Tuesday 25th July - old songs, old memories

I see the moon and the moon sees me,

God bless the moon and God bless me.

I looked out of the back door just now, and there was the moon in an inky dark blue sky, looking just like a biscuit with a big round bite missing from the side.

I used to teach the lullaby above to the youngest children. If you know tonic solfa, then the tune I know is

S...  m   d   s.... m d s... s... s....

S... m d s.... m-s d.... d.... d....

It's been a day of remembering old tunes from school;

This morning it was an assembly song with words written by Eleanor Farjeon;

Morning has broken, like the first morning

Blackbird has spoken, like the first word,

Praise for the singing, praise for the morning, 

Praise for them springing fresh from the word.

I'm not sure we ever sang this at any of the schools I went to. I must have learned it when Cat Stevens (remember him?) made it popular.

Later, in the afternoon a friend brought me a bunch of gladioli, saying that they always made her think of a song from her schooldays and suddenly started singing;

Glad that I live am I;

That the sky is blue;

Glad for the country lanes

And the fall of dew.

Again, I'm not familiar with this one although I have heard it before. We used very traditional hymns in our school assemblies, and even chanted a Psalm every Wednesday using the chants that nearly all Anglican churches used back then. I can't remember the last time I sang a psalm like that (I have to confess that I rather miss the intellectual exercise of working out when to change the notes!)

All the three songs above have the virtue of simplicity. The get straight to the point; the message is clear and memorable.

Ah well. It's bedtime for me;

You see the moon, and the moon sees you;

God bless the moon and God bless you.