How can we improve congregational singing? Part VI

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alternative harmonizations, anthem, church choir, church music, congregational singing, Education, Hymnal, music education, new hymns

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The following conversation, in response to Part V of this series, took place on Facebook:

• Contributor Hi Gretchen, what’s your suggestion making sure the congregation doesn’t get thrown off when using alternative arrangements to accompany congregational singing (as opposed to using them when the choir is singing a hymn as an anthem)?
• Gretchen Saathoff  Hmm… I’ll think about it! At Riverside, it’s not a problem. Have the choir sing the melody, disperse the choir throughout the congregation, try the Hymn of the Month approach, Try practicing the alternative arrangement for 2 minutes with the congregation, then use it in the hymn. Use the traditional harmonization for all verses except the last. That way, the congregation has been singing the tune for several verses already.
• Gretchen Saathoff  And try not to go too far afield with the alternate harmonization. The green Lutheran hymnal that replaced the red one had so many funky arrangements, they made very little sense. So why would anyone want to sing them.
• Contributor  Thanks, Gretchen. Good advice here. There is a new red Lutheran hymnal, the ELW, that kept some of the old arrangements from the green LBW, and has lots of new hymns without harmonization, just melodies. So that helps. (But they left off the time  signatures, which leads to confusion.) But if the hymn is new, even if only the melody is printed, the alternative arrangement still challenges the ear. And about the funky arrangements, people who can sing parts, oftentimes can sing even the funky ones, and some need to do that, because the melody is too high for them. I like the idea of practicing the alternative arrangement with the congregation – hadn’t thought of it as a possibility before!
• Gretchen Saathoff  No time sigs? Not especially helpful, I’d think.
  Also, there is no need to use only the arrangements in the book. Change it so it works. Keep some parts and not others. Write a new one. If the melody is too high, something needs to change, such  as trasposing down or maybe singing the melody an octave lower. The congregation needs the choir to sing the melody in unison on alternate harmonizations. When they can hear it, they sing better.
• Contributor  Great advice!
• Gretchen Saathoff  There are lots of alternative harmonizations out there: volumes of hymns for organ, choral anthems, hymnals from other denominations, AGO website, etc. Plenty of hymn improvisations can be heard on YouTube.
• Gretchen Saathoff  Free association, you understand… and now it’s time for dinner! Back later.

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And a followup Facebook Message from yours truly:

During services in various denominations, I sometimes would play an alternative harmonization from a funky organ collection (The Sunday Morning Organist, I think). Just leave out the whiz bang awful parts when they don’t work.

Similarly, there are plenty of anthems that work, for the most part, but also have spots that don’t.  One example is asking the choir to hold the last note for 8 bars.  Does this make the ending better?  Does singing a high note improve the message?  That all depends on the choir, what else is going on (i.e. the keyboard part might be just fine on its own).  Sometimes a “festive” ending will be tacked on that isn’t really needed.  When the rest of the piece works well, I omit the parts that don’t work.

There may be one stanza of an anthem that splits into 8 parts, for example.  When you have 6 people in your choir that Sunday, you have to think on your feet and find something that works.  What do you have to keep?  The melody and the bass line?  Is the alto part more interesting than the tenor, or vice versa? 

If one stanza is too elaborate for your circumstances, then sing the rest of the anthem and omit that one.

If the printed introduction is too long or too short, or is confusing to your choir/congregation, then by all means change it!

Thanks so much to my contributor, who prefers to remain anonymous.

Which approaches have the most success in your church?Comments and suggestions welcome!

Please see previous posts in this series.

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How to switch between hymnals quickly

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Hymnal, service playing

Anyone who has played for a church service knows the need to change from one hymnal to another quickly during the service. During the past 3 weeks, I have been exploring how best to do that.

The church in which I work uses 2 hymnals regularly. The congregation has book-sized versions that sometimes have only the voice parts. The keyboard versions, however, are much larger.

The service music includes a hymn here, a sung response there, etc. This is not a liturgical church, but there are just as many pages involved.

Both hymnals are published in ring binders.  One binder is the size of the Oxford English Dictionary!  The pages in each are difficult to work with because of the large rings.

During the service I play both organ and piano, moving from one to the other more than once.

First attempt

Three weeks ago, I removed the pages I needed from the keyboard version of the hymnals. The pages were loose, though, which felt risky.

Following the service, it took quite a while to reassemble both hymnals. Again, the pages are hard to turn. So turning from page 24 to page 359, for example, must be accomplished in sections.

Second week

During the following Sunday, I kept the books intact. This meant changing from piano to organ and back while carrying both books.

While at the piano, it came time to use the smaller, regular service hymnal. With that open to the page I needed on the music rack, I needed to find a place for the larger hymnal.

The choices were to:

• Leave the larger hymnal open to the page needed next.
• Close the hymnal and find the page later.

But problems arose with each choice.

• Leaving the hymnal open made the book to wide to fit on the piano bench. With the hymnal placed in one direction, I would have been sitting on ½ the book; if placed in the other direction, it would have fallen to the floor.
• Closing the hymnal would create difficulty in finding the page I needed. Turning pages in clumps takes more time.
• Open or closed, setting the hymnal on the floor wouldn’t work. It’s too heavy to pick up by leaning over. In addition, there are people who object to any religious book being placed on the floor.

My solution that day was to leave the hymnal open, placing it on top of the organ. But to retrieve it, I had to stand and walk a few steps over to the organ and back, which seemed to be a distraction as well as time-
consuming.

I needed to think of something else.

Third try

A friend (thank you!) had suggested removing the pages I needed and placing them in a smaller binder. That way, all the music for that service would be organized, secured, and easily portable.

I wanted to try that, but spending a lot of time putting the hymnals back together was a problem still. This Sunday’s service music included 4 pages from each hymnal, completely out of order in every way.

And then I had an idea. Why not mark the place where each page had been removed with a Post-it?

So I did that on Saturday after practicing for the service.

With a big pink Post-it in each blank space, visible well above the top of the page, reassembling the books was much faster.

So that’s the plan from now on. I recommend it.

How do you handle the music books during services?

Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!

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