"Morning has broken"; was Re: ADS-L Digest - 27 Feb 2009 to 28 Feb 2009 (#2009-60)

[Barbara Need]

On 6 Mar 2009, at 10:50 AM, Laurence Horn wrote:

> At 10:39 AM -0600 3/6/09, Barbara Need wrote:
>> On 2 Mar 2009, at 6:56 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
>>> At 3:23 PM -0500 3/2/09, Ann Burlingham wrote:
>>>>
>>>> "Morning has broken" by Eleanor Farjeon became a song by Cat
>>>> Stevens.
>>>>
>>> Well yes, but it was a song by others decades before that.  I
>>> remember hearing an old version on some folk recording or other
>>> before the Cat Stevens version, and I see from the wiki entry
>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morning_Has_Broken that it was actually
>>> a Christian hymn.  In fact according to this entry Farjeon wrote the
>>> words to fit a pre-existing "Gaelic tune" which I assume (although
>>> the description here isn't definitive) is the same tune (but not the
>>> same arrangement) as in the Stevens recording.
>>
>> Yes, the hymn is in the Unitarian Hymnal (pre-1961) and may be in
>> subsequent UU Hymnals. I have sung it often. Same tune.
>
> Ah, exactly.  _Singing the Living Tradition_.  Yes, it's still in
> there, from when Cat was a kitty.

Actually, _Hymns for the Celebration of Life_. (Thus the title _Hymns
for the Cerebration of Strife_ by Chris Raible--including such gems as
"Coffee, Coffee, Coffee" and "All Creatures Strange Come to Our
Church".) The real one was bound in maroon and usually called "the red
hymnal"--at least in the churches I have attended.

Barbara

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