Hymns Old & New

I dislike Hymns Old & New. It has some crass arrangements in it. I am due to play one tomorrow. Some of these arrangements were made by a composer who I would have thought knew better.

A new hymn for me

This hymn was on yesterday's list. A new one for me and a nice tune.

Another new hymn

On Sunday I shall play another hymn which is new to me, "Only by Grace". I'm not sure it really suits the organ but I will manage. Strangely I quite like it.

I looked for it on YouTube and found a few versions. I was annoyed that the video below does not include the syncopation quite correctly on 'enter' at the end of line 1 and in similar places. There is also a melodic line which, in my printed copy, goes B B B B G B B C at 'Into your presence you call us'. I did not find any videos where I could hear the G. A couple went to an A as a lower auxiliary note to the harmony; others fudged it and there was no distinct pitch.

Come on people: if you are going to have modern hymns, sing them correctly.

A new hymn

I will be playing a hymn which is new, to me, on Sunday. I quite like it though. It is by Bernadette Farrell.

The service is a special one for the recently bereaved.

Hymns as punctuation

As an organist I play a lot of hymns. It sometimes seems to me that hymns are just punctuation points in the service and are only there because they are expected.

In fact, services start and end with a hymn so I feel these are important. One of my current gripes is that, after the Introit hymn, when our appetites have been whetted for worship, the service grinds to a halt and there are notices and other verbiage neither of which appear in the printed order of service.

Sometimes only the choir sing the communion hymn and people are obviously distracted in the Offertory hymn putting their collection in the bag (if that still happens post-COVID). Given that the Gradual hymn vanished temporarily one wonders what the point of hymns is.

No information

I am playing for a funeral tomorrow. As yet I do no tknow the hymns. In years gone by this would not have bothered me. These days I look at hymns in advance just in case they are in different keys to the ones with which I am familiar. There is also one book in common use in which the harmony and arrangements are pretty poor. Add to that the fact that some people now select hymns which I may not know and it can be risky to turn up without preparation.

Block a hymn

This has been around for a while (since 2015) but has just surfaced (again) on Facebook. The full story is HERE.

Hymns for children

If I ever have to play "Kumbaya, My Lord" I am not sure what I shall do: I hate it. (I could, however, listen to the great Judith Durham singing anything.)

Yes, children need approachable hymn repertoire but, by the time I was at primary school, we were singing 'proper' hymns and we had hymn practice every week. The only 'new' items we had were when the Twentieth Century tunes were first introduced in the late 1960s, such as "At the Name of Jesus" to Camberwell which is fine.

So, imagine my dismay when I found "We have a King who rides a donkey" in a hymn book.

 I'm sorry, but it does nothing for me. Can you see what I mean?

No Gradual Hymn Again

Following previous posts (Here and Here), church #2 of the Benefice in which I play will continue to drop the Gradual hymn whilst church #1 has reinstated it.

It turns out that this is good news for tomorrow - Fathers' day - as I need to get away for lunch. How can it be needed in one place and not in the other? I suspect the answer lies in the size of the congregation.

I am slowly coming round to the idea that not having a Gradual hymn is quite a good idea as it means the service is not as long.

Busy June

I am busy. I am playing for services every Sunday this month except one and for a Flower festival today and tomorrow. I also have two funerals to play for and a renewal of marriage vows.

The sad thing is that both the funerals both include "All Things Bright and Beautiful" which I have previously mentioned is a terrible hymn.

One of the funerals has come with the instruction to play something uplifting on the way in and on the way out. Talk about vague.

Hymns and drumkits

The RSCM has started a new initiative called Hymnpact. If that link stops working try HERE.

The samples they have put up all include a drumkit. So it seems that one cannot worship God without percussion (I suppose that is Biblical if you look at Psalm 150 but "Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals" doesn't mention drums).

Rhythm and vitality are certainly important in church music but there is a general feeling in circulation that traditional organ playing and 'old' hymns have lost their impact, especially for young people. I see more and more drumkits in churches these days.

The other side of the coin is that the organ can provide the sense of majesty which is so important in worship and this depends upon the skill of the musician and the size of the organ at their disposal. A small worn out instrument is, I admit, not going to have the effect of a large cathedral instrument.

When I came across Beauty in Sound's 2022 Easter Virtual Church, it seemed to me that the last thing required was a drumkit.

I suppose it depends upon the tradition in which one has been brought up

Yes Gradual Hymn

I have just had the hymn list for the next few months from one church where I play. The Gradual hymn is back! 😀

No Gradual Hymn

At two churches where I play the organ they have scrapped the Gradual Hymn. This is on the basis that they wanted to reduce the amount of singing during Covid and, presumably, the amount of time people are in the building by reducing the service time. (Hint - shorten the sermons!).

The services start with an Introit hymn. To my mind there is a very long time between singing the Gloria which is soon afterwards, until the Offertory hymn which follows all the readings (3), sermon, Creed, Intercessions and Peace. The service seems unbalanced.

I believe this change will remain and hymnody will again suffer.