[Magdalen] On a humorous note

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I once did a setting of modern lyrics to the Scottish Chant.  I think we
all love that one because, unlike most chants, it actually has some musical
shape to it.  I mean, you could hypothetically take the notes of the
Scottish chant and make a nice instrumental piece out of it. Never met
anyone who didn't like old 739.

It is music; the rest of the stuff is just like bugle calls. You know that
this tone means the colors are coming down, but there's no art in it.

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 Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 4:33 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> The Powell is particularly dreadful, IMNSHO. YMMV, of course, but none of
> the 1982 settings are worth a plugged nickel, and I wish they hadn't
> tampered with the Old Scottish Gloria either.
>
> On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 1:48 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com>
> wrote:
>
> >
> >> A new verse to one of the worst crafted hymns of all time.  It's on my
> >> short list of hymns I hate most.
> >>
> >
> > Well, the snooty can deride it, but then they've probably never sung
> > Anglican Chant either, which lets the singer sing the Psalms without
> > worrying about meter and rhyme or any of the other pedestrian things that
> > some consider make a "good" hymn.
> >
> > But then, where's the meter and rhyme in, say, the Gloria?
> >
> > Glory to God in the Highest
> > And peace to his people on Err-erth.
> > If this were a poem you were buy-ying
> > How much would you say its was wor-rth?
> >
> > BTW, any choir/congregation worth its musical salt can sing the Gloria
> and
> > glorious four-part Anglican Chant, as a few came to recognize how
> dreadful
> > the H82 Gloria settings like Powell and Hurd really are.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Jim . . .
> >
> >
>