Thursday May 26, 2022
A rhythm was running through my head when I woke up: “Dah dit dah dit dah dit dah…” No words, just a mesmerizing beat.
Ever had one of those earworms that won’t go away?
During my shower, a word inserted itself to the relentless rhythm: “Patsy.” Then the rest of the words came trickling back: “Patsy Atsy Or-ee-ay… Workin’ on the railroad.”
I cannot imagine where that memory came from. It wasn’t in any of my dreams that night. The last time I remember singing it, I was a teenager, sitting around a campfire, each of us trying to holler louder than everyone else.
Why we were singing that song, I don’t know. “In 1841, work on the railroad just begun…” has no relevance for Canadians.
Sometime in the afternoon, I realized that the words running through my head had morphed into Mademoiselle from Armentieres.
The tune is the almost identical -- if you skip the “Parlez-vous” bits.
Interchangeable tunes and words
It’s surprising how many songs have common elements. Or perhaps it’s not so surprising. We have only eight notes to work with, after all. Unless you’re Arnold Schoenberg, who used twelve.
The late Allan Sherman -- remember his Camp Granada song: “Hello Mudda, hello Fadda,..”? -- once organized a concert with the famed Boston Pops under the legendary Arthur Fiedler.
The orchestra played a medley of songs that all used the same four-note sequence: C F G A. You know them as “How Dry I Am.” Sherman’s commentary implied that they were borrowed for, among others, the theme from High Noon, the Skater’s Waltz, Bizet’s fiery Habanera, and You Are My Sunshine.
If you’re not a church musician, you may never have paid attention a cryptic coding attached to hymns. For example, 8888 or 7676.
Conventional music scores have time signatures: 2/2 for a march, 3/4 for a waltz, etc. Hymns have line-length signatures, the number of syllables in each line.
Basically, that metrical code tells you that you can sing Abide With Me to the same tune as Be Thou My Vision. Or vice versa. If you choose to.
When I was young, the church my parents attended in India had a hymnbook split horizontally across the middle of the page. So the worship leader could have the congregation sing the words for #379 to the tune #183. Or whatever.
To this day, I know that O Little Town of Bethlehem can be sung to at least three different tunes.
In the same way, The Lord’s My Shepherd, Amazing Grace, and While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night can each be sung to each other’s melodies.
Interchangeability isn’t limited to hymn tunes. All of those hymns -- and a lot more -- can be sung to The Happy Wanderer. Which uses 8686 for its verses -- just ignore the Falderee chorus.
Some substitutes don’t work as well. My church’s hymnbook lists 51 variants of 8888 tunes, by far the most popular metre. Many popular songs are also 8888.
Which means that it’s possible to sing the Old 100th, Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow, or When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, to Hernando’s Hideaway.
But it doesn’t feel quite the same.
Go ahead -- try it! I can almost guarantee that you’ll get an earworm out of the experiment.
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Copyright © 2022 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
Terry Wardrop sent along a video clip of a woodpecker feeding out of an unknown person’s hand – unfortunately, I can’t figure out how to send you a URL for it.
“Attached is a similar illustration/example of today's wasp story,” Terry wrote. I found it moving almost to tears.
Tom Watson: “You've witnessed a wonderful wasp experience. I wish I would have had that when I was young and growing up on the farm. Bees built nests in the walls of our brick farmhouse, and every once in a while one or two would get into my bedroom and make a beeline right for me. It left me permanently scarred as for any relationship other than dread. What do you feed the wasp?”
JT: I’m not sure what it ate. Perhaps vegetable scraps I hadn’t cleaned up. Perhaps the fruit flies that populate my compost pail. In any case, it’s irrelevant now. Earlier this week it climbed down into a partially filled cup of water for a drink. It must have slipped and not been able to get out. When I came home, I found it floating face down in the water.
Ken Nicholls wasn’t quite confident about my relationship with the wasp: “I have sympathy for your desire to love all God's creatures. However I cannot forget what happened to my father. A devout and saintly person, he once took me to a cricket match where a wasp attached itself to his sandwich and stung him on the tip of his tongue. His ritual dance and words uttered were not very religious. I hope something similar does not happen to you.
PS I agree wholeheartedly with your comments on prayer but I also acknowledge that many cannot face the truth and honesty that your comments express.”
Bob Rollwagen suggested I check my “new resident’s credentials. Does he intend to move in or has he already built a little quiet spot in an unseen corner. Is he/she/they accustomed to living in a wall with two entries, one inside and one outside? I would call that a Z-Russian wasp. Unfortunately, borders don’t always provide a clear understanding of traditional community.”
Isabel Gibson endorsed the central theme of last week’s column: “Yes, it's likely better to relate to the world and all its components as ‘thou’ rather than ‘it’. Better for them and better for our hearts.”
Randy Hall focussed on the prayer aspect in the second half of the column: “I’m with you on ‘prayer,’ Jim. Most are self-centered rather than God-love-service-gratitude centred. Too many of us preachers use public prayer as a mini-sermon.
“My two favorite prayers are Niebuhr’s ‘Serenity Prayer’ (the entire version) and St. Francis’ Prayer for Peace. Both ask for God’s help to become the answer to their own and others’ prayers.”
Bruce Thomas had similar thoughts: “Like many (yourself included), I too have questioned the power of prayer -- a rather great mystery among many in our faith. I’ve talked with some who practise the ‘pop-up’ prayer where, as a need arises, one stops temporarily and essentially talks to the self within. It may be simply a one-sided conversation, but even at its worst it allows for some serious thinking or reflecting at that very moment to realign our thoughts in a positive direction. At its best, who really knows what takes place? And some place in between, that’s where our faith carries us to something new.
“Long ago, I discarded the ‘gimme’ prayer and the ‘let’s make a deal’ approach because I felt that I couldn’t be so important before the Creator to suggest that my prayer was more important than so many others. It left me feeling selfish and lacking empathy for the world around me. So, in the end (so far ~ still evolving), I’ve left it up to the God of my understanding (whatever that means), to receive or displace my thoughts in prayer. Always at the ready to solve a bit more of life’s mystery.”
Rob Dummermuth: “Although a now retired minister with the Uniting Church in Australia, I must confess I too have trouble often with the concept of prayer. But I was greatly encouraged last week as a volunteer ambulance officer. A bystander suggested a prayer for the patient. In the middle of a critical situation, it was a simple but sincere ‘God help us all’.
“On the run to the hospital I confessed to the other officer my concern about prayer. The officer’s response was ‘Although I am not religious, I would think your presence and dedication seems by far a most affective prayer’.”
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Psalm paraphrase
This paraphrase of Psalm 97 reflects an anthropomorphic view of God, but it still speaks to me.
1 From coast to coast, from earth to sky,
2 God judges the earth with justice and fairness.
Look up and see the pillars of God's palace,
The black clouds boiling up above the burning peaks;
3 God's gavel strikes their brooding anvils,
and lightning leaps across the skies;
4 judgment thunders, and the earth trembles.
5 Even the mountains melt.
glowing lava rolls down like a mighty river;
6 volcanoes spray the skies with fire.
God is surrounded by flame, far beyond our comprehension.
7 Who else could create such a spectacle?
Who would choose to worship anything less?
8 God's people rejoice;
God's people are confident their faith is justified.
9 You, God, tower above earthly things;
You tower over our cultural idols,
The golden calves that humans love to worship.
10 And yet you, God, reach out with gentle hands
to those who struggle against sinful ways.
11 For those who walk in your way, a ray of light beams through the densest clouds.
12 So rejoice in the Lord, and give thanks.
You can find paraphrases of most of the psalms in the Revised Common Lectionary in my book Everyday Psalmsavailable from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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PROMOTION STUFF
To use the links in this section, you’ll have to insert the necessary symbols. Some spam filters have blocked my posts because they’re suspicious of some of the web links.
Wayne Irwin's “Churchweb Canada,” an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. http://wwwDOTchurchwebcanadaDOTca He’s also relatively inexpensive!
I recommend Isabel Gibson’s thoughtful and well-written blog, wwwDOTtraditionaliconoclastDOTcom. She also has lots of beautiful photos. Especially of birds.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at tomwatsoATgmailDOTcom (NB that’s “watso” not “watson”)
ALVA WOOD’S ARCHIVE
I have acquired (don’t ask how) the complete archive of the late Alva Wood’s collection of satiric and sometimes wildly funny columns about a mythical village’s misadventures. I’ve put them on my website: http://quixotic.ca/Alva-Wood-Archive. You’re welcome to browse. No charge. (Although maybe if I charged a fee, more people would find the archive worth visiting.)