O QUEEN OF LOVELY BLOOMING MAY
While I attened St Boniface School in Rochester, New York in the ’40s we used to sing a hymn to Mary entitled O Queen of Lovely Blooming May. I remember it fondly as my favorite. I’ve tried with no success to find some record of it - lyrics, music, author - to no avail. It occurs to me that the church organist at the time had a way of providing us with somewhat modified versions of well-known hymns, such as Silent Night, Sacred Night instead of Silent Night, Holy Night. In my searching I found hymn titles a bit similar to what I remember, but not exactly the same, so it could be that we had ‘our own’ local piece derived from something more widely known. I come away wondering, tangentially, if it was (or still is!) a widespread practice for organists and church musicians to come up with modified local versions of already existing hymns. Sort of like doctoring up the canned pork & beans.
