Why proper diction is important.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    What I heard this Sunday at Messiah:

    "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and shall call his name Emmanuel: Cod with us."

    I mention this, because this coming Sunday (Advent IV) will most likely see some setting of this text, and I urge all Choir Masters to be on the lookout for something fishy.
    Thanked by 1ClergetKubisz
  • ClergetKubiszClergetKubisz
    Posts: 1,912
    I like fish.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Of all the fish that could be highly exalted, cod is the wrong choice.
    Thanked by 1BruceL
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    Except, perhaps, if served with highly flavoured gravy.
    Thanked by 1Spriggo
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Was it fish gravy in 19th c. Russia?
  • rogue63
    Posts: 410
    Actually, cod is quite delicious when served in a tomato broth soup with peaches. It was an Icelandic specialty when I lived there.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Reval
    Posts: 186
    Oh, I know a rather dear priest from India, who always praises and prays to "Cod". It makes me smile a little, and the priest is an enthusiastic and melodious chanter.
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    Laugh not at the Sacred Cod, one thing that bound the very Protestant Commonwealth of Massachusetts to Catholic Europe:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacred_Cod
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Humble the subject and homely the design; yet this painted image bears on its finny front a majesty greater than the dignity that art can lend to graven gold or chiselled marble. The sphere it fills is vaster than that through which its prototype careered with all the myriad tribes of the great deep. The lessons that may be learned of it are nobler than any to be drawn from what is beautiful; for this sedate and solitary fish is instinct with memories and proph­ecy, like an oracle. It swims symbolic in that wider sea whose confines are the limits set to the activities of human thought. It typifies to the citizens of the Common­wealth and of the world the founding of a State. It commem­o­rates Democracy. It celebrates the rise of free institutions. It emphasizes progress. It epitomizes Massachu­setts.


    WHAT WRITING
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    My fervent prayer remains that this eventuates in absolute, irrevocable cod peace.
    O Lord, we beseech Thee, Ay-men!
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    "After the House of Representatives' move to its new chamber in 1895 the Massachu­setts Senate, which took over the old House chamber, incorporated a fish figure (often dubbed the Holy Mackerel)‍ into the chandelier there, as a reminder of the Sacred Cod the Representatives had taken with them. When officials of the World War II aluminum-for-defense drive—​misinformed that the Sacred Cod was aluminum—​asked that it be donated to the war effort, House Speaker Christian Herter explained that the Cod had been created decades before aluminum's discovery, and suggested that the Holy Mackerel be considered for sacrifice instead."
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,980
    My choir sings, "and lead us snot into temptation." We have been working on that one for a loooong time. ;-)
    Thanked by 1mrcopper
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,093
    You can invite them to add commas:

    and lead us, not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
  • JahazaJahaza
    Posts: 470
    Was it fish gravy in 19th c. Russia?

    During the Nativity fast? Only on Saturday and Sunday.
    Thanked by 2Adam Wood CharlesW
  • BruceL
    Posts: 1,072
    A former parish job of mine advertised their fish fry (which happened every Friday in Lent and was a HUGE fundraiser)

    Thank Cod It's Friday

    :-|
  • Caleferink
    Posts: 434
    I always remind myself, cantors, and choirs when singing "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee" to enunciate especially at "Giver of immortal gladness..."
    Thanked by 1Jeffrey Quick
Add a Comment