
Gaudeamus Igitur
Writing Challenge 2024
Posted by Chris Sissons on May 1, 2024
Writing Challenge ยป Chris Sissons
A few years ago, I attended my niece’s graduation ceremony at the University of Glasgow. The hall in which it took place was impressive. It was similar to a non-conformist chapel with a great gallery where we sat around 3 sides and then the stalls below. There were stained glass windows featuring not Christian Saints but great scientists and philosophers. At the back of the hall, there was a mighty organ.
The organist addressed us before the start of the ceremony. We were invited to sing a traditional song, used by the University from time immemorial. The tune was a familiar academic song, Gaudeamus Igitur. You probably don’t know the title but most likely you’ll recognise the tune if you Google it.
We were invited to join in the song at the start of the ceremony and as a dyed-in-the-wool Methodist, I was game. However, there were some problems. We had a programme with the words but the words were in Latin. This was not too much of a problem but the words were unfamiliar. And there were only 2 verses. What could possibly go wrong?
However, it turned out that the verses were irregular. So, having taught us the peculiarities of verse 1, we were invited to forget it and learn a significantly different verse 2.
Having confused everyone, there were hundreds of us, we were invited to wait until the organist found his way to the organ. We watched him ascend to the gallery and trot along to the back of the hall, which seemed like a huge distance.
Then the organ started up. It was impossible to hear my own voice let alone anyone else’s. The organ drowned out hundreds of people. It was impossible to sing and I soon lost my place. What was the point of going into all that detail and throwing it away?
Breath has traditionally been associated with life, spirit and God. Singing together is one way we express the life within us. There is something about singing with others quite different from singing alone. We don’t have to worry about whether we’re singing all the notes accurately, somehow singing in unison covers over the faults in the singing of everyone involved.
Sadly though, we rarely get opportunities to sing in public. Exceptions are people of faith in their places of worship, football matches, political demonstrations and graduation ceremonies! It is such a pity when these opportunities are squandered through over-complication.
“Singing the Faith” is the Methodist Church of Great Britain’s hymn book, with over 700 hymns. Methodists don’t know them all but we’ll sing along even when we don’t know the tune!
This is Day 10 of Writing Challenge 2024. People all over the world take part in the WC. We write something every weekday for 4 weeks based on a prompt This year, I'll be sharing 21 articles based loosely on prompts about parts of the body. Do we fully appreciate the role things and stuff play in our lives? Each part of the body has certain things and stuff associated with it. (Probably!) I've no idea where this will go but hope you enjoy the journey. The introductory post was Things and Stuff. The last post was Battle Zone and the next is Chopsticks.
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