Ship of Fools: MW report 3101: St Paul’s, Charlestown, England

Thread: MW report 3101: St Paul’s, Charlestown, England Board: Ecclesiantics / Ship of Fools.

To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=6;t=008441

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

This report mentions the tune "Lingham" being used fr "While Shepherds Watched". Actually the tune is "Lyngham" and, while possibly not widely used for this carol (paraphrase) outside Cornwall, it is widely used in Nonconformist churches for "O for a thousand tongues to sing".

See it here; I also have this setting on a recently purchased CD by part of the group Coope, Boyes & Simpson and friends (they sang it at a concert we went to in Colchester just befre Christmas).

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

Link to report. Correction has been made. Thanks for pointing it out.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

Yes I was puzzled by that. It may be regarded by some of the old guard as a bit Methody (sic) but Lyngham is widely known these days and popular as the tune for O for a thousand tongues even in the staid old CofE. It's also not only Cornwall where it is sometimes used as a more cheerful alternative to the dreary Winchester Old provided in all the hymn books for While shepherds watched.

What not everybody seems to realise is that the well known song Ilkley Moor was originally a spoof version of While shepherds watched. The tune, Cranbrook, is another tune in Common Metre with repeats that has been associated widely with While shepherds watched, particularly in Yorkshire where Ilkley Moor happens to be.

I still think this tune Old Fosters, also from Yorkshire, is one of the best for While shepherds watched, whether sung by a skilled choir as on the link or bawled out by enthusiastic carol singers. I defy anyone to listen to it and not feel uplifted.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

I misread as 'lingam' which is a Hindu phallic symbol.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Ad of course "Cranbrook" doesn't come from Yorkshire but Kent! At the concert I went to, we were told that there were over 400 tunes to "While Shepherds".

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

And here's the first verse, to 'The Yorkshire Tune'!

Great stuff - eat yer 'art out, Old Winchester...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcwCG1X1-HU

IJ

Posted by Metapelagius (# 9453) on :

Lyngham - that goes with the paraphrase 'Hark how the adoring hosts above', no?

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Indeed it does, and very nicely, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf87Etxcu1Q&nohtml5=False

IJ

Posted by David Goode (# 9224) on :

quote:
Originally posted by leo:
I misread as 'lingam' which is a Hindu phallic symbol.

That was also my immediate thought. Good tune for the office hymn of the feast of the circumcision!

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

I've sung While Shepherds to Lyngham on several occasions, and I've never been to Cornwall.

The use of the tune for On Ilkley Moor regularly comes up in "unexpected tunes for hymns" threads over the years here. But, I've not previously heard that it was originally used for While Shepherds and only later re-used for the more bawdy folk song.

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :

I was at the Dickens re-enactment at Kentwell Hall in December, re-creating 1869, and we sang While Shepherd's Watched to the tune of On Ilkley Moor at the carol service. My understanding was that it was a common version used up to the mid-nineteenth century, until the 1860s publication of Hymns Ancient and Modern promoted the now more familiar tune.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Much to my surprise (and the choir's delight), our Organist chose "Cranbrook" for this year's Carol Service. He was concerned that people would have trouble singing it - of course they didn't and, with one exception, they loved it!

At our Family Service a week earlier, we sung the jolly ditty “On a night when the world” which goes to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" excellent for a largely unchurched congregation with lots of children present.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

The legend I heard was that it was made up by a group of young Methodists walking back on a dark night from some Methodist gathering in the C19 - an equivalent of its time of the various versions we used to sing about shepherds washing their socks by night.

Posted by Anselmina (# 3032) on :

This was the tune we did in the part of the north of England I lived in for a while. When it was done with the church choir, we had our local handbell ringers doing the dingy-dongy bits. Fabulous!

'Sweet chiming Christmas bells/While shepherds watched'.

Hard to go back to the old tune after this!

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Oooh! Flashback to The Church Of My Yoof - our vicar, oo coom from oop north, introduced us to the 'chiming bells' tune one year....but no-one seemed to like it very much... [Disappointed]

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

Sounds like "Oh Susanna" to me.

Posted by Enoch (# 14322) on :

Yes, I rather like the Sweet Bells version. I've long had a vague feeling that it's the Salvation Army version, but I don't know why.

Posted by Bishops Finger (# 5430) on :

Yes, Vicar from oop north reckoned it was a Sally Army tune.

I have to admit I much prefer Cranbrook, Lyngham and/or Foster !

IJ

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

We use that for "The bells ring out at Christmas-time".

UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0