Fold to thy heart thy brother

[venta]

Over on someone else's LJ, I've just been reading a comment about someone's school hymn. Which has just reminded me to muse what a bloody odd choice my school made.

Comments

[lanfykins]

We had kind of two. One had been written by a nun specifically for the school, and thus the chances of my running into anyone else who's even heard of 'Lady of Kilgraston' are kinda low.

The other was God Be With You Till We Meet Again, which was sung at the end of prize giving on the last day of the summer term. And on no other occasion, ever.

In the days running up to prize giving, we had to learn the words to both to ensure that we didn't need hymn sheets.

[celestialweasel]

One of my friends taught at a school that had a school song to the tune of 'Something about a soldier' (changed to 'something about the [name of school]'). Deeply bizarre.

My school had a song (long abandoned, along with the houses when I went there though I understand houses have come back, but different ones) which contained the line
'Buckinghamshire's four mighty men - Challoner, Hampden, Milton and Penn'.
(which were the four houses), which sounds to me like a rather camp line from a musical set in the 20s.

Sadly I can't find the words on the web, though I believe this to be true, even though it is in Wikipedia.

[bopeepsheep]

Oh, you went to Dr C's? My old next door neighbour did and I've heard the song, but I doubt he is still around to remember the words (he was in his 80s when I last saw him).

[celestialweasel]

The houses had gone just before I went there, the school ties used to have a strip with the house colour on, then when they got rid of houses they standardised on blue, but a few boys had ties they had inherited from older brothers which had different coloured stripes on them.

[huskyteer]

At prep skool it was He Who Would Valiant Be, which I've always loved. Boarding-school I don't think had a hymn - I can't remember - but, being located on the coast, we always used to sing For Those In Peril On The Sea during stormy weather.

[venta]

I rather like He Who Would Valiant Be, too. It's always associated in my head with When A Knight Won His Spurs for some reason - possibly because I think I have recordings of both by Blyth Power.

[floralaetifica]

Yes, the two are connected in my brain, too. Only natural, I think, given the similar subject matter.

I *love* When A Knight Won His Spurs. It always made me cry, which was awkward at school

[huskyteer]

I love it too! I want it at my funeral! (Yes, I have thought extensively about the playlist for my funeral.)

[pm215]

The comprehensive I went to definitely didn't have a school hymn, or indeed any singing of hymns at all. My primary school, being CofE, did have singing of hymns at assembly, but no school hymn.

(I just went and looked at the primary's homepage, and all the classes seem to be named after birds these days; I'm sure it was just numbers when I was there...)

[bateleur]

All the infant classes where the twins go are named after birds, but the juniors get numbers. The main consequence of this policy seems to be that the parents of the infants can never remember what classes their own kids are in!

[j4]

We had a school hymn, which I can still sing & will reproduce in its entirety here without looking it up (honest

[venta]

The beauty of the predictability of hymntune meter means it doesn't matter I don't know that one - the words fit perfectly well to the tune of Onward, Christian Soldiers in my head

[j4]

I'd have had to sing "have built our herit-age" to make it rhyme with age.

Yep, that's how we sang it (the nature of the tune meant that you did sort of land quite heavily on the '-age' of 'heritage' anyway so it was a bit unavoidable).

Possibly also "Trinitay" in your St Patrick example, though without the rest of the words that might be just a red herring.

Ah no, it it rhymes with "three" further on. Words here (and I think that page plays audio at you if you haven't bvggered up your plugins like wot I have). The "Christ be with me, Christ within me" bit is the bit that gets a completely different tune.

Totally know what you mean about the commas and things in hymns. There's another one that always irks me when people get it wrong, but I can't remember it, may well be the same one you're thinking of. :) When I say "people get it wrong" I generally mean "people look at me funny when I sing through the bit where they're all taking a big breath".

"Where meek souls will receive him, still" is a good one to catch at Christmas time.

[exspelunca]

... provided you then sing "still the dear Christ enters in" all on one breathand, yes J4, you do get funny looks.