This Sunday at 7:30 I'll be singing Schubert's Mass in G at the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection in Shawnee Mission Kansas. We are also singing 'Verleih uns Frieden,' by Mendelssohn with English words supplied by John Rutter, editor of 'European Sacred Music,' Oxford University Press, 1996.

John Rutter has been said by an actual' Catter to be a very nice person. He may be, but he's the arranger I love to hate, mostly because he writes alto parts that seem to require a machine. But never mind that; just keep in mind that the guy irritates me.

I found I couldn't get the piece learned, so I made my own copy with Noteworthy Composer. I put the English lyrics where I could see them better and got rid of Rutter's lightweight italic font. Yet I just couldn't get these two lines:

Thou art alone our sword and shield,
Lord who dost guide the nations.

Finally I realized that my Inner Poet was cringing every time I sang that because it's grammatically wrong. It should be 'doth,' not 'dost.' To make sure, I composed some parallel sentences in my head.

Keep in mind that we say 'He doth' but 'Thou dost.' Modern forms are "He does' and 'You do.'

You are the only doctor who guides the interns.
You are the person who gets grape jelly on the carpet.
Thou art the One who doth guide us.

Notice that in the relative clause the second person (you are) changes to third person 'guides, gets'. Similarly, in the hymn, 'dost' should change to 'doth.'

In the choir, 20 other people are cheerfully singing 'dost,' and I've decided not to say anything. They're suburbanites, and they don't know. However, I can't have all my banjo-plucking friends nudging one another and saying "Leeneia doesn't even know how to conjugate second and third-person familiar verbs!"

I've come up with a solution I can live with. I just sing 'duh..."

For some really good music (cheap) with choir and chamber orchestra, come on over. Sunday at 7:30. There might even be cookies after.