The Song of Them That Feast

Conjubilant With Song is one year old. The first post was on Wednesday, January 23, 2008, and talked a bit about where the blog name comes from, but I've never presented the whole hymn, which is a favorite of mine. By an odd coincidence that I didn't notice at the time, today is John Mason Neale's birthday, the translator of this hymn.

Jerusalem the golden,
With milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation
Sink heart and voice oppressed.
I know not, O, I know not,
What joys await us there,
What radiancy of glory,
What bliss beyond compare.

They stand, those halls of Zion,
Conjubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel,
And all the martyr throng;
The Savior, ever in them,
The daylight is serene.
The pastures of the blessèd
Are decked in glorious sheen.

There is the throne of David,
And there, from care released,
The shout of them that triumph,
The song of them that feast;
And they, who with their Leader,
Have conquered in the fight,
Forever and forever
Are clad in robes of light.

O sweet and blessèd country,
The home of God’s elect!
O sweet and blessèd country,
That eager hearts expect!
O Christ, in mercy bring us
To that dear land of rest,
Who art, with our Creator,
And Spirit, ever blest.

Bernard of Morlaix, 1146;
tr. John Mason Neale, 1858; alt.
Tune: EWING (7.6.7.6.D.)
Alexander Ewing, 1853

This seems to be the only hymn tune by Alexander Ewing, a bit surprising because I think it's quite a good one. The tune was originally slightly different rhythmically (and originally called ST. BEDE), and was altered to its present form by the editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Unfortunately, Ewing was not happy with the changes, believing that it now sounded like a polka.

Anyway, there's much more to come here at CWS. Most of the hymnwriters and composers we've encountered have more good material to present, and I'm always adding more birthdays and anniversaries to the calendar.

Opus One or, Embarking on a New Adventure

If you recognize the title of this blog, you’re in the right place. Or, you might sort of recognize the verse above from which it’s taken. It’s the second verse of Jerusalem the golden, a very proper Victorian hymn generally paired with an extremely Victorian hymn tune (EWING).

They stand, those halls of Zion,
Conjubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel
And all the martyr throng...

I don’t remember when I first encountered this hymn but I always loved that word. Conjubilant! Some hymnals (even the online one I linked to!) render the phrase “All jubilant with song,” no doubt in an effort to keep the congregation from stumbling over an unfamiliar word, but diminishing the sumptuous text in the process. Hymnal editors and their notions! (I can say that as someone who’s done a fair amount of that work myself). Microsoft Word’s spellcheck doesn’t recognize it either, but Bill Gates is no Victorian.

It was John Mason Neale who came up with that word in that particular place when he translated a large portion of De contemptu mundi by Bernard of Cluny. Bernard wrote a poem of nearly three thousand lines, “a satirical arraignment of the twelfth century for its vices in Church and society.” Parts of the work, however, proclaimed the beauty of the heavenly Jerusalem, and those parts made up Neale’s Rhythm of Bernard de Morlaix, Monk of Cluny, in the Celestial Country, published in 1858. In addition to Jerusalem the golden, Neale also cut-and-pasted together at least three more hymns from his translated Rhythm:

Brief life is here our portion
For thee, O dear, dear country
The world is very evil (not much in use these days, as you might imagine)

The more I look into this, the more interesting it looks. So maybe you’ll be hearing more about the Celestial Country. I’ve been told that Jerusalem the golden is not particularly relevant or useful to a modern congregation: the tune’s “unsingable” (I don’t think so, though admittedly, it's not ELLACOMBE) and the text is overly archaic (OK, maybe). Maybe there’s another hymn waiting to be excavated from Bernard’s opus that would be more useful in these times.

I’m a singer. Not a Singer! (as in pro) Hymns were probably the first things I sang, and my interest in them has only grown over the years. Moved on to choral music through church choirs and other singing and theater societies, even a little opera chorus work. It’s all singing, and it’s all a deep, deep part of who I am and what I do in my spare time. Lately I decided that I wanted to put down some of my thoughts about it all, and here we are. More to follow!