[Magdalen] Hymnals and Perspective.o

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I had been told that the hymn gremlins wanted to make the congregation sing
unison, but I thought of what you describe as possibly having some impact
too. It IS a heavy volume even with all the harmonies removed.

All told, it's not really bad; definitely not as bad as some hymnals I've
sung out of.
I think the gremlins got a bit over-awed at the idea of going back to older
sources just because. Someone should tell them that in music (as opposed to
hymns), this might be a real consideration because in the intervening
centuries (centuries, not just a few years), the musicians literally forgot
how the music was supposed to go. The situation's way different with hymns.
Newer hymns generally have a more crisp and pleasing sound, whereas the
older versions sound like -- well, much older versions: stodgy, dusty,
unimaginative.  I am astounded that a gathering of supposedly knowledgeable
musicians did not realize this, but well, there it is.
If you want a hymnal for people who just want the hymns and the harmony
doesn't even register with them, then there's nothing the matter with the
new one at all.

If the congregation could just get into the consistent habit of singing
organum (rather than merely be accident), those of us with a low voice
register would happily sing the tune in a register we could sing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkb54z8i4l0

And let us not forget there are a solid group who, no matter what you do,
never sing. I don't think they care what hymnal we use.

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 Tue, Oct 13, 2015 at 7:12 AM, Grace Cangialosi <gracecan at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
> >>
>