In honor of my last Sunday at my current position; I'm leaving on good terms and moving on to a bigger job.Anyway, enjoy!
To the tune of AURELIA
This is the moment glorious when I pull on the reeds And add the screaming mixtures to make your eardrums bleed Throw open wide the swell-box with Trompette en Chamade; When this last stanza's over, the people say "Thank God!"
What gladsome tidings glorious Will light upon our ears When we are given notice That never will they hear Again that tawdry hymn-tune That's over-used and bad The one so gravely awful Whose name's Aurelia.
With simulacrum buzzing and oil-filled Almy fakes I lean upon the manual and care not for mistakes. The Lord's my shepherd, truly; and I his humble sheep With Tuba Mirabilis, the dead shall rise from sleep.
(Actually, I should think maybe once in five years would be 'pushing it'?)
Oh, what their joy and glory must be, those souls at rest who only chant their praises or sing polyphony. They never stoop to drivel, nor maudlin tunes do sing; thus have they been delivered e'er from Aurelia.
In honor (sort of) of the Hallowe'en, I resurrect (or reconstruct) this set of alternate words:
The churches' one foundation is us, you silly twit! We worship now our own selves, as worship right and fit for modern philperchildren, for our audacity: as center of the known world (that's only you and me).
It puzzles me to see MJO setting words to a hymn-tune without rhyming them. I thought that a total lack of rhyme was more characteristic of works from the Gatherhymnal songbook.
MJO's tune seems to have a complicated internal rhyme. And maybe it's in translation, like some of the hymns in the Lumen Christi Hymnal, which sacrifice rhyme for precision and clarity.
Be puzzled no longer, Chonak - I'm not, as is evident, a poet at all. These attempts at humour were lucky to exhibit correct workable metre. Rhyme? Well, it could have been cobbled clumsily had I wished at it more time to spend.
There was one veiled reference, though, to another hymn, one appropriate to last week's liturgical events. I was wondering if anyone would notice. It is a borrowing from that great hymn for All Saints', O quanta qualia, or, 'O, what their joy and their glory must be', as found at no. 589 in the 1940. If there are any who don't know this marvelous hymn and tune, it is hard to surpass. Singing it on All Saints' is like singing 'O come, all ye faithful' on Christmas.
Tune: O quanta qualia O what their joy and their glory must be, Those endless Sabbaths the blessed ones see; Crown for the valiant, to weary ones rest, God shall be all, and in all ever blest. - Peter Abelard, Trans., J.M. Neale So, you want rhyme?
O how is it bearable, Aurelia to sing? Its form's not commendable to any ears that ring with finer music's dower of inspired, glorious, song. Yea, do our paeans ever to ampler strains belong!
The harpies on this forum should learn to take a joke And read these posts while drinking a nice big rum and Coke Matt Maher's making money, and Marty Haugen too, So don't you act so grumpy just because it's not you!
The church's main foundation Is cheques and cash in hand, That flow from celebrations Enjoyed throughout the land; But Treasurers are watching The books with eagle-eye, And praying for some donation That saves the spire on high!
Another text or two for Aurelia and a balm for KARU27
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+ or
Let men and angels ponder The goodness of our God, Who unto us dost tender His Body and his Blood That we may, always hopeful Of heaven's glory bright, To him, in lays most joyful, Sing ever in his light.
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