Listening

A Companion to the Book of Praise Revised 1972 By the choir of St. Andrew’s, King Street, Toronto, in 1972
Adam Gopnik, writer for the New Yorker, once pronounced the “Golden 40-Year Rule” about American popular culture. He claimed: “The prime site of nostalgia is always whatever happened, or is thought to have happened, in the decade between 40 and 50 years past.”

While one cannot imagine a CD of a vinyl record produced as a companion to the revised 1972 Book of Praise can be considered “popular culture,” perhaps it is is a good time to review a 40-year-old sample of our musical heritage.

St. Andrew’s, King Street, in Toronto, has reissued a 1972 recording in which 10 choristers and organist/director Douglas Bodle present 17 hymns from the 1972 Book of Praise.

Their high quality musicianship produce a professional, ethereal sound—an otherworldly soundscape that would be far removed from most Presbyterian congregational singing today. You will not likely slide this disc into your CD player and sing along; no texts are included. The hymns, all sung in four-part harmony, occasionally accompanied by Bodle, are best used for contemplation, music appreciation or study. The quality of the music and technical engineering permit music aficionados to delight in the beautifully shaped words and phrases, precise final consonants and faultless elocution. Does quality, learned singing sound different? Yes, it does, and 40 years later, it still provides moments of pleasure.

The choice of hymns is heavily British, with translations from German and Latin. The texts represent 19th- and early 20th-century poetic spirituality. The Genevan Psalter gets one selection, paired with Charles Wesley’s Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Sky. Healey Willan’s harmonization of a plainsong (a type of chant) has been carried over from the 1918 revision with new words. Perhaps this plainsong is the best song on the disc; it’s certainly the only one you can’t resist humming. The musical line flows like soft ice cream eaten in sunshine.

There’s an anachronistic pall over this CD. It could still be a sentimental companion because the hymn book with the light blue cover is still with us 40 years later. Yet I lament the omission of hymns, or indeed, any clue at all of the turbulent times during which the record was made. The winners of the hymn committee’s own competition are absent, most regrettably Miriam Drury’s When Voices Are Confusing. The hymn choices seem to whisper, “Retrench, retrench.” The stage was set for Praiseways and Celebrate, which gave voice to a new generation of hymn writers and grateful worshippers.

In spite of its English origins (Christina Rossetti and Gustav Holst), In the Bleak Midwinter surely captures the Canadian winter experience. It is best heard ringing from a vehicle’s CD player, in mid-January, on an empty Canadian highway somewhere north of the 49th. (For more thoughts on winter, listen to Gopnik’s CBC Massey lectures).

Twelve selections have been carried over into the 1997 Book of Praise. The most creative use of this CD would be as a resource for studying the implications of the texts we still sing. For more information about the CD, contact
info@standrewstoronto.org.