[Ttha-potm] Barthelemon at Vauxhall

[carolyn mcgrath]

Hi Rosemarie

This is the setting that I think is Barthelemon's: http://www.oremus.org/hymnal/a/a408.html

Is it the one you remember? 

I think your doleful memories are pertinent to the point I was making about 'mighty quires' not being more, but rather less than the joy of that moment on the bridge with 'eyes due east', and the satisfaction of channelling that response into a new artistic creation. I think this is what the poem is saying. However, if you are looking for 'spiritual inspiration' from Hardy's poem, I think you are expecting the wrong thing and will be disappointed. 

The simple, jaunty, belt-it-out-altogether-nowness of this tune fits my picture of FHB striding through the empty, morning-lit streets, across the bridge towards Westminster Abbey, swinging his violin case as he 'pursues his way' - his weary face enlivened by the whistling of this tune. That Hardy then, a century or so later, sits in the Abbey, participating or listening to its being sung by a 'mighty quire', contemplating the composition, the composer and the moment of composition, is something of the pleasure this poem brings me. Hardy creates a compelling myth/fantasy which embodies the human emotion at the sight of the sun and a new day which is evidenced through all human time by various words and music and other art forms: it is the multiplicity and diversity of these 'threads' and their 'spinning' that makes this poem connect with me rather than any 'spiritual inspiration' as such - the joy of a new day dawning and the joy of creativity. All of
 this, with the back-story of Ken and his daily luting, all of this gives the poem its depth and interest for me. 

I think TH knows that this poem cannot 'stand alone' and so an introduction to the poem to provide the necessary context, or to prompt the discovery of the required knowledge to enjoy this poem, was considered necessary. I don't normally go outside the text of a poem as extensively as I have needed to this time, but my enjoyment of the poem has been greatly enhanced by reading around the key people, times, places and the words and the sound of the hymn itself. 

In fact, I found today the following link which shows how words, music and thought travel, translate and transform in 'distinctive ways':

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-pKPO9u91zkC&pg=PA56&lpg=PA56&dq=awake+my+soul+and+with+the+sun&source=bl&ots=JMoPrISX4m&sig=IHo3sDULWXngpJaL_Yk3IsMtcgc&hl=en&ei=a_gYSrfBC5uOjAfw-JTgDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7

Hope that link works

best wishes

Carolyn McGrath