Page 17 - Church Music Quarterly June 2018

toborrowitstunewhenIwasaskedtowriteahymn suitable oraparishcommemorationserviceatAll Souls’Tide.It’sthekindo servicetowhichachurch invitesallthe amilieso thosewhose uneralshave taken place over the past year, so you probably want hymns that will wrap the congregation in a warm blanket o amiliarity, while o ering a set o words thatisbespoke ortheoccasion.ThisiswhatIhoped
or in borrowing Parry’s music. Werememberwhatwesing arbetterthanwhat
we say, and better still than what we only hear. Rhyme, rhythm, metre and music all create a signifcant level o credibilityandmakeahymnmorememorable.This bringsitsownseto responsibilities.Whenwedareto putpentopapertowriteahymn,wedosoin earand trembling lest we write a lie that will be sung as truth. A hymn is inficted on a whole congregation. It sells that congregation not only a theology but a sensibility thatwillborrowaringo truth romthewayitscans and slips easily o the tongue, aided and abetted by its tune and harmony. All these lend it a credibility that it would not otherwise have. As a hymn writer, this occasionally keeps me up at night.
A new hymn to an old tune may even in some cases borrowallthebeautiulresonances romthattune’s originalwords,muchlikeadwar ridingtheshoulders
o agiant.Thiscanbeplayul,oritmaybestrategic.Last year, when I was asked to write a hymn or Ely Cathedral’s ScienceFestival,theCanonwhocommissioneditasked or thetuneLoveunknownandaskedi Imightbeabletoslip in a re erence to the original, beauti ul words. I managed two. One was in the frst verse, the other in the last:
Praise orthedepthso space, its endless scope and scale:
in such a vast embrace ourwordsandnumbers ail. For what are we,
that mortal mind
should seek and fnd infnity?
Praise ortherulesthatshow thepatterningo time,
creation’s ebb and fow expressed in reason’s rhyme. Can these great laws
contain our awe,
a ormula
or wonder’s cause?
Praise orthecomplexcodes eachspiralstrandconveys,
aschemistryexplodes tolieinmyriadways. Can we compare
what’s ours alone
i we are known throughallweshare?
Praise orthedrivetoknow; rom human nature springs
a need to learn and grow, to understand all things. Yet wisdom’s prize
is never won:
rom all that’s done
new questions rise.
Praise to the one whose Word breathed purpose into chance,
or whom all matter stirred to join creation’s dance. For love ade known
in every thing
in praise we sing to you alone.
These brie re erences were my a ectionate and sincere ‘thankyou’toJohnIreland(1879–1962)andtoSamuel Crossman (1624–83), but were defnitely on the play ul end o the spectrum.
More strategically, I borrowed the wonder ul, sombre tune King’s Lynn, usually sung with G.K. Chesterton’s (1874–1936) extraordinary words, ‘O God o earth and altar’, written a century ago in another time o political and social turmoil. I wanted Chesterton’s words in the back o people’s minds because I was writing in response to some o the disasters that be ell the world in 2016 and,
rankly,Ididn’t eelthatIhadthegravitasonmyown to carry it o . Perching on the giant o Chesterton’s pro ound, timely and moving words, my dwar o a hymn managed to articulate something help ul.
It was a ew days a ter the massacre at the gay nightclub in Orlando, and the day that Jo Cox was brutally murdered in her own constituency. Like many others,I eltasi theChurchdidn’thavethewordsto describetheenormityo whatwehadwitnessed.I’d seensomanyclergy riendspostingonsocialmedia, ‘What are we supposed to say on Sunday?’, ‘What is the gospelinthelighto allthis?’AndsoIcamedownstairs
ONE SONG TO THE TUNE OF ANOTHER 17