Slightly O/T, but some followers of this thread might want to tune in to BBC Radio 3 tomorrow.
As part of Radio 3's 'Capturing Twilight' season, throughout Sunday 31st October the Tallis Scholars evoke the ancient Christian tradition of the Divine Office. Starting just as UK clocks change back to Greenwich Mean Time at 1am, they sing settings of words and psalms associated with each of the eight offices, or Canonical Hours, across the day. The Tallis Scholars' director Peter Philips introduces each of the offices at roughly three-hour intervals, beginning with Matins (01.00), then Lauds (04.00), Prime (06.30), Terce (09.00), Sext (12.00), None (15.30), Vespers (18.45), and ending with Compline (21.45), reflecting the time of the day with Latin chant interspersed with polyphony from across the centuries. Times given above are GMT / UTC
More info on the BBC web site: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00113ts
Lord I lift your name on high Rick Founds
Be my eyes (God I’m yours) Nick & Becky Drake
Cornerstone Dennis Morgan, Stephen Davis
God I look to you Ian McIntosh, Jenn Johnson
My Jesus, My Saviour Darlene Zschech
Love Divine (BLAEWERN)
Psalm 103 (MARTYRDOM, because I don't know COLESHILL)
What a friend we have in Jesus (CONVERSE)
The latter two were amended in the light of the passing yesterday of one of the elders and a dear friend of many of us at the age of 67.
Abide with me (EVENTIDE)
Amazing grace (NEW BRITAIN)
All things praise Thee
God in his love for us lent us this planet
How wonderful this world of Thine
Yes, God is good in earth and sky
I only knew the first of these, and not to that tune, and frankly neither words nor music of any of them made me want to sing them ever again. In fact it was a fairly boring service, which made me sad: worship might be sad sometimes, but surely should never be boring.
Today is Reformation Day, at least among Lutherans and my tribe of Presbyterians, so we had:
I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art/TOULON* All People That on Earth Do Dwell/OLD HUNDREDTH The Lord Is God/AZMON A Mighty Fortress Is Our God/EIN FESTE BURG
Quite rousing, and definitely not boring.
*As I noted when we sang this one on September 12, the text first appeared in the 1545 Strasbourg Psalter (as Je te salue, mon certain Redempteur) and is traditionally attributed to Calvin. It doesn’t seem to appear in hymnals outside the Reformed tradition.
I only knew the first of these, and not to that tune, and frankly neither words nor music of any of them made me want to sing them ever again. In fact it was a fairly boring service, which made me sad: worship might be sad sometimes, but surely should never be boring.
All things praise Thee
God in his love for us lent us this planet
How wonderful this world of Thine
Yes, God is good in earth and sky
I only knew the first of these, and not to that tune, and frankly neither words nor music of any of them made me want to sing them ever again. In fact it was a fairly boring service, which made me sad: worship might be sad sometimes, but surely should never be boring.
I know the second and fourth and quite like them, but that may simply be an artefact of having learned them as a child.
All things praise Thee
God in his love for us lent us this planet
How wonderful this world of Thine
Yes, God is good in earth and sky
I only knew the first of these, and not to that tune, and frankly neither words nor music of any of them made me want to sing them ever again. In fact it was a fairly boring service, which made me sad: worship might be sad sometimes, but surely should never be boring.
It almost always is IME. In fact were I to be asked for a one word summary of my experience of church over 35 years of attendance...
We had normal service in the morning and evening was All Saints.
Parish Eucharist
The Downside Mass Murray
Ubi caritas et amor Duruflė
All people that on earth do dwell
The Church triumphant in thy love
Alleluia, sing to Jesus
Glory, love and praise and honour
Concerto in A minor (Allegro) Bach
Evensong
Responses Sumsion
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in B minor Noble
How beauteous are their feet Stanford
For all the saints
Who are these, like stars appearing
Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons Duruflé
We had normal service in the morning and evening was All Saints.
Parish Eucharist
The Downside Mass Murray
Ubi caritas et amor Duruflė
All people that on earth do dwell
The Church triumphant in thy love
Alleluia, sing to Jesus
Glory, love and praise and honour
Concerto in A minor (Allegro) Bach
Evensong
Responses Sumsion
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in B minor Noble
How beauteous are their feet Stanford
For all the saints
Who are these, like stars appearing
Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons Duruflé
Biggish choir, partly because the junior section is the only non-sport youth activity in 2 villages.
Plus a fair number of singing exiles from happy-clappy establishments. Every time some place goes down the worship song route we gain one or two competent singers.
There must be some other factor at play, as around here given a choice between Nothing and Singing In A Church Choir, 99%+ of our young people would be queuing to sign up for Nothing.
There must be some other factor at play, as around here given a choice between Nothing and Singing In A Church Choir, 99%+ of our young people would be queuing to sign up for Nothing.
A well run, high standard church choir does attract a surprisingly large number, but of course even 1% of the young people in most locales would look like a large number to most churches.
There must be some other factor at play, as around here given a choice between Nothing and Singing In A Church Choir, 99%+ of our young people would be queuing to sign up for Nothing.
Around here at least, it's for choral scholarships.
We continued the sermon series on the Creed, today on ‘The holy catholic church, the communion of Saints’. Songs were:
You are the God who made the mountains - Morrison
In the darkness we were waiting - Bullock
We’ve come to join the song (be enthroned) - Riddle/ Bethel
We were once in darkness - Caroe et al (written by members of our congregation and chorus sung in 4 African languages)
We kept All Saints yesterday, having been visited by the Faith Mission last week (if anything were to encourage belief in karmic retribution...), so we had:
For all the saints (SINE NOMINE)
The earth belongs to God alone (ST MATTHEW)
Inspired by love and anger (SALLEY GARDENS)
All hail the power of Jesus' name (MILES LANE)
My life flows on in endless song (HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING)
I like the selection though I don't know "The earth belongs ...". I think of St. Matthew linked to "O send thy light forth" (although in your context it would have been good to "Come, let us join our friends above"). I don't quite understand the Faith Mission reference ... (my nephew-in-law worked with them for some years).
I like the selection though I don't know "The earth belongs ...". I think of St. Matthew linked to "O send thy light forth" (although in your context it would have been good to "Come, let us join our friends above"). I don't quite understand the Faith Mission reference ... (my nephew-in-law worked with them for some years).
A visit from the Faith Mission makes me wonder whether I'm being punished for something done in a previous life. In fairness the chap was more sensible than usual, but couldn't quite manage to curtail his hinted threats of damnation for those who don't believe or (it certainly seemed) don't believe in the way he does. He has a background, I understand, in the Free Church of Scotland, which takes as an article of faith that the Kirk is full of backsliders, erastians, Laodiceans and crypto-Papists.
EDIT: The earth belongs to God alone is a metrical version of Psalm 24, in this case with the verses paired to fit the longer meter of the tune.
Interestingly the FM originally had an Arminian Basis of Faith, and in its early days spent a lot of time telling Highlanders, convinced that they were not among the Elect, that they could indeed be saved.
PS In Scotland "O send thy light forth" must surely be sung to "Invocation".
We had the Widow's Mite.
All are welcome (Haugan) or as I think of it "Most aren't welcome." Possible the smuggest of all smug and complacent hymns.
Psalm sung (responsorially to my own setting.)
Take this moment (Bell)
The Lord hears cry of the poor (Foley)
Be not afraid (Dufford)
I was not well enough to attend yesterday, but the hymns were:
Will you come and follow me?
O thou who camest from above
And can it be
During Communion: The true and living bread
Fortunately we now have three new sopranos( like me, refugees from a church whose choir has been disbanded), so I felt I could take a day off to recover. When everyone is there, we now have 5 sopranos, four altos and one bass/ tenor.
I was not well enough to attend yesterday, but the hymns were:
Will you come and follow me?
O thou who camest from above
And can it be
During Communion: The true and living bread
Fortunately we now have three new sopranos( like me, refugees from a church whose choir has been disbanded), so I felt I could take a day off to recover. When everyone is there, we now have 5 sopranos, four altos and one bass/ tenor.
Ah, memories of being the only man in a choir. I'm a tenor, but the bass line was considered more important. Yeah, I can sing a bottom G (with a favourable wind even a low E) but not so anyone further away than the row in front can hear it.
Other voices regularly found in church choirs:
Altano - alto who can't hold a line so sings soprano;
Sopralto - soprano who can read music so sings alto;
Smonor - lady tenor who is that way because of a 40 a day habit over several decades;
Sopranor - a gentleman who thinks he's singing tenor but is actually singing the tune an octave lower;
Barinor - baritone forced to sing tenor alongside the Smonor because there are no actual tenors.
Little known factoid - I am informed that true basses are even rarer than true tenors. In this day and age we need more SAB music where the B stands for Baritone. Or even MB, as women's voices similarly tend towards Mezzo.
I was not well enough to attend yesterday, but the hymns were:
Will you come and follow me?
O thou who camest from above
And can it be
During Communion: The true and living bread
Fortunately we now have three new sopranos( like me, refugees from a church whose choir has been disbanded), so I felt I could take a day off to recover. When everyone is there, we now have 5 sopranos, four altos and one bass/ tenor.
Ah, memories of being the only man in a choir. I'm a tenor, but the bass line was considered more important. Yeah, I can sing a bottom G (with a favourable wind even a low E) but not so anyone further away than the row in front can hear it.
Other voices regularly found in church choirs:
Altano - alto who can't hold a line so sings soprano;
Sopralto - soprano who can read music so sings alto;
Smonor - lady tenor who is that way because of a 40 a day habit over several decades;
Sopranor - a gentleman who thinks he's singing tenor but is actually singing the tune an octave lower;
Barinor - baritone forced to sing tenor alongside the Smonor because there are no actual tenors.
Little known factoid - I am informed that true basses are even rarer than true tenors. In this day and age we need more SAB music where the B stands for Baritone. Or even MB, as women's voices similarly tend towards Mezzo.
You have neatly summed up why I have never wanted to start a choir in any church where I have been organist.
I was not well enough to attend yesterday, but the hymns were:
Will you come and follow me?
O thou who camest from above
And can it be
During Communion: The true and living bread
Fortunately we now have three new sopranos( like me, refugees from a church whose choir has been disbanded), so I felt I could take a day off to recover. When everyone is there, we now have 5 sopranos, four altos and one bass/ tenor.
Ah, memories of being the only man in a choir. I'm a tenor, but the bass line was considered more important. Yeah, I can sing a bottom G (with a favourable wind even a low E) but not so anyone further away than the row in front can hear it.
Other voices regularly found in church choirs:
Altano - alto who can't hold a line so sings soprano;
Sopralto - soprano who can read music so sings alto;
Smonor - lady tenor who is that way because of a 40 a day habit over several decades;
Sopranor - a gentleman who thinks he's singing tenor but is actually singing the tune an octave lower;
Barinor - baritone forced to sing tenor alongside the Smonor because there are no actual tenors.
Little known factoid - I am informed that true basses are even rarer than true tenors. In this day and age we need more SAB music where the B stands for Baritone. Or even MB, as women's voices similarly tend towards Mezzo.
I'm not a skilled enough musician to ascertain whether I'm a "true" bass. Most bass parts are comfortably within my range but I've encountered a few where the bottom note ends up more a muddy growl. Tenor is usually too high for me, but in any case I usually sing "sopranor" to provide a lead to the congregation. When pre-recording I have been known to sing sopranor, altbass, pseutenor and bass.
I was not well enough to attend yesterday, but the hymns were:
Will you come and follow me?
O thou who camest from above
And can it be
During Communion: The true and living bread
Fortunately we now have three new sopranos( like me, refugees from a church whose choir has been disbanded), so I felt I could take a day off to recover. When everyone is there, we now have 5 sopranos, four altos and one bass/ tenor.
Ah, memories of being the only man in a choir. I'm a tenor, but the bass line was considered more important. Yeah, I can sing a bottom G (with a favourable wind even a low E) but not so anyone further away than the row in front can hear it.
Other voices regularly found in church choirs:
Altano - alto who can't hold a line so sings soprano;
Sopralto - soprano who can read music so sings alto;
Smonor - lady tenor who is that way because of a 40 a day habit over several decades;
Sopranor - a gentleman who thinks he's singing tenor but is actually singing the tune an octave lower;
Barinor - baritone forced to sing tenor alongside the Smonor because there are no actual tenors.
Little known factoid - I am informed that true basses are even rarer than true tenors. In this day and age we need more SAB music where the B stands for Baritone. Or even MB, as women's voices similarly tend towards Mezzo.
I'm not a skilled enough musician to ascertain whether I'm a "true" bass. Most bass parts are comfortably within my range but I've encountered a few where the bottom note ends up more a muddy growl. Tenor is usually too high for me, but in any case I usually sing "sopranor" to provide a lead to the congregation. When pre-recording I have been known to sing sopranor, altbass, pseutenor and bass.
Yes we did a scratch performance of Messiah at Uni where I sang every part from strangled gonads down to contra-waffle.
(Seriously - yes, been then, done that, got the tuning fork).
Alas my aging vocal chords won't let me do the soprano parts any more, even at a squeal. Their top F is as far as I can get, and that needs a good run up. Which is odd, because I can reach a D without going falsetto.
With the increased forces in our church choir, I can now indulge myself occasionally in the odd verse of a hymn and sing other parts sotto voce- eg tenor as a descant, alto if it has a rich melody and is not too low, rarely bass as it is much too low, but in tunes I know well, I have all the harmonies in my head already eg Fulda, and I enjoy practising my sight reading to learn new parts.
With the increased forces in our church choir, I can now indulge myself occasionally in the odd verse of a hymn and sing other parts sotto voce- eg tenor as a descant, alto if it has a rich melody and is not too low, rarely bass as it is much too low, but in tunes I know well, I have all the harmonies in my head already eg Fulda, and I enjoy practising my sight reading to learn new parts.
Bass can be transposed up an octave and should be the same range as Alto. One presumes you're doing that with the Tenor anyway as otherwise it wouldn't be a descant.
An alto line with a melody at all is a rarity in hymnody. I think some harmonisers believe they're on a mission to keep the alto part to a range narrow enough that Morrissey would have been happy with it on a day when he was feeling particularly miserable.
"Oh bugger, I've got to use a chord which means I have to take the Alto off that G they've been on for four bars. F# it is for two beats...."
An alto line with a melody at all is a rarity in hymnody. I think some harmonisers believe they're on a mission to keep the alto part to a range narrow enough that Morrissey would have been happy with it on a day when he was feeling particularly miserable.
"Oh bugger, I've got to use a chord which means I have to take the Alto off that G they've been on for four bars. F# it is for two beats...."
That's where contrapuntal music is so good - every part gets melodies! Admittedly stitching them together may prove more of a challenge; and it doesn't apply to many hymns.
@KarlLB the more Apocalyptic hymns for Lent tend to be pretty good for alto melodies, speaking as an alto (or at least, I *think* I am still an alto - voice hasn't dropped a lot on T). I assume they exist for Advent too but I don't know of any. It's definitely part of why Lent is my favourite liturgical season. Come Quickly, Dread Judge Of All is a banger and extremely appropriate for a world on literal and metaphorical fire.
Back at "my" drop in centre, we sang-mumbled inter alia "10, 000 Reasons" again, sung this time through masks because we're struggling to open after our recent re-lockdown. Despite numbers being halved through fears and misinformations and government restrictions and losses of momentum, and despite the 15 or present singing said "10, 000 Reasons" in about 5,000 different keys and timings and I dunno what else, it was kind of Goddy, because these once again were the poor and broken and happy to be back (Dylan's "hung out strung out ones and worse").
@KarlLB the more Apocalyptic hymns for Lent tend to be pretty good for alto melodies, speaking as an alto (or at least, I *think* I am still an alto - voice hasn't dropped a lot on T). I assume they exist for Advent too but I don't know of any. It's definitely part of why Lent is my favourite liturgical season. Come Quickly, Dread Judge Of All is a banger and extremely appropriate for a world on literal and metaphorical fire.
Surely O quickly come, dread judge of all is better in Advent?
Remembrance Sunday service this morning. Our place has the town's war memorial and hosts the British Legion parade (our rector is chaplain to the local branch), so the service follows very traditional lines with reading of the Roll of Honour, and two minutes' silence sandwiched between a trumpeter playing the Last Post & Reveille.
Crown him with Many Crowns DIADEMATA
O God our Help in Ages Past ST ANNE
The Lord's my Shepherd (Stuart Townend)
Praise my Soul the King of Heaven LAUDA ANIMA
The National Anthem (plenty has been said about this elsewhere!)
Eternal Father, strong to save - to modern words.
Hope for the world’s despair- to the tune of My song is love unknown
Make me a channel of your peace
All my hope on God is founded
We had:
Lord of life we come to you (ERISKAY LOVE LILT)
Lord make us channels of your peace (O WALY WALY)
Psalm 25 - Lord teach me all thy ways (GARELOCHSIDE)
For healing of the nations (RHUDDLAN)
Lord for the years (LORD OF THE YEARS)
And yes, I also noticed that four of the five hymns start with the same word. I had to very careful labelling the audio files and lyric overlays to avoid confusing myself.
Started in silence and observed the two minutes silence.
In bread we bring you Lord
Make me a channel of you peace
Abide with me.
Plus the usual Mass bits.
Visiting the Cathskitten in Edinburgh who worships at Central (Baptist). I didn’t know any of the worship songs which are sung repetitively but I noticed that they were all in the first person singular.
However I had a good chuckle when one of then sported the line that Jesus helps the leper change his spots. Bit of a mixed metaphor there!
@KarlLB the more Apocalyptic hymns for Lent tend to be pretty good for alto melodies, speaking as an alto (or at least, I *think* I am still an alto - voice hasn't dropped a lot on T). I assume they exist for Advent too but I don't know of any. It's definitely part of why Lent is my favourite liturgical season. Come Quickly, Dread Judge Of All is a banger and extremely appropriate for a world on literal and metaphorical fire.
Surely O quickly come, dread judge of all is better in Advent?
Comments
As part of Radio 3's 'Capturing Twilight' season, throughout Sunday 31st October the Tallis Scholars evoke the ancient Christian tradition of the Divine Office. Starting just as UK clocks change back to Greenwich Mean Time at 1am, they sing settings of words and psalms associated with each of the eight offices, or Canonical Hours, across the day. The Tallis Scholars' director Peter Philips introduces each of the offices at roughly three-hour intervals, beginning with Matins (01.00), then Lauds (04.00), Prime (06.30), Terce (09.00), Sext (12.00), None (15.30), Vespers (18.45), and ending with Compline (21.45), reflecting the time of the day with Latin chant interspersed with polyphony from across the centuries. Times given above are GMT / UTC
More info on the BBC web site:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00113ts
For in truth, what I sing of a Sunday is what is offered preferably on the radio or push-to-shove online.
Be my eyes (God I’m yours) Nick & Becky Drake
Cornerstone Dennis Morgan, Stephen Davis
God I look to you Ian McIntosh, Jenn Johnson
My Jesus, My Saviour Darlene Zschech
Love Divine (BLAEWERN)
Do not be afraid
For all the Saints
Centre of my life
The Beatitudes.
What a friend we have in Jesus (CONVERSE)
The latter two were amended in the light of the passing yesterday of one of the elders and a dear friend of many of us at the age of 67.
Abide with me (EVENTIDE)
Amazing grace (NEW BRITAIN)
All things praise Thee
God in his love for us lent us this planet
How wonderful this world of Thine
Yes, God is good in earth and sky
I only knew the first of these, and not to that tune, and frankly neither words nor music of any of them made me want to sing them ever again. In fact it was a fairly boring service, which made me sad: worship might be sad sometimes, but surely should never be boring.
Today is Reformation Day, at least among Lutherans and my tribe of Presbyterians, so we had:
I Greet Thee Who My Sure Redeemer Art/TOULON*
All People That on Earth Do Dwell/OLD HUNDREDTH
The Lord Is God/AZMON
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God/EIN FESTE BURG
Quite rousing, and definitely not boring.
*As I noted when we sang this one on September 12, the text first appeared in the 1545 Strasbourg Psalter (as Je te salue, mon certain Redempteur) and is traditionally attributed to Calvin. It doesn’t seem to appear in hymnals outside the Reformed tradition.
I’m not sure what I was trying to make COP mean, but I wasn’t thinking in terms of current events.
I’ll go sit in the corner now.
That's it, absolutely nothing. We're allowed live services again but no singing yet.
Oh, there's an awful lot of that
I know the second and fourth and quite like them, but that may simply be an artefact of having learned them as a child.
It almost always is IME. In fact were I to be asked for a one word summary of my experience of church over 35 years of attendance...
Yep. Boring is the word.
I wish it were not so.
Parish Eucharist
The Downside Mass Murray
Ubi caritas et amor Duruflė
All people that on earth do dwell
The Church triumphant in thy love
Alleluia, sing to Jesus
Glory, love and praise and honour
Concerto in A minor (Allegro) Bach
Evensong
Responses Sumsion
Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis in B minor Noble
How beauteous are their feet Stanford
For all the saints
Who are these, like stars appearing
Fugue sur le thème du Carillon des Heures de la Cathédrale de Soissons Duruflé
Now thats rich fare indeed. Where was it?
They must have quite a choir to do that. And quite an organist too.
Plus a fair number of singing exiles from happy-clappy establishments. Every time some place goes down the worship song route we gain one or two competent singers.
A well run, high standard church choir does attract a surprisingly large number, but of course even 1% of the young people in most locales would look like a large number to most churches.
Around here at least, it's for choral scholarships.
You are the God who made the mountains - Morrison
In the darkness we were waiting - Bullock
We’ve come to join the song (be enthroned) - Riddle/ Bethel
We were once in darkness - Caroe et al (written by members of our congregation and chorus sung in 4 African languages)
For all the saints (SINE NOMINE)
The earth belongs to God alone (ST MATTHEW)
Inspired by love and anger (SALLEY GARDENS)
All hail the power of Jesus' name (MILES LANE)
My life flows on in endless song (HOW CAN I KEEP FROM SINGING)
A visit from the Faith Mission makes me wonder whether I'm being punished for something done in a previous life. In fairness the chap was more sensible than usual, but couldn't quite manage to curtail his hinted threats of damnation for those who don't believe or (it certainly seemed) don't believe in the way he does. He has a background, I understand, in the Free Church of Scotland, which takes as an article of faith that the Kirk is full of backsliders, erastians, Laodiceans and crypto-Papists.
EDIT: The earth belongs to God alone is a metrical version of Psalm 24, in this case with the verses paired to fit the longer meter of the tune.
Interestingly the FM originally had an Arminian Basis of Faith, and in its early days spent a lot of time telling Highlanders, convinced that they were not among the Elect, that they could indeed be saved.
PS In Scotland "O send thy light forth" must surely be sung to "Invocation".
Thus sayeth CH4, certainly.
All are welcome (Haugan) or as I think of it "Most aren't welcome." Possible the smuggest of all smug and complacent hymns.
Psalm sung (responsorially to my own setting.)
Take this moment (Bell)
The Lord hears cry of the poor (Foley)
Be not afraid (Dufford)
Will you come and follow me?
O thou who camest from above
And can it be
During Communion: The true and living bread
Fortunately we now have three new sopranos( like me, refugees from a church whose choir has been disbanded), so I felt I could take a day off to recover. When everyone is there, we now have 5 sopranos, four altos and one bass/ tenor.
Ah, memories of being the only man in a choir. I'm a tenor, but the bass line was considered more important. Yeah, I can sing a bottom G (with a favourable wind even a low E) but not so anyone further away than the row in front can hear it.
Other voices regularly found in church choirs:
Altano - alto who can't hold a line so sings soprano;
Sopralto - soprano who can read music so sings alto;
Smonor - lady tenor who is that way because of a 40 a day habit over several decades;
Sopranor - a gentleman who thinks he's singing tenor but is actually singing the tune an octave lower;
Barinor - baritone forced to sing tenor alongside the Smonor because there are no actual tenors.
Little known factoid - I am informed that true basses are even rarer than true tenors. In this day and age we need more SAB music where the B stands for Baritone. Or even MB, as women's voices similarly tend towards Mezzo.
You have neatly summed up why I have never wanted to start a choir in any church where I have been organist.
I'm not a skilled enough musician to ascertain whether I'm a "true" bass. Most bass parts are comfortably within my range but I've encountered a few where the bottom note ends up more a muddy growl. Tenor is usually too high for me, but in any case I usually sing "sopranor" to provide a lead to the congregation. When pre-recording I have been known to sing sopranor, altbass, pseutenor and bass.
Yes we did a scratch performance of Messiah at Uni where I sang every part from strangled gonads down to contra-waffle.
(Seriously - yes, been then, done that, got the tuning fork).
Alas my aging vocal chords won't let me do the soprano parts any more, even at a squeal. Their top F is as far as I can get, and that needs a good run up. Which is odd, because I can reach a D without going falsetto.
Bass can be transposed up an octave and should be the same range as Alto. One presumes you're doing that with the Tenor anyway as otherwise it wouldn't be a descant.
An alto line with a melody at all is a rarity in hymnody. I think some harmonisers believe they're on a mission to keep the alto part to a range narrow enough that Morrissey would have been happy with it on a day when he was feeling particularly miserable.
"Oh bugger, I've got to use a chord which means I have to take the Alto off that G they've been on for four bars. F# it is for two beats...."
I could grow fond of that song.
Surely O quickly come, dread judge of all is better in Advent?
Crown him with Many Crowns DIADEMATA
O God our Help in Ages Past ST ANNE
The Lord's my Shepherd (Stuart Townend)
Praise my Soul the King of Heaven LAUDA ANIMA
The National Anthem (plenty has been said about this elsewhere!)
Hope for the world’s despair- to the tune of My song is love unknown
Make me a channel of your peace
All my hope on God is founded
Lord of life we come to you (ERISKAY LOVE LILT)
Lord make us channels of your peace (O WALY WALY)
Psalm 25 - Lord teach me all thy ways (GARELOCHSIDE)
For healing of the nations (RHUDDLAN)
Lord for the years (LORD OF THE YEARS)
And yes, I also noticed that four of the five hymns start with the same word. I had to very careful labelling the audio files and lyric overlays to avoid confusing myself.
In bread we bring you Lord
Make me a channel of you peace
Abide with me.
Plus the usual Mass bits.
However I had a good chuckle when one of then sported the line that Jesus helps the leper change his spots. Bit of a mixed metaphor there!
That's true, but I've only heard it in Lent.
“Make me a channel of your peace”.
“When will people cease their fighting?” (Dim Ond Iesu).
“For the healing of the nations” (Rhuddlan).
“Sing we the King who is coming to reign” (The Glory Song).