The Lost Chord

          In my estimation, the three greatest Christian poems are 1) The Lorica (The Deer’s Cry) by Saint Patrick, 2) The Hound of Heaven, by Francis Thompson, and 3) The Lost Chord, by Arthur S. Sullivan. Sullivan, an organist, set The Lost Chord to Music.

          Let me tell you an anecdotal story about how I discovered The Lost Chord. Then read the lyrics which I have set down below.

          In the late seventies, Jerome Hines, famous star of the New York Metropolitan Opera brought his opera I am the Way (about the Life of Christ). The director, Derek De Cambra (who was the best friend of Hines) came to my church. De Cambra and I instantly bonded and became fast friends. It was exciting to be the friend of the friend of Hines, the greatest of all the basses, and the only opera star whose voice lasted for 50 years. Keep in mind that I was an opera buff and am a bass. I cannot go as high or low as Hines, nor do have anything like his volume or quality, but in center range and timbre we are basses of the same general type - except he is a genius and I am a mediocrity. In short, when I sing in the shower, in my wish-fulfillment fantasies, I imagine that I sound like Hines.

          Opera stars played the lead roles in I am the Way. De Cambra recruited local church choir soloists to play minor roles with one liner soloists. He had general auditions for the chorus. In spite of being a mediocrity, I just barely survived the cut. They were short on basses, I could read music scores and do solfege (reading sheet music without rehearsal and singing the notes of a melody written on the score on key - well, mostly on key, most of the time), and I was a friend of the director - who listened to audition with a merciful ear. (OK, so the guy stinks - but he is my buddy.) He casted me as a member of the rabble on the streets of Jerusalem. This was the most difficult music I have ever tried to sing. During rehearsal when we were all singing and an opera star came over and stood next to me. His mighty voice seemed to grow into a collossus and my pipsqueak voice seemed, in comparison, to shrink down to the scale of a chipmunk. But what a thrill to stand on the same stage during a live performance with Jerome Hines, dressed as Christ, and singing the songs of glory.

          I purchased a couple of Hines’ record albums. He sang The Lost Chord in one of the albums. I was moved to tears. Even now as I write this my eyes are misting up. If I could sing one song to God, and could choose any voice to sing it in, I would choose Jerome Hines voice and sing The Lost Chord.

          C.S.Lewis wrote a book Surprised by Joy in which he described incidents in his life when he was suddenly and unexpectantly overtaken by angelic and heavenly bliss. Arthur S. Sullivan had such an experience and described it in The Lost Chord.

          Scroll down to read the lyrics of The Lost Chord

The Lost Chord

           by Arthur S. Sullivan

Seated one day at the organ,
I was weary and ill at ease,
And my fingers wandered idly
Over the noisy keys;
I know not what I was playing,
Or what I was dreaming then,
But I struck one chord of music,
Like the sound of a great Amen,
Like the sound of a great Amen.

It flooded the crimson twilight,
Like the close of an angel’s psalm,
And it lay on my fevered spirit,
With a touch of infinite calm,
It quieted pain and sorrow,
Like love overcoming strife,
It seemed the harmonious echo
From our discordant life,
It linked all the perplexed meanings
Into one perfect peace,
And trembled away into silence,
As if it were loth to cease;

I have sought but I seek it vainly,
That one lost chord divine,
Which came from the soul of the organ,
And entered into mine.

It may be that death’s bright angel
Will speak in that chord again;
It may be that only in Heav’n
I shall hear that great Amen.
It may be that death’s bright angel
Will speak in that chord again;
It may be that only in Heav’n
I shall hear that great Amen.

E-Prayer message by Fred Hutchison