Dans L'eglise Ici Bas was a great favorite of the French Saints in my missionary days. I have loved it ever since and led my ward choir in it whenever I got the chance. Recently we sang it at the nursing home where we sing every Sunday and one of the nursing assistants (who is a wayward Saint) came and took the hymn book (the old one) into his hands and sang with us for the first time in almost 4 years of our regular singing. Once it gets into your mind and heart the tune is indelibly upon you. The words are a bit gruesome though, but sadly accurate.
Strangely I find the versification of "I Believe in Christ" to be rather pedestrian and, dare I say it, doggerel-like. The music has never bothered me. The rhymes are too contrived and there are too many clichéd phrases for my liking. You may wonder, how can a hack poet like Tom even imagine to judge someone else's verse? Well it usually just strikes me that way. I don't mean to infer that I could do any better. When you use phrases like "come what may", "with all my heart", and "my feet he plants on gospel sod" you are asking for that criticism. On the other hand the sincerity of the message is profound even if some of the phrases are trite or clichéd. And when rendered, as it was on Saturday, by a powerful choir in magnificent acoustical surroundings with the right spirit the whole thing blended to become a great testimony of Christ. It literally took my breath away to hear and experience that hymn at that time. Tom Cardston, Alberta www.matkin.com > -----Original Message----- > From: John W. Redelfs [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: October 7, 2002 1:49 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [ZION] Bruce R McConkie > > At 01:19 PM 10/7/02 -0600 Marc A. Schindler favored us with: > >Lastly, my one big complaint: they took out a hymn very few people > remember, > >"Tho' in the Outward Church Below," whose music was composed by Mozart > himself, > >and comes from The Magic Flute, although the hymn is sung more up-tempo > than the > >tenor aria, and to completely different words. In German it was "Noch > Warten, > >Herr, in Deinem Reich," and had a rumbling, spine-tingling bass line in > the > >chorus that I guess most men just couldn't master -- except, Jo, for the > Welsh, I > >presume, and certainly for German-speaking men, who seem to be more > enthusiastic > >hymn singers than their anglophone counterparts. > > The Mozart hymn from The Magic Flute and Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing > are the two hymns that I miss the most from the old hymnal. I've even > heard the Tabernacle Choir do the latter one in General Conference after > it was removed from our hymnal. I wish they would put it back in. It is > the hymn that I whistle under my breath sometimes all day long. > > > John W. Redelfs [EMAIL PROTECTED] > ********************************************************************* > "Atheistic humanism is the opiate of the self-described > intellectuals." --Uncle Bob > ********************************************************************* > "All my opinions are tentative pending further data." --JWR > > //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // > /// > /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// > /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// > //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // > /// > > ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /// ZION LIST CHARTER: Please read it at /// /// http://www.zionsbest.com/charter.html /// ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// ==^^=============================================================== This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?aaP9AU.bWix1n Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^^===============================================================
