@anon27944729 I realise you say you have been here for some time and I do hope that you have read and taken note of the SF FAQs which are reproduced here for ease of reference.
You can see them and other useful information about the site by navigating to the hamburger menu (3 parallel lines icon) on the topic title bar alongside your Profile Picture.
Granted. Perhaps Bernie Taupin wasnât there to help with a completely new arrangement for Elton to commemorate Diana
I realise you say you have been here for some time and I do hope that you have read and taken note of the SF FAQs which are reproduced here for ease of reference.
Yikes!
I read this and thought at first you meant me because I dissed Sir Elton
âJerusalemâ has been suggested, which is not that bad an idea.
Love that. And also love love the naval special âEternal Father strong to save, for those in peril on the wavesâŚâ.
But now we will have the atheists screaming at us
Controversial - it is you know a âvery hard left far wingâ song. That is (as @Badger put it) ânot a view, itâs a factâ!
I wasnât especially cognisant of that. I was just reporting that Iâd heard it suggested as an alternative.
It does, at least, have a rousing tune. Unlike our current offering.
Hummm
Perhaps @anon27944729 should note I disagree with you since she thinks we always just agree but I see where you are coming from.
Jerusalem, a history Englandâs Hymn
Realising that the Marseillaise is indeed older⌠Jerusalem doesnât do it for me with itâs ties to a âgreen and pleasant landâ whilst dumping raw sewage into rivers and the coast lines - it needs something more vibrant imo to stir up real emotion⌠but at the moment, I canât think of anything suitable.
Please show the screaming
Parryâs Jerusalem
An inspirational anthem forged in WW1 Britain
By Jim Drury
Jerusalem isnât really a hymn. The words belong to William Blake, but they are wedded toSir Hubert Parry, Director of the Royal College of Music, most enduring composition, the choral hymn Jerusalem, which has become something like an English national song. Parry wrote it in 1916 at the request of his friend, the poet laureate Robert Bridges, as a piece that would lend itself to rousing mass singing, a tonic to wartime resolve. The first performance, at the Queenâs Hall, just yards away from the future BBC Broadcasting House in London, was a rousing success.
Parry had been one of those who thought that no country would begin a modern war because the consequences would be unthinkable; he was shocked and disbelieving to find Britain at war in August 1914. Parry was a left-leaning liberal humanist, so he was not the obvious person to approach in 1916 to contribute to a choral concert for General Sir Francis Younghusbandâs âFight for Rightâ movement. It had been founded to raise money for anti-German propaganda and to lobby the government against seeking peace with Germany. Parry was reluctant to compose anything for such a blatantly nationalist cause. But the concertâs conductor, Henry Walford Davies, (a former pupil) and the Poet Laureate, Robert Bridges, began to work on him, suggesting he might set some little-known verses from Milton by the visionary poet and artist William Blake (1757-1827).
Parry was deeply unhappy about Fight for Right, but Bridges left him a copy of the words anyway. Davies even considered commissioning George Butterworth to set the poem if Parry declined. But after a delay Parry succumbed, giving the music to Davies with the words, âHereâs a tune for you old chap. Do what you like with it.â The setting was for unison voices with organ, and Parry was evidently quite proud of it. Davies recalled the scene in Parryâs office at the Royal College of Music, âHe ceased to speak and put his finger on the note D in the second stanza where the words âO clouds unfoldâ break his rhythm. I do not think any word passed about it, yet he made it perfectly clear that this was the one note and the one moment of the song which he treasuredâŚâ
The song was performed at the fundraising concert on 28 March 1916 in the Queenâs Hall, conducted by Walford Davies and it was an instant success. (It was called âAnd did those feet in ancient timeâ â it did not become known as âJerusalemâ until 1918. An unknown hand has crossed out Parryâs title on the orchestral score and substituted âJerusalemâ.) Parry, however, became increasingly uneasy about the cause and soon withdrew any support for Fight for Right. As he had retained personal control of the copyright, there was concern that he might withdraw the song entirely. But then a new figure entered the story. She was Millicent Garrett Fawcett, one of the leaders of the Womenâs Movement, the main group fighting for womenâs voting rights. It is even possible that Parryâs wife, Lady Maud, had raised the issue of the song for she was herself an active supporter of the suffragettes and a friend of Emily Pankhurst as well as of Fawcett. In any case the Womenâs Movement began to take up the song enthusiastically, so that Millicent Garrett Fawcett could now ask Parry if it might officially become the Women Votersâ Hymn. Parry was delighted. He wrote to her, âThank you for what you say about the âJerusalemâ song. I wish indeed it might become the Women Votersâ Hymn as you suggest. People seem to enjoy singing it. And having the vote ought to diffuse a good deal of joy too. So they would combine happily.â He agreed to make an orchestral version to be introduced at a Suffrage Demonstration Concert on 13 March 1918, at which he conducted.
Parry died in October 1918, a victim of the influenza epidemic that hit Europe at the end of the war. In 1928, when the Womenâs Movement was wound up, Parryâs executors re-assigned the copyright in Jerusalem to the Society of Womenâs Institutes (a decidedly less radical organisation) where it remained until it came into the public domain in 1969. A patriotic song, then it is that rarest of beings â a left-wing patriotic song. It is in fact a protest song, written about 1804, about the rapid growth of the Industrial Revolution. The first two stanzas refer to an old legend that the boy Jesus visited the West of England with Joseph of Arimathea, in particular stopping at Glastonbury in Somerset (there had in fact been trade between the West country and Palestine for centuries â the Phoenicians certainly traded goods for English tin, lead and copper). âDid such a thing happen?â asks the poet, with the implication that it certainly could not happen now that the countryside is dominated by âdark satanic millsâ. The third and fourth stanzas say that, whatever the truth of the legend, we have to put an end to growing industrialisation and strive to build a new society (âJerusalemâ) in a âgreen and pleasant land. On July 5th 1948, thirty years after Parryâs death, many saw the foundation of the NHS as a realisation that âJerusaelmâ had finally been built in Englandâs âgreen and pleasant land.â
Iâm not especially coming from anywhere, just being the messenger on this one.
as if
Some examples:
Plus the one where candjg told Graham he shouldnât be posting - I canât quote that as it was deleted.
Yikes!
So, where are we on those Prayer books? Stickers or reprint?
Thereâs such an irony when people criticise other people for doing the same things they do ,freedom of speech only seems to go one way
Love a bit of everyday sexism
I think you are right
I fully agree with Freedom of Speech (so long as I agree with what they are saying).
We have no idea what sex candjg is, I donât believe it has been stated and, indeed, I think the account is shared between a husband and wife.
Perhaps if you are making assumptions it is you who are being sexist.
I thought Graham was replying to me,it said he was therefore a logical assumption