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Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:18 am
by CHAZ
We all spent hours of our school lives in Chapel. In my Grecian's year as SG I had to attend Chapel every day so got a lot of time to enjoy some good music. I often remember the different organists who would play, be it McKelvey, Shippen, Kirkup, Chris Tambling and even Adrian Bawtree.

But what were the hymns or psalms you really enjoyed? Just top 5. (no preference in particular here)

Praise My Soul the King of Heaven
Jersualem (wow how great it was to hear those first few notes bellowed out!)
Magnificat - "My soul doth magnify the Lord and my Spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour...."
There is a green hill far away
OnWard Christian Soldiers

I always remember too the lead in the Choir when there was a choir piece and his head shaking all over the place

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:51 am
by Fjgrogan
'Praise the Lord for our Foundation' still gives me goosebumps!

I'm not sure that I can manage just five, but here are some:
'Lead, kindly light', conjures a picture of the west wing of the Hertford at dusk.
'Three kings from Persian lands afar' - always beautifully sung at the Christmas carol service at Hertford.
'Psalm 46 God is our refuge and strength' - because it was the first psalm I really studied - for a House singing competition. There is now a version of it in Mission Praise sung to the tune of the Dambusters March, which gives it added poignancy.
'Crown him with many crowns'.
'Jesu, lover of my soul' - I think the tune is called Aberystwyth?

Whoops that is six already - I could go on at length, but won't!

There are also some 'popular' hymns which I loathe. 'Now thank we all our God', which always seems to be sung like a dirge and sounds anything but thankful. We sang it at our wedding, because we never managed to connect with the organist to make our own choice. And 'Forty days and forty nights', always sung at the Lenten services and also dirgelike.

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:28 am
by J.R.
What was the name of the organ piece that Dr Rust always played right at the end of the leavers service

Really loud and ceremonial.

It always sounded even better to me when up in the balcony.

For some reason, the word Scipio ( :?: ) comes to mind.

ANSWERS ON AN ORGAN PIPE, TO...................

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 2:06 pm
by Fjgrogan
Don't know which one you mean JR, but the organ voluntary that springs to mind as being heard most frequently is Vidor's Toccata and Fugue. There was one occasion at Hertford, I believe, when some of the boys from Horsham were present (possibly a Speech Day?) and the organ was being played by one of the boys who launched into 'Michelle, Ma Belle', to the amusement of all who knew that he fancied one of the sixth formers of that name!

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 4:53 pm
by kerrensimmonds
Handel wrote an opera called 'Scipio'. He (Scipio, not Handel!) was a Roman Centurion. The opera has a famous slow march (which I think is the regimental march for one of the Guards regiments). It's quite possible that the organist played an organ arrangement of it at the Leavers' Service...it's quite grand and 'emotional'!

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 6:09 pm
by Mid A 15
Fjgrogan wrote:'Praise the Lord for our Foundation' still gives me goosebumps!
I'm not sure that I can manage just five, but here are some:
'Lead, kindly light', conjures a picture of the west wing of the Hertford at dusk.
'Three kings from Persian lands afar' - always beautifully sung at the Christmas carol service at Hertford.
'Psalm 46 God is our refuge and strength' - because it was the first psalm I really studied - for a House singing competition. There is now a version of it in Mission Praise sung to the tune of the Dambusters March, which gives it added poignancy.
'Crown him with many crowns'.
'Jesu, lover of my soul' - I think the tune is called Aberystwyth?

Whoops that is six already - I could go on at length, but won't!

There are also some 'popular' hymns which I loathe. 'Now thank we all our God', which always seems to be sung like a dirge and sounds anything but thankful. We sang it at our wedding, because we never managed to connect with the organist to make our own choice. And 'Forty days and forty nights', always sung at the Lenten services and also dirgelike.
Agreed.

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 6:20 pm
by michael scuffil
No Kerren, I know what JR means and it wasn't that. But I think I've heard it played at passing-out parades elsewhere, Sandhurst for example. (Not that I've ever been to Sandhurst, but occasionally when some famous person passes out, we get a brief news item, and this piece seems to be played.)

CHAZ: you mean you had to go to chapel every day ONLY because you were SG?!

As for hymns, I mainly remember the ones we hammed up. One had a line which we roared: "Christian! Up and smite them!" It also referred to the "troops of Midian" which became "troops of Mordor".

There was a curious one which ended thus:

But when so sad thou canst not sadder
Cry - and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross.

Yea, in the night, my Soul, my daughter,
Cry - clinging Heaven by the hems;
And lo, Christ walking on the water
Not of Gennesaret, but Thames!

It had a good stirring tune too.

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:09 pm
by Vièr Bliu
michael scuffil wrote:
But when so sad thou canst not sadder
Cry - and upon thy so sore loss
Shall shine the traffic of Jacob’s ladder
Pitched between Heaven and Charing Cross.


It had a good stirring tune too.
I love the poem - but I've never encountered it sung as a hymn. Can you identify the tune?

Anyway, my top five would be:

Best carol - Eastern monarchs, sages three (never sung it at a carol service since CH)
Best psalm - Psalm 84 (for the sustained note on the sparrow and the swallow, and with that lovely plunge in the pools filled with water - although Psalms 24 and 46 run it close)
Best hymn - Christ is made our sure foundation
Foundation hymn
Leaving hymn - Lord thou hast brought us to our journey's end (should be allowed those two automatically, like the Bible and Shakespeare...)

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 8:23 pm
by kerrensimmonds
Well, Geraint. You need to get to a CHA Carol Concert, because 'Eastern Monarchs' is a permanent item on the programme! I'm not sure we sang it so routinely at Hertford, but I got to know it through the first CHA Carol Concert and since then am up for belting it out with the best of them. I agree that it's a rousing favourite.
My top choice is always the Foundation Hymn. I sing along to it on disk, and in my darkest moments (e.g. bereavement) have been known to be outside walking the dog and singing it heartily to myself, to boost the spirit. Mind you, I do have a bit of a problem with the word 'Brothers' (start of verse 4) so I usually sing 'brethren'. The more feminist members of the Old Blue society known to me sing, I believe, 'sisters' - but that to me is just as exclusive as the word 'brothers'! And Hertford folk did not have the third verse including 'Praise him for our spacious dwelling.....' but in time, after the merger I, at least, got to love that verse too.
After that, my most favourite hymn is 'Oh Thou Who Camest From Above' - the words are meaningful, the soprano line is lovely to sing, the descant for the last verse is fabulous - and when I came to try to sing alto, I found that the alto line was just as lyrical. Beautiful....
Off to wipe away a few nostalgic tears...

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:02 pm
by Fjgrogan
I know it is off topic slightly, but ........... what is the psalm that says something about the Lord not taking delight in a man's legs!? It used to produce fits of the giggles at Hertford. I expect Neill would know the one I mean.

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:21 pm
by kerrensimmonds
Psalm 147. And the Lord doesn't enjoy horses' legs, either.....

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:35 pm
by kerrensimmonds
And the other thing that made us giggle was 'the bosom of Abraham....' .... somewhere in Luke, I believe.
How silly!

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:38 pm
by Fjgrogan
Thanks Kerren. Also off topic, but ...... then there was the prayer for the Queen which requested that she be granted everlasting joy and felicity, which we in sixes thought was a dubious privilege because we numbered in our midst Joy Morgetroyd and Felicity Williams!

On a more serious note .......... I don't often go to Evensong these days, but when I do I find that my body instinctively reacts, kneeling, standing etc on cue. And I desperately miss the quality of music that we had at CH. It tends to be the habit now that only the choir sing the responses, and anyway they are usually to a tune that I don't know. Even Te Deum, Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis are only sung properly by the choir, and if they happen to be a version that I am familiar with, I feel quite uncomfortable being one of the few people in the congregation who sings - I don't even have a decent singing voice! It bothers me that Evensong in particular has become almost a performance rather than an act of common worship. But that is mainly because at Hertford the whole school was expected to attend choir practice, so we all knew all the parts. Hence my liking for Three Kings From Persian Lands Afar, which is usually a choir performance piece, but we at school all sang it, and did it well. Nowadays nobody seems to be able to worship God without all sorts of technical assistance. When I was in Reader Ministry, I used to spend a lot of time worrying about whether or not microphones were working, which rather distracted me from what I was meant to be doing!

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 10:57 pm
by dinahcat
Come on ladies, surely you can't have forgotten St Patrick's Breast Plate? Always sung at lent and as interminable as Rev Walkers sermons . It just went on and on ...

Re: Favourite Housey hymns

Posted: Thu May 28, 2009 11:05 pm
by kerrensimmonds
And the Benedicite.....All those 'Praise the Lord and Magnify HIm for Ever...' times two million.....
(actually a lovely Canticle when one appreciates it better in later life...)