Even, [or maybe because of?] with that introduction of this hymn, I got that vision of the monkeys in my head before the last verse and began laughing so hard I couldn’t SEE to read the last stanza as the tears of laughter were in my eyes! It took me awhile to stop laughing as every time I thought I could, I kept seeing those monkeys in my head!! I finally read the last very good stanza and then listened to the very nice tune and sang along with it as it was easy to follow and the words are good, too. Thanks for printing all you did.
Silly and delightful in an unsophisticated way. I’m not sure I’d want to sing it at Mass but certainly it would be good for a hymn sing (do we Catholics have them?). I like the tune in the video. It’s lively and fun. And, more importantly, singable. Have you noticed how you can sing good hymn tunes without having heard them before or having the score in front of you? Yo can’t do that with what you get in most churches these days. And they wonder why nobody sings at Mass. it’s not that they can’t, it’s that the songs are un-singable. “Immaculate Mary” always raises the roof.
My thoughts exactly! I am no singer but I was able to sing along from the first hearing and got most of the notes right. The notes just made sense as we went along.
You're right -- the good and great hymns were meant to be sung by all kinds of people, all at once, and often from memory. I've seen old hymnals for churches with straitened resources, where you get only the text and the name of the melody. People then had all those melodies in their memories, and all the preacher or cantor had to do was to get them started, just as with Christmas carols.
Not sure I'd call the words "silly"...........especially today, when there is such a radical disconnect between how peoples live around the world...some with every new technology, some barely into the 19th century. The words bring this into stark relief.
I would have loved to hear it sung---never even heard of the song before.
And...I must admit...when I read the title, my immediate thought was "Lonely People" by America...
Max, recall that we definitely did not say that the hymn was silly.. just that it has a couple of lines which are hard to sing with a straight face. The concept of the hymn is excellent and so is the rest of it, as.poetry and as theology. In this way I would vastly prefer to sing it rather than almost any of the so-called "contemporary" hymns which are poor musically and as poetry and as theology. If our word of the week had been ludicrous we would have had many such to choose from! Today's is not one of those. It's genuine and honest and lacks the self- orientation of so much of what is sung in our churches now. Also, we are going this week for "silly" not in the current sense but in its older sense, not as a perjoritive.
And that is how I meant my thought.......I can't be certain which lines you refer to with "couple of lines which are hard to sing with a straight face."...But I honestly think the words are just right---for the tone and idea which the song is designed for.
I think of things I've heard people say about 'Lift High The Cross', that it sounds militaristic or lacks compassion, etc. But though some of the words ARE "militaristic", the actual import of the song is manifestly NOT militaristic, and is filled with compassion.
That's more less my thinking with respect to the "silly" words in this song.
Lift High the Cross is one of my favorite hymns, and not just for Easter. It's magnificent, in music, concept, and poetry. But yes, anything even remotely "martial" has been pretty much removed from worship, even when it's still in the hymnals. And in many hymnals the "martial" words are altered, so you get not "Come, Christians follow, where the Captain trod," where "Captain" is replace by Savior. There's nothing wrong with Savior, but it removes the image of Christ as our leader in battle. Alas. Most of the patriotic hymns are not sung any more in churches or in civic gatherings. Not so long ago most people would have been able to sing those without the aid of a hymnal. The loss is ours, for sure.
Today's hymn tune is a Tyrolian one, not familiar to us, but absolutely beautiful. I was wondering why we have never heard it before.
When I made my temporary vows with the Passionists (alas, 2 years later I was let go because I wasn't liberal enough), I was given the potential layout for the Mass....I don't remember the song, but an awful song was included, which I immediately insisted on changing to Lift High The Cross--which was somewhat of an unofficial official hymn for the Passionists.
Oh .. some of the music is THAT BAD. Lift High the Cross is tremendous. The ditching of traditional hymns has been a part of the dumbing-down of the faith in a lot of churches, to the detriment of many, including I guess the orders.
Dear Mark -- what I mean is that it's suddenly and unintentionally funny, though not blamably so, to be imagining monkeys in the trees, and it's also a bit absurd to imagine camels in rice paddies. It's not WHAT the lines intend that's silly -- not at all. It's the form of expression. The hymn is itself a good one -- aside from those two lines, and even those two I can forgive, because there's no attempt by Dearmer to be pretentious.
I may have noted before, that poetry is very definitely NOT "in my wheelhouse".........The line with the monkeys simply struck me as 'Of course--that's what monkeys do.' And the line with the camel and the rice-paddies brought to mind the Silk Road, winding through China.
Even, [or maybe because of?] with that introduction of this hymn, I got that vision of the monkeys in my head before the last verse and began laughing so hard I couldn’t SEE to read the last stanza as the tears of laughter were in my eyes! It took me awhile to stop laughing as every time I thought I could, I kept seeing those monkeys in my head!! I finally read the last very good stanza and then listened to the very nice tune and sang along with it as it was easy to follow and the words are good, too. Thanks for printing all you did.
Silly and delightful in an unsophisticated way. I’m not sure I’d want to sing it at Mass but certainly it would be good for a hymn sing (do we Catholics have them?). I like the tune in the video. It’s lively and fun. And, more importantly, singable. Have you noticed how you can sing good hymn tunes without having heard them before or having the score in front of you? Yo can’t do that with what you get in most churches these days. And they wonder why nobody sings at Mass. it’s not that they can’t, it’s that the songs are un-singable. “Immaculate Mary” always raises the roof.
My thoughts exactly! I am no singer but I was able to sing along from the first hearing and got most of the notes right. The notes just made sense as we went along.
I agree, Father. The melody is tuneful and seems to have a certain innocence about it.
You're right -- the good and great hymns were meant to be sung by all kinds of people, all at once, and often from memory. I've seen old hymnals for churches with straitened resources, where you get only the text and the name of the melody. People then had all those melodies in their memories, and all the preacher or cantor had to do was to get them started, just as with Christmas carols.
Not sure I'd call the words "silly"...........especially today, when there is such a radical disconnect between how peoples live around the world...some with every new technology, some barely into the 19th century. The words bring this into stark relief.
I would have loved to hear it sung---never even heard of the song before.
And...I must admit...when I read the title, my immediate thought was "Lonely People" by America...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBoHTTAe_50
Good song with a nice harmonic interlude. The group had a pleasant vocal sound with a string of hits in the 1970s.
Max, recall that we definitely did not say that the hymn was silly.. just that it has a couple of lines which are hard to sing with a straight face. The concept of the hymn is excellent and so is the rest of it, as.poetry and as theology. In this way I would vastly prefer to sing it rather than almost any of the so-called "contemporary" hymns which are poor musically and as poetry and as theology. If our word of the week had been ludicrous we would have had many such to choose from! Today's is not one of those. It's genuine and honest and lacks the self- orientation of so much of what is sung in our churches now. Also, we are going this week for "silly" not in the current sense but in its older sense, not as a perjoritive.
And that is how I meant my thought.......I can't be certain which lines you refer to with "couple of lines which are hard to sing with a straight face."...But I honestly think the words are just right---for the tone and idea which the song is designed for.
I think of things I've heard people say about 'Lift High The Cross', that it sounds militaristic or lacks compassion, etc. But though some of the words ARE "militaristic", the actual import of the song is manifestly NOT militaristic, and is filled with compassion.
That's more less my thinking with respect to the "silly" words in this song.
Lift High the Cross is one of my favorite hymns, and not just for Easter. It's magnificent, in music, concept, and poetry. But yes, anything even remotely "martial" has been pretty much removed from worship, even when it's still in the hymnals. And in many hymnals the "martial" words are altered, so you get not "Come, Christians follow, where the Captain trod," where "Captain" is replace by Savior. There's nothing wrong with Savior, but it removes the image of Christ as our leader in battle. Alas. Most of the patriotic hymns are not sung any more in churches or in civic gatherings. Not so long ago most people would have been able to sing those without the aid of a hymnal. The loss is ours, for sure.
Today's hymn tune is a Tyrolian one, not familiar to us, but absolutely beautiful. I was wondering why we have never heard it before.
When I made my temporary vows with the Passionists (alas, 2 years later I was let go because I wasn't liberal enough), I was given the potential layout for the Mass....I don't remember the song, but an awful song was included, which I immediately insisted on changing to Lift High The Cross--which was somewhat of an unofficial official hymn for the Passionists.
Oh .. some of the music is THAT BAD. Lift High the Cross is tremendous. The ditching of traditional hymns has been a part of the dumbing-down of the faith in a lot of churches, to the detriment of many, including I guess the orders.
ESPECIALLY the orders...
Dear Mark -- what I mean is that it's suddenly and unintentionally funny, though not blamably so, to be imagining monkeys in the trees, and it's also a bit absurd to imagine camels in rice paddies. It's not WHAT the lines intend that's silly -- not at all. It's the form of expression. The hymn is itself a good one -- aside from those two lines, and even those two I can forgive, because there's no attempt by Dearmer to be pretentious.
I may have noted before, that poetry is very definitely NOT "in my wheelhouse".........The line with the monkeys simply struck me as 'Of course--that's what monkeys do.' And the line with the camel and the rice-paddies brought to mind the Silk Road, winding through China.