(Blogging today as travelling tomorrow. Happy Easter, you lot.)
I was in church today, and, naturally, it being Easter, we got to sing Ralph Vaughan Williams' immortal classic "Salve festa dies." Or, I got to sing three quarters of it.
There are eight verses, of which the last two are pretty excellent. The whole thing is a carefully considered and crafted piece of art, and it is imperative, for the full effect, to sing the whole thing.
We sang six verses. This was because, apparently, they had failed to plan the procession properly, so that it would fill out the whole hymn. This is elementary ecclesiastical logistics, and completely unforgivable to screw up.
And when you've planned your procession badly, it compounds the offense when you are too lazy even to sing the whole hymn. It is an offense against care, against aesthetics, and, worst of all, an offense against R.V.W. himself. Shame!
3 comments:
I went to the worst easter service ever created today. you probably would have died. there were two hymns both four verses and we sang only two of each. piano not organ to accompany. that was one of the better things about it. some people were also wearing long underwear shirts and ski pants.
Oh man, I'm so sorry. For both you, and RVW, who deserves better.
I think this is probably wrong. RVW, like anyone with experience composing church or otherwise functional music, was probably thinking pragmatically. Endless verses are provided for the maximum imaginable length of a potential performance. Thinking that they all need to be sung, in order to realize the composer's "intentions," elevates the music over the meaning of the ritual, which is the last thing the composer would probably intend. You're imposing the ideal of truth to the "musical work" in the abstract, something that applies (or is typically held to apply) in concert music, but not in functional music, where the work-concept is, in fact, not operative.
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