Page 40 - Seniorstoday February 2022 Issue

Nostalgia

Abide with me

The hymn ‘Abide with me’ is devoid of any religious or western connotation and
reflects a deeper spirit, writes Prabhakar Mundkur

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide Day would classify as a Christian hymn.
The darkness deepens Lord, with me abide Like most hymns again it is a
When other helpers fail and comforts flee petition to the Lord. Its last verse is
Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me indicative of the spirit of the hymn;
Religious music is common in all cultures.
From our own kirtan to the Christian
hymns, Gospel music largely dominated by
the African-Americans culture or the official
sacred music of the Roman Catholic Church
called Gregorian chants. Most spiritual
music is rooted in folk music developed
by a community over a length of time. The In life, in death, o Lord, abide with me
kirtan is unique in the sense that it depends Abide with me, abide with me
on repetition. Whatever the form of music, While the hymn in Christian there is
spiritual music is an ode to the Lord or a no overt reference to Jesus or the Holy
power higher than us. Sometimes it is just Trinity. It is again a petition to the Lord to
repetition of the Lord’s name and at other look after us in life and in death. When a
times it is just a petition to the Lord. song is played as an instrumental without
Abide With Me of which so much has its verse it is only a melody and loses
been written about recently because it was some of its cultural overtones. The army
knocked off the official roster for Republic band played the instrumental version on

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