AtD translation: his skepticism, which was seldom being addressed these days

[David Morris]

Cyprian's skepticism was "seldom being addressed these days," so he
wondered if it might be losing its edge. Presumably he was now mostly
listening to more "true-hearted" hymns these days than he was used to.

David Morris

On Sat, May 22, 2021 at 2:35 AM Mike Jing <gravitys.rainbow.cn at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 497.33   Cyprian stood in the evenings, at the Compline hour, just outside
> the light cast from the chapel windows, and wondered what was happening to
> his skepticism, which was seldom being addressed these days except by such
> truly horrible specimens as the Te Deum in Commemoration of the Khaki
> Election by Filtham, which—although in the hymn-writing trade botching a Te
> Deum is thought to be next to impossible, the psalmodic formulæ being well
> established, even unto what notes to end on—nonetheless, from its
> stultifying length, in arguable violation of any number of child-labor
> statutes, as well as a relentless chromaticism that might have made even
> Richard Strauss uneasy, too “modern” to have retained any power to
> penetrate and sacredly stun, it was already known among schoolchild
> choristers from Stain-drop to St. Paul’s as “Filtham’s Tedium.”
>
> Why is his skepticism only being addressed by these "truly horrible
> specimens"? Are these the only ones he gets to listen to regularly? Since
> they lack the "power to penetrate and sacredly stun", I assume they can't
> really make him any less skeptical.
> --
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>