Your Least Favourite Hymn Tunes/Harmonizations
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    ...people dislike hymns more than anthems.

    Anthems disliked =
    Anything by Gretchaninoff and brethren.

  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    As the risk of offending, I would mention most of the Christmas carols that we are expected to churn out every year, and we are expected to love them all as well, lest we be stoned at the organ. I understand the cultural significance of these ditties, and why people need them, but after 30 years of "O Little Town", "Away at the Manger" and the like, i begin looking in the yellow pages for a sanitorum to present myself to.
    I WILL say however, that the Willcocks re-do versions of this fare often lifts the music out of the mire of mediocrity, a prime example being the iconic "O Come all ye Faithful".
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    The nice thing about Christmas music is the season doesn't last very long.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Especially this year.
    Thanked by 1Spriggo
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    ...doesn't last very long.


    Well, no. Not if you are speaking of the Christmas season itself.
    But few are those, even Catholics and Anglicans, who limit themselves to the Real Season. With most people this 'season' extends at least to all of the vestigial season of Advent, and even before. Even folk who protest loudly to 'keep Christ in Christmas' are guilty of this transgression. Talking churchly sense to these types is like throwing a BB at a tank. It simply doesn't register. Social mores rule. (By the way - if one takes Christ out of Christmas one is left with mas(s), which for some people might even be worse!)

    There are some of our 'Christmas repertory' that I tired of long, long ago. St Louis is foremost amongst these. Kings of Orient bored me when I was six years old. Ditto 'Away in a Manger' sung to anything.

    On the other hand, I never tire of Cranham. I find myself singing this spontaneously throughout the year. Ditto Irby. Also ditto This Endris night.

    When I am in charge 'Angels We Have Heard..' is sung by the entire congregation as follows:
    1. All sing 'Angels we have heard...
    2. Women sing 'Shepherds, why this jubilee...
    3. Men sing 'Come to Bethlehem and see...
    4. All sing 'See him in a manger laid...
    I've never encountered anyone else doing this, even though it seems a self-evident thing.

    And, about the Real Christmas Season -
    I think that all are aware that it now extends to Presentation on the 2 February. This is a gift of Vatican II. For the NO Christmas hath not a mere twelve days but nearly six weeks.
    Thanked by 1JulieColl
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 805
    Try singing "O Little Town of Bethlehem" to FOREST GREEN. It makes such a difference, and sounds so much more lively for a joyful season.
    Thanked by 4JulieColl M. Jackson Osborn Adam Wood ClemensRomanus
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    lest we be stoned at the organ


    If one is using only the American-standard versions of Away in a manger and O Little Town of Bethlehem..... is being stoned at the organ a way to make them sound better? These two (PARTICULARLY) remind me of the songs of drunken Irishmen.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Alleluia, Alleluia, Let the Holy Anthem Rise sounds kind of like a drinking song to me.
    Thanked by 1Ben
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    These two (PARTICULARLY) remind me of the songs of drunken Irishmen.


    You would prefer sober Irishmen? They are much easier to deal with when they are tipsy. LOL.
    Thanked by 1Casavant Organist
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Ev'ryone must make a living


    This sort of blatant Capitalist propaganda is obviously a result of this country's pseudo-Calvinist salvation-through-work anti-culture.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    "Toads," by Philip Larkin from Collected Poems (Faber & Faber).

    Toads

    Why should I let the toad work
    Squat on my life?
    Can't I use my wit as a pitchfork
    and drive the brute off?

    Six days of the week it soils
    With its sickening poison-
    Just for paying a few bills!
    That's out of proportion.

    Lots of folk live on their wits:
    Lecturers, lispers,
    Losels, loblolly-men, louts-
    They don't end as paupers;

    Lots of folk live up lanes
    With fires in a bucket,
    Eat windfalls and tinned sardines-
    They seem to like it.

    Their nippers have got bare feet,
    Their unspeakable wives
    Are skinny as whippets-and yet
    No one actually starves.

    Ah, were I courageous enough
    To shout Stuff your pension!
    But I know, all too well, that's the stuff
    That dreams are made on:

    For something sufficiently toad-like
    Squats in me, too;
    Its hunkers are heavy as hard luck,
    And cold as snow,

    And will never allow me to blarney
    My way to getting
    The fame and the girl and the money
    All at one sitting.

    I don't say, one bodies the other
    One's spiritual truth;
    But I do say it's hard to lose either,
    When you have both.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Now that's what I call a Pauper Introit!
    Not Simple English paupers, though.
    Its eloquence wax's maladroit,
    Quoth Yosemite Sam "Whoa!"
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Btw what is the fancy music school word for when the key essentially shifts, often in the 3rd line of 4, often to the fifth of five?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    Btw what is the fancy music school word for when the key essentially shifts, often in the 3rd line of 4, often to the fifth of five?


    screwed up
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Eg, SALZBURG.
  • MarkS
    Posts: 282
    As in 3rd stanza, second measure? The E major chord (prepared for by the G sharp in the measure before) is a secondary dominant (5 of 5), making A a temporary 'tonic'; this is known as tonicization (A has been 'tonicized').

  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Tonicization. Thanks!!
    Thanked by 1melofluent
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Some prefer vodka rather than gin widdat. Speaking of which...
    Alleluia, Alleluia, Let the Holy Anthem Rise sounds kind of like a drinking song to me.

    Add to that notion that of "Thy strong Word did cleave the darkness" Tip-uh-let, tip-uh-let.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Too much gin and not enough vermouth...
    Thanked by 1melofluent
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    That's an impossibility in some schools of martini making. Passing the vermouth bottle over the glass suffices....
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    I just use gin, and then I think of Antonio Benedetto Carpano, inventor of vermouth, when I drink it.
    Thanked by 2Liam CharlesW
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Charles,

    Don't know much about tipsy Irishmen. Married an Irish/German/Italian/Czech lass 25 yrs ago tomorrow, and I enjoy her company quite sober, thank you.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    Irish/German/Italian/Czech


    That sounds interesting - speaking of culture clashes. LOL. I ran across this funny:



    Heaven and Hell

    Heaven Is Where:

    The French are the chefs
    The Italians are the lovers
    The British are the police
    The Germans are the mechanics
    And the Swiss make everything run on time

    Hell is Where:

    The British are the chefs
    The Swiss are the lovers
    The French are the mechanics
    The Italians make everything run on time
    And the Germans are the police


    Source: http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/jokes/bljokeheavenhell.htm
  • Chris Garton-Zavesky
    Posts: 6,902
    Charles,

    Don't know much about tipsy Irishmen. Married an Irish/German/Italian/Czech lass 25 yrs ago tomorrow, and I enjoy her company quite sober, thank you.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    Mark. That's the Spi'rt of truth.
    Thanked by 1Jes
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    If ye love me, drink my martini.....and I will pray the Father give you another round on thee
    and I enjoy her company quite sober, thank you

    Chris, we all have our cross and reputation to bear and keep up! Ach, Laddie, I am Scots, nee Irish!
    Thanked by 2CharlesW Jes
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    the prayer of St Francis hymn
    It always feels so country and western number and with a different harmony could be nicer.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    I have had the discussion, no argument, many times over that "Prayer of St. Francis." He never saw or heard it and it first appeared on a holy card around the time of World War I.

    Country and Western would work well with it!
    Thanked by 1Jes
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    If done in a very CandW way you can add extensions to the chords and make it super jazzy as well. Seriously end the last chord with an added 6th in it. I've just always disliked that hymn so much as it has always sounded very CandW in my head and I can't ever get it out of my head without thinking of that scene from the muppets where there is a horse that sings "don't fence me in" with Bob Hope...
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfQAd1umWTs
  • Casavant Organist
    Posts: 805
    Would Prayer of St Francis work with any other tunes?
    Thanked by 1M. Jackson Osborn
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Try the version of Francis' canticle at no. 307 in The Hymnal 1940.
    'Most High Omnipotent Good Lord', paired with a tune called Assisi.
    It is very chant-like and works quite well without accompaniment.
    It easily becomes a favourite of choirs and children of all ages.
    Thanked by 2StimsonInRehab Jes
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    It's in Worship II as well, IIRC.
    Thanked by 1Jes
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Interesting!
    Nice to know.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    James Quinn, S.J. (1919-2010) paraphrased the hymn of St. Francis: "Lord, make us servants of your peace" ... a Long Metre setting that has been published with O WALY WALY. Just about any L.M. tune works, though, and I have used it with my own 3 harmonizations of OLD HUNDREDTH (which employ a rhythmic structure different from the usual rhythms seen with that tune).
    Thanked by 2Kathy Jes
  • francis
    Posts: 10,824
    amazing disgrace
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,216
    FWIW, Paraclete has an SATB setting of Quinn's text, good for small choirs.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Here's my Old Hundredth setting of the Quinn text.
    Giffen-Lord, make us servants.pdf
    69K
    Giffen-Old Hundredth.mp3
    2M
  • MarkS
    Posts: 282
    FWIW, Paraclete has an SATB setting of Quinn's text, good for small choirs.


    This has some odd similarities to the setting (to the modern-ish DICKINSON COLLEGE) in The (much-maligned) Hymnal 1982. If the first three quarters are treated like pickups, as they are in the Hymnal 1982 setting, then the versions are identical metrically—the Paraclete setting could be barred in an even 5/4, as in Hymnal 1982. There are also odd correspondences between modulations, placing of passing tones/supensions for emphasis (just looking at the first verse).

    Anyway, I would recommend the Hymnal 1982 setting as well, for an unaccompanied choir or for congregational singing.
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    I wouldn't personally call this one a hymn but "Jesus is like Popcorn" has to be one of my least favourite ones I've played in Anglican circles before. The harmonisation is very plain and I think there is only chord I and V in the whole hymn.
    The words are of course rotten too.
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700
    Google gets zero hits for "Jesus is like Popcorn" - might you post the lyrics?
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    Try "Jesus likes Popcorn" instead.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    Jesus likes me, this I know
    For a sheila told me so....
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,979
    Try "Jesus likes Popcorn" instead.


    I think I will pass on this one. It is probably like an ear-worm that I won't be able to stop.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,414
    Popcorn?
    That's what
    a priest said it was
    like
    being stoned to death
    with
    when asked
    what
    it was like to
    hear
    a
    nun's confession.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    That's like, poetry...
    Popcorn.png
    243 x 285 - 20K
    Thanked by 2M. Jackson Osborn CHGiffen
  • ghmus7
    Posts: 1,483
    It's always to be noted how often theads on this forum regardless of where they begin, eventually veer oward the subject of alcoholic libation.
    Thanked by 1CharlesW
  • matthewjmatthewj
    Posts: 2,700

    I wouldn't personally call this one a hymn but "Jesus is like Popcorn" has to be one of my least favourite ones I've played in Anglican circles before. The harmonisation is very plain and I think there is only chord I and V in the whole hymn.
    The words are of course rotten too.


    I still want to know if this song is really a thing.
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I think there is only chord I and V in the whole hymn.

    Well, that still betters Landry's "Abba Father," an interminable plagal cadence. His redemptive opus? "Peace is flowing like a river," just 'cause it's down with Albert Schenker (everything is V-I.)
  • JesJes
    Posts: 576
    Jesus is like popcorn
    Popping into everybodies lives.
    Jesus is like popcorn
    Better pop our way into... (I can't recall this bit, sang it at school it was awful)

    Jesus is like an Apple
    He provides a crunch and sweetness
    Jesus is like an apple
    Better make a crunch for sweetness all around

    Jesus is like a pizza
    Imagine every topping and flavour
    Jesus is like a pizza
    Better imagine new things every day

    Jesus is like a "nana" (banana)
    With layers you should peel every day
    Jesus is like a nana
    So discover layers every day.


    There are various versions but that's what I can remember. I had to play it between my year 7 and year 8 years at high school. It had actions too. I'm unsure as to whether it is an actual hymn. I certainly don't classify it as such.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,509
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehuy67HCslk
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