Early American Long Meter Tune
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Some of you may be familiar with my Mass of the Blessed Fire, based on Shaker tunes.

    I'm in need to supplementing it with at least one Long Meter hymn tune, obviously in an Early American idiom (something specifically Shaker would be best). I'm only passably familiar with the sources like the Sacred Harp and Southern Harmony, and don't happen to have either to hand at the moment.

    Any suggestions?
  • kevinfkevinf
    Posts: 1,190
    "Tender Thought" tune from Kentucky Harmony 1816.
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    Well, you might need to specify trochaic or iambic...

    "Chester" by Willam Billings is one of the cornerstones of American song - it was the tune for the first widely known patriotic hymn of the War for Independence - the first (unofficial) national anthem.

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_e_zHFKSJR4g/Sm-1KeurmxI/AAAAAAAABaI/1sbKKEJBqvc/s400/430px-Chester_Billings_Score.png

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_St8bsx31A&feature=player_embedded (performed a bit too slow and polished; from what we can tell, New Englanders liked to shake the rafters with a coarser, rougher approach - they were not known for dulcet hymn-singing, more like somewhat musical barking mixed with habits from the sea shanty)

    And if you're up to a fuguing tune, "Cowper" is a classic:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3ADCJaD9Yg

    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Iambic.

    Praise GOD from WHOM all BLE-ssings FLOW
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I remember being so enamored of Billings as an undergrad, particularly with "Chester." Prob'ly some recalcitrant Protestant gene from my maternal forebears. Even did it once at a Mass, IIRC. Can't remember how I justified that.
    But I have to say that "Chester" is not only extremely martial in text, but also in a musical context as well. I don't think that would jibe with the rest of AW's Mass. I'd stay with "Southern Harmony" type sources.
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    any suggestions?
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Context:
    For reasons that elude me, Praise God From blah blah blah has essentially become a part of the Ordinary (or "Service Music") 'round these Episcopal parts. Regardless of season or setting, we usually sing it to BORING OLD HUNDREDTH, which i'm super tired of.

    (Last Advent, in conjuction with my Mass of St. Elizabeth we sang it to CONDITOR ALME, which the whole setting is based loosely based on).

    We are switching to my Blessed Fire for the Season of/after Pentecost (for reasons not having to do with puns) and I thought it would be nice to swap out the Doxology tune.
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I don't recall off hand if it's LM (me home), and will leave it to you to goog, but I am quite fond of "HOUSTON."
  • Liam
    Posts: 5,092
    The Old Hundredth is a classic text because it's *not* emphatically iambic. And "Chester" is a classic tune because, while it looks trochaic, it can easily accommodate a not-too-iambic text. Marriages of that sort are the hymodist's dream.

    I don't think Chester is all that martial a tune; being Billings, it's actually got lyrical aspects (unlike Cowper, the only lyrical thing of which is the dotted figure). The text, you betcha!
  • melofluentmelofluent
    Posts: 4,160
    I don't think Chester is all that martial a tune; being Billings

    That's 'cause youse from Bawston! Boston-Strong!
    Oklahoma Strong! while we're at it.
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    Long Meter is, by definition, iambic 88. 88 meter.

    Attached are my three settings of Old Hundredth.
    Giffen-Old Hundredth.pdf
    87K
    Giffen-Old Hundredth.mp3
    2M
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    If only there a half-thanks button, for this:
    Long Meter is, by definition, iambic 88. 88 meter.


    While this:
    three settings of Old Hundredth

    does me no good at all...

    Any other suggestions for tunes that aren't OLD HUNDREDTH?
  • CHGiffenCHGiffen
    Posts: 5,193
    I missed you apathy towards Old Hundredth.

    So, here are the LM tunes (one is LMD) from the Whole Book of Psalmes (the Ravenscrift Psalter). In every case, the melody is in the Tenor.
    Whole Booke of Psalmes-LM tunes.pdf
    169K
    Thanked by 1Adam Wood
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Only because that is the current tune we use. All. The. Time.
  • Adam, at my Anglican/Episcopal work church, we sing the doxology after the offertory to Vigiles et Sancti (Lasst uns erfreuen) and Duke Street, to name a few. I've never tried it to Conditor, but in Lent and Advent we default to "All things come of Thee, O Lord..." set to what I call 'that unknown Em Anglican chant' that I found hand-copied in the bottom of a file cabinet drawer.

    [But this is a congregation that sings 'lustily and with a good courage' on all of the seven Ordinaries that we rotate around and the eight-ten Anglican chants likewise, so it doesn't faze them to sing this set of words with that tune. (We always do "O come, Creator Spirit, come" to Duke Street.)

    In some funny ways, though, they are hidebound. If the celebrant intones the Gloria in a less-than-accurate way, when the organist plays the chord to get the Gloria back on track, if he or she holds the chord a little bit too long, the whole congregation launches into the Scottish Gloria, 739, even if the chord isn't F major.

    (And the newly-minted deacon never did remember that he needs to know what key the recessional hymn was in, in order to find a reasonable starting pitch for the Eastertide Dismissal. If you start on middle C, oy--it gets really interesting. Other than that, he's sterling in liturgy--chants like a dream. I'm trying to pray all the clerics there into the Ordinariate.)]
  • MarkThompson
    Posts: 768
    You might like ALSTONE, UXBRIDGE, or HIGHER GROUND (LMD). I don't know from Shaker, but these all sound like they belong in a little white clapboard Presbyterian church.
  • MHIMHI
    Posts: 324
    .
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • MHIMHI
    Posts: 324
    .
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    I've been searching through what Shaker resources I have. They don't seem to have produced a lot of conventionally-metered hymn tunes.

    Here's one that I have been thinking about, lightly adapted from "I Will Bow and Be Simple."

    image
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    simple gifts?

    (ducks)
  • Adam WoodAdam Wood
    Posts: 6,482
    Not Long Meter.