Today is the feast of St. Joseph... As I mentioned in my last post, this is a very busy week for all involved in the preparation for Holy Week liturgies... Last night was cathedral choir practice, which I actually was able to attend this week. We rehearsed the Popule Meus, which could use some more work, but which will be nice if we get at least one more good rehearsal of it... I plan to be working on the chant portion of it this week (while my boys are doing their schoolwork).
We've had strange weather around here... worries of tornados and rain and wind ["and the tiny ship was tossed]. It reminds me of a funny posting on the CMAA forum about the song written by Dan Schutte, Behold the Wood of the Cross. Apparently, more than one person has noticed the similarity of the piece to certain portions of the Gilligan's Island theme. One bit of humor... speculation about whether Palestrina would have borrowed this theme song to compose Good Friday motets if he had lived in an era with television...
Happily, we will not be using that particular piece at our parish this year... if you happen to be one of those lucky souls who does hear it this year... you really must listen to see if you, too, notice the similarity!!!
4 comments:
I have used Dan Schutte's "Behold The Wood" for over 20 years as a pastoral musician and I must say, there is no similar sound or melody to the Gilligan Island theme. In fact, I did a Google search for the score of the Gilligan score and the music is no match. On the other hand, anyone can bastardize a song to sound like another. Many sacred Christmas carols and even "American The Beautiful" have been bastardized. As for "Behold The Wood", the notations and tradition holds this song to be sung reverintial - my question would be more about the state of mind and hearts of the people who would basardize such a meaningful sacred song and moreover what about those who would make fun of a song that has deep meaning for so many of the faithful this Triduum 2008. I was in Rome last year at this time and I recall the song was sung at the Pontifical North American Chapel in Rome a couple of years ago where Cardinal Levada presided. It was very moving.
Wendy,
I certainly did not intend to offend... but there are many who do, in fact, hear the similarity... and there are many who don't share your love for this song (yet must hear it all the same because it is used in most OCP parishes).
Please do accept my apology... I wish you a blessed Triduum.
For comparison's sake only... courtesy of a friend:
http://video.aol.com/video/tv-gilligans-island-theme-song-sing-along/1857575
OK... in all fairness... here is an instrumental version of Behold the Wood.
http://www.stmarysmariettamusic.org/downloads/Behold%20the%20Wood%20of%20the%20Cross.mp3
J.
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