "Conquering Kings their Titles Take" which is one of the two hymns for the circumcision/naming of Jesus that is missing from the New English Hymnal. Today seems a suitable day to do so (since I did the other one last year).Here's how it goes in the Latin (Anonymous Latin of the eighteenth century, from the Paris Breviary of 1736, now Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-84015170433105405132007-12-23T14:00:00.000+00:002007-12-23T17:22:15.800+00:00Hark a Herald Voice is callingThere are many Advent hymns that remain to be written about. It so happens that Advent tends to be a busy time and I don't get round to writing about them. Here's one that we sang this morning:Hark a herald voice is calling; "Christ is nigh" it seems to say.It's a translation by E. Caswall from the Latin sixth century original Vox clara ecce intonat. Or rather, the translation by Caswall was whatCatherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-91542672612502074052007-10-28T14:48:00.000+00:002007-12-23T17:12:29.714+00:00Who on earth thy name confestIn the English Hymnal there was an excellent hymn for the feast of St Simon and St Jude (October 28th). It's by J. Ellerton and begins "Thou who sentest thine apostles two and two before thy face...". Sung to Brintyrion (in the EH) or alternatively Oriel vel sim, it is (as far as I can see) unexceptionable, indeed perfectly fine.For some reason this has been banished from the New English Hymnal. Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-3432400061272731712007-08-05T21:33:00.000+01:002007-12-23T17:14:13.329+00:00Christ is the King, O Friends Rejoice!A hymn starting "Christ is the King, O friends rejoice" was written by Bishop George Bell in 1931 for Songs of Praise. It doesn't appear in the English Hymnal—naturally since that preceded Songs of Praise.However, I doubt many people know it in the original form in which it appeared in Songs of Praise. What we sing from the New English Hymnal bears rather little relation to it and clearly some Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-90622778273161985592007-08-04T21:21:00.000+01:002007-12-23T17:14:52.215+00:00Angel harps for ever ringing rest not day nor nightThis is the second line of the hymn by Francis Potts that begins "Angel voices ever singing round thy throne of light."Robin pointed out the day before yesterday that although angel voices sing, it doesn't seem that harps ring. The bells in heaven ring, that's for sure. But do harps ring?This hymn calls for some emendation. My proposal is "Angel harps for ever pinging..."Annie says harps don't Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-55187994397033612652007-07-01T15:52:00.001+01:002010-11-20T22:00:21.114+00:00Children of the Heavenly KingI have fond memories of the hymn "Children of the Heavenly King".
I first learnt it at LSM in the days when we still had the English Hymnal and sang real hymns as they should be sung. It's a wonderful hymn for singing on journeys, and it particularly takes me back to a rather peculiar holiday we had in Cornwall with Rowan Williams and Jane and their baby Rhiannon. They had a car, we didn't; so Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-3231204703320379242007-06-24T16:29:00.000+01:002008-01-01T20:28:10.860+00:00Ut queant laxisThere's a famous hymn for the feast of St John the Baptist, written by Paul the Deacon in the 8th Century A.D., which begins "Ut queant laxis resonare fibris".It's famous mainly because it is the origin of the names ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la to name the notes of the musical scale (the plainsong tune to this hymn, which, alas, we did not sing this morning, starts on the tonic with the word "ut", andCatherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-58619436459443867682007-05-20T18:19:00.000+01:002007-12-23T17:24:07.417+00:00And guard and bless our fatherlandMore on Bishop William Walsham How. Last week was Rogation Sunday and we sang another of WW How's not very how hymns (see last post for the background on Bishop How). It begins 'To thee our God we fly" and according to the New English Hymnal it is for Rogationtide.According to the English Hymnal it was under the category "National". There it lived with hymns such as Kipling's "God of our fathers Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-20222585597093567482007-05-13T15:03:00.000+01:002007-12-23T17:24:38.416+00:00Who is this so weak and helpless?A while back I did a post on "Who is this with garments gory" wherein I promised to say something about the hymn whose first line is in the title of this post. Here I am, and here I am going to say something."Who is this so weak and helpless" is a hymn by Bishop William Walsham How 1823-97. Now I've got nothing against Bishop W. W. How, but he does bear responsibility for a number of fairly awfulCatherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-35307482213489864452007-04-22T21:32:00.000+01:002008-01-01T20:28:10.862+00:00Ad cenam Agni providiTonight's office hymn was "The lamb's high banquet we await". The translation is by J.M. Neale but has been substantially altered at various points in the New English Hymnal.I think the one that most annoys me is the fact that they have changed "and tasting of his roseate Blood" to "and tasting of his precious Blood".Now why do that?The original in the Latin is sed et cruorem roseumgustando, Dei Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-74896462567917175832007-04-06T16:55:00.000+01:002007-04-06T16:59:45.900+01:00Someone's reading this Blog...Nice to discover a little appreciative mention of this Blog on the History Carnival hosted this month by Mary Beard. Find it here.Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-43013432939801585852007-04-06T16:49:00.000+01:002007-12-23T17:26:39.399+00:00Who is this with garments gory?Another thing missing from the Palm Sunday experience as I remember it at LSM in Fr James Owen's days is the magnificent hymn "Who is this with garments gory, triumphing on Bozrah's way?". It's surprising it's taken me so long to get round to writing about this one, since it's a special favourite of mine. I've just scoured various old floppy disks and aged computers to see if I could discover Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-79752262615286622752007-04-01T18:44:00.000+01:002007-12-23T17:27:32.745+00:00Come, faithful people, come awayMany years ago when I was a student and later when I was a research fellow and a young mum in Cambridge, we used to go to LSM when not at King's Chapel or wherever else, and every year on Palm Sunday there was a procession from Laundress Green to LSM. That's still true, but what are no longer there are some hymns of which I have particularly fond memories.Today's subject is "Come Faithful People Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-35161315840579226862007-03-24T20:06:00.000+00:002008-01-01T20:28:10.864+00:00Vexilla regis prodeuntWhen we went to sing evensong at Bury St Edmunds one of the hymns prescribed for the service was "The Royal Banners Forward Go". There was a great to-do among us the visiting choir "because," (said some) "they've added two verses which aren't normally there."Well I think the truth is this (though I've lost the service sheet so I'm not absolutely sure). It's not that they'd added two verses. It's Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20702671.post-90990280857382413732007-02-24T14:47:00.000+00:002008-01-01T20:28:10.865+00:00O lux beata TrinitasLast Sunday I was a bit surprised to find that the office hymn set for Evensong was O Lux beata Trinitas (O Trinity of Blessed Light). It appears in the New English Hymnal as the office hymn for the period from Epiphany to Lent. This struck me as odd, since I felt sure that we used to sing it in the summer, in Trinity season; but the book said so, so I didn't complain.I was also troubled to see Catherine Rowetthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15356313351798903675noreply@blogger.com8