C.S. Lewis at Poets’ Corner

by Michael Ward

  All kneel or remain seated. The Reverend Dr. James Hawkey, Minor Canon and Sacrist of Westminster, leads

  THE PRAYERS

  In thanksgiving, let us pray to the Lord and giver of life.

  The Reverend Philip Hobday, Chaplain, Magdalene College, Cambridge, says: LET us praise God for his revelation of truth and transcendent beauty to C. S. Lewis: for Lewis’s longing for God, and his perception of divine reality, and for his deep appreciation of the strength and freshness of God’s love in ordinary situations.

  Let us bless the Lord:

  Thanks be to God.

  The Reverend Professor Vernon White, Canon Theologian, says:

  LET us praise God for Lewis’s Christian vocation to inspire and to teach: for his love of debate and discussion, for his commitment to reason and the discovery of the truth, and for his passion to commend the credibility and reality of God.

  Let us bless the Lord:

  Thanks be to God.

  Professor Simon Horobin, Professor of English Language and Literature,

  University of Oxford, and Tutorial Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, says: LET us praise God for Lewis’s academic life: for his contribution to scholarly research, for his commitment to the imaginative and literary worlds which shaped his own writing and communication, and for his respect for the power of great literature to open new horizons.

  Let us bless the Lord:

  Thanks be to God.

  C. S. Lewis: A Critical Edition, ed. King, 421.

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  The Reverend Adrian Dorrian, Rector, St. Mark’s, Dundela, says: LET us praise God for Lewis’s vision and creativity: for his imagination and ability to communicate lucidly to children and adults alike, for his care as a correspondent, for his skill as an author, poet and broadcaster, for his understanding of the human condition, and his joy in the glorious vitality of creation.

  Let us bless the Lord:

  Thanks be to God.

  The Reverend Tim Stead, Vicar, Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry, says: LET us pray for all those who take inspiration from Lewis’s life and work: for teachers and apologists, catechists and mystics, playwrights, film-makers, novelists, and poets, and for those seeking after God, or pondering the mysteries of existence. Lord, hear us:

  Lord, graciously hear us.

  The Reverend David Stanton, Canon in Residence, says:

  ALMIGHTY God, who hast proclaimed thine eternal truth by the voice of prophets and evangelists: direct and bless, we beseech thee, those who in our generation speak where many listen, and write what many read, that they may do their part in making the heart of the people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honour of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

  The Sacrist concludes:

  Watching in hope for the coming of Christ’s Kingdom, we are bold to pray: 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.

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  All stand to sing

  THE HYMN

  O PRAISE ye the Lord!

  praise him in the height;

  rejoice in his word,

  ye angels of light;

  ye heavens adore him

  by whom ye were made,

  and worship before him,

  in brightness arrayed.

  O praise ye the Lord!

  praise him upon earth,

  in tuneful accord,

  ye sons of new birth;

  praise him who has brought you

  his grace from above,

  praise him who has taught you

  to sing of his love.

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  O praise ye the Lord!

  all things that give sound;

  each jubilant chord,

  re-echo around;

  loud organs, his glory

  forth tell in deep tone,

  and, sweet harp, the story

  of what he has done.

  O praise ye the Lord!

  thanksgiving and song

  to him be outpoured

  all ages along:

  for love in creation,

  for heaven restored,

  for grace of salvation,

  O praise ye the Lord! Amen, Amen.

  Laudate Dominum 427 NEH

  Henry Williams Baker (1821–77)

  Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848–1918)

  after Psalm 150

  from Hear my words, ye people

  A ll remain standing. The Dean pronounces

  THE BLESSING

  GO forth into the world in peace; be of good courage; hold fast that which is good; render to no man evil for evil; strengthen the faint-hearted; support the weak; help the afflicted; honour all men; 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.

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  All remain standing as the Choir and Clergy depart.

  Music after the service:

  Allegro maestoso from Sonata in G Op 28

  Edward Elgar

  (1857–1934)

  Members of the Congregation are requested to remain

  in their places until invited to move by the Stewards.

  A retiring collection will be taken in aid of the

  C. S. Lewis Scholarship in Medieval Literature.

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  SCHOLARSHIP IN MEDIEVAL LITERATURE9

  The Professorship of Medieval and Renaissance English at the University of Cambridge, first held by C. S. Lewis, reflects Lewis’s conviction that the Middle Ages made possible many of the great achievements of the early modern period—especially in the field of writing. Shakespeare’s and Spenser’s works, for example, were as replete with the princes, damsels and trou-badours as were Chaucer’s and Dante’s.

  C. S. Lewis, too, drew from the rich tapestry of medieval literature in his writings, and taught his students that they must “keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through [their] minds,” something which could only be done “by reading old books.” It is thanks to him that Medieval and Renaissance Literature thrives as a study subject on every academic level, but it cannot be denied that its study in this country is on the decline. At present, there are many more British medievalists in the United States than there are in the United Kingdom. The new scholarship scheme will enable a brilliant young scholar to study medieval literature at the University of Cambridge, and help future generations to continue reading the “old books”

  so beloved by Jack Lewis.

  Enquiries about the C. S. Lewis Scholarship Fund should be sent to database@alumni.cam.ac.uk.

  9. Cf. “C.S Lewis: 50 years after his death a new scholarship will honour his literary career”: www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/cs-lewis-50-years-after-his-death-a-new-scholarship-will-honour-his-literary-career.

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  Warm gratitude is extended to all those who helped make possible the Poets’ Corner memorial to C. S. Lewis through their kind contributions.

  The individual donors are too numerous to mention by name, but their generosity is appreciated just as much as that of the following

  institutions who gave their support:

  Azusa Pacific University, California

  (University Library Special Collections)

  George Fox University, Oregon

  Houston Baptist University, Texas

  (Department of Apologetics)

  Magdalene College, Cambridge

  The Marion E. Wade Center, Wheaton College, Illinois

  The Oxford University C. S. Lewis Society

  Taylor University, Indiana

  (The Center for the Study of C. S. Lewis and Friends)

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  Printed b
y

  Barnard & Westwood Ltd

  23 Pakenham Street, London WC1X 0LB

  By Appointment to HM The Queen, Printers and Bookbinders

  & HRH The Prince of Wales, Printers

  Printers to the Dean and Chapter of Westminster10

  10. A pdf of the Order of Service is available online: http://static.westminster-abbey.

  org/assets/pdf_file/0011/69275/27999-C-S-Lewis-service-web.pdf.

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  part three

  Reflections on the

  Westminster Commemorations

  5

  Ref lections on Composing

  Love’s As Warm As Tears

  Paul Mealor 1

  The reason I first came across the works of C. S. Lewis? I nearly drowned when I was nine.

  I grew up on the Isle of Anglesey in North Wales and one day, tagging along after my older brother who was going canoeing, I managed somehow to fall into the river. Not being the best swimmer, I was soon in difficulties, trying to get out of the water, but failing repeatedly, and being carried along by the current. I kept going under and coming up again and this gradually got more and more serious. It probably lasted less than a minute or so, but it felt like a long time. Eventually there came a moment when I remember thinking to myself, “I’m dying,” and at the same moment I had the sensation of unbelievable warmth. There was suddenly no fear at all. It was an utterly remarkable feeling. In fact, it was a religious experience. All at once I somehow “knew that God existed,” if I can put it like that. I just knew that death wasn’t to be feared, though what I probably said to myself at the time was something like, “This isn’t so bad.”

  An elderly couple happened to be passing by on the riverbank, and

  they reached in and pulled me out. My brother came running, and I was taken home, where I mentioned the strange sensation I’d had. My father 1. Paul Mealor is Reader in Composition at the University of Aberdeen. 2.5 billion people heard his motet Ubi caritas performed by the choirs of Westminster Abbey and Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middle-ton in Westminster Abbey on 29th April 2011. He maintains a web presence at www.

  paulmealor.com.

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  asked me if I’d ever read the Narnia Chronicles and I said no, but soon afterwards began to do so, starting with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

  And I began to find some answers to the questions I was asking at that stage about the nature of the experience I’d been through. Lewis became important to me, and when I finished reading Narnia, my father bought me a copy of Lewis’s collected poems. I would have been about eleven by this point.

  Looking back at the copy he got me, I see that I scribbled ideas next to particular lines and phrases, indicating passages that I might one day set to music. One was this, from the “Prologue” to Spirits in Bondage: In my coracle of verses I will sing of lands unknown . . .

  Sing about the Hidden Country fresh and full of quiet green.

  Sailing over seas uncharted to a port that none has seen.

  So, when, many years later, the invitation came from James O’Donnell

  [Director of Music] to write something for the Lewis memorial service at Westminster Abbey, I was more than delighted. The Dean, John Hall, suggested three possible poems that might be set to music and the one he liked best was also the one I preferred, “Love’s As Warm As Tears.”2

  I spent about four weeks reading it over and over, feeling the words and sensing the stresses of the phrases, meditating upon it. I fell in love with the poem for its beautiful, warm expression of Christian life and love. And, as always when I’m setting words to music, I tried to find ways of bringing light, musical light, to what I was reading. The danger is that you take something away from the poem when you set it, but my aim is always to add something new, something that brings out the inner contours of the piece.

  There are some poets and poems where I just can’t find a way of doing this. I’ve been trying for twenty years to set Yeats’s “An Irish Airman Foresees His Death,” and I simply can’t do it! Perhaps it’s me, or perhaps it’s because there’s already so much musicality in Yeats’s language. Blake is another poet I find hard; his work is so full of images. And anything in the Welsh language is also difficult, I find, unless I do it very very simply.

  You’re wanting to “colour” the words, and if they’re already very densely coloured, it can be tricky. Lewis’s poem suited me well because it’s quite straightforward in terms of imagery. It has depths of meaning, of course, but the individual images aren’t too complicated.

  Meditation leads to music eventually, and in this case I knew I wanted to make a big thing of the second stanza—“Love’s as fierce as fire.” The idea is to suggest emotional flames flickering, cascading upwards in a huge gathering counterpoint, and exploding. I even put a deliberate wrong note in one 2. Available online: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOHlrgCizJI.

  mealor—reflections on composing love’s as warm as tears 87

  of the chords, to suggest something fierce and uncontrollable. And I also knew I wanted a big tenor solo in the final stanza, “Love’s as hard as nails.”

  The only part of the poem that I felt didn’t quite fit, at least not within the four-to-five minute limit I was trying to observe, was the third stanza. A single line can take thirty seconds or more to develop fully and, although I did actually write music for the whole of stanza 3, I felt it was better to leave part of it out of the finished version. You don’t want your musical gestures to outstay their welcome. It’s a delicate game to play.

  I’m very pleased with how it sounds now and people seem to like it, I’m glad to say. I’ve already attended eight or so different performances in different places, including Canada and New York, and I’m sure it’s been performed on other occasions when I haven’t been present, so it seems to be finding a home in the repertoire. Although it’s not the easiest piece to sing, it should be within the range of most half-decent choirs. I certainly want it to be sung, and I’m hoping I may be able to include a recording of it in a future album. We’ll see. At any rate, I’m proud that this is, as far as I know, the first ever musical setting of Lewis’s poetry. Maybe I’ll do more in the future. The other two poems on the Dean’s list [“The Naked Seed” and “After Prayers, Lie Cold”] would certainly go well.

  I’m always keen to find opportunities to compose. It’s what I’m put here for, I feel, because music helps us get in touch with wonder. It makes connections with something beautiful, something beyond us—like that beautiful sensation when I nearly drowned. We all want that, I think, like Lucy pushing through the fur coats and discovering Narnia. I could never express it in words, like Lewis did. Words are too hard-edged for me; I need the fluidity of music as my medium. But I think we’re all in search of that

  “hidden country,” and it’s not limited to Christians, by any means. I’m a Christian—an Anglican—and value very much the link between music and faith, and I’m glad that that seems to be something you can talk about more these days. When I listen to the St. Matthew Passion or Tallis’s “Salvator Mundi,” it touches the core and reawakens me to that larger dimension.

  And my atheist friends are just as open to the way music can transport us into other realms. You don’t have to be a Christian to be awed and moved by the St. Matthew Passion, any more than you have to be a Communist to be moved by a Bertolt Brecht play.

  Music’s been important for me ever since I was a choirboy at St. Asaph’s Cathedral. I remember hearing Gibbons’s “See, See the Word Is Incarnate”

  and thinking that that was the whole New Testament packed into seven minutes! Mahler is another great inspiration and he was probably the first composer I ever seriously listened to. My grandfather played Mahler at me, and I was blown away. Who wouldn’t be! Later I got into Vaughan Williams

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  and Britten; and American composers like Morten Lauridsen have been key for me too.

  In my own work, I’ve just completed my first symphony, entitled

  “Passiontide,” for orchestra and chorus, and I’m close to completing my second, which will be an orchestral symphony. I may preface it with those words from Lewis about the coracle seeking the Hidden Country fresh and full of quiet green. We’ll see . . . .

  6

  Mystery Worshipper:

  Westminster Abbey

  Acton Bell 1

  The church:

  Collegiate Church of St. Peter at Westminster, London.

  Denomination:

  Church of England. Westminster Abbey is a Royal Peculiar.2

  1. Acton Bell is the nom de plume of the anonymous reviewer reporting for the website, Ship-of-Fools.com. “We’re here for people who prefer their religion disorganized,”

  says the website’s editor, Simon Jenkins. “Our aim is to help Christians be self-critical and honest about the failings of Christianity, as we believe honesty can only strengthen faith.” One regular feature of the site is the “Mystery Worshipper.” Since the year of its founding, 1998, Ship-of-Fools has been sending Mystery Worshippers to churches worldwide. Jenkins describes their purpose as follows: “Travelling incognito, they ask those questions which go to the heart of church life: How long was the sermon? How hard the pew? How cold was the coffee? How warm the welcome? The only clue they have been there at all is the Mystery Worshipper calling card, dropped discreetly into the collection plate.” The Lewis Memorial Service report is available online: http://shi-poffools.com/mystery/2013/2627.html.

  2. A Royal Peculiar is a church that does not fall under the jurisdiction of the bishop in whose diocese it is located, but rather comes under the direct jurisdiction of the Sovereign. In 1534, the Act of Supremacy declared King Henry VIII to be “the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England.” Westminster Abbey became a Royal Peculiar in 1560, during the reign of Henry’s daughter, Elizabeth I, and remains so under the present Queen, Elizabeth II.

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