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• 1 2023-07-04T11:43:55-07:00 "The Helpless Lamb" 13 gallery 2026-07-06T13:20:46-07:00
  2025 Band of Mercy
  
  "The Helpless Lamb" (1879) invokes the pastoral life that most Victorian children would not have known, in both nostalgic and spiritual ways, such as “The Helpless Lamb,” from The Band of Mercy Advocate, No. 7, August 1879.  The engraving insert establishes the pastoral tone by showcasing a Victorian-dressed shepherd with his shepherd’s crook and faithful dog surveying a flock of sheep, a church steeple in the distance registering the Christian parallels with Christ the Good Shepherd.  The song itself, with words by S. W. Partridge and music be G. W. Martin, is an interesting mix of amusement and didacticism.  The tune begins “moderato and lightly” in the major key of D, then moderates to the minor for the Chorus, making its message more dramatic.  Focused on the helplessness of the “little lamb,” it spends several verses, often in the more intense-sounding Chorus and with close tetrameter couplets, contrasting other animals’ more auspicious ferocity (which also paints them as less sympathetic, more “scary”): “Lions boast a mighty paw, / Eagles have a piercing claw; / Bulls can gore, and dogs can bite; / You can neither fly nor fight” (v. 1).  The lighter melody of the verses undergirds the thematic material: first, of the lamb’s deficiencies, “swiftness, strength, nor sense have you” (v. 1) and “Strength nor cunning you possess” (v. 2).  The third verse brings the shepherd’s protection into view: “At his side you need not fear, / Danger cannot reach you there” with its Chorus finally connecting the message to a child-singer: “I am weak, poor lamb, like you, / Need a guardian shepherd too; / That Good Shepherd, Jesus, need, / Or I shall be weak indeed.”  The final verse becomes a hymn-like appeal to the Divine: “Keep me from each threat’ning ill. / Let me never dare to rove / From His happy fold of love” (v. 4).   
  
  Score: Band of Mercy Advocate, July 1879
  
  Choir/Recordings: 
  2025 Band of Mercy, singing the above recording. Sung as pre-show to Charlotte's Web, Richmond Civic Theatre, we adapted "The Helpless Lamb" to "The Helpless Pig"!
  2020 Band of Mercy, also pre-show music for the 's production of Charlotte's Web that I directed in 2020:
  
  
  
  
• 1 2024-06-22T10:53:03-07:00 "Feeding Neddy" 5 gallery 2024-06-22T11:20:29-07:00 This song was also re-titled and recorded for our production of Charlotte's Web Stage One, Richmond, IN in 2020, with our Bands of Mercy singing "Feeding Master Templeton" in place of "Feeding Neddy" as we honored the hungry rat in the production!But the original song, from The Band of Mercy Advocate, Vol 3, 1882, reminds children that work animals truly need humans to remember to feed them: "eat away, Neddy, Be quick and be steady!" with a bouncy eighth-note tune!  With music by T. Crampton, and an illustration of a young boy feeding need, this song gives vital messages about animal welfare in an engaging format for