Thank you for this commentary on the hymn which always moves me. The "yearning" to be sanctified by means beyond our own is expressed so poignantly in both the text and the melody.
I don't know how you do it, Tony, but you picked another sublime hymn. It's surely the most perfect praise to the Holy Spirit. How I wish it were better known in the Church. I've never heard it in all the years we've been Catholics. ANd how revealing it is to know that a certain Protestant
denomination excised the self accusatory verse because....well, you know, we as superior Christians can't look at ourselves with loathing etc. Thank you again, and for the Italian line though RVW's "Down Ampney adds to the glory. Funny how sometimes (as in Lieder, to my mind, anyway) a poem can be rather bland until Schubert or Schumann makes it unforgettable.
This was our recessional hymn at Mass this past Pentecost Sunday. A truly beautiful piece all around, and now I know it’s provenance. Thank you, professor!
Our new hymnals at Saint John XXIII (Source and Summit Missal) have caused a lot of consternation among the music ministry since there is little overlap with the resources we have used in the past. Next year, perhaps, we will abandon them and return to OCP publications. But for now, every cloud has a silver lining! This was our Communion hymn for Pentecost (last) Sunday. My husband Peter, who still sings with us despite having medical issues that render him nearly unable to read or remember anything, heard me looping it on youtube so as to become very familiar with words and melody in order to teach and lead it. I love that!" he exclaimed. "I can't wait to sing it."
Mariellen, I'm so glad Peter was excited about the hymn -- and musical memory runs very deep! I haven't seen the Source and Summit Missal, but as you may know I'm no fan of the OCP products. Ultimately, the music must serve the liturgy, and the old hymns are so very fine that it's hard to top them. A hymn such as "Come Down o Love Divine" is unbeatable for Pentecost -- and for many other days! You may like to know that Davey is has been playing the Sunday Mass at the former Magdalen College chapel since last fall, and is doing very well at it. (I work hard, but so does he!) Jessica and I have been singing from the loft, because I have to stay near Davey to direct him. My goal is to get him to the point where he doesn't need me. We are not there yet, but it's been a game-changer for his confidence and overall happiness. He would have played this hymn on Sunday, but a remnant of the Magdalen Choir returned to sing the Mass, with Davey doing prelude/postlude. We still miss our hymn sings that we had in Coventry all those years! Who knows what may yet be possible.
Hymn sings! I went to just one that I remember, with my hymn-loving mother, at a church in Appalachia fifty years ago. The human heart loves to sing.❤️
It was one of the sadnesses of our move when my husband was betrayed by his college that we had to leave behind our 20-year tradition of having a carol sing at our house during Advent every year, right before the students and faculty scattered for Christmas break. I used to spend several weeks in preparing for that gathering, baking and freezing dozens and dozens of cookies and huge chicken pies and other goodies. Our guests also contributed to a buffet meal. In those days our homeschooling community and our college community overlapped, so we'd have a houseful of homeschoolers and faculty and students -- and our parlor organ (not to mention our organists) got a workout. But we had a good run, for sure. We sang carols in German, French, Latin, Swedish, and English (of course)!
Kathleen, even Scrooge repented of his miserable treatment of those around him -- and vowed to make amends. There he has it over the administrators (and activist professors) of what Tony has since called St. Eustaby Catholic College, from whom we have received not a whiff, much less a single word of regret for the misery they heaped upon Tony and our entire family. I think now, however, that a day of reckoning is coming to the cabal who have taken over higher education in the US and in the Western World. Truth holds up, but inevitably what is not true fails miserably.
Beauty of this kind doesn't just happen with a snap of the fingers. Vaughn Williams was able to attain to greatness by standing of the shoulders of giants, and he knew it. Any real musician/composer/poet knows that, as well. We separate ourselves from our cultural heritage at a great cost, it turns out.
Thank you for this commentary on the hymn which always moves me. The "yearning" to be sanctified by means beyond our own is expressed so poignantly in both the text and the melody.
I don't know how you do it, Tony, but you picked another sublime hymn. It's surely the most perfect praise to the Holy Spirit. How I wish it were better known in the Church. I've never heard it in all the years we've been Catholics. ANd how revealing it is to know that a certain Protestant
denomination excised the self accusatory verse because....well, you know, we as superior Christians can't look at ourselves with loathing etc. Thank you again, and for the Italian line though RVW's "Down Ampney adds to the glory. Funny how sometimes (as in Lieder, to my mind, anyway) a poem can be rather bland until Schubert or Schumann makes it unforgettable.
Superb song! Another version I like is by Fernando Ortega.
https://youtu.be/2DbytPhyJzo?si=U5J1lzAP1lDUFxKk
This was our recessional hymn at Mass this past Pentecost Sunday. A truly beautiful piece all around, and now I know it’s provenance. Thank you, professor!
Our new hymnals at Saint John XXIII (Source and Summit Missal) have caused a lot of consternation among the music ministry since there is little overlap with the resources we have used in the past. Next year, perhaps, we will abandon them and return to OCP publications. But for now, every cloud has a silver lining! This was our Communion hymn for Pentecost (last) Sunday. My husband Peter, who still sings with us despite having medical issues that render him nearly unable to read or remember anything, heard me looping it on youtube so as to become very familiar with words and melody in order to teach and lead it. I love that!" he exclaimed. "I can't wait to sing it."
Mariellen, I'm so glad Peter was excited about the hymn -- and musical memory runs very deep! I haven't seen the Source and Summit Missal, but as you may know I'm no fan of the OCP products. Ultimately, the music must serve the liturgy, and the old hymns are so very fine that it's hard to top them. A hymn such as "Come Down o Love Divine" is unbeatable for Pentecost -- and for many other days! You may like to know that Davey is has been playing the Sunday Mass at the former Magdalen College chapel since last fall, and is doing very well at it. (I work hard, but so does he!) Jessica and I have been singing from the loft, because I have to stay near Davey to direct him. My goal is to get him to the point where he doesn't need me. We are not there yet, but it's been a game-changer for his confidence and overall happiness. He would have played this hymn on Sunday, but a remnant of the Magdalen Choir returned to sing the Mass, with Davey doing prelude/postlude. We still miss our hymn sings that we had in Coventry all those years! Who knows what may yet be possible.
Hymn sings! I went to just one that I remember, with my hymn-loving mother, at a church in Appalachia fifty years ago. The human heart loves to sing.❤️
It was one of the sadnesses of our move when my husband was betrayed by his college that we had to leave behind our 20-year tradition of having a carol sing at our house during Advent every year, right before the students and faculty scattered for Christmas break. I used to spend several weeks in preparing for that gathering, baking and freezing dozens and dozens of cookies and huge chicken pies and other goodies. Our guests also contributed to a buffet meal. In those days our homeschooling community and our college community overlapped, so we'd have a houseful of homeschoolers and faculty and students -- and our parlor organ (not to mention our organists) got a workout. But we had a good run, for sure. We sang carols in German, French, Latin, Swedish, and English (of course)!
Oh the glory! A magnificent stand for Goodness you made…..those memories will bear fruit in lives yet to come.❤️
I'm green with envy! Why would anyone, even Ebenezer Scrooge, want to stop that?
Kathleen, even Scrooge repented of his miserable treatment of those around him -- and vowed to make amends. There he has it over the administrators (and activist professors) of what Tony has since called St. Eustaby Catholic College, from whom we have received not a whiff, much less a single word of regret for the misery they heaped upon Tony and our entire family. I think now, however, that a day of reckoning is coming to the cabal who have taken over higher education in the US and in the Western World. Truth holds up, but inevitably what is not true fails miserably.
The comments after the recording were wonderful. I agree with every one.
Beauty of this kind doesn't just happen with a snap of the fingers. Vaughn Williams was able to attain to greatness by standing of the shoulders of giants, and he knew it. Any real musician/composer/poet knows that, as well. We separate ourselves from our cultural heritage at a great cost, it turns out.