Harmony v Unison

[James]

I met Chris today at his church. I hope we will find a way to get together in person more often.

The service was good. The sermon was great. One old issue in hymnody came front and center.

The issue is unison or harmony. The catalyst for my thoughts was the hymn Be Thou My Vision. The choir sang an anthem arrangement of the hymn tune Slane in four part harmony. A little later the whole congregation sang the hymn out of the 91 hymnal. The first arrangement was beautiful. The second was emotionally flat. The reason for this was emotional and theological. The harmonies highlight the beauty of the text. The text is beautiful as a poem. The unison tune does nothing for it in my opinion.

Baptists are not and never will be lock step conformists to any doctrine or creed and our singing reflects it. We come to God in worship and raise our voices in four part harmony. We are different individuals yet our different parts create a whole that is one blended sound and one blended message. Each part contributes to the whole.

If Baptists ever reach reach the point where we are forced to sing in lock step unison, we will cease to be.







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[Chris]

Where is the "LIKE" button. I'm waiting for Haruo to weigh in on this ..

[Haruo]

[Rvaughn]

Haruo, we gladly invite you to the East Texas Convention:


Usually more people (300-350) but not as many songs (ca. 150, not counting Sat. night social). [Two things there. We tend to have more non-singing visitors, and we tend to sing slower.]

It's a little warm in Texas in August, but we have AC.

[Haruo]

I appreciate the invitation, and hope to join you in a future year, but this year I'm morally certain it can't happen.

As for the number in attendance, hopefully by the time we've been around another hundred years we'll be as big as you guys!

[Haruo]

Meanwhile, if you (R. L. Vaughn, or any other reader) has some free time next February, I cordially invite you to attend the 27th annual Washington Session of the Pacific Northwest Sacred Harp Singing Convention, which will be held in Seattle (hopefully at the same Ballard Homestead venue as this year and last) on the Third Sunday and the Saturday preceding, i.e. February 17th and 18th, 2018. We'll probably still be using Denson, but pack your Cooper and Christian Harmony, and maybe Shenandoah if you've got one, for the socials. We may be able to put you up if you need a place to stay, or you can contact the Housing Committee when it gets closer to the date.

[Chris]

Where can I find some Sacred Heart Singing conventions in the mid-Atlantic area?

[James]

Mid-Atlantic singings.

Richmond (Tuesday night), Charlottsville, Raleigh, DC

google Sacred Harp singings.

[Rvaughn]

Haruo -- possibly larger. Seems the non-traditional geographical areas are growing while the traditional areas are losing ground.

Chris, here is one Mid-Atlantic Convention coming soon:

[Haruo]

[Chris]

[Rvaughn]

Chris, wasn't sure where you were, so glad that might work for you. In general the convention tries to provide without guests having to bring something. It can vary by location, especially based on the ratio of visitors to hosts and so forth. I'm sure they'll be glad to have you and won't expect someone driving that far to bring food.

[Rvaughn]

Haruo, I think in new areas it can often have a "foreign" appeal in an exotic sort of way. For some locals (especially upwardly-mobile-leave-my-roots-behind folks) it may seem just homely and odd.

[Haruo]

[Mrs Haruo]

Back to harmony v unison in church services-- I think one problem with projected hymn words on a screen with no music is it makes it very hard unless you have an instinctive ear for harmony to sing in parts. When kids (and adults) don't have the music to read there is little chance of learning how the notes relate to each other.

[Haruo]

Agreed, and both the schools and the churches are culpable.

[James]

One of my hymnals, Rejoice in the Lord has a harmonized arrangement of Slane by David Evans in 1927. Since I cannot read music, I have no clue as to what it sounds like. Erik Routley is the hymnal editor it should be fairly decent.

I know there are several members to this forum who think a lot about hymns and hymnal. What would it take for us to produce our own hymnal. I have made my own list of hymns consisting of music familiar to most of us. The weakness in my list is in the absence of any hymns written after 1990.

[Chris]

[JE Pettibone]

[Tim Bonney]

[Sandy]

I've been in churches that project the music on the screen as well. If the screen is big enough, for most people, especially older folks with vision issues, the illuminated screen might make it easier to see.

As far as singing in harmony vs. unison, it really seems like this is a personal preference issue related to music style. I grew up in a church with two gospel quartets, including one family quartet, and we had a lot of people who sang parts, and having a choir with sopranos, altos, tenors and basses was important. But I've also been in churches that weren't quite as focused on the style of music as they were on worship being a more holistic expression of encountering God. Most contemporary songs, including choruses, have harmony written into the musical arrangement for those that want to sing it. I think those of us who are older, and grew up in a generation that had a good bit of music instruction in school are better at finding the harmony and singing it than those who've never played an instrument or been in any kind of organized chorus. When schools cut budgets, music programs go first, but that's another topic.

Having been in worship for a while now that doesn't depend on a bulletin or an order has required some adjustment. There are no instruments, and singing is led by the person who is inspired at the moment to do it, and it doesn't happen every week. Since everything is more spontaneous, I focus more than I would during the singing of hymns I've sung a thousand times, or when just expecting that at a particular moment, the sermon will be delivered.

[Haruo]

When we were doing the Evergreen Hymn Sings we often projected musical notation along with lyrics, though sadly usually only the melody line for unison singing. If I had it to do over a lot more of it would have been for four parts. The Church of Christ publishing house has a full hymnal available for screen projection. Probably others, too, though a lot of what's available (e.g. through ) is, again, for unison singing.