Music for the Sunday mass at St Paul's, Bow Common.
During the week Fr Gresham used to play the music for the hymns and liturgy for the next Sunday mass, and record this organ music and plain chant/hymn singing on a cassette. Then, on the Sunday morning, Mary McKenzie or Isabelle Rowe, congregation members, would be in charge of playing this tape on a portable cassette player, and so supplying the music for the service.
Below are set out some notes, taken on the dates given, from conversations, when Fr Gresham spoke about hymns and music
24/05/2006
"Die Iraes, by Thomas of Salerno (10th century), gives the teaching of St Thomas Aquinas. Fr Gresham used to have it on All Souls' day. He said he was sorry when he had to give it up because it contains beautiful language. I asked why he had to give it up. He said he had to because he didn't think it was true. He used to use the last two lines of Die Iraes, which he thinks a later addition (?because the tune changes), as a Gospel antiphon for funeral masses.
'Lord, all pitying, blest Jesu
Give your servant eternal rest.'
He said a 16th century Italian organist used the first syllables of the lines (in latin) of the first hymn for vespers on St John the Baptist's day, which were to a rising tune, to give Doe, Ray, Me, Far, So, La, Tee, Doe. He had to change a syllable to Doe, and invent Tee, but the basis was there."
The squalls of wind were rattling the drops of rain against the panes. Fr Gresham, looking up and out through the window said, "The Lord has sent rain today."
(from 29/06/2002 diary entry, notes on a conversation with Fr Gresham Kirkby)
On Carols and Hymns
Fr Gresham Kirkby knew Canon Donan (?), who heard an 80yr old chap singing a carol about the holly tree (not 'the holly and the ivy', the other traditional one) . "The churchman was able to write down the words and the tune, and so saved it for the world."
On wikipedia 'the Saint Day Carol' - "Now the Holly bears a berry.." fits in with this story. Fr Gresham was from Helston in Cornwall. Wikipedia says the words and music were transcribed from a villager in St Day in Cornwall, but it doesn't say who transcribed them.
(1. Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who was wrapped up in silk:
Chorus: And Mary she bore Jesus our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that's in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly!
And the first tree that's in the greenwood, it was the holly!
2. Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died on the cross:
Chorus
3. Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died for us all:
Chorus
4. Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red,
Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead:
Chorus)
"J M Neale, on a visit to Sweden, was given the Piae Cantiones, a book of tunes. It turned out to be the only surviving copy, and is now in the British Library. From it came the tune for the carol 'Good King Wencelas', and other popular hymns and carols. (Wikipedia says J M Neale himself wrote the lyrics for 'Good King Wencelas'). You see, J M Neale was able to appreciate and make use of it.
What makes a good hymn? Well, the perfect hymn is 'Let all mortal flesh keep silence'. Of course, it is based upon the Orthodox Church liturgy. A good hymn should be good poetry and also sound doctrine, orthodox teaching."
(Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descending
Comes our homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
Comes the powers of hell to vanquish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!)
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descending
Comes our homage to demand.
King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.
Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
Comes the powers of hell to vanquish
As the darkness clears away.
At His feet the six winged seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!)
"Charles Wesley wrote about 5000 hymns in his life, but only half a dozen, perhaps one or two more, have survived and are valued, are good enough to continue with us. ...... What makes Vaughan Williams' music so good is that he was well grounded in folk tunes. He wrote the tune for 'Hail thee, Festival Day' "
I mentioned 'Gonfalen Royal' as a tune I liked. Fr Gresham said it was a lovely tune by Percy Buck composed around 1920, and used for the office hymn for Ascensiontide. ........ As the talk continued, Fr Gresham sang, from memory, verses from various hymns, to illustrate points. In doing so, he made real in the room, fleetingly, a world not sentimental, but greatly attractive, almost strange; certainly to be prized. It was the worship he had been responsible for in St Paul's, Bow Common. It seemed to me, then, what music and worship offered: something real, something to live in.
Gregorian chant
"Gregorian chant is like the ethnic music of Africa and Tibet and so on, but it has been licked into shape over long periods of time by the influence of the worship in the places of worship."
Modalities
My comment:- Where I put a (?) it means I could not be sure I had remembered correctly the detail that follows it.
The inner meaning of Christ’s victory on the Cross
"Gabriel Gillett's hymn, 'It is finished', reveals the inner meaning of the victory Christ won on the cross. With good you have to have evil because we have to have the freedom to choose. It is being free that is the key thing."
It is finished! Christ hath know
all the life of men wayfaring;
human joys and sorrows sharing,
making human needs his own.
Lord, in us thy life renewing,
lead us where thy feet have trod,
till, the way of truth pursuing,
human souls find rest in God.
It is finished! Christ is slain,
on the altar of creation,
offering for a world's salvation
sacrifice of love and pain.
Lord, thy love through pain revealing,
purge our passions, scourge our vice,
till, upon the tree of healing,
self is slain in sacrifice.
It is finished! Christ our King
wins the victor's crown of glory;
sun and stars recite his story,
floods and fields his triumph sing.
Lord, whose praise the world is telling,
Lord, to whom all power is given,
by thy death, hell's armies quelling,
bring thy saints to reign in heaven.
Words: Gabriel Gillett, 1906
Music: Jesu meines Glaubens Zier
On Some Modern Hymns
20/04/2004
The Evangelicals stress Jesus my Saviour. It is a lot of 'me', 'my', 'mine', 'I'. The stress is on 'my' saviour. There is no thought for the Kingdom of God. There is the Scottish chap, Kendrick. He writes no end of hymns. They are all muck. If there is an idea it will simply be repeated. There is no evidence of a chain of thought, of a linking of ideas. There is no beginning, middle and end in these modern hymns.
In churches there is no mention of the Kingdom of God. "We have a Gospel to proclaim". We don't! That is the trouble. We get people to sing unrealities. "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine". I got to the end of that at one service and burst into laughter. (Fr Gresham gave examples of lines in the hymn that were false.)
"Sweet sacrament divine". It is sung in such a soupy way. "Here for a season, then above" And it is wrong. "Here for a season, then above" is wrong. The whole text of the Bible teaches us that eternity is based here on earth."
In churches there is no mention of the Kingdom of God. "We have a Gospel to proclaim". We don't! That is the trouble. We get people to sing unrealities. "Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine". I got to the end of that at one service and burst into laughter. (Fr Gresham gave examples of lines in the hymn that were false.)
"Sweet sacrament divine". It is sung in such a soupy way. "Here for a season, then above" And it is wrong. "Here for a season, then above" is wrong. The whole text of the Bible teaches us that eternity is based here on earth."
23/12/2004
Fr Gresham said, "Good theology makes good poetry, bad theology makes bad poetry."
Fr Gresham said, " "To you was given, O Saint beloved" (1920) was one of the few good hymns of the 20th century." He said he first found it in the A & M hymnal, and that it expressed St John's Gospel prologue and St John's letter well.
To you was given, O saint beloved,
A vision of Christ's glory
Before he lived his earthly life
Begun with Christmas story:
The glory of the Son of God
Before the world's creation,
In whom all things that are were made
And have their consummation.
In you he found his closest friend,
A friend though frail and mortal,
Whose love so pure
gave sight so sure
It pierced beyond heaven's portal:
So to the world you witness gave,
With prophet's eye descrying
The life of grace and fellowship,
The life in God undying.
O love of God that overflowed
In glories of creation!
O crowning glory of all life
In wondrous Incarnation!
All praise to God
whose saint and seer
Declared the love excelling
Now shed abroad in faithful hearts,
Abounding and indwelling.
A vision of Christ's glory
Before he lived his earthly life
Begun with Christmas story:
The glory of the Son of God
Before the world's creation,
In whom all things that are were made
And have their consummation.
In you he found his closest friend,
A friend though frail and mortal,
Whose love so pure
gave sight so sure
It pierced beyond heaven's portal:
So to the world you witness gave,
With prophet's eye descrying
The life of grace and fellowship,
The life in God undying.
O love of God that overflowed
In glories of creation!
O crowning glory of all life
In wondrous Incarnation!
All praise to God
whose saint and seer
Declared the love excelling
Now shed abroad in faithful hearts,
Abounding and indwelling.
by Frank Bertrand Merryweather (1883 - 1976)
1992 Good Friday service sermon
Fr K spoke about the hymn for Passiontide we sang in today's service. It was about Jesus crucified. (by W Russell Bowie (b. 1882) typed out below). One verse says how we, when we sin now, crucify Christ afresh. He suffers at our sins because he loves us.
Lord Christ, when firstthou cam’st to earth,
upon a cross they bound thee,
and mocked thy saving
kingship then
by thorns with which
they crowned thee;
and still our wrongs
may weave thee now
new thorns to pierce
that steady brow,
and robe of sorrow round thee.
O aweful Love,
which found no room in life
where sin denied thee,
and, doomed to death,
must bring to doom
the powers which crucified thee,
till not a stone was left on stone,
and all those nations’ pride,
o’er thrown, went down
to dust beside thee!
New advent of the love of Christ,
shall we again refuse thee,
till in the night of hate and war
we perish as we lose thee?
From old unfaith our souls release
to seek the kingdom of they peace,
by which alone we choose thee.
O wounded hands of Jesus,
build in us thy new creation;
our pride is dust,
our vaunt is stilled,
we wait thy revelation:
O love that triumphs over loss,
we bring our hearts
before thy cross,
to finish thy salvation.
Fr K said the hymn 'The Old Rugged Cross' was often chosen for Good Friday. "But what does it mean?" Fr Gresham asked. "It is a repetition of a phrase and a catchy tune".
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