Parish Hymn-Writing Guild
  • jt
    Posts: 1
    I once found a parish-level hymn writing group online. They met each week as most church groups do, had their compositions notated and scanned and presented nicely on the Internet, and so forth. But I've searched and searched later for them, and can't find a link to their site. Does this ring any bells for you? It seems like they're pretty unique. Thanks.
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    That would interest me.
    I am neither an author nor a composer, but dabble in both when needful.
    When I first was drawn back into Church music ministry, I was punctilious about having my verses vetted by someone whose orthodoxy and ear I trusted.
    Come to learn by bitter experience, judging from the scansion and poppycock in hymnals no one at the big publishers seems interested in such niceties...

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • sadiefair
    Posts: 17
    I am more of lyricist than a composer (lacking the training to write sufficient harmonies, but I would also be interested in such a guild. Are we discussing starting one or simply searching for one?

    You're right, G, major publications aren't interested in the orthodox or the well-written. You might try some of the "new" college presses, such as Christendom College...not sure if they would take individual pieces, but perhaps a compilation?
  • incantuincantu
    Posts: 989
    Would love to see a group like this write some metrical translations of the propers. Chris Tietze attempted this with his Introit Hymns, which unfortunately misses the mark.
  • ThurlowThurlow
    Posts: 20
    Hello, I'm new to MusicaSacra, and have been spending some time browsing the forums here. This topic is of interest to me, since I compose hymn-tunes in the traditional English style. Most of my tunes have been written using public domain text, but I would love to work with more contemporary texts as well. Many of my tunes are available through CPDL: http://choralwiki.net/wiki/index.php/Thurlow_Weed.

    Incantu, I would love to have some metrical propers to work with! I've never been overly successful with text-writing, but generally work well with a "ready-to-go" text.
  • G
    Posts: 1,397
    Thurlow, one of the (Protestant,) metric psalter available on line might be a starting place for texts, since so many of the propers are verses of psalms.

    (Save the Liturgy, Save the World)
  • RagueneauRagueneau
    Posts: 2,592
    Thurlow, I like your page! I am amazed
  • ThurlowThurlow
    Posts: 20
    Thanks, Jeff. I just added Psalm 117, which I had noticed never got uploaded. It's an English "West Gallery" piece. The Harmonizations are mostly duplicates of the Hymns. The former makes them available without text to use with whatever text you want, the latter is the text I wrote them for. Two tunes however -- Staverton and Aldersgate New -- used copyrighted text. Therefore, they appear as harmonizations only.

    The awkward thing about using copyrighted text is getting the completed hymn readily available for general use. Copyright issues come into play, and some authors request a licensing fee from any user of the hymn. At this point, I require no such thing for my music. The text for Aldersgate New is an example of this. I have a limited permission to distribute the complete hymn, but then a prospective user, after reviewing it, must contact the author for use and may have to send the licensing fee. Meanwhile, the music has no restrictions of any sort, other than the usual copyright notice.

    This is one reason I'm starting to move into Latin liturgical music -- no such hassles!
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