Our word of the week could lead us in any number of directions for hymns, but we’ve chosen one that everyone has heard so often as to take it for granted.
Thank you for sharing John's words and your words, Tony, to which I’ll add my words of praise to God for bringing us to a knowledge of Him and ourselves. O the Amazing Grace.
This column goes in the Tony's Top Ten anthology. I love the remarks about Time: Dr. Thomas Sheahen wrote a book on that notion, that Time is one of the created Things. And....Grace. We are awash in it, and we know it not.
The poem is wonderful, isn't it? And yet, and yet, should I admit it? I simply can't abide the tune. I can always hear some character singing it through his nose. I wish someone would write a different melody. Anything! Anything but that! I'm afraid that classifies me as a snob. Peter Kwasniewski could do great things with it, I'm sure.
Kathleen, this is why I chose the versions I chose. Did you listen to them? The hymn has been so badly butchered in our lifetime as to make people with any taste cringe. I told Tony that he should mention this, because (as far as I can tell) this destruction of the hymn tune began with Joan Baez, and ever since NOBODY ever sings it as the simple straightforward tune it is. The tune is not high art, nor is it intended to be that. But sung straight and pure, it can be a very moving one. The irony is that those who most frequently sing the song now, do it as a "show off piece," designed to let them demonstrate -- well I'm not sure what it is to demonstrate, except that someone can meander aimlessly over a single note to the point of absurdity.
I,too, dislike the tune, especially when it’s often played on the bagpipe. Our choir director upon returning from a concert featuring bagpipes, said the bagpipe music was “bad.” I asked him, “How can you tell when bagpipe music is bad?” He had no answer!
Ed, Amazing Grace is about the worst possible kind of tune for bagpipe. Why it is so popular with bagpipers I cannot say, except (see above, my reply to Kathleen) that it is easy to play and lets even unskilled performers show off. But that problem is not one of the hymn but of how it is murdered in our times by almost everyone who "performs" it.
I think the simplicity of the tune might be to blame for all the really bad performances of it. When my daughter was attempting to learn mandolin every beginning book had Amazing Grace and every online teacher taught it. I think you can get music for Amazing Grace for every instrument imaginable with a brief internet search.
Sigh. But you know, I'd take a simple straight-forward rendition of the tune by a beginner piano student any day over the overblown and ridiculous over-singing of it by soloists ever since Joan Baez (who is a good folk singer) did her "number" on it and set everyone off in that direction for the past 60 years.
Although I have sung this hymn countless times and heard it even more, I have never heard nor seen in any hymnal or <shudder> missalette the last two verses. How sad it is as the complete the hymn and bring it to its conclusion and ours.
Father, yes, real hymns must not be shortened, because it is usually the last verse or two which bring the whole meditation to its conclusion. And that is why the habit of singing only TWO verses so annoys me! Or the other bad habit of cutting off the last verse, which is either a doxology or the part of the doxology that praises the Holy Spirit. Alas!
Yes! This has long been a pet peeve—and I was proven right when we lived in England for a couple of years attending a tiny church “Our Lady and St. Peter” in town called Leatherhead where the hymns were sung by the congregation led by an organist/cantor only and every verse was sung, AND the variety of hymns was huge and tied to the liturgical year so nicely. Amazingly, because the hymns were well written I assume, we were easily able to sing along though most, if not all, of the hymns were brand new to us.
Every time I hear Amazing Grace, as a Catholic not growing up with this hymn, I immediately hear the melody in the chorus of “Delta Dawn” with lyrics that could have been written by William Faulkner!
I have very little to say, except that this hymn always pierces my heart.
Thank you for sharing John's words and your words, Tony, to which I’ll add my words of praise to God for bringing us to a knowledge of Him and ourselves. O the Amazing Grace.
This column goes in the Tony's Top Ten anthology. I love the remarks about Time: Dr. Thomas Sheahen wrote a book on that notion, that Time is one of the created Things. And....Grace. We are awash in it, and we know it not.
Dear Tony,
The poem is wonderful, isn't it? And yet, and yet, should I admit it? I simply can't abide the tune. I can always hear some character singing it through his nose. I wish someone would write a different melody. Anything! Anything but that! I'm afraid that classifies me as a snob. Peter Kwasniewski could do great things with it, I'm sure.
Kathleen, this is why I chose the versions I chose. Did you listen to them? The hymn has been so badly butchered in our lifetime as to make people with any taste cringe. I told Tony that he should mention this, because (as far as I can tell) this destruction of the hymn tune began with Joan Baez, and ever since NOBODY ever sings it as the simple straightforward tune it is. The tune is not high art, nor is it intended to be that. But sung straight and pure, it can be a very moving one. The irony is that those who most frequently sing the song now, do it as a "show off piece," designed to let them demonstrate -- well I'm not sure what it is to demonstrate, except that someone can meander aimlessly over a single note to the point of absurdity.
I,too, dislike the tune, especially when it’s often played on the bagpipe. Our choir director upon returning from a concert featuring bagpipes, said the bagpipe music was “bad.” I asked him, “How can you tell when bagpipe music is bad?” He had no answer!
Ed, Amazing Grace is about the worst possible kind of tune for bagpipe. Why it is so popular with bagpipers I cannot say, except (see above, my reply to Kathleen) that it is easy to play and lets even unskilled performers show off. But that problem is not one of the hymn but of how it is murdered in our times by almost everyone who "performs" it.
I think the simplicity of the tune might be to blame for all the really bad performances of it. When my daughter was attempting to learn mandolin every beginning book had Amazing Grace and every online teacher taught it. I think you can get music for Amazing Grace for every instrument imaginable with a brief internet search.
Sigh. But you know, I'd take a simple straight-forward rendition of the tune by a beginner piano student any day over the overblown and ridiculous over-singing of it by soloists ever since Joan Baez (who is a good folk singer) did her "number" on it and set everyone off in that direction for the past 60 years.
Although I have sung this hymn countless times and heard it even more, I have never heard nor seen in any hymnal or <shudder> missalette the last two verses. How sad it is as the complete the hymn and bring it to its conclusion and ours.
Father, yes, real hymns must not be shortened, because it is usually the last verse or two which bring the whole meditation to its conclusion. And that is why the habit of singing only TWO verses so annoys me! Or the other bad habit of cutting off the last verse, which is either a doxology or the part of the doxology that praises the Holy Spirit. Alas!
Yes! This has long been a pet peeve—and I was proven right when we lived in England for a couple of years attending a tiny church “Our Lady and St. Peter” in town called Leatherhead where the hymns were sung by the congregation led by an organist/cantor only and every verse was sung, AND the variety of hymns was huge and tied to the liturgical year so nicely. Amazingly, because the hymns were well written I assume, we were easily able to sing along though most, if not all, of the hymns were brand new to us.
Every time I hear Amazing Grace, as a Catholic not growing up with this hymn, I immediately hear the melody in the chorus of “Delta Dawn” with lyrics that could have been written by William Faulkner!
Yes, I was!
Are you thinking of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily?" His short stories are quite different from the rest of his work.