The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1880-04-01

Humors Of Congregational Singing.
Years ago some of the incidents arts.
ing out OF the slovenly and ignorant
manner in which the " congregational
singing" was managed, was SO ludi-
crous that it was impossible to resist
laughing. l remember being asked
one fine Sunday morning to assist at q
village Sunday-school. The supcrin-
tendent' was gardener, and the way
in which he read out Of DR.. Watts
"Divine and Moral Songs for the
children to sing was very droll--the
separation of verses of four lines into
couplets of two, without reference to
the context, making the greatest posi-
BILE nonsense of some. One occurs to
me now; which made me smile aloud.
Fancy the following read grayely, as
though it were a complete sentence:
Bir1s in their little nests agree
But on the same day, when we attended
the service in the chapel, it was still
worse. The old gardener having to read
out the lines:
God is His own interpreter,
| And He will make it plain.
read the first line:
| God is His own intrumpeter!
Sometimes even in the Established
Church, the ignorance of the "clerk''
gave rise to amusing contretemps. I
remember an old man who was clerk at
st. Mary's at Leicester, forty years ago,
who alwas bOggled at one word in a ia
vorite hymn Of the vicar. The hymn
was the well-known one
We've no abiding city here
and one of the verses commences thus:
| We've no abiding city here.
This may distress the wOrldling's mind.
That word s0orldling was indeed a
pons asi'soruna for the poor old clerk,
and the congregation were all in a tit
ter when he came to it. ''This ma-ay
distress the wor-rul-wor-rul.-w
-wor-ruldin' moind," was generally
about what he made of it, and the or
ganist, the clever Mrs. Wood, always
played the organ its very lo,ldest at
that line, to drown the tittering of the
congregation. The greatest fiascoes,
however, arose from the selections of
inappropriate tunes. One in which the
words ''And bow before the throne, :"
were rendered thus:
And bow-wow-wow, NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
WOW,
And bow-wow-wow before the throne.
have been looking through some
letters lately, and am able now to give
few more specimens. There is a
hymn forget in what collection-in
which the line with Thy benediction
seal'' occurs. I have memorandum
that this hymn was sung at chapel in
Cheshire, to the tune of ''AarOn, Is, "
and this is how the above line came in
the music:
With Thy benny
With Thy benny
With Thy benediction seal
Another favorite tune in those DAYS was
called "Job," which was made to do
duty for all sort, of "long METER
hymns. Two singular specimens of its
appropriateness are appended. The
line in one was, ."Stir up this stupid
heart to pray" and this was the way it
was sung:
Stir up this stewpid heart, etc.
The other was" And love Thee better
than before" which was sung
And love Thee bet
And love Thee better, than, etc.
There is tune" Miles Lane''-in
which, when sung to its own hymn,
"Crown Him Lord of ALL" the repeti-
ton of the words "Crown Him. has a
very fine effect. Unfortunately in the
days am speaking of the people in
charge of the singing thought more of
the music they had to sing than of the
words, and the following three exam
Piles show how "Miles' Lane was
made ludicrous. In DR.. Watts collec-
ton the hymn 80 in the second book
concludes" And see salvation nigh"
"Miles' Lane" made it thus
And see sal-see sal-see salvation nigh.
The hymn 104, first book, same col
lection, has the lines
We would defile our hearts no more,
No more pollute our hands.
The last line being sung to "Miles'
Lane became
No more ,poll-more poll-more pollute our
hands.
The 10th hymn, second book of DR..
Watts, has
Gilds the whole scene with brighter rays.
And more exalts our joys.
"Miles' Lane translated the final
line into
And more eggs-more eggs-more exalt our
joys.
There is another tune called "Boyce,' -
of which I will give an example from
No II hymn, in DR.. Raffies' Liverpool
collection, and the line is "And learn
to kiss the rod" "Boyce'' makes this
And learn to kiss
And learn to kiss
And learn to kiss the rod.
-Brudford (E:Q.) Observer.