[Magdalen] Terminology query (was Re: speaking of downsizing...)

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I heard the hymn, "It is well" from my wife, who had sung it as a youth.  I
was moved by the beauty of the tune and the story behind it.
The hymn was written by Horatio Spafford. He and his wife had four
daughters in the 1870s. They were quite well off, living in Chicago and
planned to travel in Europe. Mr. S was delayed by business, but planned to
join the family shortly in Europe. Crossing the Atlantic, the ship with
Mrs. S and the four daughters was rammed, and sank in just a few minutes.
All four daughters drowned. Mr. S took a ship to join his wife in Europe.
One evening he was asked to join the captain on the bridge. The captain
told him that by the best reckoning of the navigators, at that moment they
were passing over the very spot in the Atlantic where the other ship sank.
Spafford went back to his stateroom and wrote the hymn. It only obliquely
and subtly refers to the terrible tragedy.


   1. When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
   When sorrows like sea billows roll;
   Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
   It is well, it is well with my soul.
      - Refrain:
      It is well with my soul,
      It is well, it is well with my soul.
   2. Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
   Let this blest assurance control,
   That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
   And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
   3. And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
   The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
   The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
   Even so, it is well with my soul.


The Spaffords had three other children, I believe, one of whom died of
scarlet fever. They eventually moved to Jerusalem and carried out relief
work there for many years.

I wrote a setting of the hymn for women's voices that, if all goes
according to plan, will be premiered in about a month.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 11:41 AM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:

> How many people in the TEC tradition know the hymn, "It is well with my
> soul" ?
>
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
>
> On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 8:40 AM, Kristin Rollins <kristin at verumsolum.com>
> wrote:
>
>> It is amazing, though, how some of those terms can seem like everybody
>> knows them until you are somewhere else. And then you don't know which
>> words are the ones that will make people look at you like "WHAT did you
>> just say?"
>>
>> I think I had the same experience with hymn tunes. There were the tunes
>> that EVERYBODY knew back home, and in most churches I visited other
>> places near there. But it took a long time to figure out which ones
>> would get a "we've NEVER sung that tune before" reaction from choir and
>> congregation down here.
>>
>> Kristin
>>
>> --
>>   Kristin Rollins
>>   kristin at verumsolum.com
>>   Portsmouth, VA
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 31, 2015, at 08:49 PM, Scott Knitter wrote:
>> > On Tue, Mar 31, 2015 at 4:50 PM, Kate Conant <kate.conant at gmail.com>
>> > wrote:
>> > > Maybe we can go on to various words for
>> couch/davenport/sofa/Chesterfield
>> > > ???? <grin>
>> >
>> > Our Canadian organist/choirmaster in East Cupcake would use terms like
>> > Chesterfield as though everyone everywhere used that term. I remember
>> > a choir party at his house when his wife told one of the tenors she
>> > had picked up a dropped glove of his and put in on the Chesterfield.
>> > He blinked and said, "Quick: name three synonyms for Chesterfield!"
>> > hoping one of them would enlighten him as to where his glove was.
>>
>
>