May the Road Rise to Meet You

Introduction

There are a couple of different directions and thoughts I’d like to explore with what’s often called “The Irish Blessing”, which is the basis for the choral anthem today.

First, let’s take a look at the words, at least as one common English translation

May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

• What is your history with this poem or song? What does it mean to you? Are there particular times and places where you’ve seen this used traditionally?

• There are lots of Irish blessings (and curses). Why do you think this one has become so popular?

Let’s listen to one fairly straightforward a capella version of the Irish Blessing, by Joyce Eilers. Does this do anything for you or give you some additional insights into this text?

Translation and History

The history of this poem is hard to find. I wasn’t able to find anything that seems at all authoritative. It’s just listed as a traditional Irish blessing, and there appear to be versions of this in song for multiple centuries back. The main thing I’ve found is that some people ascribe this to St. Patrick, but that’s pretty generally regarded as inaccurate. So, I think the most we can say is that it’s old, lots of people throughout time have arranged these words to different musical presentations.

There are a few interesting aspects of the English translation, though. For what it’s worth, here is what I’m told is the original Gaelic:

Go n-éirí an bóthar leat
Go raibh an ghaoth go brách ag do chúl
Go lonraí an ghrian go te ar d’aghaidh
Go dtite an bháisteach go mín ar do pháirceanna
Agus go mbuailimid le chéile arís,
Go gcoinní Dia i mbos A láimhe thú.

Plugging that Gaelic into Google Translate gives the following English back:

Good luck on your road
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again,
May God in you palm of His hand.

It’s interesting that what’s apparently a quasi-literal translation of the Irish idiom is what has become popular. At least to me, “may the road rise to meet you” isn’t a commonly used idiom in English. At least not something like “get on the ball” or “right up your alley”. We do have the idiom that “the ground came up to meet him”, which means that someone stumbled and implies that the person was a bit intoxicated. However, for the Irish, the essence of that first line is “May you have a successful journey” or “Good luck upon your travels”, and is kind of like the older expression of “Godspeed”.

• What has gone through your mind thinking about that first line? What about the other lines of text in this poem?

I do have to wonder why this particular text has become so popular. The Irish are pretty famous for having lots of blessings (and several curses as well). I found several sites with lots of pages of Irish and curses including one at irishcultureandcustoms.com and another from wisegeek.com. Injecting a bit of humor that I think represents a good part of what we culturally appreciate about the Irish:

May those who love us, love us.
And those that don’t love us,
May God turn their hearts,
And if he doesn’t turn their hearts,
May he turn their ankles,
So we may know them by their limping.

Some Different Presentations

So, getting into the music side of this a bit, there are a few different presentations I want to listen to around this song.

The first is by a group called Acoustix and is a Barbershop Quartet version of The Irish Blessing. I’m pretty sure that’s the first Barbership style piece we’ve done in this class.

I added this one in after I’d published the column, and it’s a very bare presentation with just an Irish lass and guitar.

Another version is by the Texas A&M University choir and alumni, and is pretty close to the version I’ve done before. The choir I was in in Kingsport used something sort of close to this version after every baptism.

The last version I want to do is an SSAA version of the Phillip Stopford arrangement that the choir is doing today.

The question in the end is whether any of this helps us live a more Christian life and helps us bring others to Christ. For me, some of these bring peace, others challenge my thinking a bit.

Moving Forward -- Tammy Trent

Introduction

Music has a power to help us through some of the toughest times in our lives. And for those with the gift, it can be a way to express the pain associated with those times and reach out to others. It is perhaps particularly interesting to hear a message of hope coming from someone who’s been there, who’s gone through that valley, and come out the other side. That’s part of the music and witness of the I See Beautiful album by Tammy Trent.

Crossrythmns.co.uk has an interview and article that summarizes Tammy Trent’s life. Basically, she’s a child of the 80’s, raised in a Christian household in Grand Rapids, MI. She got a break singing backups for Pam Thum, and got her first record deal in 1995. She met Trent Lenderink when the two were 15, at a church revival. They married seven and a half years later. In September 2001, they were on a mission trip to Jamaica and Trent (who was an experienced diver) went diving in Blue Lagoon, with Tammy watching from shore and reading a book. Something happened, and Trent drowned – on September 10, 2001. She was working to get her family to come down to be with her when all US flights were grounded on September 11, 2001. She tells of being alone in the hotel room in Jamaica and praying for comfort from God. A hotel maid told her that she’d heard Tammy crying and was there to offer comfort. Tammy said in the Crossrythm interview that

I had asked, ‘God could you just show up here right at this moment?’ And he did it for me at that moment. So I knew at that moment that somehow I would get through this. I knew that God was very, very real. And that I wouldn’t just survive it but somehow I would overcome it. I knew that truly that was the beginning of healing in my life. […] I think it’s still really a choice for me every day, to wake up and to choose life and to choose hope and to choose peace even in the moments when I don’t feel those things.

There are two songs from her I See Beautiful album that I’d like to take a look at today. One is the title track, and the other is called Stop the World. We’ll look at the second song first. It was written by Peter Orta for Tammy, in response to Trent’s death, and Peter sang it at Trent’s funeral. There’s also a third song, At the Foot of the Cross, also from that album, that we can talk about if we have time.

Stop the World

2001 Peter Orta

Now when I gaze upon the ocean
I look and try to find my smile
And the wind on my face always
Reminds me to breath

Memories come back as the sun falls
I remember chasing after you
Now I’ve captured your heart deep inside me
Finally. I’m free.

CHORUS:
You’re my miracle of life
You’re everything I breathe
I wanna fall asleep in your eternity
So I let the winters fall spring the summer free
If the season is your love
Stop the world for me

Now when I wake up in the morning
My eyes have never been so clear
The gift that you were is now what I have to be
I see clearly

CHORUS

BRIDGE:
All the pain is not in vain
If there’s a change
I’ll never be never gonna be the same

CHORUS

• How do we handle those times of feeling alone, of feeling abandoned, of tremendous loss?
• How do we express grief and work through it?

I See Beautiful

2006 Tammy Trent
Every time I take the time I see you
Everywhere I look I know you’re there
No matter how I’m feeling I can feel you
I believe that I receive your goodness

I choose to see things differently
You can if you will just believe

CHORUS:
Something like rain
That falls from the sky
The air that I breathe
The tears of joy in my eyes
An innocent child
A flower in bloom
Oh, I can’t help it I see beautiful

The sun and moon take turns dancin’ on the ocean shore
The stars light up the heavens everywhere, Yeah
Sitting by the fire watching snow fall to the ground
Father I can see how much you care, Wow

I choose to see things differently (Yes I do)
You can if you will just believe (Yes you can)

CHORUS

Come go with me open up your heart
You can receive decide to be a part of everything I choose to see things differently (Yes I do) You can if you will just believe (Yes you can)

CHORUS

The sun and the moon
The stars in the sky
Every living thing you created day and night

This is a bit of a more “pop” song than I normally listen to, but (as noted in the Crossrythm interview), the song takes on a greater meaning when you know the story behind it. A key reminder for me in this music is that attitude is key to many things. I like the idea of deciding to see beautiful as a part of the way we choose to live.

At the Foot of the Cross

2006 Tammy Trent At the foot of the cross
Where grace and suffering meet
You have shown me your love
Through the judgement you received
And you’ve won my heart
Yes you’ve won my heart
Now I can

CHORUS
Trade these ashes in for beauty
And wear forgiveness like a crown
Coming to kiss the feet of mercy
I lay every burden down
At the foot of the cross

At the foot of the cross
Where I am made complete
You have given me life
Through the death you bore for me
And you’ve won my heart
Yes you’ve won my heart
Now I can

CHORUS (2x)

I don’t have much particular to say about this song, other than it’s a beautiful presentation of a key point of Christianity. I wouldn’t have necessarily found it, other than finding Tammy’s story in preparing for this lesson.

Music! Music! from The Upper Room

I saw the devotional today from The Upper Room, talking about the music of God in our lives and everywhere around us. It's definitely worth a read.... 2013-06-04 Upper Room Devotional

God Be In My Head

Introduction

Our choir first did God Be In My Head at the ordination for Colleen, and it was on my mind to spend some time looking up the history of this piece. It’s a very rich one, and we’ll spend some time on it today, looking at the lyrics, listening to a couple of different presentations of the piece, and looking at a devotional written from this.

History

The words are a prayer, and a fairly old one. The first known printing is from the Sarum Primer from the early 16th century.

God be in my head, and in my understanding;
God be in mine eyes, and in my looking;
God be in my mouth, and in my speaking;
God be in my heart, and in my thinking;
God be at mine end, and at my departing.

Sarum is the latin name for the British town of Salisbury, which is in sourthwestern England, about 50 km from London and sort of near Southampton. For reasons I haven’t dug into, the common rite practices from Salisbury were very influential in what has become the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

This particular prayer was prabably around for hundreds of years before being written in the Sarum Primer, and I’ve seen different pages ascribing it to 12th century England and 13th century France. Suffice it to say, it’s relatively old, though not as old as some things like the Gloria Patri.

A Devotional

In doing some reading on this piece, I found a devotional that I want to share from bryontayler.com. Rather than reproduce the devotional here, I’m simply linking to it.

Set to Music

Given the age of this prayer, it’s not surprising that it was originaly done as chant or plainsong, and many of the presentations have that feel to it. On particularly interesting version was written by Fraser Wilson (no relation), and there’s a YouTube presentation of that by the Rivelin Singers of Chester, England (which Wilson apparently directs).

From a hymnal perspective, some call this an irregular meter, others list it as 12.10.10.10.11. The latter is somewhat useful, in that among modern hymnals, there are three tunes with that meter – God Be In My Head, Field, and Lytlington. The tune God Be In My Head is by Sir Henry Walford Davies (1869–1941). If you do a search in iTunes, most of the presentations of this prayer are basically the Davies version, with the Rutter version next. As one example, let’s listen to The Choir of King’s College, Cambridge presentation of the Davies version.

Tying a bit back to last week, and the version I found while searching through my music library. There are at least four or five presentations of this on YouTube, and the one I liked best is done a group called the “Cappuccinis” in Frankfurt, Germany. I’ve got the recording of this by the Cambridge Singers with Rutter conducting, and that’s what we’ll listen to this morning.

A final version of this song is quite different. I found this on bandcamp.com, and it’s by Michael Van Patter, and it’s on the Songs for Liturgy compendium by Cardiphonia.

Thoughts

There are lots of different ways to sing and think about this prayer. But it’s the thinking about that’s most important. I’ve not really found one that’s quite singable and memorable for me, but I may well keep looking. What this prayer is asking for is something that’s important to me, and someplace where I fall short. So, it’s a good one to keep in mind, all of our days.