The Parish Magazine April 2024
Serving the communities of Charvil, Sonning, and Sonning Eye since 1869
Serving the communities of Charvil, Sonning, and Sonning Eye since 1869
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THE ARTS<br />
Poetry Corner<br />
Breath Bestowed<br />
By Steven Rolling<br />
John 20 v.19-23 parts<br />
Tune: Vulpius - ‘Christ is the King, O friends, rejoice’<br />
1. Evening of resurrection day<br />
Jesus to disciples did say<br />
Peace be unto you now, always<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!<br />
2. He showed them His wounded hands, side<br />
<strong>The</strong>y did Him see, it not denied<br />
<strong>The</strong> risen Christ, and none beside<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!<br />
3. He did say, Peace be unto you<br />
As my father has sent me true<br />
E’en so I send you out anew<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!<br />
4. When He has said this He breathed on<br />
<strong>The</strong> disciples, unto each one<br />
Said, Receive the Spirit, it's done<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!<br />
5. Whose sins they forgave, forgiven<br />
Were they e’en in that moment when<br />
<strong>The</strong>y proclaimed forgiving word then<br />
Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!<br />
Public domain: wikipedia<br />
<strong>The</strong> <strong>Parish</strong> <strong>Magazine</strong> - <strong>April</strong> <strong>2024</strong> 31<br />
<strong>The</strong> TQ tingle<br />
that opens a<br />
world of wonder<br />
Rev Michael Burgess continues his<br />
series looking at great works of music<br />
In the 1980s <strong>The</strong> Sunday Times<br />
writer Godfrey Smith wrote a series<br />
about music that has TQ — the<br />
Tingle Quotient. This is the shiver of<br />
excitement up and down the spine<br />
that opens for us a new world of<br />
beauty and wonder.<br />
One such work is Allegri’s Miserere,<br />
the setting of which by Gregorio<br />
Allegri (1582-1652), was the exclusive<br />
possession of the Sistine Chapel in the<br />
Vatican.<br />
Copying the music would result in<br />
excommunication.<br />
In spite of this, a 14-year-old<br />
Mozart heard the piece in 1770 and<br />
wrote it down from memory.<br />
BEAUTY AND MAGIC<br />
<strong>The</strong> Emperor, Leopold 1, the King<br />
of Portugal, persuaded the Pope<br />
to grant him a copy. When it was<br />
performed in his imperial chapel, he<br />
was disappointed. He even thought<br />
the Pope had palmed him off with an<br />
inferior work.<br />
<strong>The</strong>n he realised that the beauty<br />
and magic of the music lay in its being<br />
sung in the Sistine Chapel where the<br />
plainsong and the high C cadences<br />
could ring out among the pillars and<br />
arches of that great building.<br />
A MOVING APPEAL<br />
<strong>The</strong> Miserere, or Psalm 51, is the<br />
heart-felt cry of the Church for<br />
mercy.<br />
As one of the penitential psalms,<br />
it is a very personal expression of<br />
sorrow for sin and a moving appeal<br />
to God for mercy and restoration.<br />
A single voice in the music scales<br />
the heights of heaven to represent<br />
all of us as we turn to God with<br />
that same awareness of sin, plea<br />
for mercy, and the affirmation<br />
that we will then turn to God with<br />
thanksgiving and the offering of a<br />
humble and contrite heart.<br />
And so with the psalmist and with<br />
Allegri, we can pray ‘Have mercy upon<br />
me, O God, after thy great goodness.’
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