So there!

My series of articles early in 2008 drawing attention to certain editorial failings in our hymn book didn't go down too well in some quarters.  I was accused of disliking modern hymns (which I don't, necessarily - some of them are good, and some are abysmal, for exactly the same reasons that some Victorian and Edwardian hymns are abysmal, and has anyone looked at Moody & Sankey lately?), and I was accused of being nasty about a hymn book which the PCC approved and which cost us a heck of a lot of money.

I was actually more concerned about sloppy editing than matters of musical or literary taste, which are personal and subjective - the hymn book is riddled with errors: typos in the texts of hymns, and wrong notes in the music.  It is because the hymn books which our churches buy have to last us a long time that it seems to me important that publishers get the words and the music right. It is a simple matter of paying a proof-reader.

And I was concerned, too, about the Americanisation of the English language in this hymn book.  "In your arms I would lay" might make sense to an American, but to me it sounds like a line written for a hen to sing.

So it was with a sigh of relief that I came across these words:

Something stinks to high heaven about the way commissions are doled out to composer-liturgists (often possessing only the most modest talents) who then rake in fees via their private companies while also acting as official advisers to the Church. These individuals use diocesan workshops to flog their music and hymn books to parishes. Congregations have no idea how this cosy system operates. Let them find out by means of an independent inquiry into the commissioning, sale and circulation of liturgical material.

(full text of Damian Thompson's article here).

Incidentally, I tried to get Damian Thompson's permission to use his words.  So far he has not replied to my e-mail, but he's probably busy fighting the Devil and the divisions in the Roman Catholic community  (divisions? sh! Not supposed to talk about them.)

So I'm jolly well using them anyway.