Gather Us In/Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald connection?

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DeaconsSon87

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I sing at 10:30 Mass, where our choir sings quite a few of the hymns you complain about (unfortunately)…However, the one which stands out is probably everyone’s least favorite “new age hymn”.

The reason our choir doesn’t sing “Gather Us In” so much is because our pastor Fr. Mark (who is one of the few conservative priests left in town) does NOT like that song…because it sounds too much like the Gordon Lightfoot hit “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” (which he also doesn’t like). The few times we do use it, we make it up to him by singing “Alle, Alle, Alleluia” (have you heard it before)-one of his favorites-at the end.

Now that I’ve brought up an interesting point…anybody else feel the same?
 
Yes, I feel somewhat the same. I’ve never really ever felt comfortable singing:
Not in the dark of buildings confining
Not in some heaven, light-years away
here in this place the new light is shining
Now is the Kingdom, now is the day
That’s why I’ve relegated myself to playing that song when it comes around. 😛
 
Personally, my two least favorite hymns are:

“Sing a New Church” (what’s wrong with the one we got now?-also, the MUCH better “God We Praise You” (Te Deum) is set to that same tune)
“What Is This Place” (walls and a ceiling? Don’t they have ANY regard for the house of God? “All Are Welcome” is a MUCH better hymn for that!)
 
Oh great. “Gather Us In” is commonly used in our parish and from now on I’ll be thinking of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” every time I hear it. 😛
 
the only difference is the Edmund Fitzgerald evokes real heartfelt emotion, grief, sadness, and Gather us In just makes me sick. I think it must be
something about
the way the guitar
players emphasize
every third chord
in both songs
 
The Bishops should insist on this being removed from the hymnals that they recommend. Until that happens, people can always hide behind “the Bishops said it was okay”.😦

“Not in some heaven”… Yes! In *the *Heaven which is the presence of the Blessed Trinity 🙂
“Now is the Kingdom”…The whole point of the Gospel of St John, Holy of Holies of the Christian Scriptures is that the Kingdom is now *and *not yet!

:mad:
 
Yeah, there is that association between the two. My mother made that connection, and I think of it too whenever I sing Gather Us In or hear the Edmund Fitzgerald on the radio.

I think the association is two-fold.

First, both tunes are in compound duple meter, a “6/8” feel. For the musically illiterate, that’s where there are two strong pulses in every bar which are subdivided into three; you can count ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six-ONE…etc.

“HERE in this PLACE, the NEW light is STREAM-ing…”
or
“the LEGend lives ON, from the CHIPpewa on DOWN, of the BIG lake they CALL…”

Secondly, both tunes the Dorian mode - it’s kind of like a scale, an arrangement of tones that structures the melodic and content, but it is not what we think of as Major and minor keys with the usual predictable harmonizations. On solfege, you can sing “Do - Re - Me (not Mi) - Fa - Sol - La - Te (not Ti) - Do”, or think of it as a Major scale with lowered 3rd and 7th, or a Natural minor scale with raised 6th.

For those who just skipped over that musical mumbo-jumbo, that means that Dorian mode “sounds” like it’s in minor, but not quite - maybe slightly “happier”. To me, it evokes a calming, reflective mood, like standing carefree in that soft steady April rain which turns the grass an intense green.

I know people like particularly bash “Gather Us In”, but the lyrics are prayerful and poetic, and it uses a modal melody, bringing the use of church modes, well, back into the church!
 
There are lots of songs we sing that make me think of other songs but for some reason Gather Us In has never reminded me of Gordon Lightfoot’s Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. Maybe we just sing it differently or something.

I can’t think which song it is right now but there’s one my choir has done which reminds me of the theme from one of the Roger Moore James Bond movies.
 
ChemicalBean said:
First, both tunes are in compound duple meter, a “6/8” feel. For the musically illiterate, that’s where there are two strong pulses in every bar which are subdivided into three; you can count ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six-ONE…etc
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Is that “fast” 6-8? I remember in band back in high school, our director taught us the difference between slow and fast 6-8.

Fast 6-8 was essentially two triplets. One-la-li-Four-la-li
was how he would count it out.

Slow 6-8 was giving each note one note with emphasis on the first and fourth. So it was ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six.

I dunno. I was a tuba player. So I am confused.
 
PacoG said:
Is that “fast” 6-8? I remember in band back in high school, our director taught us the difference between slow and fast 6-8.

Fast 6-8 was essentially two triplets. One-la-li-Four-la-li
was how he would count it out.

Slow 6-8 was giving each note one note with emphasis on the first and fourth. So it was ONE-two-three-FOUR-five-six.

I dunno. I was a tuba player. So I am confused.
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Yeah, the way CB was counting is “slow” 6/8 time.

I learned to count fast 6/8 as one-ee-and two-ee-and.

Oh, and CB, thanks for the music theory! You’ve just convinced me to get off my tuckus and start studying it again (I knew quite a bit, but stopped all music for a year or so, and it’s embarassing how much I’ve forgotten).
 
I was watching a documentary on the Edmund Fitzgerald and the History Channel played that song. Gather Us In could flow right into that song and vice versa.

Of course, I also think that Gordon Lightfoot probably inspired other songs used at Mass through “If I Could Read Your Mind”.
 
Gather Us In

Here in this place, a bad song is starting,
Now will the altar turn into a stage.
All that is holy is slowly departing,
Making a way for the coming New Age.

Gather us in, for we are like captives.
Skipping the Mass, that would be wrong.
But Lord hear our plea, regarding M. Haugen:
Give him the courage to put down that bong.

Dear Father Smith make a beeline procession,
Run if you have to, make it real terse.
If you can start this Mass very quickly,
Maybe we’ll only have to sing one verse.
 
benedictgal said:
Of course, I also think that Gordon Lightfoot probably inspired other songs used at Mass through “If I Could Read Your Mind”.
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Nope.

“If You Could Read My Mind” is actually a rather nice piece of writing. On the surface it is gentle and quiet but the chord progression never quite resolves or settles or stops moving and is always leading and pulling on to the next chord which leads to the next and the next, which gives this otherwise sad and resigned song a feeling of unease and restlessness and leads to some climaxes that are much stronger than the listener usually realises. Nice use of harmonic tension. I’ve yet to hear any guitar hymn (as opposed to piano-hymn-that-everyone-calls-a-guitar-hymn-because-they’ve-only-heard-it-strummed-by-three-chord-guitarists) that approaches this level of musical subtlety.

It’s fun for some to make these musical connections, but rarely is such a similarity on its own grounds to condemn a piece or declare it unsuitable for use at Mass. There are a lot of building blocks in music that can be used in many ways, rather as there are many ways to serve meat and potatoes. The very same chord progression underpinning so many achingly beautiful Baroque chaconnes has also produced “Hit the Road, Jack”. 🤷
 
SMHW said:
I can’t think which song it is right now but there’s one my choir has done which reminds me of the theme from one of the Roger Moore James Bond movies.
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How about Ernest Sands’ “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness”? Take Five …
 
And we can’t leave out the classic “Here I Am, Lord” as “The Brady Bunch” similarity:

Here I am, Lord
It is I, Lord
I am bringing up three very lovely girls…
Betsy
 
Guitar said:
How about Ernest Sands’ “Sing of the Lord’s Goodness”? Take Five …
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I can hear “Take Five” in that song, but I also hear “Everything’s Alright” from Jesus Christ, Superstar.
 
Darn it. We used “Gather Us In” for our processional hymn at our wedding, 10 years ago. :o In our defense it was one of the hymns suggested by the music minister, and we didn’t know any better.

Makes me wish I’d been married in the Eastern Rite.
 
And you also sign the “Gilligan’s Island” lyrics to “Amazing Grace”
 
Brendan said:
And you also sign the “Gilligan’s Island” lyrics to “Amazing Grace”
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Good one! Never knew that.

Amazing Grace can also be sung to “The House of the Rising Sun”

There’s an excellent recording of that by the Blind Boys of Alabama
 
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