Beating Time
TITLE: PARADISE FOUND
ARTISTS: Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band
WEBSITE: http://www.parkrecords.com
PRICE: £12.50
FORMAT: CD (15 tracks, 47 minutes)
STYLE: Folk
This year marks the 300th anniversary of the birth of Charles Wesley (1707-1788). Maddy Prior, perhaps best known as lead singer of folk rock band Steeleye Span, joins the celebrations with her other long-term line-up, the Carnival Band.
A prolific hymn writer, ‘CW’ penned between 5,000 and 9,000 hymns (depending on whom you ask and on how you count them), so it’s not surprising to find a good dose of unfamiliar material.
However, this compilation does include old favourites such as: ‘O For A Heart To Praise My God’, ‘Love Divine, All Loves Excelling’, ‘Ye Servants Of God’, ‘Soldiers of Christ Arise’, ‘Jesu, Lover Of My Soul’ and ‘Come Thou Traveller Unknown’.
‘Most of the hymn texts on this recording are taken from the 1889 edition of the Collection Of Hymns, but in an age blissfully unaccustomed to the two-hour sermon and the 15-verse hymn, we have frequently omitted verses’. Various widely adopted alterations have almost entirely removed all traces of Charles Wesley’s Arminianism and perfectionism. Quite a few of the tunes are familiar, but not all had been written by Wesley’s lifetime.
Maddy Prior and the Carnival Band have been working together for 20+ years.
A Tapestry Of Carols (1987), Sing Lustily And With Good Courage (1990) and Carols At Christmas (1997) are perhaps some of their best work. ‘Our performance style is not strictly ‘authentic’ but is our own historically-informed response to these wonderful songs using mainly modern instruments.’
Some of the tracks are very beautiful, and equal to any on Sing Lustily. Sadly, a few others have been spoilt by poor quality control. Maddy’s upper register is not as strong or in-tune as it used to be, and some notes are glaringly flat. A retake or pitch correction technology could have fixed the problem.
Children and sorrow
Charles and Sarah Wesley had eight children, but only three survived infancy. Perhaps this, the most moving hymn in the selection, was written for one of the five who didn’t?
Dead, dead, the child I loved too well
Transported to the world above
I need no more my heart conceal
I never dared indulge my love
But may I not indulge my grief
And seek in tears a sad relief?
Mine earthly happiness is fled
His mother’s joy, his father’s hope
O had I died in Isaac’s stead
He should have lived my age’s prop
He should have closed his father’s eyes
And followed me to paradise
From us, and we from him secure
Caught to his heavenly father’s breast
He waits, till we the bliss insure
From all these stormy sorrows rest
And see him with our Angel stand
To waft, and welcome us to land.
In a word: wow!
