ITT We Discuss Theology

[SWTXBelle]

I have fallen in love with this - although I was introduced to it at a funeral mass for a 13 year old boy, which means it will forever be bittersweet:

The Canticle of the Turning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyGh1MW2OM

[PhoenixAzul]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

I have fallen in love with this - although I was introduced to it at a funeral mass for a 13 year old boy, which means it will forever be bittersweet:

The Canticle of the Turning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TXyGh1MW2OM

This is also the tune of anl Irish song, "The Star of the County Down"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GbdB7PlGtc

[SWTXBelle]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

This is also the tune of anl Irish song, "The Star of the County Down"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GbdB7PlGtc

Yes, I know. My sister fronted a Celtic band that used to play it - my eldest daughter did Irish step dancing to it, including at a gig at the North Texas Irish Festival. I danced to it at a ball night before last! A beautiful melody, played majestically or céilidh-style.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by PhoenixAzul

This is also the tune of anl Irish song, "The Star of the County Down"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GbdB7PlGtc

"Star of the County Down" actually isn't that old of a song -- it was written (the words that is) by Cathal McGarvey, who lived from 1866-1927. It was first published after his death, and was probably written in the early 20th Century.

The tune is a different matter. It is indeed an old tune that pops up throughout the British Isles with a variety of names and lyrics. I think the earliest example of the tune in written form is from the early 1700s. It's the basis of the hymn tune "Kingsfold" -- one of many folk tunes that Ralph Vaughan Williams took and "hymnodized" for the English Hymnal (1906). Lots of hymnals include the tune for "I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say" and/or "O Sing a Song of Bethlehem." Vaughan Williams also used it for Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus (1939), which is a setting for harp and strings of yet another of the old carols associated with the tune.