Reagen’s Funeral Hymn

by Alex

O. M. G. — So I was recently checking out Stephen Paulus’s newly redesigned website and noticed that they sung his Pilgrim’s Hymn at the Reagen funeral! On second thought, maybe I remember hearing this on the radio and smirking? I can’t be sure. As someone who grew up in Reagen’s America I agree with my friend who opined that the funeral ought to have included a section where they ran a stake through the coffin ‘just to make sure’. Just watching Angels In America (which you should all, all watch. Especially you, Tinka.) is enough to send me to that dark dark time when the only positive side effect of Reagen’s Moral Hygeine was a backlash that involved a lot of good punk rock.

Paulus is one of these composers whose works I begrudgingly admire and enjoy singing despite myself. I don’t know why I don’t like him more. There are moments of the True Amazing Sublime in much of it, but somehow… I don’t know… it just never seems to add up. Pligrim’s Hymn is one of these. I sung it in Chicago and could never quite make up my mind about it. When I first sight-read it I thought it was awesome. Then as we rehearsed it I considered it simplistic and uninspired, but with a few killer chord changes. Then as we added dynamics I realized it was like cornbread — not so good by itself, but designed to soak up butter. Then after we added all the schmaltz we could I just really liked it but didn’t think it was pure genius.

On the whole, though, it is a beautiful, simple piece with beautiful, heartfelt lyrics. Perfect for cracker-ass traditional Midwestern choirs like the Dale Warland Singers who perform this free and legal MP3 of Pilgrim’s Hymn you should all listen to. I think in general everyone will like this piece a little, regardless of what sort of music they listen to.