No. Be very afraid. Especially if Walk with me is also on the menu!
What others are there? Oh the Word of My Lord, another one, that seems very related to Do Not Be Afraid. Wonder if they can be sung together?
Do not be afraid seems very popular everywhere you go. And tis always rubato mangelissimo. Could we just have some consensus on this please. It goes... Do not be afraid (Just wait a while) For I have redeemed you (and then) I will call you by your name (just wait a while and then) You are mine.
Poor Mr Oops. He sometimes come along and I leave the church muttering. He says, if it doesn't make you feel holy perhaps you could go somewhere else? And then he has to take my finger out of his eye.
Oh. God. Yes. The way to handle the tempo for that is to begin fairly fast and then gradually slow down like a winding down gramophone before finally stopping just before the final two bars. Perfect.
Walk with Me and Do not be Afraid - they are really needing a bit of dancing to hold them together. More cha cha.
There is also of course, Awesome Wonder. This can go astray too.
There is also that suspense in I the Lord of Sea and Sky, will they won't they, play that bar and will the congregation keep on singing through it? What is going to happen? Such a dilemma.
A New Commandment. Is "another" in the middle of the verse sung as written or at half speed? What about the written Scotch Snap in Take our Bread at "we are yours?" Meanwhile I have to play and sing All things bright and beautiful at a funeral tomorrow. Methinks the fee will go into increased life insurance!
Surely this shouldn't be a problem if you have decent musicians and/or singers leading the singing. I played for a funeral today in a different parish. Rehearsed everything beforehand with a professional soloist. Hymns were 'How great thou art' and 'I watch the sunrise'. There were no issues at all with the timing - though I did manage to add the 4th verse of 'I watch the sunrise' which had been omitted from the Order of Service. We just sang it anyway as a duet!
The interesting solo was 'Lady of Knock', complete with modulation. I'd never come across it before. The soloist knew it well though and I suspect it might become a favourite for Irish Baby Boomers... For education's sake, here's a couple of YouTube links. Not for the musically nervous! Now there's something even Susan Boyle struggles with - see the second video!
Even in my naïve, folky youth I couldn't abide "Colours of day" and another that sends shudders down my spine is "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" - I can still remember the parish choir singing such trivial lyrics as though it were the finest poetry. Thank goodness the 70s are long behind me!!!
The key with hymns of this type is to arrange the accompaniment in such a way that it provides a regular pulse. This keeps everyone singing together. Technically this involves reorganising the harmony, by employing a higher proportion of inverted chords. In general, with relatively modern hymns of this sort I do re-arrangements of the accompaniment anyway, as I find the versions given in the hymn books unsatisfactory compromises between piano and pipe Organ styles. Surely it must be obvious that they require different approaches, given that with the former you have a sustaining pedal, and with the latter you have an essentially clumsy pedal board: - 'horses for courses'. Moreover many of these hymns were written with guitars in mind; so a little bit of transposition up or down a semitone to fit congregational voices is sometimes useful.
