It works best if it slowly speeds up, verse by verse.
Gets it over with I suppose.
I knew a chap who refused to play it many years ago. He played all the other songs that Sunday...
The faux hebraic songs that were in fashion in the 70s and 80s do seem to have died a death.
It works best if it slowly speeds up, verse by verse.
Gets it over with I suppose.
I knew a chap who refused to play it many years ago. He played all the other songs that Sunday...
The faux hebraic songs that were in fashion in the 70s and 80s do seem to have died a death.
One of the verses of the spoof version goes "They often have a somewhat Jewish melody"
@Piglet Am I missing something, would you not need the full music version for the choir and leave the melody only (or even words only) for the congregation?
The "choir", such as it is, is just a few people who sit at the back* of the church and sing the melody. None of them claims to be able to read music, and while they can hold the melody if there's someone singing it strongly enough, I don't think any of the ladies could really make much sense of an alto part. The guitarist's wife, who is also one of the volunteer organists, sometimes adds a bit of harmony the chorusy type songs, which is nice, but she's not always available.
As I maybe mentioned above, the gentlemen** sometimes add tenor or bass, but in a rather approximate fashion. From that perspective, I don't reckon full score books would be of much value.
* There's no space at the front, and no choir stalls; the most sensible place for the singers is at the back, where we can drive the singing from behind, as it were!
** sadly, one of our two gentlemen is unwell and not coming to church just now. He's also 93, and although still not a bad singer, I suspect we may not have his company again.
The difference between the American assumption that the congregation can read music and benefit from a full score while in the UK we can't even expect the choir to be able to read music is striking.
We teach this stuff in school so I don't understand why.
I honestly can't remember whether I was taught to read music in school, or when I started having piano lessons (at about age 7). It may have been a bit of both.
The difference between the American assumption that the congregation can read music and benefit from a full score . . . .
I don’t know that the American assumption is quite that the congregation as a whole can read music. I think it’s more an assumption that a reasonable percentage of people in a congregation can read music, and that them having the music will help the congregation as a whole. I think there’s also an assumption that among those who can’t read music, they can still see that notes go up or down and can see things like when syllables are spread over more than one note. I’ve heard people in our congregation say that they don’t like it when just the words are printed in the bulletin (unless the tune is familiar) because even though they don’t read music as such, having the music is helpful to them for those reasons.
I would be surprised if anyone in the last 30 years has learned to read music in non-specialist UK state schools.
*waves*
I did. Bog standard comp with a socioeconomically mixed intake.
I would, however, point out that there is a huge gap between learning how to read music and being able to sight read or to hold a harmony line with confidence. I do sometimes wonder whether teaching choral singing would be a more productive use of mainstream school music lessons than trying to half-arse teaching composition and musical analysis.
Comments
Gets it over with I suppose.
I knew a chap who refused to play it many years ago. He played all the other songs that Sunday...
The faux hebraic songs that were in fashion in the 70s and 80s do seem to have died a death.
One of the verses of the spoof version goes "They often have a somewhat Jewish melody"
As I maybe mentioned above, the gentlemen** sometimes add tenor or bass, but in a rather approximate fashion. From that perspective, I don't reckon full score books would be of much value.
* There's no space at the front, and no choir stalls; the most sensible place for the singers is at the back, where we can drive the singing from behind, as it were!
** sadly, one of our two gentlemen is unwell and not coming to church just now. He's also 93, and although still not a bad singer, I suspect we may not have his company again.
We teach this stuff in school so I don't understand why.
*waves*
I did. Bog standard comp with a socioeconomically mixed intake.
I would, however, point out that there is a huge gap between learning how to read music and being able to sight read or to hold a harmony line with confidence. I do sometimes wonder whether teaching choral singing would be a more productive use of mainstream school music lessons than trying to half-arse teaching composition and musical analysis.