Page 24 - MFM March 2016
P. 24
Montana Freemason March2016 Volume 92 Number 2
The Second Degree lecture attempts to enchant One source says that, “A few weeks after the Battle
us with Music, but who among us have heard the of Fredericksburg (December 13, 1862), about
musical strains meant to accompany the beautiful 100,000 Federal soldiers and 70,000 Confederates
words in Lodge? Bro. Everett Lynn, in my own were camped on opposite sides of the Rappahannock
Lodge, has played several bars of the Marseilles, River in Virginia… As was customary in camp, at
when the lecturer mentions stirring the passions with twilight the regimental bands on either side began
national anthems, but I have been in many Lodges
where this is entirely unknown. their evening concerts… Toward the end of the
evening concerts, the music typically became more
The same part of the Lecture on “Music” also poignant and tender.
incorporates “Home, Sweet Home.” For many
Montanans today, the tune is familiar only through On one particular night, a Federal band was especially
brief snippets in black and white movies, or in melodic in its rendition of the Civil War’s favorite
Looney Tunes cartoons, when meant to imply a tune. The slow, plaintive notes floated like feathers
sense of homesickness or comfort (which is as it through the air, gently nestling into homesick hearts.
was intended). For Masons in the 1860’s, Home, Night was the time when men wrote home to their
Sweet Home was even more poignant. mothers and sweethearts, or held silent communion
with themselves. The soothing notes sent the
heartfelt words of the beloved song running through
their minds:
Countless stories tell how soldiers on both sides Mid pleasures and palaces though we may roam,
of the battlefield in the American Civil War of the Be it ever so humble there’s no place like home!
1860’s (The Grand Lodge of Montana was founded A charm from the skies seems to hallow us there,
January, 1866), would sing the song, and were often Which, seek through the world, is ne’er met with
moved to moments of solace and quiet peace, and elsewhere:
even temporary cessations of hostilities. Home! Home! sweet, sweet Home!
There’s no place like Home!
Page 24 There’s no place like Home.
