Blame it on Aristotle. If you happen to miss church on Feb. 28 because you are watching the men’s gold medal hockey game, that is. On the other hand, you might want to make sure you are in church to pray for our side!
But if you aren’t, you can always point out that Aristotle said music at the Olympics is divinely inspiring.
Seriously. I quote from The Politics: “Music at the Olympic games … fills the soul with enthusiasm.” In the Greek of Aristotle’s time, enthusiasm, from the words en (in) theos (God), means “possessed by God” or “inspired.”
That said, with all due respect to David Foster’s rousing theme for the 1988 Calgary Games, I’ve never been much moved by Olympic songs.
Perhaps Ari was thinking more along the lines of the hymns Welsh rugby fans sing.
It’s true. A French rugby player once said how utterly demoralizing it was for opponents when the Welsh fans would begin singing, because it would fire up the Welsh side so.
Hymns can do that. Some years ago I attended a Cymanfa Ganu, several thousand people singing Welsh hymns. It made your hair stand on end and brought more than one lump to the throat. I think it was the 2,000 or so tenors — farmers, miners, doctors and lawyers — who know all the parts to all the great hymns by memory.
The three tenors? Ha! They’re squeaking mice by comparison.
This is obviously a long segue into our cover package this month on the role of music in religious worship. And in Wales, rugby is as much a religion as Habs hockey is in Montreal.
But I digress. Some of our authors this month mention their favourite hymns, so I thought I’d share a few of mine.
In return, perhaps you will post comments on them on our website and add your own favourites. We’d love to hear what really stirs your soul.
While you’re at it, take a look at Andrew Donaldson’s In Song blog: presbyterianrecord/articles/insong.
I’m going to stick with the Welsh connection for my first hymn tune. It’s Blaenwern, and appears with two sets of lyrics in the Book of Praise. I love this tune partly because it is so simply constructed and yet has such an emotional build. If you attend a Welsh hymn sing, you may hear the latter half of the tune repeated once or twice after the last verse, just like some great pop tunes.
My second pick is also a tune found in the Book of Praise, but the words aren’t. Charles Wesley’s O Thou Who Camest From Above is all about inspiration. It is set to the lovely tune Hereford, written by Charles’s grandson, Samuel Sebastian Wesley.
Here’s verse three: “Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire to work and speak and think for thee; still let me guard the hold fire, and still stir up thy gift in me.”
I’m also quite fond of tunes written or arranged by the contemporary English composer Noël Tredinnick. His crushed, jazz-influenced harmonies are gorgeous.
Majestas is a tune written by Michael Baughen arranged by Tredinnick. The words, Name of All Majesty, were written by Timothy Dudley-Smith.
Singing this hymn reminds me of Graham Sutherland’s extraordinary Christ the King tapestry in Coventry Cathedral. The last verse:
Source of all sovereignty,
light, immortality,
life everlasting
and heaven assured;
so with the ransomed,
we praise him eternally,
Christ in his majesty –
Jesus is Lord!
Although this particular hymn is in Hymns for Today’s Church, Baughen, Tredinnick and Dudley-Smith all have tunes and words in the Book of Praise.
My final two are the beautiful words Come Down, O Love Divine, set to equally transporting music by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Siyahamba (We are Marching in the Light of God), a South African Xhosa hymn translated and set to music by the Swedish South African, Anders Nyberg. Both hymns are in the Book of Praise.
The point of singing hymns, of course, is to help us draw nearer in spirit to God. Which may be why the Welsh have another hymn that asks God for a pure heart in order to “Sing in the day, sing in the night.” ■
