This page is provided so that you can hear the tunes of items which we use in church. Mostly they are written by the vicar. Please note that they are copyright - we are very happy to give permission to you to use them, but we would like to hear about it. Please include any use on your Christian Copyright Licence returns.
Down this page:
- the words,
- the story,
- the sheet music,
- media player.
Round and round
Round and round
Round and round,
round and round,
what meaning in life can be found?
Round and round,
round and round,
when all that there is goes round and round.
The sun comes up and the sun goes down,
and in a big circle the earth swings round.
The babes are born and the old folks die,
the earth remains underneath the sky.
The wind blows south and the wind blows north,
the clouds roll up and the rain comes forth.
The streams run down and the rivers flow
the water returns to the mountain snow.
Round and round ...
I set myself to understand
all wisdom and knowledge of every land,
I tried life's pleasures, I got myself smashed,
but I found it all empty, meaningless trash.
The things that were, they will be again,
what's been done once will be done just the same,
The fate of the fool is the same as the wise:
they'll both be forgotten, for everything dies.
Round and round ...
A time to be born and a time to die,
A time to rejoice and a time to cry,
A time to build and a time to scrap,
A time for silence, a time to chat,
A time to tear and a time to mend,
A time for sanity or going round the bend,
A time for everything under the sun,
it's all quite empty when all's said and done.
Round and round ...
Then as I pondered, I came to think:
it's good to enjoy your food and drink,
to find satisfaction in the toil of life,
wealth and possessions, friends and a wife.
An upright man is rarer than gold,
an honest man deserves to grow old:
a man comes naked from his mother's womb,
and as he comes he'll depart pretty soon.
So eat your food and drink your wine,
for these are the gifts of the one divine;
and ponder your creator while you're still young,
and ask yourself about an eternal home.
Words and tune copyright © John Hartley 2007.
Based on Ecclesiastes 1-3 and 5.
Story behind the song
Having recently written a metrical version of Psalm 137 (which can be found here), I was interested to try to write a version of the other passage of scripture which has been famously sung as a pop song: "Turn! Turn! Turn! (To everything there is a season)" - so here's my attempt.
The book of Ecclesiastes opens with the preacher's attempt to find some meaning in a world which seems to be dominated by cycles, and his failure to do so: this occupies the first chapters of the book and the first three verses of the lyric. Then he resigns himself to living as part of the creation, and realizes that it is possible to find a limited meaning in the pursuits of this life - however, one should remember one's creator, for the fact that one hasn't managed to plumb the depths of the meaning of life doesn't mean that there is no meaning. And so the book ends, and the song ends, with an exhortation not to neglect the spiritual side of life, nor to put it off until it is too late.
John Hartley.
Windows Media Player. When you click the left-hand "play" button your computer should have started to play the tune. If it didn't, you might be able to get the tune by clicking here, or by right-clicking the link, choosing "save target as", saving it onto your computer, and then opening it with a music-playing program.
Please remember that a midi file of a tune isn't supposed to be a state-of-the-art musical arrangement - it is only supposed to give a basic idea of how the tune goes. Any reasonable organist / keyboard player / music group could make it sound far better.