(no subject)

[tree_and_leaf]

Another of my favourite carols, although I cannot find a recording of the British tune for this; what’s more, most of the versions of the American one are extremely cheesy :(

It came upon the midnight clear,
That glorious song of old,
From angels bending near the earth
To touch their harps of gold;
"Peace on the earth, good will to men
From heaven's all-gracious King" --
The world in solemn stillness lay
To hear the angels sing.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled,
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing,
And ever o'er its Babel-sounds
The blessed angels sing.

But with the woes of sin and strife
The world has suffered long;
Beneath the angel-strain have rolled
Two thousand years of wrong;
And man, at war with man, hears not
The love-song which they bring; --
Oh hush the noise, ye men of strife,
And hear the angels sing!

And ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low,
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow,
Look now! for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing; --
Oh, rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing!

For lo! the days are hastening on
By prophet bards foretold,
When with the ever circling years
Comes round the age of gold;
When Peace shall over all the earth
Its ancient splendors fling,
And the whole world give back the song
Which now the angels sing.
Edmund Hamilton Sears (1810-1876)

I am sure, incidentally, that the ‘age of gold’ is a reference to the Eclogues and P. Vergilius Maro, prophet of the Gentiles. It would be one of my favourite carols anyway, but this is an additional bonus.

As a curiosity, the Sixpence None The Richer take on it, accompanying, of all things, a fanvid for The Secret Garden. They cut out the age of gold, though. *sigh*. Apart from anything else, it distorts the theology of the hymn, and makes it only look back, not forward as well…

Comments

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Another great hymn - thanks.

[tree_and_leaf]

Oddly enough, Sears was Unitarian (I say 'oddly', because despite the ambivalence of the 'prophet bards' - and, of course, Vergil as prophet of the Incarnation is a sound mediaeval belief! -, it strikes me as pretty conservative, theologically, though in the same way that I'm conservative...)

[azdak.livejournal.com]

I've never come across verse 4 before (I have to say, I can see why it gets omitted), but I passionately love "Hush the noise, ye men of strife, and hear the angels sing" and "When peace shall over all the earth her ancient splendours fling".

[tree_and_leaf]

Verse four usually seems to be omitted from British hymn books (like you, I can see why, but I have completist tendencies!) - though oddly, from my digging around on youTube, American renditions seem to be more likely to keep verse four and discard verse five - which seems perverse, because verse five is magnificent...

[helixaspersa.livejournal.com]

Hi. You seem interesting and we have several friends in common, so I have friended you, hope that's OK. My journal is little used, I'm afraid, and rather uninteresting when it is. I have it mostly to take part in various communities.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

American versions of traditional British hymns are weird, though. I seem to recall that "offspring of the virgin's womb" turns into "came to earth from heaven his home" in the US version of HTHAS (and another version has "offspring of the favored one" - anything to avoid the w-word, apparently), quite aside from having the WRONG tunes.

[tree_and_leaf]

To be fair, "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" is American in the first place (by a Unitarian, which I must admit I find vaguely surprising). But I still like the British tune better (it's rarely a good idea to argue with Vaughan Williams' choices for hymn tunes!)

Squeamishness generally has a bad effect on hymn words, too (though I admit that I don't think 'Lo, he abhors not the virgin's womb' is particularly good English, but my problem is with 'abhor' rather than mentioning wombs!)

ETA: I wonder if the 'favoured one' thing isn't also trying to avoid saying virgin? Some evangelicals object to references to 'the Virgin Mary' because it implies perpetual virginity (though 'virgin womb' doesn't, in fact, do so). Or possibly they're trying to sound accessible and not expect people to believe in the virgin birth?

[tree_and_leaf]

Hello, friend away - nice to meet you.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

To be fair, "It Came Upon A Midnight Clear" is American in the first place

But I don't wanna be fair! please don't make me be fair!

I wonder if the 'favoured one' thing isn't also trying to avoid saying virgin?

That could be. Residual anti-Catholicism, maybe?

[tree_and_leaf]

Residual anti-Catholicism, maybe?

There's a surprisingly large amount of it about.

[el-staplador.livejournal.com]

Sullivan! Rah! One of my friends had this at her wedding, on the grounds that the wedding was in September, and this is vaguely Michaelmas-related. (She originally wanted O Little Town, but was not allowed.)

Common Praise has the correct words and all five verses, but there is an asterisk next verse 4 signifying that it may be omitted. (However, I have just discovered that it only has the Dearmer version of 'Unto us is born a son/a boy is born', which in my opinion is markedly inferior. Bah!)

The New English Hymnal omits verse 4.

Complete Mission Praise is just weird:

'With sorrow brought by sin and strife
the world has suffered long,
and, since the angels sang, have passed
two thousand years of wrong...'

'And those whose journey now is hard,
whose hope is burning low,
who tread the rocky path of life
with painful steps and slow:
O listen to the news of love
which makes the heavens ring!
O rest beside the weary road
and hear the angels sing!'

Pleasant enough, but would be really weird to sing, I'd have thought. Equivalent of verse 2 is missing.

Hymns Old and New, which is usually the worst culprit for cutting, has all five verses, although it has replaced 'man at war with man' with 'warring humankind', and 'ye men of strife' with 'of mortal strife'. Also 'prophets seen of old' in the last verse - perhaps they think the congregation won't know what bards are? Patronising guff.

Ancient and Modern New Standard has all verses, and both 4 and 5 are starred.

*may have too much time on her hands*

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I have the impression that American Unitarianism has prospered better than British Unitarianism (which for the most part has disappeared, as Richard Harries commented a couple of years ago). I don't know why this should be...

[tree_and_leaf]

By the way, thank you for the card, which is indeed theologically acceptable (though for the record, I don't actually object to robins!)

As far as Lord of the Dance and Shiva goes, I think, given that Eckhart not only quoted (contemporary) Jewish and Muslim authorities in his sermons, but acknowledged them as such, I am fairly sure that he'd have just said the mediaeval equivalent of "Fascinating!" and worked it into a sermon on how God can always be found by following truth.

[tree_and_leaf]

The Church of Scotland Hymnal (3rd ed), which is the one I grew up with, omits v 4 (CH3 is surprisingly influenced by high-church Anglicanism, in terms of music and hymn selection; it contains an awful lot of office hymns which are either borrowed from the EH or, alternatively, are in the JM Neale translation). I don't know what the new edition does, but I'd be surprised if they've put it back.

Mission Praise is generally weird. When it's not being evil.

"Warring humankind?" Blech. Bards possibly too pagan?

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

I confess to overstereotyping you...

I suspected that Eckhart would have been entertained by the intermingling of God and Shiva in Lord of the Dance too, really, and don't know why I didn't just say so.