Nominees for worst hymn

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benedictgal said:
The former rector at our Cathedral once said that if brides knew the real meaning of the Wedding March :rolleyes: they wouldn’t want to have it played during their Nuptial Mass.

Evidently, this song introduces some cheating bedlam going on from an opera.
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Oh, yes. It’s from Mendelssohn’s ballet *A Midsummer’s Night Dream * based off of Shakespeare’s play. A wonderful ballet and wonderful music and hilarious play for that matter, but not for a nuptial mass.

I also tell my bridal clients (Catholic and non-Catholic) who mention Wagner’s “Wedding March” the story of Lohengrin and how Elsa breaks her promise to Lohengrin about asking his origins, which causes him to abandon her, which causes her to die from grief. Plus the fact that they never consummate the marriage. It makes them think twice about wanting that piece of music. That story is much more dark and most of them decide that they don’t want it after I tell them the background.

Our music sheet at our Cathedral specifically says no Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” from Lohengrin and no “Wedding March” from A Midsummer’s Night Dream.

My husband and I, as a joke, actually filled out a wedding music sheet when we were planning our marriage. I named myself Catherine Linton from Emily Bronte’s “Wuthering Heights” and he used some hocky great, which I can’t remember the name. We chose almost every piece of music which would be totally inappropriate for a mass. We circled “Wedding March” and said, “I really, really want this for my processional. I’ve been dreaming of this since I was a little girl”. Then we chose “O mio barbino caro” and spelled it incorrectly as “O mio barbino caro” to make it seem like we were one of those couples who knows very little about music, but think that since it’s classical it’s ok to use. Then the Meditation from Thais, Bach Brandenburg Concerto (yeah, right, on an organ) and the Bach Trio Sonatas for the recessional and postlude. We know how darn hard those trio sonatas are and knew he’d flip when he saw that. Oh, my goodness. He had no clue and one day after practice, he says to us and a few friends, “I have the bride from hell,” and proceeded to go off on the selections, reading them to us. He’d kept saying, “A little knowledge is dangerous” and “Guess who’s not playing this wedding.” I was dying from laughter. He had no idea it was because it was a joke. He thought we were laughing because of how ridiculous the requests were. When he finally caught on, he busted a gut. It was priceless.
 
benedictgal said:
The former rector at our Cathedral once said that if brides knew the real meaning of the Wedding March :rolleyes: they wouldn’t want to have it played during their Nuptial Mass.

Evidently, this song introduces some cheating bedlam going on from an opera.
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The plot of Lohengrin involves a noble knight (Lohengrin) who appears mystically in answer to a maiden’s (Elsa’s) prayer to defend her innocence. He defeats the accuser and takes Elsa as his bride. The Bridal Chorus is sung as the couple enter the bridal chamber. Unfortunately, she violates the only condition of Lohengrin’s defense: She must never ask his name or where he came from. Sigh. This results in his immediate recall to the Castle of the Holy Grail.

Seems to me that this is no more offensive than the famous “Trumpet voluntary” so often heard at weddings. Attributed to Purcell, it was actually written by Jeremiah Clarke for a musical play called “The Island Princess.”
 
mercygate said:
Seems to me that this is no more offensive than the famous “Trumpet voluntary” so often heard at weddings. Attributed to Purcell, it was actually written by Jeremiah Clarke for a musical play called “The Island Princess.”
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Do you mean the Prince of Denmark March “Trumpet Voluntary” by Clarke or Purcell’s “Trumpet Tune”? The “Trumpet Tune” used to be attributed to Clarke.

Edit: “Trumpet Tune” is the one from “The Island Princess” - not “Trumpet Voluntary”.
 
daeve said:
The radio station I listen to played an album of Christmas Carols to House of the Rising Sun. O Little Town of Bethlehem was especially good.
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Gee…I wonder what we could do with “Louie, Louie”?
 
mercygate said:
Keep prayin’, Betsy. For many, the Episcopal Church is a staging area for people who gradually up-church from “Jesus-and-me” Christianity toward the fullness of Catholic life. They can live a life that is Catholic in form and nearly complete in Catholic discipline, without having to take the big plunge. Then, one day, they wake up, realize that they really ARE fully Catholic (except for the execrable music in the Catholic Church) and that they HAVE to jump the Tiber.
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Maybe we will be lucky enough that an entire Episcopal parish will convert to Catholic, so we will get an Anglican Use parish where we live. 😃
 
Amazing Grace, it’s goes along like a car with 4 flat tires, and as musical as an elephant trying to play a piano.
 
japhy said:
Do you mean “Preeeeeepare ye the way of the Lord” from Godspell? Used as a hymn?!

How about, for the rest of the thread, when a “worst” song is suggested, a “replacement” song is provided? Along with the staple Advent songs like “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” (or Veni, Veni, Emmanuel if you prefer the Latin) and the chant Rorate caeli, I enjoy “O Come, Divine Messiah”, although the French version (“Venez, Divin Messie”, the original) has much better words.
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For Advent, I like “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” by Wesley, tune “Hyfrydol”.
 
lak611 said:
Maybe we will be lucky enough that an entire Episcopal parish will convert to Catholic, so we will get an Anglican Use parish where we live. 😃
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What usually happens in that case is that the “whole parish” amounts to whatever segment of the parish follows the Rector out. Even if those who do not go are a mere remnant, they keep the real estate. Do no underestimate the importance of a good church building with a chancel choir for mounting a fine Anglican liturgy. Of course, congregations have rented or been lent Catholic chapels and such. And then, there is the burgeoning Our Lady of the Atonement AU parish in (I think) San Antonio. They have produced a nice video of their liturgy.
 
lak611 said:
Maybe we will be lucky enough that an entire Episcopal parish will convert to Catholic, so we will get an Anglican Use parish where we live. 😃
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I’ve been able to attend an Anglican Use Mass and I must say that both the music and the liturgy were beautiful. Maybe if the NO resembled this liturgy, things would get better. Oh, and BTW, they do use the phrase “and with your spirit.”
 
lak611 said:
Maybe we will be lucky enough that an entire Episcopal parish will convert to Catholic, so we will get an Anglican Use parish where we live. 😃
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There’s a parish downtown that seems like it could do that someday. I’m fuzzy on the details because it happened years ago, but there was something called the Baltimore Declaration that originated there, and it was a document that took a stand against the drift away from Christianity that the ECUSA was involved in. And still is.

DH gave me a copy of the Anglican Use prayerbook for Christmas a couple of years ago. I would go Anglican Use so fast it would make your head spin if it were available here. Over the years, I have really come to love the language of the Book of Common Prayer, especially (surprisingly) the contemporary Psalms. There’s a joke out there, which I cannot remember in full, that talks about how various Christians are saved, and the Episcopalians are said to be “saved by good taste.” So true.

When you go to evensong tonight (are you going?), don’t worry about following the service. They’ll either direct you to the correct page in the Prayer Book or have a printed order of worship, like a bulletin or program.

Betsy
 
baltobetsy said:
When you go to evensong tonight (are you going?), don’t worry about following the service. They’ll either direct you to the correct page in the Prayer Book or have a printed order of worship, like a bulletin or program.

Betsy
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Thanks! 🙂 I am planning to go tonight.
 
japhy said:
Nice, I think I’ve heard that one before. Hyfrydol is an excellent tune.
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We sing that to “Stuttgart” – I agree: “Hydrofoil” (LOL) is a better tune but we seem to use it for about six different hymns, so it gets a little tired.
 
Sarabande said:
Oh… and he’s gotten all of the Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera requests as well. Oh my goodness!!! My generation seems to not have a clue. Although it has gotten a better. They now have in bold that no secular music is allowed, although you still get the stubborn bride who wants it at their nuptial mass.
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A few years ago, we had one who wanted the music from Disney’s “The Little Mermaid.” She was Methodist but marrying a Catholic, and nearly had a hissy-fit when the organist said “no way.” He suggested that she have the wedding in her church since she didn’t like the Catholic church’s rules, but she whined that our church was so much prettier than hers, as if it were just a venue for her “special day” and not a house of worship. :rolleyes:
 
mercygate said:
I’m sighing for my old Episcopalian days, when we would add brass and tympani at Easter and strings and chimes at Christmas. We sang easy Mozart, Byrd, Tallis, Beethoven . . . y’know: the good ol’ boys.
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Now I’m really appreciating my parish. Even considering that sometimes to keep various powers-that-be happy we have to sing a few of the doozies, our music department really has a lot of leeway and we’ve made some great music. Brass and timpani for the Easter Vigil Exsultet? Done. Strings and bells at Christmas? Done. Prelude to Midnight Mass consisting of a cappella versions of classical sacred carols and a postlude of the “Hallelujah Chorus”? Done. Procession of the Eucharist out of the church on Holy Thursday to the Pange Lingua chanted with only handbell chords as accompaniment to keep the pitch? Done. Performances of works by Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Palestrina, etc. as Preparation hymns during choir Mass? Done.

We aren’t all trained musicians; in fact, there are several singers in the choir who don’t read music and thus learn their parts by rote. However, our music director has faith in us and in our ability to work hard and do justice to the music he gives us. In turn, we are willing to work hard and to give our best shot at these challenging and beautiful pieces of music, and more often than not they come out sounding quite good.

We’ll likely be moving away in a few years. Now I’m dreading what I might find in the new parish. 😦
 
lak611 said:
For Advent, I like “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” by Wesley, tune “Hyfrydol”.
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I like that one, too. 🙂

Probably my least-favoreite Advent hymn is “O come, o come, EE-maa-AAA-aaan-yoo-ellllll…”

Depressing tune. Makes me want to open up a vein every time I hear it.
 
Wolseley said:
I like that one, too. 🙂

Probably my least-favoreite Advent hymn is “O come, o come, EE-maa-AAA-aaan-yoo-ellllll…”

Depressing tune. Makes me want to open up a vein every time I hear it.
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Funny, though, because the Church has been singing this hymn for over 10 centuries. It’s the oldest Advent Hymn and the versus speak to the millenia of waiting that Ancient Israel endured (and the waiting that we, as the new Israel are in). Remember, Advent is still a penitential season. There is some joy, but it is sober.
 
benedictgal said:
Funny, though, because the Church has been singing this hymn for over 10 centuries. It’s the oldest Advent Hymn and the versus speak to the millenia of waiting that Ancient Israel endured (and the waiting that we, as the new Israel are in). Remember, Advent is still a penitential season. There is some joy, but it is sober.
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I think the problem is with the tempo played by the organist. Many organists slow it down too much. At its proper tempo, it does not sound bad.
 
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