It's that time of year again. First choir practice of the 'year' tonight, which included the obligatory selections from the 1940 Episcopal Hymnal for our annual 1893 Heritage Sunday Church Service. In my wayward youth, I called it Hokey Hymn and Cowboy Boot Sunday, but I've since learned that 1) Some people like Hokey Hymns , 2) I like saying the words "He will come again to judge the quick and the dead" aloud in an acoustically interesting room and 3) Singing in that church is fun because the sound bounces off the walls like crazy and I'm easily amused.
Speaking of being easily amused, the paper version has something Oremus.org left out: HILARIOUS instructions:
This one tells the congregation to be sure and sing it "Without dragging". The category is a little bit un-ecclesiastical too: "Need". It gets better as you flip through, I just don't have it in front of me. My father (A backslidden baptist turned lapsed Episcopalian/Baptist whatchamacallit) says it's because they knew who they were dealing with. Indeed. Any "piskie" who sings loud enough to be heard without it being offensive gets drafted into the choir. I don't read music and I'm currently 1/3 of our soprano section. He went on to say that if we could sing we would be Lutherans.
Not to sure about that....
In fairness to our people we rather frequently put songs in our hymnal that one has to either learn by repetition over many years or be a musician to sing. Also, some of them are just plain hideous.
Don't look at me like that. You all have a hymn you hate.
You just don't want to admit it because it's a hymn.
Speaking of being easily amused, the paper version has something Oremus.org left out: HILARIOUS instructions:
This one tells the congregation to be sure and sing it "Without dragging". The category is a little bit un-ecclesiastical too: "Need". It gets better as you flip through, I just don't have it in front of me. My father (A backslidden baptist turned lapsed Episcopalian/Baptist whatchamacallit) says it's because they knew who they were dealing with. Indeed. Any "piskie" who sings loud enough to be heard without it being offensive gets drafted into the choir. I don't read music and I'm currently 1/3 of our soprano section. He went on to say that if we could sing we would be Lutherans.
Not to sure about that....
In fairness to our people we rather frequently put songs in our hymnal that one has to either learn by repetition over many years or be a musician to sing. Also, some of them are just plain hideous.
Don't look at me like that. You all have a hymn you hate.
You just don't want to admit it because it's a hymn.
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