Imagine this: an 8th grade boy, still somewhat fresh from Oklahoma, sitting in a music class at the Hiram (Ohio) Local School (RIP), and the class is singing "Green Cathedral."
Imagine this: that boy has a high soprano voice, a voice that some (earlier) teachers found so pleasing that they let him sing solos; one he still remembers, decades later, is "School Days," performed for parents one evening at some school function back in Oklahoma.
Imagine this: that boy likes the song "Green Cathedral"; he finds it emotional, and he's always liked Mother Nature.
Imagine this: that boy, now in 8th grade, is in the middle of a turning point in his life: his voice is changing; he's no longer a soprano; he's not really anything right now--he sounds more like a crow than any other creature.
Imagine this: that boy has tears in his eyes--right there in the classroom--as he realizes he will never again be able to sing the way he used to; he mouths the words, not wishing to startle those near him with his corvine cawing.
Imagine this: sixty years have passed, and, driving down a tree-shaded street with his wife, he begins to sing "Green Cathedral" in the rough baritone he's had since 1958; it astonishes him, how he remembers almost all the lyrics.
***
And so ... into the house I go to google "Green Cathedral." I discover right away that other bloggers and Internetties have searched for it too, have found a few things. Here's a link to a video of someone singing the song. (The lyrics in the video are slightly different from those I remember--from those published elsewhere--see below.) And here's more--a choral version.
Caught in the clutch of nostalgia, I plunk down $10.98 to buy the sheet music online. One day, those who survive me will find it, will wonder What on earth?
And--somehow (I am positive this will happen)--the music will commence, and my soprano voice will answer their questions.
Lyrics:
I know a green cathedral, a shadowed forest shrine,
Where leaves in love join hands above and arch
your prayer and mine;
Within its cool depths sacred, the priestly
cedar sighs,
And the fir and pine lift arms divine unto the
pure blue skies
In my dear green cathedral there is a flowered
seat,
And choir loft in branched croft, where songs
of bird hymns sweet;
And I like to dream at evening, when the stars
its arches light,
That my Lord and God treads its hallowed sod,
In the cool calm peace of night.
If I had known you loved this song as much as I, we could have talked about it at the renunion!
ReplyDeleteI sang this song as a solo in church choir when I too had a soprano voice. What a beautiful treasured memory thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteRemember this fondly from my childhood
ReplyDeleteAmazing to find this. I grew up in Detroit, Michigan and was in middle school from 1949 to 1951. Ether there or in grade school we sang Green Cathedral. I loved that song. Lately when I walk in our small but loved park next door, where in Florida, Russian Olive trees share space with live oaks draped with moss and the grass is dappled with wild flowers, I am reminded of that beautiful song and how it felt to sing it. I could only remember the first line, so am delighted to find the lyrics here.
ReplyDeleteI now live in my beloved "forest glen" and am so glad to have the words brought back to me from grade school choir.
ReplyDeleteI was about 8 years old when my older sister and my mother would harmonize this song and my part, because I had a higher voice was "In my dear Green Cathedral there is a flowered seat". My sister sang in her high school Glee Club, this was in 1958 or 59 and my mom sang with the group The Mother Singers so they had great range and sang so well. That's why I only had one line..lol.
ReplyDeleteThanks Susan C. It's a beautiful poem!
ReplyDeleteI awakened this morning remembering this song, which I sang in a high school choir in the '50s. I haven't thought of it in years and was so thrilled to find it here.
ReplyDeleteWe sang this in choir when I was in 5th grade, 1959. Tune was different but words the same. Been looking for this a long time. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI learned thus song in school in 1966.To this day, I sing it on my walks when inspired.What a beautiful song
ReplyDeleteFor some reason I was singing this song to myself . . . I remember it from 6th grade in 1962. I remember those things better than what happened in the 1980s or 1990s. We had a teacher at my public school in NYC who taught us this and other old-fashioned songs.
ReplyDelete