The Lewis folk tune is good so that's a bit of a shame.
We had:
New every morning (MELCOMBE)
Tell me the old, old story (I don't know whether it's just me but the tune for this just seems... odd. Rhythms and pitch seem to be all over the place)
Holy Wisdom, lamp of learning (HYFRYDOL, because I didn't feel like learning yet another tune in 8787D)
Christ's is the world (TOUCHING PLACE)
Jesus shall reign (WARRINGTON)
CH4 suggested a Dutch dance tune labelled IN BABILONE. I went to far as to download the midi before deciding to give it a miss. If there's a standard tune for a metrical psalm (say) that there's a reasonable chance other folk know I'll crack on and learn it, but I've no desire to do a duet with my 15 hours younger self while the congregation mumble through something completely unfamiliar.
I think "Beach Spring" is well-known in the US . . . .
Yes, it’s from the Sacred Harp tradition. IN BABILINE is also familiar, at least in my tribe, as the standard tune for There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy.
All are welcome. Again. We only did it a couple of weeks ago.
Perhaps whoever picks the hymns knows just how much you like it and picks it just for you.
During one year of college, I sang in the choir of a church where the first hymn every other week (I’m really not exaggerating) was Holy, Holy, Holy. Forty years later and I still twitch when I hear it. (And at our place, we generally only sing it once a year, on Trinity Sunday.)
Today we had:
Praise My Soul, the God of Heaven/LAUDA ANIMA Ho, All Who Thirst (Come Now to the Water)/JACOB’S WELL As the Wind Song/WAIRU TAPU May God Support You All Your Days/DICKINSON COLLEGE
Wow, I only know the first of those and tend today associate it with Prizegiving Day at school!
I’m not surprised that the second one is unfamiliar to you. My tribe’s 2013 hymnal was the first to include it.
As the Wind Song—text by Shirley Erena Murray and music by Swee Hong Lim—is very much worth becoming familiar with, in my opinion. Absolutely beautiful. You can hear it here.
With Australia Day on 26 January, we sang hymns with Australian references. After the service but before the dismissal, we sang the National Anthem.
How are churches in Oz dealing with the Australia/Invasion day conflict?
I can't speak generally, but the First People were especially mentioned in yesterday's prayers for their role in settling into the country and their living with it (with the unspoken comment that we have lived more against the country).
Wow, I only know the first of those and tend today associate it with Prizegiving Day at school!
I’m not surprised that the second one is unfamiliar to you. My tribe’s 2013 hymnal was the first to include it.
As the Wind Song—text by Shirley Erena Murray and music by Swee Hong Lim—is very much worth becoming familiar with, in my opinion. Absolutely beautiful. You can hear it here.
Quite haunting and lilting. If I recall, we had some discussion of Shirley Murray's hymn writing on the New Zealand/southern hemisphere thread.
I never met her, though she was I think from my home (homish) town, but I remember Richard Gillard being a bit bemused when the media referred to "The Servant Song" as "by that well-known Kapiti hymn-writer Shirley Murray."
Blessed Jesus, at thy word - LIEBSTER JESU
O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling - TIDINGS
My God, thy table now is spread - ROCKINGHAM
O Spirit of Life, O Spirit of God - O HEILIGER GEIST
Choral:
Gounod: Quatrième messe solenelle
Gibbons: Almighty and everlasting God
Group Holy Communion. ( Common Worship) Candlemass
Mass of St Thomas - David Thorne
Praise to the Holiest - GERONTIUS
Lift up your heads - TRURO
Lord the light of your love - SHINE JESUS SHINE
Forth in the peace of Christ we go - DUKE STREET
During Communion
Like a candle flame - The Candle Song by Graham Kendrick
After the Gospel the choir sang a setting(?) of the Nunc Dimittis
Here in this place
Psalm and Alleluia
Take this moment
Oh the word of my Lord
Be not afraid.
Despite all restrictions apart from the chalice being lifted by our bishops, we are still masked, no sign of peace, singing limited to 4 hymns (not singing the Mass which has top priority.)
A congregation that used to sing lustily is now barely audible.
Getting really fed up with it now!
It was our church Panto this week (oh, yes, it was!) so we had an All-age Service; partly because we wanted to give our Junior Church leaders a break from preparing and also because we thought several of our children wouldn't turn up (thankfully some did!).
Hence an eclectic mix, although still based around the Lection of 1 Corinthians 13:
“God is love, let heaven adore him” (Blaenwern),
“Wide and long and high and deep” (Colin Pye).
"Your love, O Lord” (Jonny Moore-Crispin - both these two are Holiday Club favourites).
“Let there be love shared among us” (Dave Bilbrough).
“I give my hands to do your work” (learned a fortnight ago, Estelle White).
“The love of God comes close” (Rhosymedre).
We are back to not needed to social distance, but masks are still mandatory, as they have been ever since Welsh churches re-opened after the first lockdown. The singing was pretty good neverthless.
Today we had:
Now thank we all our God (NUN DANKET)
Break not the circle of enabling love (shoe-horned into TOULON because the tune given - ROBERT - was both unknown to me and in an awkward meter, and not available anywhere as a midi file; the words are an odd mix of paraphrase and pious-sounding word salad. Who the heck writes words in 10 11 10 11?)
Love is the touch of intangible joy (WHATEVER JOHN BELL SAYS IT IS)
Praise the one who breaks the darkness (ABBOT'S LEIGH)
Ye servants of God (LAUDATE DOMINUM)
Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth - MIT FREUDEN ZART
Give praise and glory unto God - DU LEBENSBROT, HERR JESU CHRIST
God of the prophets, bless the prophets' heirs! - DARLINGTON
Spread, O spread, thou mighty word - GOTT SEI DANK
Choral:
Charles Wood - Missa Portae honoris in F
Charles Wood - O Thou, the central orb
Fair enough, although the first, I'd have thought is pretty well-known (usually sung to "Abbot's Leigh").
As best I can tell, it appears or has appeared in just a handful of American hymnals—it’s in the current Episcopal and Moravian hymnals, an older hymnal of the Reformed Church in America, and one Catholic hymnal. It also seems to have been in my tribe’s 1972 hymnal, but for various reasons that hymnal never really caught on; most congregations continued to use the 1955 hymnal. The church I attended while in law school did use it, but if we ever sang that hymn I’ve forgotten it in the intervening years. It was not included in our 1993 or our 2013 hymnals.
Group Holy Communion. ( Common Worship) Candlemas . . . .
What is meant by “Group Holy Communion,” please?
A joint service, I think, for a number of churches that are part of a formal or informal group.
Indeed. There are five churches in the group, in two parishes, one priest. When restrictions were greater, there was just the one service each Sunday, in the largest building. Now it happens when there is a fifth Sunday in the month.
Oooh ... that makes me feel quite nostalgic for my x-Tasman days ... even if one is a kiwi-sourced hymn. Very typical selection even back to my curacy days in Melbourne.
Oooh ... that makes me feel quite nostalgic for my x-Tasman days ... even if one is a kiwi-sourced hymn. Very typical selection even back to my curacy days in Melbourne.
People say silly (and nasty) things about the Dudman, but it's got a lot going for it. It was written for the APBA 2nd order, so no need to jiggle here and there. It's also easy for a congregation of mixed abilities and capacity to sing; you don't have to be a first-rate chorister to manage it (that said, Madame and I like a setting called something like An English Folk Mass which is an appendix to the NEH).
In the past when introducing a new setting we’ve provided a number 10-20 melody line copies for those that would like. Even when the sidespersons don’t forget to offer them, there’s a very low take-up. Cost is not too much of an issue there, something like £35-70.
With hymn books, a words only copy may cost, say, £9 or £13. A melody line edition £20 or £22. A smallish church may find 100 copies is a big outlay, and balk at increasing the cost by 50-100% for melody line books.
In the past when introducing a new setting we’ve provided a number 10-20 melody line copies for those that would like. Even when the sidespersons don’t forget to offer them, there’s a very low take-up. Cost is not too much of an issue there, something like £35-70.
With hymn books, a words only copy may cost, say, £9 or £13. A melody line edition £20 or £22. A smallish church may find 100 copies is a big outlay, and balk at increasing the cost by 50-100% for melody line books.
Hymns bother me less as tunes are generally well known. I find the lack of take up for melody for the setting genuinely incomprehensible; I find mumbling my way through an unknown setting rather distracting, but then if you're one of the 90%* who mumble rather than sing anyway perhaps it's less of an issue.
I suspect low takeup might be that those who don't read music but can follow it don't the melody copies are meant for them.
To be honest, while I find the dots helpful, for a mass setting it hardly matters as 2-3 goes and I'll more or less get it. Of course if you dicker about with the setting every week then more fool you.
Aye. The usual excuse is "most people can't read music" but I think most people can manage with
Notes Go Up Pitch Go Up
Notes Go Down Pitch Go Down
Add Bits To Note Note Shorter
Remove Bits From Note Note Longer.
That's enough to get through most settings.
On the few occasions that I have worshipped in Iona Abbey, there was often a song "rehearsal" before the service. The person leading would indicate the pitch by moving their hand up and down an imaginary stave. As a non musician I found this useful, particularly as I rarely come across Iona Community worship songs in other settings.
Indeed. There are five churches in the group, in two parishes, one priest. When restrictions were greater, there was just the one service each Sunday, in the largest building. Now it happens when there is a fifth Sunday in the month.
In the past when introducing a new setting we’ve provided a number 10-20 melody line copies for those that would like. Even when the sidespersons don’t forget to offer them, there’s a very low take-up. Cost is not too much of an issue there, something like £35-70.
With hymn books, a words only copy may cost, say, £9 or £13. A melody line edition £20 or £22. A smallish church may find 100 copies is a big outlay, and balk at increasing the cost by 50-100% for melody line books.
Hymns bother me less as tunes are generally well known. I find the lack of take up for melody for the setting genuinely incomprehensible; I find mumbling my way through an unknown setting rather distracting, but then if you're one of the 90%* who mumble rather than sing anyway perhaps it's less of an issue.
*estimate may be coloured by cynicism.
Hymns usually have strong memorable tunes with a clear sense of direction so people can guess the next couple of notes. Settings often don't and guesswork is less helpful.
In the past when introducing a new setting we’ve provided a number 10-20 melody line copies for those that would like. Even when the sidespersons don’t forget to offer them, there’s a very low take-up. Cost is not too much of an issue there, something like £35-70.
With hymn books, a words only copy may cost, say, £9 or £13. A melody line edition £20 or £22. A smallish church may find 100 copies is a big outlay, and balk at increasing the cost by 50-100% for melody line books.
Hymns bother me less as tunes are generally well known. I find the lack of take up for melody for the setting genuinely incomprehensible; I find mumbling my way through an unknown setting rather distracting, but then if you're one of the 90%* who mumble rather than sing anyway perhaps it's less of an issue.
*estimate may be coloured by cynicism.
Hymns usually have strong memorable tunes with a clear sense of direction so people can guess the next couple of notes. Settings often don't and guesswork is less helpful.
Quite. Hymns also tend to have simple rhythms and fit the words to the tune in a regular manner; some setting writers seem to delight in seeing how many words they can get in one bar and then how many bars they can make the next word take. BlessedIsHeWho Co......mes i..........n the NameOfThe......... Lord
Aye. The usual excuse is "most people can't read music" but I think most people can manage with
Notes Go Up Pitch Go Up
Notes Go Down Pitch Go Down
Add Bits To Note Note Shorter
Remove Bits From Note Note Longer.
That's enough to get through most settings.
On the few occasions that I have worshipped in Iona Abbey, there was often a song "rehearsal" before the service. The person leading would indicate the pitch by moving their hand up and down an imaginary stave. As a non musician I found this useful, particularly as I rarely come across Iona Community worship songs in other settings.
Unfortunately that style of conducting is itself a rare skill. I was lucky to encounter someone able to do it while at university but not since (he's a now a priest in Norfolk).
Aye. The usual excuse is "most people can't read music" but I think most people can manage with
Notes Go Up Pitch Go Up
Notes Go Down Pitch Go Down
Add Bits To Note Note Shorter
Remove Bits From Note Note Longer.
That's enough to get through most settings.
On the few occasions that I have worshipped in Iona Abbey, there was often a song "rehearsal" before the service. The person leading would indicate the pitch by moving their hand up and down an imaginary stave. As a non musician I found this useful, particularly as I rarely come across Iona Community worship songs in other settings.
Unfortunately that style of conducting is itself a rare skill. I was lucky to encounter someone able to do it while at university but not since (he's a now a priest in Norfolk).
That’s how we were taught to teach new music when I was a music ed major mumble-mumble years ago. I still use it when teaching new music to a group.
Aye. The usual excuse is "most people can't read music" but I think most people can manage with
Notes Go Up Pitch Go Up
Notes Go Down Pitch Go Down
Add Bits To Note Note Shorter
Remove Bits From Note Note Longer.
That's enough to get through most settings.
On the few occasions that I have worshipped in Iona Abbey, there was often a song "rehearsal" before the service. The person leading would indicate the pitch by moving their hand up and down an imaginary stave. As a non musician I found this useful, particularly as I rarely come across Iona Community worship songs in other settings.
Unfortunately that style of conducting is itself a rare skill. I was lucky to encounter someone able to do it while at university but not since (he's a now a priest in Norfolk).
That’s how we were taught to teach new music when I was a music ed major mumble-mumble years ago. I still use it when teaching new music to a group.
Thats how I do it when we are teaching something new to our parish. The trick is to get to the next note slightly ahead of the tune so the people know which gear to put their vocal chords into.
Aye. The usual excuse is "most people can't read music" but I think most people can manage with
Notes Go Up Pitch Go Up
Notes Go Down Pitch Go Down
Add Bits To Note Note Shorter
Remove Bits From Note Note Longer.
That's enough to get through most settings.
On the few occasions that I have worshipped in Iona Abbey, there was often a song "rehearsal" before the service. The person leading would indicate the pitch by moving their hand up and down an imaginary stave. As a non musician I found this useful, particularly as I rarely come across Iona Community worship songs in other settings.
Unfortunately that style of conducting is itself a rare skill. I was lucky to encounter someone able to do it while at university but not since (he's a now a priest in Norfolk).
That’s how we were taught to teach new music when I was a music ed major mumble-mumble years ago. I still use it when teaching new music to a group.
Thats how I do it when we are teaching something new to our parish. The trick is to get to the next note slightly ahead of the tune so the people know which gear to put their vocal chords into.
Indeed. There are five churches in the group, in two parishes, one priest. When restrictions were greater, there was just the one service each Sunday, in the largest building. Now it happens when there is a fifth Sunday in the month.
At Our Place, fifth Sunday means a BCP Communion
BCP is midweek only at our main church, intended for the whole group. One of the other churches only does BCP, but they don’t have many services. Otherwise, Common Worship is used.
At our place the choir learned a new setting during lockdown. We have been using it ever since, but it is hard to know if members of the congregation are trying to join in as they are masked. We have so far been omitting the descant, so as not to put people off the tune, but I reckon it is time to start singing it.
If I were in the congregation, I would appreciate having a copy of the music.
Did anyone sing the National Anthem at church today? It's the 70th anniversary of Her Majesty's accession (so FatherInCharge keeps reminding us), so it was (AIUI) duly sung at Our Place this morning.
There is, it appears, a specially-written *Platinum Jubilee* verse which was included - I'm not sure if it's official, or whether FInC has found it on someone's website somewhere (in which case there might be copyright issues!). I understand the extra verse is also to be sung on June 5th, as part of the Jubilee Weekend celebrations.
FatherInCharge was also hoping to get 7 volunteers each to toll the newly-restored church bell 10 times, to mark the 70 years of HM's Glorious and Happy Reign.
And did those feet (Jerusalem) - I actually quite like this one but it has to be admitted the first verse could be titled "questions to which the answer is 'no, of course not, don't be silly!'" Make Way - that March for Jesus Kendrick number. It is what it is Dear Lord and Father of Mankind - whatever Ken, late of this parish may say, one of the better parts of the list.
Then it really took a turn downhill
Be Still for the Presence of the Lord - Argh! Baggage! Memories of people laying hands on people praying in tongues. Argh! Run away! As the Deer - no. Just no.
Then the worst of all:
God save the Queen.
None of it helped by a single manual organ as the only source of accompaniment; I have a suspicion that the organist plays simplified rearranged versions of things as (a) they don't appear to be in the keys I know, (b) he appears to have bits of paper rather than books, and (c) the harmonies are often rather off.
I came away thinking a Martian who'd wondered in might be left wondering which member of the Trinity the Queen was.
Note in view of the thread title, I didn't sing all of the above personally this morning. Especially not the last one.
There is, it appears, a specially-written *Platinum Jubilee* verse which was included - I'm not sure if it's official, or whether FInC has found it on someone's website somewhere (in which case there might be copyright issues!). I understand the extra verse is also to be sung on June 5th, as part of the Jubilee Weekend celebrations.
You sent me a googling, the wiki page has rather more variants than I was expecting. It looks like special verses were done for other jubilees - and the is a complete alternate “peace” version formally approved by the privy council in 1919 !
WE don't usually do royalty (never actually mentioned) in our Church and God Save the Queen doesn't appear in our hymn book. The Jubilee didn't even appear in the bidding prayers until my wife nipped to the lectern before Mass and left a piece of paper with an appropriate invocation.
However
The readings in the Lectionary were about firstly the Calling of Isaiah, and then the Calling of Peter, James and John so the hymns covered the Jubilee also
Here I am Lord
Psalm and Alleluia
Do not be afraid (in modo Bossa Nova when I play it)
Celtic Mass (hooray! finally getting away from the wretched four hymn sandwich and singing the Mass also)
One Bread one Body
In the land there is a hunger.
Our lot love Here I am Lord so they sang it with gusto which continued for the rest of Mass,
There is, it appears, a specially-written *Platinum Jubilee* verse which was included - I'm not sure if it's official, or whether FInC has found it on someone's website somewhere (in which case there might be copyright issues!). I understand the extra verse is also to be sung on June 5th, as part of the Jubilee Weekend celebrations.
You sent me a googling, the wiki page has rather more variants than I was expecting. It looks like special verses were done for other jubilees - and the is a complete alternate “peace” version formally approved by the privy council in 1919 !
Well, well. I don't suppose the official *peace* version gets sung very much...the tories preferring to ask God to vanquish HM's enemies, and frustrate their knavish tricks (the enemies' tricks, that is, though a bit of frustration of the tories' tricks wouldn't come amiss).
I have no idea what was sung at Our Place, as I Wasn't There™, and I wouldn't have joined in warbling the National Dirge, anyway.
There is a certain irony, too, in the fact that about 50% of the faithful at Our Place on any given Sunday aren't actually British...
As to the rest of @KarlLB's list, I'm OK with most of them, bar Jerusalem (good tune though it might possess). I like As The Deer, but prefer the original Genevan Psalm version from 1564.
Mind you, since Our Place gets Happy Birthday, dear Jesus/dear Mary (delete as appropriate), along with Auld Lang Syne, (or its tune), and the National Dirge, at any and every opportunity, maybe Jerusalem would make a nice change.
Or they could sing some proper hymns, with objective theology and such.
We had:
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty (NICAEA)
Lord Jesus Christ (LIVING LORD; strong memories of 100 hymns for today with this one, though I will say it has an accompaniment composed to help you come in at the right time)
Lord you have come to the seashore (PESCADOR DE HOMBRES)
O let the son of God enfold you
Forth in thy name (ANGEL'S SONG)
Comments
We had:
New every morning (MELCOMBE)
Tell me the old, old story (I don't know whether it's just me but the tune for this just seems... odd. Rhythms and pitch seem to be all over the place)
Holy Wisdom, lamp of learning (HYFRYDOL, because I didn't feel like learning yet another tune in 8787D)
Christ's is the world (TOUCHING PLACE)
Jesus shall reign (WARRINGTON)
I think "Beach Spring" is well-known in the US but not Britain. I've only had the hymn once and can't remember what tune we went for.
Perhaps whoever picks the hymns knows just how much you like it and picks it just for you.
During one year of college, I sang in the choir of a church where the first hymn every other week (I’m really not exaggerating) was Holy, Holy, Holy. Forty years later and I still twitch when I hear it. (And at our place, we generally only sing it once a year, on Trinity Sunday.)
Today we had:
Praise My Soul, the God of Heaven/LAUDA ANIMA
Ho, All Who Thirst (Come Now to the Water)/JACOB’S WELL
As the Wind Song/WAIRU TAPU
May God Support You All Your Days/DICKINSON COLLEGE
As the Wind Song—text by Shirley Erena Murray and music by Swee Hong Lim—is very much worth becoming familiar with, in my opinion. Absolutely beautiful. You can hear it here.
I can't speak generally, but the First People were especially mentioned in yesterday's prayers for their role in settling into the country and their living with it (with the unspoken comment that we have lived more against the country).
Quite haunting and lilting. If I recall, we had some discussion of Shirley Murray's hymn writing on the New Zealand/southern hemisphere thread.
Rest in Peace, dear friend
O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling - TIDINGS
My God, thy table now is spread - ROCKINGHAM
O Spirit of Life, O Spirit of God - O HEILIGER GEIST
Choral:
Gounod: Quatrième messe solenelle
Gibbons: Almighty and everlasting God
Mass of St Thomas - David Thorne
Praise to the Holiest - GERONTIUS
Lift up your heads - TRURO
Lord the light of your love - SHINE JESUS SHINE
Forth in the peace of Christ we go - DUKE STREET
During Communion
Like a candle flame - The Candle Song by Graham Kendrick
After the Gospel the choir sang a setting(?) of the Nunc Dimittis
Psalm and Alleluia
Take this moment
Oh the word of my Lord
Be not afraid.
Despite all restrictions apart from the chalice being lifted by our bishops, we are still masked, no sign of peace, singing limited to 4 hymns (not singing the Mass which has top priority.)
A congregation that used to sing lustily is now barely audible.
Getting really fed up with it now!
Hence an eclectic mix, although still based around the Lection of 1 Corinthians 13:
“God is love, let heaven adore him” (Blaenwern),
“Wide and long and high and deep” (Colin Pye).
"Your love, O Lord” (Jonny Moore-Crispin - both these two are Holiday Club favourites).
“Let there be love shared among us” (Dave Bilbrough).
“I give my hands to do your work” (learned a fortnight ago, Estelle White).
“The love of God comes close” (Rhosymedre).
We are back to not needed to social distance, but masks are still mandatory, as they have been ever since Welsh churches re-opened after the first lockdown. The singing was pretty good neverthless.
Today we had:
God Is Here!/ABBOT’S LEIGH
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace/PRAYER OF ST. FRANCIS
I, the Lord of Sea and Sky/HERE I AM
Live into Hope/TRURO
And I think we may a reversal of last week, @Baptist Trainfan, as I don’t know any of the ones you’ve listed.
Now thank we all our God (NUN DANKET)
Break not the circle of enabling love (shoe-horned into TOULON because the tune given - ROBERT - was both unknown to me and in an awkward meter, and not available anywhere as a midi file; the words are an odd mix of paraphrase and pious-sounding word salad. Who the heck writes words in 10 11 10 11?)
Love is the touch of intangible joy (WHATEVER JOHN BELL SAYS IT IS)
Praise the one who breaks the darkness (ABBOT'S LEIGH)
Ye servants of God (LAUDATE DOMINUM)
Give praise and glory unto God - DU LEBENSBROT, HERR JESU CHRIST
God of the prophets, bless the prophets' heirs! - DARLINGTON
Spread, O spread, thou mighty word - GOTT SEI DANK
Choral:
Charles Wood - Missa Portae honoris in F
Charles Wood - O Thou, the central orb
At the name of Jesus
Brother, sister let me serve you
Come down , O love divine
From heaven You came, helpless babe
People say silly (and nasty) things about the Dudman, but it's got a lot going for it. It was written for the APBA 2nd order, so no need to jiggle here and there. It's also easy for a congregation of mixed abilities and capacity to sing; you don't have to be a first-rate chorister to manage it (that said, Madame and I like a setting called something like An English Folk Mass which is an appendix to the NEH).
Notes Go Up Pitch Go Up
Notes Go Down Pitch Go Down
Add Bits To Note Note Shorter
Remove Bits From Note Note Longer.
That's enough to get through most settings.
With hymn books, a words only copy may cost, say, £9 or £13. A melody line edition £20 or £22. A smallish church may find 100 copies is a big outlay, and balk at increasing the cost by 50-100% for melody line books.
Hymns bother me less as tunes are generally well known. I find the lack of take up for melody for the setting genuinely incomprehensible; I find mumbling my way through an unknown setting rather distracting, but then if you're one of the 90%* who mumble rather than sing anyway perhaps it's less of an issue.
*estimate may be coloured by cynicism.
To be honest, while I find the dots helpful, for a mass setting it hardly matters as 2-3 goes and I'll more or less get it. Of course if you dicker about with the setting every week then more fool you.
On the few occasions that I have worshipped in Iona Abbey, there was often a song "rehearsal" before the service. The person leading would indicate the pitch by moving their hand up and down an imaginary stave. As a non musician I found this useful, particularly as I rarely come across Iona Community worship songs in other settings.
Hymns usually have strong memorable tunes with a clear sense of direction so people can guess the next couple of notes. Settings often don't and guesswork is less helpful.
Quite. Hymns also tend to have simple rhythms and fit the words to the tune in a regular manner; some setting writers seem to delight in seeing how many words they can get in one bar and then how many bars they can make the next word take. BlessedIsHeWho Co......mes i..........n the NameOfThe......... Lord
Unfortunately that style of conducting is itself a rare skill. I was lucky to encounter someone able to do it while at university but not since (he's a now a priest in Norfolk).
Thats how I do it when we are teaching something new to our parish. The trick is to get to the next note slightly ahead of the tune so the people know which gear to put their vocal chords into.
At our place the choir learned a new setting during lockdown. We have been using it ever since, but it is hard to know if members of the congregation are trying to join in as they are masked. We have so far been omitting the descant, so as not to put people off the tune, but I reckon it is time to start singing it.
If I were in the congregation, I would appreciate having a copy of the music.
There is, it appears, a specially-written *Platinum Jubilee* verse which was included - I'm not sure if it's official, or whether FInC has found it on someone's website somewhere (in which case there might be copyright issues!). I understand the extra verse is also to be sung on June 5th, as part of the Jubilee Weekend celebrations.
FatherInCharge was also hoping to get 7 volunteers each to toll the newly-restored church bell 10 times, to mark the 70 years of HM's Glorious and Happy Reign.
And did those feet (Jerusalem) - I actually quite like this one but it has to be admitted the first verse could be titled "questions to which the answer is 'no, of course not, don't be silly!'"
Make Way - that March for Jesus Kendrick number. It is what it is
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind - whatever Ken, late of this parish may say, one of the better parts of the list.
Then it really took a turn downhill
Be Still for the Presence of the Lord - Argh! Baggage! Memories of people laying hands on people praying in tongues. Argh! Run away!
As the Deer - no. Just no.
Then the worst of all:
God save the Queen.
None of it helped by a single manual organ as the only source of accompaniment; I have a suspicion that the organist plays simplified rearranged versions of things as (a) they don't appear to be in the keys I know, (b) he appears to have bits of paper rather than books, and (c) the harmonies are often rather off.
I came away thinking a Martian who'd wondered in might be left wondering which member of the Trinity the Queen was.
Note in view of the thread title, I didn't sing all of the above personally this morning. Especially not the last one.
You sent me a googling, the wiki page has rather more variants than I was expecting. It looks like special verses were done for other jubilees - and the is a complete alternate “peace” version formally approved by the privy council in 1919 !
However
The readings in the Lectionary were about firstly the Calling of Isaiah, and then the Calling of Peter, James and John so the hymns covered the Jubilee also
Here I am Lord
Psalm and Alleluia
Do not be afraid (in modo Bossa Nova when I play it)
Celtic Mass (hooray! finally getting away from the wretched four hymn sandwich and singing the Mass also)
One Bread one Body
In the land there is a hunger.
Our lot love Here I am Lord so they sang it with gusto which continued for the rest of Mass,
Well, well. I don't suppose the official *peace* version gets sung very much...the tories preferring to ask God to vanquish HM's enemies, and frustrate their knavish tricks (the enemies' tricks, that is, though a bit of frustration of the tories' tricks wouldn't come amiss).
I have no idea what was sung at Our Place, as I Wasn't There™, and I wouldn't have joined in warbling the National Dirge, anyway.
It being assumed that it is somehow something we can all sing or that it's about our Nation irritates me in all manner of ways.
As to the rest of @KarlLB's list, I'm OK with most of them, bar Jerusalem (good tune though it might possess). I like As The Deer, but prefer the original Genevan Psalm version from 1564.
Mind you, since Our Place gets Happy Birthday, dear Jesus/dear Mary (delete as appropriate), along with Auld Lang Syne, (or its tune), and the National Dirge, at any and every opportunity, maybe Jerusalem would make a nice change.
Or they could sing some proper hymns, with objective theology and such.
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty (NICAEA)
Lord Jesus Christ (LIVING LORD; strong memories of 100 hymns for today with this one, though I will say it has an accompaniment composed to help you come in at the right time)
Lord you have come to the seashore (PESCADOR DE HOMBRES)
O let the son of God enfold you
Forth in thy name (ANGEL'S SONG)