[Magdalen] Hymnals and Perspective.o

[Grace Cangialosi]

I think size consideration may have been part of the reason for removing so many of the harmonies; can you imagine the size and weight of the book if they had all been included?!
I do regret it, thought.

> On Oct 12, 2015, at 6:51 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The '82 is certainly puzzling. They decided that congregations ought to
> sing unison, for very, very shabby reasons they probably thought were
> competently arrived at. I'm sure they felt they did their best.
> 
> Removing harmony for no good [good] reason has to be one of their worse
> mistakes.
> 
> A real bizarre move was changing of just two or three chords in a hymn and
> -- gosh, it's not an earlier version. Uh, no, it's the same dang hymn, but
> now we who memorized the harmony have to relearn it for no good [good]
> reason.
> 
> Pointlessly removing the amens because of their own narrow view of what it
> meant -- to them -- was another stupid gaffe.  They printed a detailed
> discussion of why they removed the amens. I read it and said, "Using purely
> their own words, one can easily construct a solid argument for leaving the
> amens just as they are.
> 
> Just as with the "Once to every man and nation" silliness, their thinking
> appeared remarkable for its shallowness.
> 
> The fonts are easier reading than the 1940, however.  You grab the
> positives where you can find them!
> 
> Maybe it's time to abandon the hymnal and go for a paperless edition from
> which the needed stuff can be copied into service bulletins. One concern,
> justified, of the new hymnal was its size, and even so they left out many
> essential hymns such as "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." I mean, we need to
> have  hymns for the whole Church, not hymns for whites and hymns for blacks
> and for the the whatever oppressed, etc., which is what they've done with
> the segregated hymnals.
> 
> James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
> *“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
> except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy
> 
>> On Sun, Oct 11, 2015 at 8:10 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:
>> 
>> Having grown up with the 1959 Broadman and 1975 Baptist, when I converted
>>> the 1982 Episcopal left me wailing over and over, "WHAT HAPPENED TO THE
>>>> HARMONY?!" I suppose heritage with the 1940 Episcopal would have elicited
>>> the same wail, but maybe moreso.  With my background of "director-led"
>>>> congregational singing (lusty, I believe would be the right word), I don't
>>> think I even had a chance.
>> 
>> As most TEC parishes used the little hymnals with no harmonies at all back
>> in the day, I think lots of them were pleased at the addition of harmonies
>> in H82.And of course, for those who want ALL of them (despite notes that
>> the others be sung in unison) CPC does (or at least did) publish a hymnal
>> with full music for all 720 hymns (no service music, however).
>> 
>> Cheers,
>> Jim
>>