Muesli
Yesterday A bishop declared that the hymn I Vow To Thee My Country is heretical and a bit naughty. Laban Tall has already made a note of this.
What comes next though is the oh so predictable response in The Guardian letters page
However good its tune, the real problem about I Vow to Thee My Country, like all aggressive and male-oriented hymnody, is that, in an age which has effectively relegated the second verses heavenly ways of gentleness and peaceful paths to a fairly painless insurance policy, an emasculated dreamlike world is wheeled out to sanctify whatever current war effort. Why not keep the tunes, but with some revamped non-patriotic, non-violent lyrics?
David Partridge
Oxford
I think the 'dreamlike world' he's talking about is not the only thing that is emasculated. Somebody should really come up with a website that randomly generates Guardian letters. Perhaps the same clever chap who came up with the Daily Mail headline generator.
Why would anybody want to make our hymns and anthems non-patriotic or non-violent. For a start they would be boring as hell. You might as well scrap them all and make John Lennons utopian ditty Imagine the worlds anthem ("Imagine allllll the peeeple, tucking into their muesli").
The blood and guts lyric of these tunes are what makes them fun. I'd far rather sing a verse about smiting one's enemies than cuddling them. They also tell you a lot about the people who wrote them and the nations they describe.
The best example of this has to be the excised second verse of the British national anthem:
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter our enemies,
And make them fall!
Confound their Popish tricks,
Confuse their politics,
On you our hopes we fix,
God save us all!
Isn't that just the perfect example of the worldview of a paranoid Middle Englander?
Incidentally the Popish bit was later replaced by the word 'Knavish' but that didn't save it from getting the chop.
Or how about this verse composed during the Jacobite rebellion:
God grant that Marshall Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring,
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to Crush,
God save the King.
That one got the chop a long time ago.
My opinion is that if the Devil has all the best tunes you should at least allow God to hold on to a few that are edgy and controversial.
Yesterday A bishop declared that the hymn I Vow To Thee My Country is heretical and a bit naughty. Laban Tall has already made a note of this.
What comes next though is the oh so predictable response in The Guardian letters page
However good its tune, the real problem about I Vow to Thee My Country, like all aggressive and male-oriented hymnody, is that, in an age which has effectively relegated the second verses heavenly ways of gentleness and peaceful paths to a fairly painless insurance policy, an emasculated dreamlike world is wheeled out to sanctify whatever current war effort. Why not keep the tunes, but with some revamped non-patriotic, non-violent lyrics?
David Partridge
Oxford
I think the 'dreamlike world' he's talking about is not the only thing that is emasculated. Somebody should really come up with a website that randomly generates Guardian letters. Perhaps the same clever chap who came up with the Daily Mail headline generator.
Why would anybody want to make our hymns and anthems non-patriotic or non-violent. For a start they would be boring as hell. You might as well scrap them all and make John Lennons utopian ditty Imagine the worlds anthem ("Imagine allllll the peeeple, tucking into their muesli").
The blood and guts lyric of these tunes are what makes them fun. I'd far rather sing a verse about smiting one's enemies than cuddling them. They also tell you a lot about the people who wrote them and the nations they describe.
The best example of this has to be the excised second verse of the British national anthem:
O Lord our God arise,
Scatter our enemies,
And make them fall!
Confound their Popish tricks,
Confuse their politics,
On you our hopes we fix,
God save us all!
Isn't that just the perfect example of the worldview of a paranoid Middle Englander?
Incidentally the Popish bit was later replaced by the word 'Knavish' but that didn't save it from getting the chop.
Or how about this verse composed during the Jacobite rebellion:
God grant that Marshall Wade,
May by thy mighty aid,
Victory bring,
May he sedition hush,
And like a torrent rush,
Rebellious Scots to Crush,
God save the King.
That one got the chop a long time ago.
My opinion is that if the Devil has all the best tunes you should at least allow God to hold on to a few that are edgy and controversial.
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