Problematic hymns for congregational singing

[CatholicZ09]

Regarding “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming,” I have never had a problem with a parish singing it correctly after they have learned it. One thing that helps is to play it on an organ (guitars are simply too hard to follow melody, as their primary function is percussive) and to play the whole song through as an introduction. If a parish can master the strange rhythm of “Gift of Finest Wheat,” this song is a piece of cake.

Strangely enough, my parish can pull off “Gift of Finest Wheat”. They can also pull off Dufford’s “Every Valley” (not saying that it sounds good), which as I said before, requires double to triple high E-naturals. “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” only has two high D-naturals as its highest vocal point, but that one’s hard to handle.

 

[FrancisB]

Strangely enough, my parish can pull off “Gift of Finest Wheat”. They can also pull off Dufford’s “Every Valley” (not saying that it sounds good), which as I said before, requires double to triple high E-naturals. “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming” only has two high D-naturals as its highest vocal point, but that one’s hard to handle.

It’s because of the metrical shifts in “Lo, How a Rose”. Although it is usually written to hide them, the melody of the song switches amongst three different metres in its course, and without looking at the music that can be quite difficult to wrap one’s mind around. To make matters more challenging, the traditional harmonisation of it requires the lower three voices move in a different metre against the melody at several points in the music. Any way you look at it, it’s a challenging piece. Fortunately, chant doesn’t require such shenanigans.

 

[CatholicZ09]

It’s because of the metrical shifts in “Lo, How a Rose”. Although it is usually written to hide them, the melody of the song switches amongst three different metres in its course, and without looking at the music that can be quite difficult to wrap one’s mind around. To make matters more challenging, the traditional harmonisation of it requires the lower three voices move in a different metre against the melody at several points in the music. Any way you look at it, it’s a challenging piece. Fortunately, chant doesn’t require such shenanigans.

That’s true. It seems to me that if you cannot read music well, it shows during the time you hit those half notes at the beginning and the end since the harmonization becomes really obvious. Reading music is crucial with this piece because you end up going too fast when you are not properly reading music. This happened to me before I read music, and I got really confused with it when we were supposed to be holding the “frommmm tendeeeeer steeeeem hath sprung” part.

It’s a really beautiful piece, though, it’s sad that it got thrown under the bus like it did.

I’m thinking that they should’ve practiced it beforehand because we haven’t used this one in forever. I heard the choir did better with it, which doesn’t surprise me.

 

[Sarabande]

That’s true. It seems to me that if you cannot read music well, it shows during the time you hit those half notes at the beginning and the end since the harmonization becomes really obvious. Reading music is crucial with this piece because you end up going too fast when you are not properly reading music. This happened to me before I read music, and I got really confused with it when we were supposed to be holding the “frommmm tendeeeeer steeeeem hath sprung” part.

Yes, that’s the part which can cause a difficulty for congregational singing depending on the congregation. The rest of it is fairly simple.

It’s a really beautiful piece, though, it’s sad that it got thrown under the bus like it did.

I’m thinking that they should’ve practiced it beforehand because we haven’t used this one in forever. I heard the choir did better with it, which doesn’t surprise me.

I agree, a very beautiful piece. If the congregation is used to singing it, there isn’t usually a problem, but if it is only something people sing once a year and most people don’t know it, then it can be problematic. At one parish I used to attend, I remember the music director did it like almost every week one year during the Advent and Christmas season and so the congregation knew it pretty well by the end and next year was not a problem. But that doesn’t guarantee success at every parish.

In regards to another point on the thread regarding other problematic hymns, does anyone have an answer to if today’s music writers meant for their melody lines that are sung by the congregation to be modified and/or changed rhythmically or melodically, which is something I hear often for some hymns? Again, I understand the writers’ intent in allowing for changing/improvising accompaniment to better support a congregation or to make it work better for different instrumentation. I ask because it would help me understand better why the modifications and changes to the actual congregational lines happen so often and vary with certain hymns.