Dies Irae
(sent to me by a friend; author unknown)
Day of wrath, O Day of mourning!
Earth to ashes now returning!
Gather, by the millions, burning!
Cleansed at last by cataclysm
Butchered rhyme and battered rhythm,
Neopagan narcissism!
On that day, Lord, when thou comest,
And our dreadful hymnals thumbest,
Smite the ugliest and dumbest.
Smite them, Lord, yet of thy pity
Take their songsters to thy city:
Even Haugen, Haas, and Schutte.
Bravo to the author!
Compare with
http://www.cantius.org/photos/Moz-Diesirae56k.wmv
I think you’re not getting the joke.
If you search for this phrase at Google:
“Butchered rhyme and battered rhythm”
you get one hit:
http://merecomments.typepad.com/merecomments/2005/10/dies_irae.html
Of course we still use the Dies Irae at Holy Trinity; did this morning, in fact.
Some of the lame modern musicians bring to mind that hymn which is so popular: “How can I keep (them) from singing?”
Bravo! As a long suffering (silently) listener of modern church music, I needed this laugh.
This Dies Irae goes right along with another hope I have. If anyone of you saw “Becket”, you will remember the dramatic excommunication scene with the monks turning their candles over to snuff them out as St Thomas Becket excommunicates an unrepentant nobleman. Well, I hope secretly that our Archbishop will do the same thing with Senators Kerry and Kennedy, Reps Markey, Meehan, Delahunt, Tierney, and Capuano, and Mayor Menino.
I was saying compare Mozart with the music you hear at your weekly Sunday Mass.