A Presentation hymn
February 13, 2010, 10:58 am
Posted by Joseph A. Komonchak
As proof that good hymns can have ecumenical significance, here’s one of our Kathy’s translations being used as the climax of a sermon at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
I sent this in before seeing Peggy’s thread just below, but perhaps it’s somewhat relevant.
How beautiful. Thank you Kathy and Father Joseph.
Very good stylistically. I can almost hear the music. But why not substitute “done” for “made” in the last verse? I think it works in the passive voice and the rhyme would work for you.
Joseph Gannon, are you talking about this verse (second to last):
So, Mary, bring this little one,
Yours and the Father’s only Son
Through whom our offering is made
By whom our ransom price is paid.
She’s got quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme, and “done” for “made” would throw that off.
I leave theologians to argue over the wording, but I think it’s very nice as is. Where can we hear the music?
Thanks, Fr. K, Jean, Joseph, Nancy, Jean, that’s exactly right re: the rhyme scheme. Thank goodness it isn’t a threefold rhyme. That is very difficult to pull off in English.
The original music is a chant tune, but the meter is very versatile. Look in the metrical index in the back of any hymnal for a Long Meter (LM) tune. Find one that you like and know. If it’s iambic, this can be sung to that tune, although some “marriages” of tune and text work better than others.
Singing multiple texts to familiar tunes is one way to fulfill Margaret’s principle #3 in the thread below: People sing what they know. Part of the solution is to repeat hymns so they become familiar.
Sorry, but when I looked up the text from the link, it seemed that the last line was “Through whom our offering is made”. I should have assumed that something other than Kathy’s translation was amiss. Well I like it all the more now that my error has been corrected. Keep up the good work!
Actually, I misspoke, it’s an AABB rhyme (I realized this error in the grocery checkout line, where I do my best self examination). But the point was correct in the main.
Not to drag the conversation too far afield, re translations–my current “Bible project” is following the daily lectionary Psalter readings. Am using the BCP Psalter, and it strikes me how much they follow Old English poetic conventions. Doesn’t say that was intentional in the Psalter’s intro, can’t help thinking that that form resonates for English readers.
Re using familiar tunes. Seems like I read somewhere that the Church put the kibosh on playing “Danny Boy” at funerals, as it’s a secular song, but in idly browsing the hymnal during an abysmal homily, I noticed an awful lot of hymns that used the same tune, Londonderry Air.
Kathy, how wonderful to see you get some recognition for what I suspect is a mixture of labor of love and vocation.
My experience is that if you know about a half-dozen hymn tunes, you can usually muddle through. Kathy’s text would work quite well with OLD HUNDREDTH (e.g. “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow”)
Thanks, Jim. What’s fun for me is that the knack of rhyme and meter–the result of being teethed on Dr. Seuss–combines very nicely in this exercise with so many of my interests, including evangelization.
Jean, the hymnal company WLP has a nice English setting of the In Paradisum to Londonderry Air. That is the recessional chant of the funeral liturgy.
I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who uses abysmal-homily-time that way.