I don’t quite know what it was that caused this thought to come to mind, but I find a few disturbing similarities between my “adopted” hometown (home area) and the place I now find myself. The most notable is the sense of pride in one’s hometown. Now there’s pride, as in “I’m from Cow Pen, Indiana, and I’m proud of it,” and there’s pride, as in “I’m from Philly; you got a problem wit dat?” A few days ago I was with some friends downtown, and after wandering for about two hours, we finally went to the Hyatt. (I have to admit that this is the first time I’ve gone to a hotel for the expressed purpose of hanging out in the lobby; on the other hand, the Hyatt is much more than a hotel.) While there, one of the group made the observation that everyone she’d ever met from Philly was fiercely proud of that fact. In point of fact, anyone close enough to drive to Philly within two or three hours is fiercely proud of that fact. I’m not quite sure why, but after four years of introducing myself as one from Philadelphia (you have no idea how hard it is to actually write the full name out) I’ve gotten used to the idea that I’m more or less from there, even if I’m actually fifty or sixty miles away from the edge of town. Well, the strange thing is that people from South Carolina are fiercely proud of that fact, too. Think - in how many states have you traveled where most of the cars proudly display, in some fashion, the state’s flag symbol? Most states, I grant you, it’s pretty hard to do that, since the state symbol is so absolutely…busy… that any attempt to shrink it down to smaller-than-real-life size would result in the symbol looking like a toddler had fallen down while running with a box of crayons in his hand. SC’s state symbol, though, is actually pretty simple - a swamp bush (read: Palmetto tree) and a crescent moon that looks like it belongs on the flag of a Muslim nation. I grant you that this makes displaying it fairly easy…but then why would you want to display it in the first place unless you were proud of your home state?

What makes it even more hard to believe is the fact that SC has always been in the middle of trouble. If there’s national trouble to be found, look no further than good ole’ SC. Who was the first to make a big stink about separating from the rest of the US back in the mid-1800s? Which state has brought you not one, not even two, but three college presidents that the national (and even international) media absolutely loves to pick on? Yes, it’s our friend, South Carolina. Not that any of these things are bad things. But you’d think people would be more loyal to a state that stayed a little more out of the spotlight when trouble pops up.

So, anyway, that’s one similarity. In fact, that’s about the only similarity I can find. But it’s a big one, probably worth two or even three smaller similarities. Hey, it’s quality, not quantity, that matters, right?

This week’s tune is the gem HELMSLEY (.mid, .mp3). It’s an anonymous English tune dating back to 1765, when it first appeared in John Wesley’s Select hymns designed chiefly for the use of the people called Methodists (better known, thankfully, as simply Select Hymns). The unusual thing about this tune is that it appeared in a time when so many other English hymn tunes were flat and rather uninteresting. Oddly enough, while these tunes themselves are unexciting, the arrangement possibilities give then new life as majestic anthems. One of the best arrangements of this tune can be found on the CD Sing Ye Heavens: Hymns for All Time by the Cambridge Singers.

I would venture that this majestic tune is not at all known in America, at least not with any consistency. It is an English creation, published by the Wesleys in London, and so it remains to this day. It is commonly wedded with the text “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending!”, a text written by John Cennick and revised by Charles Wesley and Martin Madan. Indeed, the very nature of the song - a joyous looking ahead to the second Advent - fits the glory of this tune quite well.

The actual meter of the tune itself is 8.7.8.7.12.7., but good luck finding other texts set to that exact pattern. The tune is, however, flexible enough to handle other meters, provided the person setting the text to the music is creative enough with how he repeats a word or phrase in the fifth line (stanza). In that vein, there are a handful of 8.7.8.7.8.7. texts that work well - “Angels from the Realms of Glory” (it works, trust me) and “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” (with a little tweaking; see #144 in Rejoice! for a tweak that works well) come to mind. One can also fit 8.7.8.7.4.7. texts (probably easier than the ones listed above) - Keble’s “God, the Lord, a King Remaineth” (a paraphrase of Psalm 93 [+/-] [93:1]The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.) works well, and provided you’re working with a motivated choir or congregation, G.H. Bourne’s “Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor” can work.

Of course, I personally think that any text other than the Cennick/Wesley/Madan “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” is a second-rate use of the tune. Likewise, I think combining that text with CWM RHONDDA (which we Americans commonly use for “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”) is, nicely put, corny. So I guess this is a Tune/Text of the Week, otherwise known as simply a T/TotW.

[Listening to: Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending - The Cambridge Singers - Sing, ye Heavens: Hymns for All Time (04:15)]

EDIT: I got my model numbers switched. And note also the pictures of the two handguns.

Today I mastered two new art forms - the Glock .40 caliber handgun (standard issue for Greenville County police officers) and the Remington 870 Magnum shotgun (also standard issue for GC police officers). I must say that I did better than I imagined. There were a bunch of people from a local church who are officers for Greenville County, Spartanburg County, and the SC State Parole office, and they hosted a nearly guys-only shooting spree to alleviate those aggressive streaks that build up every so often. They brought their service pistols, the Glock model 22 (full-sized) and model 27 (”baby” version) - both are .40 caliber handguns with pretty decent accuracy, considering I, a newbie who had only ever fired a plastic handgun in an arcade, was able to cluster five rounds on a paper target’s ribcage my second time around. So I can safely say that I can at least hit a target at 25 yards with a handgun, though not necessarily with great accuracy. (I can even hit the target now firing one-handed!)

My real time in the spotlight, though, was using the Remington 870 Magnum for skeet shooting. Previously I had never been any good whatsoever at this sport, but I was willing to give it a try. I hit about 80-90% of all my targets during my few rounds with the shotgun. So after spending all afternoon with the heavy-duty 12-gauge, the 20-gauge seemed like a popgun. My shining moment was when I used the beautiful, all-black police shotgun to absolutely vaporize a clay skeet. It got launched up, I targeted, and pulled the trigger. There was a puff of black smoke where the skeet used to be, then nothing. No debris, no chunks, no nothing. Just a puff of smoke. The only thing I can think is that I hit it at the optimal distance, where the shot from my shell was just expanded enough to completely blanket the disc. It must have been a dead-on shot, too. That, or as the venerable Brade put it, it could have been sucked into a dimensional vortex at that very moment. For obvious reasons I prefer the former. This means that, if I’m ever accosted by a large black and day-glo orange clay disc, I will have the obvious advantage. Yeah, me!

I always used to think of expending rounds of ammo for no good reason (not including bettering one’s aim, which I may yet continue to do with a former redneck roommate) was a stupid waste of time. Then I did it. It was fun! I mean, I’m burned to a crisp and I’ll probably be in severe pain tomorrow morning (owing to the sun, the moderate kick from the handgun requiring a lot of wrist support, and the 12-gauge’s stock slamming into my shoulder for about forty rounds altogether), but I think it’s worth it. And to all you people who think nothing good can come from guns, I invite you to share your opinions with Chris, one of the guys who, using a Smith & Wesson .45-caliber handgun, blew out the “X” area of a paper target without ever adjusting his aim once he started firing. He has some very profound arguments.

Finally, I leave with this time-tested maxim - When in Rome…

Ah, the internet. Wonderful invention. Thank you, Al Gore. I say this because it has been through the internet that I have realized that, for all the talk about “changing Fundamentalism,” not much is actually changing, per se. Perhaps it just follows the old aphorism, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” Perhaps we like to think it’s changing, because some of the methodologies are changing. And in fairness some of the practice of the movement is changing, but not in any radical way, and certainly not in the way that most people who are advocating a radical change would like it to change.

I say this because one of the stated goals of these new reformers is to distance the movement from its “Fightin’ Fundy” past and usher in a kinder, gentler Fundamentalism, a Fundamentalism that is not concerned with all the in-fighting so characteristic of the past twenty years and that is more concerned about accomplishing the mission of the church while still maintaining core purity. Admirable goals, to be sure, and right goals. But I think that, at the moment, we’re taking one step forward and two-steps back. I invite you to hop on over to SharperIron.org and view the back-and-forth that we said we were trying to get away from. Here’s a timeline:

• 3/4/05: Phil Johnson, executive director of Grace to You, gives a workshop at the Shepherd’s Conference entitled “Dead Right: The Failure of Fundamentalism.” After being reported on SI, much debate ensues.
• 3/10/05: Phil Johnson, after reading the firestorm his comments kicked off, publishes some additional thoughts to clarify his position.
  
• 3/11/05: Dave Doran, president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, writes a response to the article. More discussion ensues on SI’s forums.
• 3/25/05: After an astounding two weeks of no major world wars erupting, Phil Johnson revises his position in light of all the educated deference he has heard. Three weeks after his original lecture, the outcry of “that’s not really what we are at all!” has gotten loud enough that he’s willing to retract or modify some of his statements.
• 5/22/05: Just when we all thought the debate was closed, two months after the last big rumble, SI republishes an article from The Biblical Evangelist written by Dr. Robert Sumner, editor of said journal.
• 5/24/05: Not to be outdone, Phil Johnson writes what ends up being the latest article: a response to a critique of a response to a response.

Oh yeah, we’ve moved beyond the petty back and forth. Only now, with the wonders of the internet, we can tack on smilies to the ends of our posts and still come out friends. The “Fightin’ Fundy” mentality lives on - always eager to prove ourselves right and the other guy wrong - except what was once done exclusively in the pulpits with preachers with Southern accents and raspy voices from sounding the battle cry every other Sunday and occasionally a Wednesday here and there is now being done by 20- and 30-somethings on their blogs.

While unfortunate from the point of view of one who would welcome change, it’s somewhat comforting to know that the world I go into is roughly the same as the one in which I grew up.

This week’s tune is dubbed CANTERBURY (.MID, .MP3), though it’s nearly indistinguishable from SONG 13 (.MID, .MP3). Both tunes are by Orlando Gibbons, an English career musician from the late 16th century. Gibbons (1583-1625) was born into a musical family and educated at Cambridge and Oxford. This training later gave him the background to be the organist for England’s Royal Chapel and later the Westminster Abbey.

The tune itself is a simple one. The poetic meter of the song is 7.7.7.7. CANTERBURY is likely just a reharmonization of SONG 13, with the biggest change being the removal of the decidedly Renaissance figure in measure 6. For comparison’s sake, I’ve included the MIDI and MP3 of both tunes.

Unfortunately, the actual number of texts to fit the 7.7.7.7. is very small. Fans of R. Vaughan Williams will be glad to know that this tune fits the text of “The Call” from Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, text taken from George Herbert. I don’t know of many American churches that sing this text, but this tune is appropriate for the text, and IMO it’s a lot more accessible to the hymn style than Greer’s adaptation of a solo art song. Beyond that, Charles Wesley’s “Come, and Let Us Sweetly Join” and “Depth of Mercy,” as well as Samuel Longfellow’s “Holy Spirit, Truth Divine,” are suitable texts for this song. For those brave enough to write a new text to this meter, I would suggest a meditative, prayerful theme. From all the texts that seem to fit well with this song, their general attitude is one of prayer. Indeed, the very tune itself is peaceful and meditative.

I just read on Bloomberg’s site that USAirways and America West are for-real officially merging. Of course there was talk about that for the past few months, and even a false start by (I think) the New York Times a few days ago, but it’s now official. The new carrier will operate under the name USAirways, but the headquarters will move from Arlington, VA to Tempe, AZ. I’m not sure who comes out on top in this merger, but I suspect that, since USAir will be getting all the planes and America West will be getting all the headache, the winner is USAir. Now, as for the title of this post, I simply mean that I have enough frequent flier miles stored up for a European vacation, and if they’re going to turn into 30,000 pumpkins before I and my yet-unrevealed wife can use them for a honeymoon, I guarantee I’m taking off a Friday and following Monday off from work and flying out to Switzerland for the fun of it.

I wonder where I’d go? Seriously. I have the capability to squander those miles on myself and fly across the globe free of charge. I’ve heard Switzerland is clean and enjoyable. Perhaps I’d go to Greece and visit the history of the country. Perhaps Spain and relax in Seville or Madrid. Scotland? Rome? London? Munich? I wonder. Anyone with suggestions on how to enjoy those miles should they suddenly have an expiration date printed on them is welcome to offer ideas - I’m quite open to them.

From TechRepublic this morning - an article entitled “Create your own BSOD [Blue Screen of Death] in Windows XP.” Believe it or not, it’s possible that, one day, you might want to create your own BSOD; and if that day ever comes, now you know how, courtesy of mounty and TechRepublic.

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-5710338.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=tr

I brought my laptop on a recent quartet trip last weekend to take notes on this monumentous of occasions. Rather than clog up your inboxes with full blog notes and pictures (I know most of you subscribe to my feed and never actually visit this site with your browser; but it’s all good), I’ve condensed everything down into a PDF file for your convenience, which can be downloaded here. I can’t imagine that, by this time, you still don’t have PDF software, but in case you need a PDF reader, you can get one from Adobe. The PDF reader is a free download and opens up a whole world of content you probably never knew existed before. Either that, or you had Google translate all the PDF pages into HTML. Loser.

Yup, the appearance of the epithet “loser” means I’m officially exhausted and need sleep. So, please excuse me while I do that. I trust you’ll enjoy the reading and pictures. Yes, those were taken with my phone’s camera, and I gotta say that, even with less-than-ideal lighting and weather conditions, such as millions of gallons (litres, on the side I was on) of water crashing into the rocks below and creating a very fine mist that got on absolutely everything, those pictures didn’t turn out half bad. Not honeymoon quality, but hey…

[Listening to: Concerto no. 3 in d minor - Allegro ma non tanto - Arcadi Volodos - Piano Concerto No. 3 in d minor (16:26)]

Seen on an email someone sent me this afternoon:

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Convocation at BJU is at once considered a blessing and a curse. After all, who wouldn’t want to be done with another school year? However, most people have to sit through a very long ceremony while just under 1,000 people get diplomas and occasionally yak with the administration on their way through. I say “most people” because some people are either scheduled or schedule themselves to work through the exercises. But I’m not bitter. After all, I was walking finally, after six months of post-graduate status. Pics to come later. And yes, I was yakking with the administration, specifically Dr. Bob Taylor, dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. They told us not to stand around and talk forever with Dr. Bob, so I didn’t, but as I walked by Dr. Taylor to get my hood, he stops me and asks, “Did I teach your father?” I said, “I think so, yeah!” “Oh. Tell him I said ‘hi.’” What are you going to do? Did prompt the question later by my dad - “Who was that and why did you just stop on stage?” Oh, I’ve got connections. Yeah, connections.

So the curse side (especially for the choir, faculty, and staff) is that you’re sitting there for two and a half to three hours. If you’re in one of the previously-mentioned groups, you get to sit there for 2.5-3 hours and wear a suit, robe, and heavy velvet hood. And a hat that doubles as an anti-sleep device: the moment you start nodding off, the hat goes all over the place, and upwards of two hundred people suddenly look at you, the sleeping graduate. Hey, after four and a half years, I’m pretty exhausted, huh??

Well, it’s over, and I’m official. To all the seniors that I adopted as my new graduating class (I squeezed a four year program into four and a half)…I was going to say something deep and profound, or at least Kierkegaardian, like “I salute you” or some other drivel. Instead, I say “peace out, dogs.” Yeah. Did I mention I’m bordering on feverish with a nasty cough and am currently drugged up on a combination of pills and cough syrup? Life shouldn’t really be good, but it’s absolutely wonderful right now. Peanut butter.

I can’t really think of any highlights our class has experienced together, because this wasn’t my class. The ones that graduated last year this time were my classmates. But still, I’ve made quite a few friends among your ranks, and I hope the feeling is mutual. Seriously, I wish I could keep up with all youse guys, but I know that all good things come to an end. But, a bunch of you are staying for some length through the summer, so we should do coffee sometime. You know where to find me.

I’m going to wrap this up, because I think my laundry is coming up soon. So, do keep yourselves safe on the road (though you’ve already left and the campus is more or less deserted), don’t do stupid things this summer that would keep you from coming back one way or another, and keep your eyes on the One who keeps His hands on you. Don’t ever forget that.

Peace out, dogs.

Note on Tunes of the Week: whenever I feel the urge or hear something really cool that I’ve never heard before, I’ll do a little research and post the tune here. You’ll find out all sorts of cool stuff…at least stuff that I think is cool.

Today’s Tune of the Week is KINGSFOLD (mp3, midi). KINGSFOLD started as a generic English folk tune, something wandering “minstrels” would sing on their travels. In the opening years of the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams travelled the countryside of England, recording different folk tunes. When he returned home, he would set them in four parts for use in a hymnal. It was for the 1906 The English Hymnal, for which he was musical editor, that he recorded this folk tune and arranged it in four parts. The tune originally was wedded with a text taken loosely from Luke 16:19-30, where Christ tells the story of Lazarus the beggar and a rich man who spurns him. (Incidentally, some wonder if this story actually happened, because, unlike all of Christ’s other parables, this one contains an actual name.) The text of the song was entitled “Dives & Lazarus;” you can read about it in more detail here. As was the case with many folk songs (and not just those of that time), one text could be used with a multitude of tunes; but the reason I say that this tune and that text presented a valid combination is because Vaughan Williams later used the KINGSFOLD tune in his string orchestral work, “Five Variants on Dives & Lazarus.”

The tune can be used for any number of texts today. It’s metrical pattern is 8.6.8.6.D, or doubled common meter. Some more well-known texts that can be used with this meter of tune are: “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Watts; “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Sears; and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Brooks. Most commonly this tune is used with the text “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem” by Louis Benson (who, incidentally, was from Philadelphia). The tune alternates between the keys of E minor (where it starts and ends) and G major (where it sits most of the song). It’s melody is folk-like, but the lush harmonies by Vaughan Williams make it excellent anthem material. KINGSFOLD has been judged one of the most important folk tunes that Vaughan Williams harmonized.

Okay, kids, it’s time for a few site updates before we hit the stats of the month (April). First, mounty’s first semester of grad school concluded with the final exam in Group Vocal Technique. I passed. Not easily, I don’t think, but passed none the less. Second, there’s a new category that I hope to populate called “Tune of the Week.” In actuality, this will end up being the “Tune of whatever stretch of time I choose,” since it’s possible there will be more than one per week, or one per month, or one per seventeen minutes. But “Tune of the Week” is easier to say. This new category is the result of taking two straight semesters of being exposed to historical tunes that the Church used with her texts. Most people agree that there is too much stupid stuff out there, fluff that needs not be proliferated, and so I’m doing my small part to raise awareness of things you might not have heard before. I’ll post the first in this series, KINGSFOLD, along with an introduction later. Third, only when you’re with other guys do you refer to steaks as “a work of art.” It must have been a funny sight this afternoon - Bart and I, engulfed in smoke and flames, with Kuhblut all over our hands (look it up - it’s German), slabs of the aforementioned Kuh sizzling on the grill, dodging the occasional spear of flame shooting out from the grill, when Bart suddenly shouts out, “Take a look at this! This is a work of art!” It truly was - a beautifully cooked medium-rare steak, perfectly browned on the outside. Instantly five guys jumped into Bart’s column of smoke to ooh and aah over the steak. By the time we wrenched it away from him, the edges were slightly charred and it was now done medium. Unfortunate, because that would have been one good piece of red meat when he pulled it off. In retrospect, the entire pavillion was a haven of guy-dom, what with the grills and all that. Only there would a piece of slightly undercooked meat be considered a “work of art.”

And now, the stats for April:

Most popular post: More from Good News Publishers, with 84 views.
Browser breakdown:

• Mozilla products: 3398 (52.23%)
• IE: 2395 (36.81%)
• Other: 712 (10.94%)

Most referrals: BlogJones, with 45 referrals. Gold star for you, BlogJones.
Strange searches:

• paul, silas and the philippians jailer drawings -I’m pretty sure Acts doesn’t record any artists on the scene
• Count of Mount Mounty Crystal -That’s a pretty cool mutilation of a famous literary work. That, or it’s a very confused searcher.
• “Elijah Rock” Scripture -Don’t bother - it’s a spiritual. You won’t find Scripture in it.
• “hard to be an alto” -Yeah, it is, especially with all the jokes they have to take. I’m glad I’m not an alto.
• lung illness + magnificat + johann sebastian bach -Lung illness?
• “hiding the hard drive” -Wherever you hide it, don’t put it next to a powerful electromagnet.
• change lightning struck arirang korean movie -Hence the “Shotgun Search” approach
• “too busy for a boyfriend” -Boy, have I heard that one before…
• what happened to zokbar.com? -never heard of it…why would I know?
• Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) not only witnessed the shift from the Renaissance to the Baroque in vocal music, he may have been the reason for the shift -I would have to agree, considering the progressive nature of his music and the fact that he was really the first person to compose anything that resembled opera. On second thought, he should have been shot before he developed opera.
• hyles & blog -Heaven help us.
• SHOCKING FACTS ABOUT SINGERS -I’m not sure I want to know.
• “simple gifts” by J.S. Bach windows media -I hope my site helped them get their facts straight. SIMPLE GIFTS is a Shaker tune, and the story behind the Shakers is quite odd. J.S. Bach certainly didn’t write this tune.
• lord of the rings “straight tone” audition -”Shotgun Search” part deux
• Who wrote the chorale on which the cantata “Ein Feste Burg is unser Gott” is based -Luther wrote the text and the tune. Quite the musical guy, Luther was.
• allentown weather report 12/25/2004 -I think it was cold and overcast.
• text with feathers emily dickinson rubber stamp -”Shotgun Search” part trois

I’m a legatee.