When the
music for the memorial service for Phil von Hemert was being planned there was
a hymn called “Jerusalem” that Phil had requested but it was not sung at the
service because the family felt that it might not be familiar. (The hymns that were sung were all “old favorites” and
sung with conviction.) Because “Jerusalem” is such a noble tune, I decided to
play it as part of the postlude (following the Dutch national anthem – another
of Phil’s requests.)
After the
service I ran into Renny Stackpole. He lamented that “Jerusalem” had not been
sung and wondered why such an old standard would be considered too unfamiliar
to include. This got me wondering whether it was an “old standard.” For Renny
and me, “Jerusalem” is so familiar we can sing it by heart. Yet it hasn’t ever
been in an Episcopal hymnal and it doesn’t even appear in the Cambridge Hymnal
– a bastion of Anglicanism.
Here’s
the text of the hymn. It’s by William Blake:
And Did
Those Feet In Ancient Time
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Among these dark satanic mills?
Bring me my bow of burning gold!
Bring me my arrows of desire!
Bring me my spear! O clouds, unfold!
Bring me my chariot of fire!
I will not cease from mental fight,
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.
The poem is from the preface to Blake’s epic Milton a Poem, one of a collection of writings known as the
Prophetic Books. It was published in 1808. The poem was inspired by a legend
that the young Jesus, accompanied by his uncle, Joseph of Arimathea, traveled
to the area that is now England and visited Glastonbury during the years of his
life that are not accounted for in the Bible.
The legend is linked to a passage in the Book of Revelation (3:12 and
21:2) that describes the Second Coming, where Jesus establishes a “New
Jerusalem.” The Christian Church in general and the English Church in
particular have used Jerusalem as a metaphor for heaven. The most common
interpretation of the poem is that Blake implies that Jesus would create heaven
in England, in contrast to the “dark Satanic mills” of the Industrial
Revolution. It is noteworthy that Blake asks four questions in the poem rather
than asserting that Jesus’s visit to England actually happened. Other scholars
debate this interpretation and point to the fact that Blake wrote about the
realm of Satan elsewhere with no reference to the Industrial Revolution. In
the original, Blake inscribed below his poem an excerpt from the Book of
Numbers 11:29: “Would to God that all the Lord’s people were Prophets.”
Many
literary aspects of Blake’s poem have become famous. The term “dark Satanic
mills” entered the English language from this poem and is usually interpreted
as a condemnation of the Industrial Revolution with its destruction of nature
and the exploitation of human beings.
The line from the poem “Bring me my Chariot of fire” is taken from 2
Kings 2:11 which describes how the prophet Elijah is taken up to heaven in a
chariot of fire. (The phrase inspired the title of the 1981 film, Chariots of Fire.) Blake’s phrase,
“Green and pleasant Land” has become synonymous with the beauty of the English
landscape and has been used as a headline ortitle for numerous books and
articles about England. The poem was little known
until it was included in an anthology of verse in 1916, at a time when morale
had begun to decline because of the numerous casualties in World War I. At that time, the editor of the anthology,
Poet Laureate Robert Bridges, asked Sir Hubert Hastings Parry to set it to
music for patriotic reasons. Parry chose to set the poem as a unison song with
orchestral accompaniment. It is in two stanzas, each taking up eight lines of
Blake’s poem. A four-bar introduction precedes each verse and a coda (end
piece) was added at the conclusion. The
piece was to be conducted by Walford Davies, Parry’s former student. Davies had
arranged to have the piece published by Curwen in time for a concert at Queens
Hall, March 28, 1916. The piece was
first entitled “And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time” and then changed to
“Jerusalem” in 1918. Upon
hearing the orchestral version for the first time, King George V said that he
preferred “Jerusalem” over “God Save the King”. It is interesting to note that
England does not have an official national anthem and that many public events
in that country start with “Jerusalem” rather than “God Save the Queen (King).”
But why is it not in our hymnal? Some English clergy have stated that it is not
technically a hymn because it is not a prayer to God. (This argument is
actually very weak and has been challenged by many theologians and
hymnographers.)
Parry’s tune became so popular that
“Jerusalem” is sung in many schools in England and private schools in
Australia, New Zealand, Canada and New England. The Church of Scotland debated
changing the words of the hymn to read “Albion” instead of England to make it
more locally appropriate. In our own hymnal the tune appears with an
alternative text by Carl P. Daw as “O day of peace that dimly shines,” #597. We
tried this hymn once and it fell flat. I suspect it was because those who
wanted Blake’s poem were disappointed with Daw’s text and those who had never
heard “Jerusalem” at all found the hymn hard to follow. This then leads back to
Renny Stackpole’s question about whether we could sing “Jerusalem” at St.
John’s. There is contemporary evidence that it might become popular. Here are
some reasons why:
“Jerusalem” (with Blake’s words)
was sung during the wedding service of Prince William to Kate Middleton. Besides
Chariots of Fire, other films in
which the song is sung include Four
Weddings and a Funeral, How to Get Ahead in Advertising, The Loneliness of the
Long Distance Runner, Calendar Girls, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Goodnight Mr.
Tom, Women in Love, The Man Who Fell to Earth, and Monty Python’s Flying Circus!
Members of the congregation who
attended boarding schools (especially in New England) probably know this song.
For example, my spouse, Ann Greenleaf, attended Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts.
Ann reports that it was sung before games with a rival school called Nobles. I
learned it when a graduate student at Stanford University where it was sung
regularly. Is it time for the preppies at St. John’s to raise their voices in
song?
