THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG: MASONIC MUSIC OF YESTERYEAR The Provincial Male Voice Choir of Northants & Hunts Available from thefreemason.com or The Shop at Freemasons’ Hall, London, £15.00.

Between the opening ‘Hail Mysterious Glorious Science’, a sprightly glee for three unaccompanied voices, and the closing ‘Tyler’s Song’ with its fair-well strain, ‘Happy to meet, sorry to part, happy to meet again’, we are conducted through a pot pourri of twenty-eight items representing the whole gamut of masonic song. From solos with chorus for informal singing to full choral works intended for concert performance, through folk song, opera, ballad, oratorio and even music hall, the collection offers something for every taste.
    Like Mozart, whose ‘Chorus of the Priests’ from The Magic Flute was a predictable inclusion, and Sibelius, represented by Finlandia, providing music for ‘O Gracious Lord’, Haydn was a Freemason too. ‘In the Beginning’, the opening recitative and chorus from his Creation, was apparently sung in lodges at the moment a candidate was restored to light though its quotation from the Book of Genesis would have a particular resonance in the Royal Arch. ‘Make Your Mark’ may have been intended for use in that degree but its catchy tune and rhythm ensures a wider appeal. Almost all the lyrics and most of the tunes are the work of Brethren, known or unknown, who have added to the solemnity of ceremonies and the jollity of festive boards down the years.
    Sometimes lyricists did not scorn to borrow existing hit tunes such as ‘O Come all ye Faithful’ and the Welsh hymn melody, ‘Rhosymedre’, used as a setting for a grace by Charles Wesley. Even ‘Rule Britannia’ was press-ganged into service and a special version of the national Anthem devised for Grand Master, Prince Albert Edward, later King Edward VII. While many of the songs may seem inappropriately self-congratulatory in today’s climate, ‘Masonic Mischief’, sung as a music hall ditty with a whine in the soloist’s voice, makes a nice deprecatory balance.
    The Northants and Hunts Provincial Choir and the soloists obviously relished their task and were well up to its demands. Their offering, an appetizing hors d’oeuvre, leaves the listener hungry for more and this is clearly only the tip of a very large and scrumptious iceberg. Another helping please!
    David Sermon