“RED APRON”

What are the words a guest Organist most dreads when he asks what tune a Lodge uses for the Opening Ode? I can tell you from bitter experience - they are: “the usual one”!

The words are more or less the same everywhere - “Hail, Eternal! by whose aid…”, but the tunes to which those words are set vary wildly. “Hymns Ancient and Modern” lists no fewer than 28 possible tunes (search under 7.7.7.7 (Trochaic)) but there are many more, including Column Lodge’s swinging triple-time version and 117’s Victorian ode.

Shropshire indeed until recently had at least seven ‘usual tunes’. There is the familiar “Vienna” (always a good bet if unsure, as most Masons know this even if it isn’t their lodge’s normal tune). 6262 Shropshire Installed Masters (which has to try to please everyone) uses London’s favourite, the well-known “St. Bees). Pity the poor guest Organist!

The Consecration of Shropshire Provincial Stewards’ Lodge 9971 added to his woes by introducing yet another tune, called (appropriately enough) “Red Apron”. Composed by the new lodge’s first Organist, VW Bro Jeremy Lund, the first line of the melody is based (deliberately!) on the tune of Handel’s “Air” from the famous “Water Music”. Although 9971 was the first Lodge to sing the familiar words to the new melody, enquiries have already been made by another Provincial Stewards’ Lodge, and the composer is delighted for the tune to be used elsewhere - please write and let us know, though!

If you cannot see the whole tune above, click on the picture and it should appear in full!