| The English Hymnal Centenary sermon |
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Preached at St. Mary's, Primrose Hill as part of the celebrations for the Centenary of The English Hymnal.
Let us rally for the right, boys, rally once again, You won't be surprised when I tell you that this hymn doesn't come from the English Hymnal! It's words like that - from a great outpouring in the 19th century - that have tended to give the hymn a bad name when it comes to poetry. That verse, by the way, is from the Primitive Methodist Temperance Melodist (not used, I guess, at Primrose Hill). This poor reputation reaches rock bottom in some of those revivalist hymns which have repeating lines: O for a man - o for a man - o for a mansion in the sky. And we can understand the low esteem in which serious poets have often held hymnody. What other poetry has been subjected to such terrible indignities. In what other poetry would the leader call out – Hymn 474, verses 1, 6 and 7 - when time was short. In what other poetry would lines be brought up to date or made inclusive and politically correct by somebody who wasn't the author? Lionel Dakers was director of the Royal School of Church Music, and one of his favourites was:
Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Percy Dearmer wouldn't have stood for that sort of thing. It was Dearmer who first saw that the greatest poetry needed to be brought into Christian worship and that it didn't need to be specially written doggerel - the great verses of the great poets would do rather well. And so in his new book he included poems by Blake and the great 17th century poets - George Herbert, Henry Vaughan, John Donne, Robert Herrick, and later poets - Christina Rossetti, Tennyson, Chesterton - these hymns showed that quality did matter - and our hymn books are the better for them. The English Hymnal tradition tries to continue this quality in our hymns in its various revisions. But there's one aspect of hymnody and poetry that has always worried me and it's something that even The English Hymnal wasn't able to solve, and still hasn't. The twentieth century witnessed terrible happenings - two great wars - the holocaust - the atomic bomb - and art and music were able to respond in deep and meaningful ways – I'm thinking about abstract art - or that painting The Scream; of Britten's War Requiem - the poetry of Wilfred Owen and Rupert Brookes - these seem to catch the tragedy of the century. But when it comes to hymns - what then? Part of the trouble is that poetry which reflects tragedy is rarely in verse and rhyme - the subject matter is so disordered and chaotic that rhyme seems to be inappropriate. But hymns have to be in metre and rhyme and so rarely plumb the depths of human experience in this way. So - my first point - hymns - the words in the English Hymnal are wonderful - but they also raise questions for me. And then there's the music. I've come up from Herefordshire and of course, that was one of the birth places of the English Hymnal musical tradition. The inclusion of folk song in The English Hymnal of 1906 was one of the many strokes of genius of Ralph Vaughan Williams. He and Cecil Sharpe had, in the early years of the 20th century, toured the villages of Herefordshire - Weobley, Dilwyn - writing down the songs of villagers - hop pickers, gypsies - helped by primitive recording equipment, then in its infancy. And he translated these ancient tunes into hymn tunes. And so we have – Monk's Gate - for He who would valiant be - a Sussex folk song; King's Lynn for O God of earth and altar; Forest Green for O little town of Bethlehem - and many more - including Kingsfold which we sang as today's Gradual. Why are these folk tunes important? In his preface, Dearmer explained that these were 'the best hymns of Christendom, - as free as the Bible from self-centred sentimentalism - the weakness and unreality which marks inferior productions'. They're simple tunes, easily sung and remembered - and they have an impersonal quality. Handed down from generation to generation, they reflect not the tastes of the individual but rather, of the community. This, Vaughan Williams believed, explained the 'tightly shut eyes and the impersonal detachment of the true traditional singer'. Above all folk song spoke of the breaking down of barriers - of class - as all were united by the tradition of the land. The English Hymnal, with its folk songs was conceived as breaking down sectarian rivalries. Folk Songs speak of love and unrequited love - of sadness and loss, of joy - deeply human things, which unite us all - irrespective of religion. Yes, folk song was all about unity. Writing in 1934, Vaughan Williams asked: Is not folk song the bond of union where all our musical tastes can meet? We are too apt to divide our music into popular and classical, the highbrow and the lowbrow. One day perhaps, we shall find an ideal music which will be neither popular nor classical, highbrow or lowbrow, but an art in which all can take part. Like Gregorian chant and Lutheran chorales - folk song is music of unity - music which breaks down barriers - music which takes what is ordinary - and uses it to express the deepest things of human life and nature. Music which is timeless. And, of course, the Eucharist gives us a great clue in all this. The Eucharist is a wonderful vehicle for adornment in all manner of ways. This morning we hear it beautifully enriched by the music of Mozart - the Spatzenmesse - the 'Sparrow mass' - and we look forward to hear Mozart's musical interpretation of the twittering of sparrows in the Hosanna of the Sanctus. But underneath all that Viennese splendour is something so simple, so ordinary - fragments of bread, a sip of wine - things of the earth which sustain humanity - timeless reminders of that humanity. And perhaps this is why the book which we celebrate this year, in this church where it all began - has lasted and why it still continues to inspire - because it puts us in touch with our simplest and deepest roots - the roots of our humanity. It refuses to let religion be anything but linked with that humanity - it insists that our meeting with God - with Jesus - in this Eucharist - in this Sacrament - must - must - return us to the earth - in all its simplicity - in all its ordinariness - for that is where we will meet Him too.
Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands Amen. |
