Some of you have been here long enough to remember when the web site died – coinciding with the movie debut of Atlas Shrugged Part 1. At the time, I posted the lyrics to the song “Day is Dying in the West” and a somewhat mysterious link pointing to the Starting Over blog. It is the song sung every Sunday in Chautauqua New York at the end of the religious music service as the sun is setting and the final night of the season as the summer comes to a close.
Chautauqua was started in the 1870s as a campground where Methodists (mostly from western Pennsylvania) went in the summer to escape the heat and pollution of Pittsburgh. Over time, it became a more formal permanent institution with a hotel, a 6,000 seat amphitheater, a permanent orchestra and opera, and a scheduled season of thoughtful lectures, musical events and religious services. It spawned what was called the Chautauqua movement, where the same types of activities went on tour during the Depression to spread culture and hope to a confused country desperately hoping for a better future.
After World War II had ended and life was starting to return to normal and thoughts were turning to pairing up and starting families that had been delayed a decade by poverty and war, my parents met at Chautauqua and decided they were a pair meant to be together, and hence the family I am part of. Chautauqua was a place I remember vividly going to as a 4 year old, and several times since, including working there for the summer in 1971 at the Tally Ho Restaurant washing dishes and entertaining diners playing the organ with my somewhat limited musical skills.
Chautauqua was a much bigger part of my sister’s life – after she had pushed the last child out of the nest, she returned to the place that was her roots to spend the final phase of her life, which just came to a close.
“Day is Dying in the West” is initially a song about the sadness that a day has ended, but reflects that the stars have come out, God’s presence becomes more apparent, and while our life will end, God and the Universe will continue on
1
Day is dying in the west;
Heaven is touching earth with rest;
Wait and worship while the night
Sets the evening lamps alight
Through all the sky.Refrain
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts!
Heaven and earth are full of Thee!
Heaven and earth are praising Thee,
O Lord most high!2
Lord of life, beneath the dome
Of the universe, Thy home,
Gather us who seek Thy face
To the fold of Thy embrace,
For Thou art nigh.3
While the deepening shadows fall,
Heart of love enfolding all,
Through the glory and the grace
Of the stars that veil Thy face,
Our hearts ascend.4
When forever from our sight
Pass the stars, the day, the night,
Lord of angels, on our eyes
Let eternal morning rise
And shadows end.
Thank you for the lyrics, Art. We experience the cycle of life through night and day and when our cycle in this life is complete, we ask God to accept us into the eternal light. Your sister was wise to know where to go to experience peace.
Thank you Art
Brings back memories. We used to sing that song occasionally in my former church.
I can imagine the song being sung around in the late evening around an open fire.
We sang “Day is Dying in the West” every night around the campfire at the summer camp I attended every summer for ten years. It does certainly bring back memories. Thanks, Art.
Art, I had never heard of the hymn until now, so I googled it. Guess what. I found it. Not only that, but it is played on the organ, the instrument you and your sister played. But it doesn’t end there, the youtube description mentions “Chautauqua”.
Enjoy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9UwoUhvFkQ
Yes, there is a very direct connection – it was written at Chautauqua – the words were written by the young woman who worked for the man who decided to organize the first gatherings. The tune was written by a much older gentlemen.
The focal point of the place is the amphitheater – it is an open wooden building with wooden benches that can hold about 4000 people (6000 if people stand around the outside) It has a pipe organ, a large stage and excellent acoustics. If you watched public TV in the 1960s/70s, they would carry the concerts of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra (maybe they still do). While started by the Lutherans, it became a gathering place for everyone. During the summer season, you have to pay a daily fee to go inside (or buy a season pass). A 4000 seat venue is too small to attract major performers, but it is special enough to those who know of it that they’ll come even though it’s not on tour promoter’s most favorite list. Just off the top of my head, Bill Cosby, Peter Paul & Mary and Mark Russell have done evenings there.
The temperance movement to ban alcohol had some of its roots there. I saw a comment on a web site complaining about the leftward political direction the place has taken lately – which just demonstrated their own ignorance. There is this notion spread by the TV culture and by the stupid people in the Democratic Party that Christians are “right wingers” – nothing could be further from the truth. While there are TV / Radio evangelists who try to amass power and wealth by appealing to “right wingers”, the formal denominations for the most part are the heart of the peace movement, the force behind the abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, social justice, universal suffrage for women and the progressive movement.
It’s much more emotional when 6000 people are standing next to each other singing it together without needing printed lyrics – as the sun is setting.