Remembrance through Music

Please note:

This script cannot exactly reflect the transmission, as it was prepared before the service was broadcast. It may include editorial notes prepared by the producer, and minor spelling and other errors that were corrected before the radio broadcast.

It may contain gaps to be filled in at the time so that prayers may reflect the needs of the world, and changes may also be made at the last minute for timing reasons, or to reflect current events.

Opening anno from Radio 4

BBC Radio 4. And now, on Remembrance Sunday, we go live to Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff where the celebrated composer Paul Mealor reflects on Remembrance and Music. The service, led by the Dean, the Very Reverend Gerwyn Capon, begins with the Introit: ‘We Will Remember Them’ by Elgar.

ITEM 1 INTROIT CHOIR ONLY

We Will Remember Them / Sir Edward Elgar

ITEM 2 INTRO THE DEAN

Good morning and welcome to Llandaff Cathedral. 2015 has been a milestone year – marking, as it did, the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War. The events commemorating VE and VJ day, and also the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, were poignant occasions and an opportunity to remember with thanksgiving the many whose sacrifice ultimately safeguarded our freedoms. It remains a deep and painful reality that sacrifices are still being made by British Service Men and Women across our world today.

This Cathedral, itself almost totally destroyed in January 1941 when it was hit by enemy bombs, is a testament in stone to the spirit of renewal and hope that transformed our fortunes in the face of adversity – and it reminds us today of the need for courage and determination, in every generation, to continue that endeavour for peace and all that builds up our common life.

In the Christian tradition, the constant retelling of the story of God and his relationship with the world is the very means by which he makes himself present to us. Perhaps then, on these powerful occasions for remembrance of those who have died in battle, their story might play a part in reshaping our communities and our world as we navigate a path through the brokenness of the human condition.

So this morning, as we reflect on how music can help us on that journey, we join together now to sing a hymn that, sadly, is just as critical a plea today as it was when written in 1929, “For the healing of the nations, Lord, we pray with one accord”.

ITEM 3 CONG / CHOIR / ORGAN

For the healing of the nations. Tune: Corinth.

ITEM 4 OPENING PRAYER THE DEAN

As we remember The Fallen, we acknowledge the presence of the risen Christ among us, the author of life and Prince of peace.

Saviour of the world, as we entrust to you, those who have died as a result of war keep before us the pattern of your calling, that the world may know your love and peace. Amen.

ITEM 5 LINK THE DEAN

Throughout the Scriptures we’re presented with the story of God’s self revelation and his search for his people. But the Bible also tells of the experience of those who have tried to seek him out, to answer the question “where have we come from, where do we go?” The biblical Wisdom literature speaks of the ultimate rescue and safety of those who wait patiently for God – whatever the world, and our experience of it has to throw at us, in the end, claims the Wisdom of Solomon, we belong to Him; the burden of our frailty is laid down and we are set free through his love for us:

ITEM 6 FIRST READING

A reading from The Wisdom of Solomon Chapter 3 verses 1 to 9

But the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God,

and no torment will ever touch them.

In the eyes of the foolish they seemed to have died,

and their departure was thought to be a disaster,

and their going from us to be their destruction;

but they are at peace.

For though in the sight of others they were punished,

their hope is full of immortality.

Having been disciplined a little, they will receive great good,

because God tested them and found them worthy of himself;

 like gold in the furnace he tried them,

and like a sacrificial burnt-offering he accepted them.

In the time of their visitation they will shine forth,

and will run like sparks through the stubble.

They will govern nations and rule over peoples,

and the Lord will reign over them for ever.

Those who trust in him will understand truth,

and the faithful will abide with him in love,

because grace and mercy are upon his holy ones,

and he watches over his elect.

ITEM 7 LINK THE DEAN

This promise from the scriptures gives life to faith in Christ and enables us to sing a hymn that has become iconic in the context of Remembrance. Sung over generations it’s an unchanging element of the National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. ‘O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come’.

ITEM 8 CHOIR / CONG / ORGAN

O God our help, in ages past. Tune: St. Anne

ITEM 9 LINK THE DEAN

War is such an atrocity! There are moments, even for people with a very strong faith, where we question, if God exists, how could he seemingly abandon the human family to suffer as it does. St John records in chapter 14 of his Gospel, how Jesus responds to the growing sense of unease among the disciples as they realise that the saviour who has been in their midst, the one who has given them so many answers, is to be taken away from them, the world and the hatred in it, threatens even the God who has brought it into being. Yet Jesus’ promise is that love itself is God’s answer to our pain and suffering, and the strength of it, will overcome all that the world could throw at us.

ITEM 10 READING

A reading from John Chapter 14 verses 18 to 27

 ‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.’ Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, ‘Lord, how is it that you will reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me.

 ‘I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

ITEM 11 ANTHEM CHOIR ONLY

Peace I leave with you. David Ogden.

ITEM 12 LINK THE DEAN

Paul Mealor, Professor of Composition at the University of Aberdeen, hails from St. Asaph where, as a young man, he studied with the renowned Welsh composer William Matthias. The writer behind the Military Wives Choir song “Wherever You Are”, his Ubi Caritas was chosen by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge for their wedding ceremony. And his setting of the poem ‘In Flanders Field, which we’ll hear later, was commissioned for last year’s Festival of Remembrance.

ITEM 13 ADDRESS PART 1 PAUL MEALOR

All it takes is one song to bring back a thousand memories’. We’ve all been there, I think: when we hear an old, almost forgotten piece of music - a piece pushed out of our every-day memory, but which suddenly transports us back to another time. For me, this happened last summer when, driving from Scotland to Wales Eddie Reader’s performance of ‘Ae fond kiss’ by Robert Burns came onto the radio. I’d listened to this on my first day as a lecturer at the University of Aberdeen. Hearing it again took me almost exactly back to the feelings I had then: sadness at leaving home, in trepidation at starting a new life and excitement at starting a new job.

Today – Remembrance Sunday – across the length and breadth of the country - music will be central to our commemorations. In fact, I think it’s hard to even imagine our religious or civil acts of remembrance without music.

It’s a time when the great hymns of the church speak to us in a particular way and the marching tunes and poignant popular songs of long ago, written to carry soldiers and families through the turmoil of conflict and separation, echo around our countryside and townscapes, our churches and memorials. And, together with the powerful anthems of commemoration, they somehow combine to help us cope with, and confront, the grave and enormous issues that have shaped our country and personal lives in the name of war.

As the American writer and music director Kenneth Osbeck has said: “Music has always been closely allied with the emotions of national patriotism and loyalty. Every country has nationalistic music that is distinctly its own”.

Song lyrics help us in these moments. However, I believe it’s in the music, the melody itself, that the connection with remembering is held and quite why it does that, and how it speaks to us at times of Remembrance, is of fascination to me.

Music is an enigma; it’s subtle, abstract, allowing us to fill the spaces between the notes with our own selves, our own being. Some say it’s a language; some say it’s an art; others believe it’s a science. It’s not physical, but ephemeral, it’s expressive, it’s emotional, it’s from the human soul.

So it almost defies description, sitting, as it does, between science and art, between language and meaning and between the definable and the unknown. It is, therefore, I think, a mystery.

For me, then, there’s a similarity between Music and Prayer. Prayer’s not exact, it allows us space to ‘be’, to think and to grow and to find our own selves in a space of time that is unhurried and abstract. The first century Christian St John Damascene says, ‘Prayer is the raising of one’s mind and heart to God’. But, all of our mind. Not just the words we speak, but every thought both consciously and subconsciously that we have, for we communicate beyond the limitation of words, in a deep, unfathomable way.

Mahatma Gandhi reminds us that, ‘Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart’.

So, perhaps it’s in the mystery of our own hearts that we can fully understand prayer and music. For me, this seems joyously true for it’s in the act of composing, in the act of actually writing music, rather than in the finished piece itself, when I feel at my most prayerful state; as if composing is an act of prayer for me. If one believes this, or at least doesn’t reject it, it’s not hard to then suggest that also in the act of listening to music, if one’s heart is in the right place, one can be partaking in a prayerful act.

Maybe it’s this that makes music so powerful on days like today. I certainly feel this when attending the Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall, or standing at my local cenotaph on the eleventh of November. Like many of us I feel the prayerful power of music in the great works of Stanford, Vaughan Williams and Parry and many others, and we remember… we hear, through their tense and potent melodies and harmonies, the power of comradeship and love to elevate and teach us that war and conflict do not have the last word.

One of the well-loved pieces of music associated with our particular Remembrance traditions is Sir Edward Elgar’s Nimrod. The BBC National Chorus of Wales sings it now to the words of Lux Aeterna – “May everlasting light shine on them, O Lord”. With compositions like this it seems we come within touching distance of that great mystery of hope and reconciliation to God. We’re able to feel rather than to think; to pray rather than to discuss, and to meditate rather than be lectured at. We’re able to enter into remembrance in our own way and on our own terms and because of this, we’re changed, we are renewed, we are humbled.

ITEM 14 ANTHEM CHOIR ONLY

Nimrod Lux Aeterna

ITEM 15 ADDRESS P 2 PAUL MEALOR

The human need to connect with each other and with God, in the search of meaning and wholeness is part of who we are. That is why we remember. The late Sir Terry Pratchett summed it up beautifully, “Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?”

Let’s not forget, of course, that Jesus himself teaches us how to ‘remember’ and we relive this each time we participate in the Holy Eucharist. As we come to the Communion table, reliving 1 Corinthians 11 ‘This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me’, we look back to the cross and what Christ accomplished during his great sacrifice. Then we look forward; seeing Christ again as the risen King. And, finally, we look within: we ask the Holy Spirit to show us areas of our lives that dishonour God and Christ; to acknowledge this and to make it right.

So, on this Remembrance Sunday, we, too, look back, forward and within. Back to those men and women who gave their lives, the ultimate sacrifice. We don’t glorify war or suffering; but, instead we mark their sacrifice and those who were maimed or injured and those left behind to grieve. We look forward and hope that their sacrifice was not in vein; but instead use it to strengthen our resolve to build a world where war may not be necessary. And, we look within and try not to dishonour their sacrifice but live out our lives as emissaries of peace and honour.

If music can truly aid us in the act of Remembrance, support our prayers and, as Leonard Bernstein once wrote, ‘name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable’ it can support our journey as spiritual beings.

Music is integral to remembering and remembrance: it punctuates the liturgy of most Remembrance services representing, through abstract sounds, prayers which go beyond words, beyond known meaning and, because of this, enter our hearts in the most unique and enduring way. Music can keep alive the sacrifice of those who have died in war and give them a voice throughout the centuries. A voice that warns, a voice that loves; a voice that never forgets.

ITEM 16 ANTHEM CHOIR/PIANO/TRUMPET

In Flanders Field. Paul Mealor.

ITEM 17 LINK THE DEAN

Paul Mealor’s setting of In Flanders Field by the Canadian poet, soldier and physician, John McCrae. The trumpeter was Martin Rogers and the pianist Jane Watts.

ITEM 18 INTERCESSIONS

Let us pray.

Most gracious God and Father, whose desire is our peace, whose purpose is love, turn our hearts and the hearts of all to yourself, that by the power of your Spirit, the peace which is founded on righteousness may be established throughout the world.

Lord, hear us.

Lord, graciously hear us.

Loving Lord, we pray for all who suffer as a result of war: for the injured and the disabled, for the mentally distressed, and for those whose faith in God and humanity has been weakened or destroyed.

Lord, hear us.

Lord, graciously hear us.

Merciful Father, we pray for the homeless and for all refugees, for those who are hungry, and for all who have lost their livelihood and security, for the sick and infirm, and for those who mourn their dead, those who have lost partner, children or parents, and especially for those who have no hope in Christ to sustain them in their grief.

Lord, hear us.

Lord, graciously hear us.

Lord of all creation, as we gather to remember those who have fallen in war, we acknowledge with gratitude the way in which music and art enable us to express our sorrow and grief. We pray that through hymnody and music all may be drawn into the mystery of your loving purpose and know that inner peace that the world finds difficult to give.

Lord, hear us.

Lord, graciously hear us.

Almighty God, have compassion on those for whom we pray; and help us to use all that we are, and all that we can be, in the cause of freedom, and for the service of all; through him who gave himself for us upon the cross, Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who taught us to pray:

ITEM 19

Our Father,

Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name,

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our trespasses

As we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory,

For ever and ever. Amen.

ITEM 20 FINAL PRAYER THE DEAN

Almighty and eternal God,

from whose love in Christ we cannot be parted,

either by death or life:

Hear our prayers and thanksgivings

for all whom we remember this day;

fulfil in them the purpose of your love;

and bring us all, with them, to your eternal joy;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

ITEM 21 LINK THE DEAN

We end our service with a hymn sung at times of both personal loss and national Remembrance. It calls upon the Lord to be with us at our times of deepest need. Abide With Me.

ITEM 22 CONG / CHOIR / ORGAN

Abide With Me. Tune: Eventide.

ITEM 23 BLESSING THE DEAN

Go forth into the world in peace;

Be of good courage;

Hold fast to that which is good;

Render to no one evil for evil;

Strengthen the faint hearted;

Support the weak;

Help the afflicted;

Honour everyone;

Love and serve the Lord,

Rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit;

And the blessing of God Almighty,

The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Be among you and remain with you always.

Amen.

ITEM 24 ORGAN VOLUNTARY JANE WATTS

Closing Anno from R4:

Festal March by William Lloyd Webber. This morning’s Sunday Worship came live from Llandaff Cathedral, Cardiff. The service was led by the Dean, the Very Reverend Gerwyn Capon and the preacher was Professor Paul Mealor. The BBC National Chorus of Wales was Directed by Adrian Partington, and accompanied on the organ by Jane Watts. The producer was Karen Walker.

Next week Sunday Worship comes from Long Lartin High Security prison in Worcestershire marking Prisons Sunday.