Solemnity of the Holy Trinity
May 18, 2008
How Great Thou Art
Catholic Community Hymnal #291
Gather Comprehensive #494
Gather Comprehensive—Second Edition #496
Lead Me, Guide Me #181
Text: Stuart K. Hine, 1899–1989
Tune: O STORE GUD; Stuart K. Hine
by Fred Moleck
"Table talk" is the English translation given to the German word Tischreden, the collected thoughts and comments by Martin Luther during the latter years of the great sixteenth-century Reformation.
Compiled in volume 54 of the works of Martin Luther published by Fortress Press, the collection is a daily compilation of the conversations, proclamations, and dissertations by the Doctor with his friends, colleagues, students, and fellow mavericks at the daily dinner table.
In these daily reports and summaries, Luther comes across as being the wise old professor-reformer whose economy of language is indicative of a man who has fought the battles and envisions a direction that will change the life of the Western Church. The atmosphere of mentor and student, colleague and stranger, ex-priests and new clerics-all at table talking what interests them the most: the new Christian Church.
Church people tend to talk about church things. Musicians are no exception. What TableTalk tries to do is to relate some of those conversations and battles and triumphs and reconciliations that I've experienced in the past forty-five years of being a "church person"-n.b. not all of them, just some of them, and mostly from the past twenty-five years. (I promise I won't get into my juvenilia of doing music in St. Casimir's R.C. Church in Keisterville, Pennsylvania, during my adolescent years!)
I would like to offer some observations and commentary on existent music practices and taste. I want to do a little historical comparison to what we have done in the Church and what we have failed to do.
I will probably rant a little, exaggerate a lot (mythic heightening), and generate some conversations with you. Some of you, friends, neighbors, and students, will find some the stuff familiar, since you and I talked about much of it at our own tables with food and drink, which inevitably included a chocolate morsel. I trust you will not let me become the out-of-control curmudgeon with a naturally curly mind.
Let's visit.
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Table Talk - 45 Years of Collected Wisdom from Fred Moleck
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@comcast.net