Posted on 01/03/2008 6:35:58 PM PST by HairOfTheDog
Welcome to The Hobbit Hole!
Sing hey! for the bath at close of day
That washes the weary mud away!
A loon is he that will not sing:
O! Water Hot is anoble thing!
O! Sweet is the sound of falling rain.
and the brook that leaps from hill to plain;
but better than rain or rippling streams
is Water Hot that smokes and steams.
O! Water cold we may pour at need
down a thirsty throat and be glad indeed;
but better is Beer, if drink we lack,
and Water Hot poured down the back.
O! Water is fair that leaps on high
in a fountain white beneath the sky;
but never did fountain sound so sweet
as splashing Hot Water with my feet!
That’s almost the pattern of the kind of song I hate most, except the kind I really hate are the “We are concrete, we are steel, we are piston and the wheel” kind.
A couple of summers ago at reunion, I was leading the music. Hymns are still a pretty big item at the college. So we were singing “A Mighty Fortress.”
The guy playing the organ would ~not~ follow me, and you just can’t drag a pipe organ up to tempo.
Honestly, it took us 10 minutes to sing the song.
I haven’t been to church in....well, let’s not say how long, but I think most Catholics would agree with you on that.
Owwwww. I can picture that.
Good article on the subject:
http://catholiceducation.org/articles/arts/al0288.htm
And yeah, I really hate the “we are” type songs. And the happy clappy meaningless babble ones. Granted a lot of “praise” songs from other churches fall into that category, too. Some are good or at least OK, some are really, really bad and really, really repetitive to boot.
There are parishes with good music, though, most notably ones that use the Adoremus Hymnal instead of the Oregon Catholic Press ones with the scary covers.
Well, I’m supposed to be at the dentist right now, but I’m not :~\
A dentist appointment? I think I would be hiding in a closet somewhere.
How come? Truck trouble, or just running late?
I like that. I agree with what he has to say there and it’s too bad he’s not in charge of music.
Of course, every category he mentions probably has one or two really good songs. Like “How Firm A Foundation” in the “singing from the point of view of Jesus”. But those just go to prove the rule I think...
It just didn’t work out.
We were running really late this morning.
And I realized I don’t have a card or any of the information about what our dental plan is. It’s not in my wallet! We’ve changed plans around so much I’m not even sure what company we have now! And since this is the first time we’ve been to this dentist since our last one retired, I think it might be important.
I had all kinds of reasons for not wanting to go... I have quarterly reports due today too... That was just the excuse I picked.
ecurbh missed his appointment too last month, he showed up and they were all closed down for the day and dark. Not sure what was up with that.
We’ll try again next month.
Ha! They're not all bad; just those written after about 1960. The Parish you're attending must be playing the 70's and 80's repertoire. Now that IS bad!
Frankly, when it comes to hymns, I love High Anglican music from the 15th through the 19th centuries, with some Ralph Vaughn Williams thrown in for the more modern touch. But then, I also love Gregorian Chant, and music from the early Middle Ages, like that of Hildegard of Bingen. ;o)
Well, they should have our dental plan info on file from when I was in there last fall. I let them know that you were on the same coverage.
Did you reschedule it, or just put it off indefinitely?
At first look, it seems kinda quirky, but when you ponder the words, you realize that it’s neat the way it puts God above all things, even those we humans, in our hubris, think are wonders of our own making.
Yeah, there’s some truth there.
But it’s just really weird to sing.
Really? I thought it had changed since we’d been in last. Oh well.
I put it off indefinitely so far...
I’ll make a new appointment later.
Trying to get my reports done now so I can count the day at least a partial success! :~)
Both Catholic churches we’ve been to here have used the same basic repetoire of semi-lameness and the same dirge-like speed. Oddly the dirgieness seems consistent whether there’s a little praise band (those range from good to really, really bad) or just a pianist and soloist, or whatever.
I have another CD of theirs called "Edda", on which they sing that epic Norse poem, and they use a lot of hardinger in their accompaniment. I'd seen it described in the Musical Heritage Society catalog online, and listened to a portion of it. It was just about the time that "The Two Towers" came out, and it made me think of Rohan, so I bought it. ;o)
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