Coming out of Mass today I heard the bells of another Church chiming. Now I happen to love the sounds of church bells, but I think I have been scarred for life. The bells were chiming Lord of the Dance. All I could think was:
Run then, wherever you may be
Through the parking lot, said he!
And get in the car, hurriedly that you may flee
And escape that insipid song, said he!
Update: Daniel Vitz commented on a comment he had recieved by Seekeroftheway on a Wikipedia entry for Syndey Carter the author of the lyrics for Lord of the Dance.
Partly inspired by Jesus, and partly by a statue of Shiva as Nataraja, Sydney wrote the lyrics "Lord Of The Dance" in 1963, as an adaptation of Joseph Brackett’s "Simple Gifts", and a tribute to Shaker music. He later stated, "I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord… Anyway, it’s the sort of Christianity I believe in." [Source]
Why am I not surprised?
21 comments
Just think of the bells as chiming the original Shaker hymn or “Appalachian Spring” by Copeland.
Perhaps it isn’t such a good idea that the priest I work for has just requested me to promote a ‘Bells Appeal’ to raise funds to get our parish church bells ringing again!
God Bless.
Just imagine when the St. Louis Jebbies start hacking into bell systems.
Your version is definately better. My church seems to like to play that $%#%$ song every other week. Maybe it is just me, but it makes me uneasy to hear it.
I happen to like Lord of the Dance…outside mass or (ideally) arranged by Aaron Copland.
Then again, let’s not forget that the Lord of the Dance tune is really a hijacking of the tune to Simple Gifts. While Simple Gifts isn’t exactly my favorite humn, it’s worlds better than Lord of the Dance. Too bad the authors of Simple Gifts have likely been dead too long to still have their copyright.
Thanks, David. I had forgotten that the title of the Shaklee hymn is “Simple Gifts.” Yes, the words are neutral, if not exactly Christian, if I remember correctly.
Whoops…that should be “Shaker”…..you can tell I’m a Shaklee fan!
Seeker of the Way pointed out in an old thread from my blog about the S.L. Jesuits this gem from Wikipedia about Sydney Carter (who wrote the song).
“Partly inspired by Jesus, and partly by a statue of Shiva as Nataraja, Sydney wrote the lyrics “Lord Of The Dance” in 1963, as an adaptation of Joseph Brackett’s “Simple Gifts”, and a tribute to Shaker music. He later stated, “I did not think the churches would like it at all. I thought many people would find it pretty far flown, probably heretical and anyway dubiously Christian. But in fact people did sing it and, unknown to me, it touched a chord� Anyway, it’s the sort of Christianity I believe in.””
Ack!
Wow!
I always wondered why I didn’t mind “Simple Gifts,” but hated “Lord of the Dance.” Thanks to Jeff Miller for revealing that it comes from Hinduism (Shiva as Nataraja). It really gave me the creeps when I went out just now and found this page, which should be viewed from top to bottom:
http://www.lotussculpture.com/nataraja1.htm
Durble Ack!!
DOUBLE, that is.
How I feel about that particular song aside…I’ve never liked bells that play songs, or any kind of “fake” church bells for that matter. I want to hear the hammer clapping on the metal, and I want to feel the air shake when it happens. Bells are expensive, nobody builds churches with bell towers anyways, fake bell systems take up no space and cost next to nothing, comparitively… mostly I despise our lack of attention to detail now days. It’s like two guys with Sony keyboards versus the whole boston pops.
One good thing about church bells is that they can ring out The Angelus. There is a parish here that does that. The bells seem to call the whole world to prayer. I am often in the area at 6pm and find myself drawn to the church by the sound.
Lord of the dance is everything I hate about the moderistic movement in the Church that has been going on, it would seem, for forever. A skip to my Lou kind of attidude I have been tortured with since my days back at the parish where I grew up.(St. Alice, Springfield Oregon-It’s more on the lines of an Episcopalian Church actually) It just reminds me of why I love the parish I now go to so much.
As a former Charismatic, I still like Lord of the Dance — at parties or picnics — but definitely not in Church during Mass or played on church bells — YUK!
My sacramental rebirth (I’m a convert) according during a Solemn Vigil where this song was played. Ugh.
Slightly off-topic, but I must share:
Yesterday at Mass, our priest did his usual gender-neutralizing-on-the-fly. Now, he always changes “Almighty Father” to “Almighty One,” but he was changing the Gospel as he read it, yesterday. When he got to the statement, “Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men,” he read instead, “Come with me, and I will make you… fish for people.”
I spent the rest of the Mass trying not to giggle.
I chuckled!
A few things: you can get St Louis Jesuit tunes on computer-programmed pseudo-carillons. Sorry to say.
Authentic carillons and bells are far superior to the pragmatic programmable speakers on steeples.
And as others have pointed out, the tune in question is SIMPLE GIFTS. If a person automatically fills in the Carter words, you’ve simply not been listening to enough Aaron Copland.
Well, in the UK the tune has been used by football (soccer) hooligans for years:
“Fight, fight, wherever you may be,
We are the lads from the West Country
And we’ll fight you all,
Wherever you may be,
We are the lads from the West Country”
Not very imaginative, but proper more appropriate than using it in Mass.