Church Music
Barnabas62
Purgatory Host, 8th Day Host, Epiphanies Host
Here is a link to Yet more crappy choruses etc on the old website.
Feel free to add to this thread or create a new thread on a subset of the overall topic,
Feel free to add to this thread or create a new thread on a subset of the overall topic,
Comments
Hymns, how do you like them?
Eutychus
Purgatory host
On the whole I have what is apparently a maverick view that congregational singing is a historical artefact; communal singing is not something people do any more. I heard something on the radio about how it's dying in it its last cultural stronghold, the football terrace.
Church singing is a bit more refined and off putting.
It's exposed. Everyone can hear anyone singing louder than a sotto voce mumble. At least that's how it feels.
Ac wrth gwrs dydy Cymry ddim yn Lloegr / and of course Wales isn't England.
Sung as quickly as possible.
I would find only singing joyful songs to be incredibly dull. There are occasions where you need slow. (I would also suggest that what makes something "joyful" changes over time- I can hardly imagine someone writing an Easter hymn today settling on a tune that sounds anything like Christ Lag in Todes Banden.)
And like my suit and tie, you can take communal singing from my cold dead hands.
Our church has to use pre-recorded music and, the other week, we had "Crugybar". Afterwards there were several complaints that it was too fast. This was true, but we couldn't change it!
Change the three crotchets in each bar for two dotted crotchets and one undotted. Turns 3/4 into a driving syncopated 4/4
And they tend to go flat during the penultimate line.
Probably because they always start it too high.
Here in the US, I've noticed that people at other tables rarely sing anymore when something with a candle is brought to a table for someone's birthday. And the waitstaff often don't sing anymore either. Just the people at the same table as the person whose birthday it is, if even that. Of course, sometimes the candle is for an anniversary or something else other than a birthday (which may just be a US thing). But I think a lot of restaurants are wary of making a public spectacle of a guest unless they specifically request it - and more people just don't want too much attention drawn to them on their birthday unless they personally decide to have one of those big noisy birthdays. I however, do still try to sing whenever I see candles coming out to another table, but I do get a few awkward looks for it.
This may be just the coastal white liberal upper-middle class bubble that I occupy, though.
I've only attended predominantly-white RC and Episcopal congregations, though, and neither denomination is particularly known for congregational singing.
Then there were the five or so people in pirate attire who came in the neighborhood restaurant where we were Saturday night, and periodically broke into sea shanties. They were pretty awesome.
My experience has been in New York, Connecticut, Florida, Pennsylvania, Maryland, California, and Colorado, which is not coastal but at least in the Denver-Boulder area is beginning to resemble the culture of the coasts more and more. I still see waitstaff singing and people at other table singing, although the latter is getting rarer. I am just shocked that there are restaurants where the waitstaff do not sing at all now. A place that I quite like had no waitstaff singing for a table where a husband, wife, and two young daughters were celebrating the mother's birthday, and no waitstaff or other patrons sang - only the father and two daughters in relatively muted voices. It was intimate and maybe what the family wanted but my heart sank when I saw it.
Also remember that, until a year or two ago, "Happy Birthday"" was technically copyrighted, and ASCAP was known for sending cease and desist letters to restaurants, camps, TV shows, and others who were using the song without paying a royalty. It isn't the case anymore, but I wouldn't be surprised if the stories of potential lawsuits scuttled some of the restaurant-initiated celebrating. (I was actually a little disappointed when this changed, as it was always fun to see TV shows and restaurants do creative work-arounds to avoid paying the royalty.)
What a lovely world you live in, with so many musicians. Too bad (for me) my world isn't like that at all, in any way.
Nor mine. Being part of any kind of choir is somewhere between bog snorkelling and kite flying in the weird/unusual past-times stakes in my neck of the woods I'd say.
Myself I sing regularly in two choirs (one is with the church) plus singing is part of my job at the library (running 'Tot Rock' sessions with babies and toddlers), so for me singing really is an unremarkable facet of everyday life.
Since so many people claim to loathe singing, why is singing such a central part of our worship?
I remember being quite shocked some years ago when a leading figure at my (then) church admitted that he can’t stand all the singing at Sunday services.
Fortunately for him, his birthday is 29 February, so he rarely has to put up with people singing Happy Birthday to him.
Interesting. It's a hobby for me, but my friends don't necessarily share it any more than they are automatically into aquaria, fantasy RPGs or cycling.
I've never really managed to make friends in choirs, if that's what you mean. Some people seem able to form friendships via small talk over the coffee break but I've never had the knack.
Your third paragraph answers the question in the second - it's just assumed that people like it.
As for me, I like singing in choirs (though I'm not in one at the moment for various reasons, not least being always pressured to sell tickets when I know no-one who'd be the slightest bit interested in hearing Israel in Egypt. For the record, nor would I. Quite enjoy singing these things but couldn't sit through one) but I don't like singing as part of the church congregation.
And another thing - there must be a reason for this, but singing in classical or contemporary style I'm quite comfortable up to an A, Bb even (tenor range), so why does a D# seem so high when you're singing a hymn in the congregation?
I've never really managed to make friends in choirs, if that's what you mean. Some people seem able to form friendships via small talk over the coffee break but I've never had the knack. [/quote]
I know what you mean. One of my choirs has only a few minutes comfort break, so it is only on concert days that you get a chance to chat really.
The other has a long 20 minute break, and as somewhat of a newcomer I struggle to fill it with small talk. However, once I have got my drink I do make a point of stepping out of my comfort zone and speaking to some altos. We sit facing them throughout the rehearsal, but I hardly know any of their names.
But how does anyone make friends? I have lots of people I can call friends, through choirs, church or whatever, but nobody I could turn to in a crisis. My best friends are people I have known for many years, but we don’t live anywhere near each other.
A decision was taken to have, as the introduction, and between the verses, the theme to the Great Escape. Whistled.
Do I win a prize?
It's a contender, certainly.
I assume you sang in Zulu?
Mrs C has sung in the choir for years. So we know the people involved, of course, but friends? They're not people that we see outside a church setting, because we don't have anything else in common. Some of them are lovely people - some of them not so much, and there are plenty of them whose company I enjoy - we just don't share common interests. Their kids are grown, or they don't have any. Our lives just don't mesh.
I don’t know. A long conversation about the rights and wrongs of singing in notEnglisn could follow. I wouldn’t have anything articulate to add to it today!
BTW are metrical psalms slowly disappearing? I never hear them on "Songs of Praise" these days, even when it comes from Caledonia - which is a shame.
[quote="
BTW are metrical psalms slowly disappearing? I never hear them on "Songs of Praise" these days, even when it comes from Caledonia - which is a shame.[/quote
I agree -- miss these Anglican Chants a lot.
To suggest an answer - because church is in the morning and the voice just isn't so happy singing that high that early in the day?
Happens in the evening too. It's totally weird.
Bring My Body Closer
and
Cause Me To Come.
Maybe I need a self-imposed sabbatical from the polyamory thread, but what were they thinking??