Hymn Tunes That Are Used Too Often
  • shawnk
    Posts: 57
    .
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    Well, there's always the cheap church parlor trick of playing it through completely in a modal minor before singing to spice things up. Watch heads explode.
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  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    Some users occasionally remind others here on the forum not to be unkind to people who like sappy 1980s church songs: after all, they can't be blamed for being sentimental about the tunes that appeal to them. The same consideration goes for people who like sappy 1880s church songs.
    Thanked by 3Kathy Liam CHGiffen
  • Antioch
    Moscow
    Diademata
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  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,215
    Ellacombe!
    Thanked by 2oldhymns cesarfranck
  • It is a pity that such a fine tune as Hyfrydol is beginning to become threadbare after overuse with a multiplicity of texts, some that don't fit it at all. Shame be upon on those who suffer cluelessly from the 'it's a tune people know' syndrome. Try Blaenwern for an alternative that is as fresh and grand as Hyfrydol used to be. In Babilone is another good one that is being has been done to death.
    Thanked by 2cesarfranck chonak
  • Cwm Rhondda
    Abbot's Leigh
    Azmon
    Bunnesan
    Nettleton
    Tallis Canon
    Darwall 148
    Beecher
    Michael
    Thaxted
    I love all of the above, but they have been set to lots of new texts.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    So, is the solution for congregational texts ... fewer texts? Because while we musicians may favor more tunes, the appetite in the Catholic pews for such is not necessarily similar. Oh, that's right, they should just let propers be sung instead.
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  • I've wondered for some time how the 'people' referenced by those who always trot out those piteous excuses that 'its a tune people know', or 'the people don't know that' ever learnt the tunes that they do know, since it isn't likely that they were born knowing them.
    Someone must at one time have taught them what little they do know.
    That goes for other things, too, such as liturgical stuff and matters of the faith.
    'Oh, the people wouldn't (don't) (don't need to') know that' is the motto of those responsible for the institutionalised ignorance and ingrained passivity that are the gift of the Catholic Church's leadership, clerical and lay, to its unfortunate 'people'.
    Thanked by 2CHGiffen cesarfranck
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,164
    I've told all my family I don't want Amazing Grace anywhere near my funeral. Especially not with bagpipes!!!!!!!
  • Bhcordova,

    If you're not Scottish, there's not much risk of bagpipes at your funeral.


    Jackson,

    Absolutely!
    those piteous excuses that 'its a tune people know', or 'the people don't know that' ever learnt the tunes that they do know, since it isn't likely that they were born knowing them.

    'Oh, the people wouldn't (don't) (don't need to') know that' is the motto of those responsible for the institutionalised ignorance and ingrained passivity that are the gift of the Catholic Church's leadership, clerical and lay, to its unfortunate 'people'.


    We wouldn't serve only store-bought pizza at formal dinners, on the grounds that this is all the people know!
  • Mr Cordova -
    I'll take the bagpipes but not 'Amazing Grace'.

    (Perhaps it's my Hibernian [and English and Irish, and ultimately, Norman and Scandinavian] ancestry. One might aver that bagpipes are a sure sign of Romanitas, since it was the august Romans who brought them to the British Isles - after having 'picked them up' in the middle east. They are a thing quite in and of themselves. One may, perhaps, not exactly call them 'beautiful', but most definitely 'thrilling'.)
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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    store-bought pizza at formal dinners
    Brilliant! thanks.
    OTOH some of the most execrable food I have had has been at formal dinners. And the most dreadful caterwauling has been polyphonic music from a Cathedral choir. Unfortunately one is trapped in both these situations, most pizzas I avoid.
  • Hawkins,

    I grant you that some choirs who ought to know better make some execrable stuff they call music. Nevertheless, I reiterate that one expects a higher quality food at a formal dinner, and so -- while there's nothing inherently wrong with pizza in the proper setting -- serving pizza in the situation I outlined would be providing only what is familiar, instead of what is fitting.
  • bhcordovabhcordova
    Posts: 1,164
    Bhcordova,

    If you're not Scottish, there's not much risk of bagpipes at your funeral.


    Except I have a first cousin who loves to play the pipes! (Although, he claims he plays the Irish bagpipes)
  • Hawkins,

    I grant you that some choirs who ought to know better make some execrable stuff they call music. Nevertheless, I reiterate that one expects a higher quality food at a formal dinner, and so -- while there's nothing inherently wrong with pizza in the proper setting -- serving pizza in the situation I outlined would be providing only what is familiar, instead of what is fitting.
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  • a_f_hawkins
    Posts: 3,467
    CGZ - I think we agree on that.
    Although my taste in pizza is untypical highly eccentric, most I would only consider if starving, and that is on structural grounds not flavours. Maybe the same could be said of music, it is not the notes or the tonal quality of the voices, it is the structure, the blending and, above all, the text.
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