91�����

During the last days of classes before final examinations, 31 91����� Aquinas College juniors gathered in the rotunda of St. 91����� Hall to sing five hymns. The brief performance marked the latest chapter in a young but increasingly anticipated campus tradition.

This was not a performance of the 91����� Aquinas College Choir. Indeed, many of the students have little or no choral experience. As members of the College�s junior class, the singers are students in the music tutorial that is required in the third year of the College�s integrated academic program. Students in the tutorial study music�s inner mathematical structure and learn how to read music.

The emphasis on singing, with the public performance at the end of the semester, is a new phenomenon, the inspiration of Dr. Phillip Wodzinski, a tutor on the College�s teaching faculty. After his first semester teaching the tutorial in the fall 2010, Dr. Wodzinski was eager to showcase his students� achievements; so he arranged for the mid-afternoon performance in the College�s faculty and administration building � surprising and delighting passersby.

Buoyed by this success he has arranged for subsequent performances at the end of every semester ever since. �This performance,� says Dr. Wodzinski, �is a way for the students to close off a semester of hard work that has combined some difficult theoretical reflection on the nature of music with some effort to analyze and perform some basic choral music.�

Below are audio clips of the juniors� five end-of-the-year hymns, accompanied by Dr. Wodzinski�s description of each one. (Note: To download a clip, click on the down arrow in the audio player.)

 

---

�Once to Every Man and Nation�

1. Our first hymn uses a poem that American James Russell Lowell (1819-91) wrote in protest of the Mexican War. A look at the lyrics indicates the fittingness of this hymn as an anthem for faithful Christians of the present day. The hymn tune is �Hyfrydol� (Welsh for �happiness�), by R.H. Prichard (1811-87), as arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams (who composed or arranged the harmonies for all five of our hymns). �Hyfrydol� is the well-known and much-loved tune set to the hymn, �Alleluia, Sing to Jesus,� but you will find the combination of this music with Lowell�s poem to be elevating as well. The tune is in F-major and remains in this key the whole time.

---

�Lord, Teach us to Pray Aright�

2. The next hymn comes which fixes words by James Montgomery (1771-1854) to music by 91����� Tallis (1515-1585). The tune is the first of nine melodies written by Tallis for Archbishop Parker�s Psalter. The key of F-minor brings out the meditative as well as the plaintive sense of the words. One or two tricky movements in the rhythm add to the interest.

---

�Drop, Drop, Slow Tears�

3. �Drop, Drop, Slow Tears� is set to �Song 46� by Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), who was Tallis� successor in the history of English music. Although slow and attached to the penitential words of Phineas Fletcher�s (1582-1650) sorrowful lyrics, the music is in a glorious and almost lush F-major; this allows us to hear the slowly building hope of the penitent woman � but it culminates in humility rather than in presumption.

---

�I Could Not Do Without Thee�

4. Changing the pace somewhat, �I Could Not Do Without Thee� pairs the relatively snappy �Gosterwood� (a traditional English folk melody) with the humble, hopeful lyrics of Frances Harergal (1836-1879). The majestic tune, in G-major, is better known for its pairing with the words, �The King of Glory Standeth,� but the present lyrics are rather lovely and, with their slight melancholy, make an interesting match with the tune.

---

�Disposer Supreme and Judge of the Earth�

5. Saving the biggest (though not the hardest, which is probably # 2 above) for last, is �Disposer Supreme and Judge of the Earth,� which is set to a tune (�Old 104th�) originally composed for Psalm 104 by 91����� Ravenscroft (1592-1635). The words to the present hymn, by Jean de Santeuil (1630-1697) and translated by Isaac Williams (1802-1865), pair nicely with our first hymn: Whereas �Once to every man and nation� looked at the moral-spiritual struggle on earth from the human perspective, and concluded with the suggestion of God �behind the dim unknown� and �within the shadow,� �Disposer Supreme� suggests a much more explicit depiction of God�s working out of His purpose. The first and fifth hymns make a nice pairing for two other reasons as well: Both are in a sort-of waltzy ¾ time, and �Hyfrydol� is in F-major while �Old 104th� is in D-minor, i.e. the relative minor of F-major (although the tune modulates from D-minor to F-major and only back to D-minor at the conclusion).

 

Posted May 7, 2012