Song of the Day - 5th March

Today's Song of the Day is to celebrate Ash Wednesday.

Ash Wednesday marks the first day of Lent, the six weeks of penitence before Easter. Many Christians attend special Ash Wednesday church services at which churchgoers receive ash on their foreheads or the top of their heads, as the wearing of ashes was a sign of repentance in biblical times. The ashes are prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations.

The poem I have chosen to set for today's song is simply called "Ash Wednesday" by Canadian poet Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon (1829 - 1879).

This poem is written in the context of the tradition of Christianity, particularly during Lent, and the narrator observes the transition from the indulgence of the Shrove Tuesday Carnival to the austerity of Ash Wednesday, a time of penance and reflection. The poem conveys the message of the importance of repentance and the promise of redemption as well as portraying the contrasting nature of the two seasons, emphasizing the vanity of worldly pleasures and the need for spiritual renewal. The shift from revelry to sobriety is symbolized by the distribution of ashes, which serves as a reminder of mortality and the inevitability of death.

This was one of the earliest of the songs I wrote for this collection and I greatly enjoyed the challenge of conveying the music of a dance, in this case a waltz, to put across the gaiety of a carnival in verse 1 with just voices to use, before seguing into the calm serenity following by the note of warning of verse 2.

Get the music for this song for free - find out how here.

Ash-Wednesday

By Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon

1 Glitt'ring balls and thoughtless revels

Fill up now each misspent night -

'Tis the reign of pride and folly,

The Carnival is at its height.

Every thought for siren pleasure,

And its sinful, feverish mirth;

Who can find one moment's leisure

For aught else save things of earth?

2 But, see, sudden stillness falling

O'er those revels, late so loud,

And a hush comes quickly over

All the maddened giddy crowd,

For a voice from out our churches

Has proclaimed in words that burn:

"Only dust art thou, proud mortal,

And to dust shall thou return!"

3 And, behold, Religion scatters

Dust and ashes on each brow;

Thus replacing gem and flower

With that lowly symbol now:

On the forehead fair of beauty,

And on manhood's front of pride,

Rich and poor and spirit weary -

All receive it, side by side.

4 And the hearts that throbbed so wildly

For vain pleasure's dreams alone,

For its gilded gauds and follies,

Now at length have calmer grown.

Oh! that voice with heavenly power

Through each restless breast hath thrilled,

And our churches, late so lonely,

Now with contrite hearts are filled.

5 Fair and lovely are our altars

With their starry tapers bright,

With dim clouds of fragrant incense,

Fair young choristers in white,

And the dying gleam of day-light,

With its blushing crimson glow,

Streaming through the lofty casement

On the kneeling crowd below.

6 Tis an hour of golden promise

For the hearts that secret burn

With contrite and anxious wishes

To the Father to return;

For a Saviour, full of mercy,

On His altar-throne is there,

Waiting but that they should ask Him,

For response to whispered prayer