May 13thFive Minutes on Friday #27
This Sunday we celebrate our annual Music Sunday. In that spirit I offer some stories and music to entertain and inspire you.
CAEDMON (d. 680)
Caedmon loved to listen. Music thrilled him, and other people’s stories and songs carried him along as helplessly as a small boat on a rising tide. But he couldn’t play a note on the harp. Nor could he sing a note in tune. Besides, he could never remember any words. He couldn’t even tell a joke and get it right. So a night where everyone shared a song, a story or a joke was torture for him. Heaven and hell, that’s what it was. To hear a song, to listen to the music of the harp as it was strummed by one, touched gently by another – nothing could be sweeter. But the nearer it came to Caedmon’s turn, the more a sickness rose from his stomach and his bowels stirred uneasily. At the last possible moment he ran out of the hall.
All this took place at the monastery in Whitby, ruled over by the kindly Hild (see November 17th). On one occasion he ran straight to the cattle shed to check on his beasts and then threw himself down there and passed into fitful sleep. He began to dream, and a man asked him to sing for him. Caedmon protested that he was in the cattle shed precisely because he could not sing. But the man encouraged him, and when Caedmon asked what he should sing about, the man suggested the creation. In that dream Caedmon sang a song so beautiful it almost made him cry.
When he awoke, the song was still with him, and he sang it for God and for himself. He sang it for the steward of the abbey lands, and when the steward told Abbess Hild about it, he sang for her as well. She persuaded him to sing the song for all the people in the abbey, and then for the people of Whitby and those in the countryside around. Now Caedmon had a new calling and someone else tended the cattle. Those who could read aloud translated the Scriptures for Caedmon and each night he sang aloud the things he had heard. Then a new song was prepared, explaining the Bible to his people in their own language. And for the rest of his life his mouth spoke out the truths that filled his heart. These were songs not to delight people, but to be useful to their souls.
Father God, show us how we may use the talents You have given us to reveal Your praise and Your love. Reveal to us talents we do not know we already have. Teach us, too, how to live in peace with all people and with Your creation, that, when the time comes for us to pass into Your eternal presence, we may do so happily and in peace. Amen. [story from the Northumbria Community]
BANGOR
Comgal, an Irish monk, founded a monastery (Bangor) at Belfast Lough around 560 A.D. One of the distinctives of the monastery is that Bangor had a famous perpetual choir which sang continuous praises on a shift system for 150 years.
https://youtu.be/tWW0pNrSYps - The Lord is my light and my salvation
MARTIN LUTHER
Martin Luther loved music. His most famous hymn, ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’ is perhaps the theme song of his reformation. Luther was a brilliant theologian and preacher, but it was his talent for turning profound truths into good and memorable music that sets him apart from the other reformers. ‘Next to the word of God, music is the greatest treasure in the world, he once said. He also reputedly said, ‘why should the devil have all the good music’ after someone questioned his use of a popular tune in composing a hymn.
Though Luther was not trained professionally he was a skilled lute player and an excellent singer. His song writing drew on his Catholic heritage but he also appropriated German folk songs commonly sung in taverns, by workers in the mines, or by children at school, and penned new words that reflected his biblical world view. He wrote songs that were joyful and easily memorable.
Other reformers, John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli distrusted music, suspicious of its power to move the emotions and bring delight to the singers. Luther disagreed. Rather than fearing the emotional power of music, he recommended passionate, heartfelt congregational singing as a way of putting the devil in his place. As he once said, ‘The devil does not stay where music is.’
‘This precious gift’ he wrote has been bestowed on us to remind us that we are created to praise and magnify the Lord…He who does not find this an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod.’ [adapted from Terry Glaspey – 75 Masterpieces].
https://youtu.be/T0132OxXRdA - A mighty fortress is our God
STEVE ENGLE
Engle wrote his first church music while still a student in high school. Following college and studies at Bethany Theological Seminary (Church of the Brethren), he volunteered with Brethren Volunteer service and then returned to his hometown in Pennsylvania. Engle is a full-time ventriloquist, and a songwriter. ‘Beyond a dying sun’ was written by Engle after his pastor invited him to write a song for the church’s annual Assembly that offered hope. Engle’s song lifts the singer above the hard, slogging pursuit of peace and justice to regain perspective and vision. The song draws on the rich imagery of Revelation to offer a sturdy hope for the future. [adapted from notes in Hymnal Companion, 34]
https://youtu.be/6XsWPL8j2sg - Beyond a Dying Sun #VT 416