Your Easter Voluntary

[pcnd5584 0]

Well that clears up a couple of mysteries about identities and locations then!

 

They weren't too frightened, and they were pleased we got lots of chamade during the rest of the service as we were sat down that aisle (were they your links between verses of Guiting Power?)

 

Actually, the one disappointment we did have was that we weren't aware that there were refreshments after the service. Maybe we missed it on the notice sheet, but none of the other very welcoming congregation mentioned it. Was just in the mood for first Easter choccie biscuits...

 

Yes, they were my links.

 

I am sorry to hear about the coffee. For once, I did not listen to the announcements, I think I was arranging my music or something. It sounds as if this was the first Sunday for ages that the Rector did not invite the congregation for refreshments after the service. He probably had a lot to think about with the other services (there were six that day, five of which were before lunch).

[andyorgan 0]

Yes, they were my links.

 

I am sorry to hear about the coffee. For once, I did not listen to the announcements, I think I was arranging my music or something. It sounds as if this was the first Sunday for ages that the Rector did not invite the congregation for refreshments after the service. He probably had a lot to think about with the other services (there were six that day, five of which were before lunch).

 

Did you notice that the congregation managed to get the melody wrong in the opening line of each verse of Guiting Power?

 

Rector did a remarkable job and so good to see the place so full, even at 9.30 when we arrived.

[pcnd5584 0]

Did you notice that the congregation managed to get the melody wrong in the opening line of each verse of Guiting Power?

 

Rector did a remarkable job and so good to see the place so full, even at 9.30 when we arrived.

 

Yes, I did. They always do. Even the chamade (in octaves) would not have helped here. They also mis-pitch the antepenultimate note of Abbot's Leigh, too.

 

To be honest, we usually get more than this. There were several away from the choir, too. A combination of holidays which had to be taken when parents were not working and choirmen having to work....

[Vox Humana 0]

They also mis-pitch the antepenultimate note of Abbot's Leigh, too.

Just reharmonise it and (if you're in D major) put a B flat chord under that note. That'll cure them.

[Davidb 0]

Had the Abbots Leigh problem as long as i've played. Do you have problems with St. Botolph, going Eflat,G,G,Bflat at the start?

[pcnd5584 0]

Had the Abbots Leigh problem as long as i've played. Do you have problems with St. Botolph, going Eflat,G,G,Bflat at the start?

 

No - fortunately.

[Nick Bennett 0]

The extra note that most congregations insert before the last note of the third line of Adeste Fideles also seems to be impossible to eradicate.

[Peter Clark 0]

The extra note that most congregations insert before the last note of the third line of Adeste Fideles also seems to be impossible to eradicate.

 

Some modern hymnals (at least one published by K**** M*****) actually print that note.

 

Peter

[DHM 0]

Do you have problems with St. Botolph, going Eflat,G,G,Bflat at the start?

No, we have problems with it going E flat, G, *A flat* B flat.

[handsoff 0]

When I was organist at a small but thriving parish church with a reasonable choir we had the usual problems with the congregational singing in all of the hymns mentioned in this thread. The DoM and I discussed it at length and decided that we would ask the vicar if he had any objection to us asking if members of the congregation if, as we were introducing a new Eucharist setting with a unison part for the congregation, they would like to have a short rehearsal after a couple of morning services so that they would feel included from day one when the setting was live, as it were. The setting was one that I had written based on plainsong using quite simple 4 part harmony for the choir but with, by and large, the themes left intact so that the congregation were able to sing along if they wished.

 

We ran the first rehearsal to a surprisingly large congregation and went through the setting a couple of times with me soloing the theme and then with the DoM, a fine baritone, singing the words to them. They picked it up pretty quickly and we were asked if we could repeat it the following week. This is when we hit them with the hymn tunes... After the setting had been rehearsed the DoM said how valuable he thought the exercise had been and wondered if they would like to go through "a couple of other tunes". This is when we taught them the correct sequence of notes in Abbots Leigh using the same technique as we had used for the mass setting. In the end we had four sessions in consecutive weeks with other tunes, all in a light-hearted vein, and which everyone enjoyed. Most importantly, they never sang another wrong note in the tunes that we had covered. When we introduced anything new in which the congregation were to be involved we did the same again.

 

I do appreciate that something of this sort wouldn't be practical in a lot of establishments but doing something to involve the congregation in the music, even using something as simple as hymn tunes, gives everyone a nice warm feeling. In smaller churches, I'm sure that something could be achieved.

[pcnd5584 0]

We tried to do something similar. Unfortunately, most of our congregation did not warm to the idea.

[sbarber49 0]

The extra note that most congregations insert before the last note of the third line of Adeste Fideles also seems to be impossible to eradicate.

And the quaver passing notes in "Immortal, invisible"

[Paul Carr 0]

What was yours? I transcribed and used La Quenouille from the Bretagne CD (see the Bombarde/Ocarina thread) and it was very effective . So now over to you....

 

 

Peter

 

[back to the original question ]

 

Wordsley

5.45am (!): Improvised Sortie on Thine be the Glory. (ie the last hymn)

St Paul's Birmingham

10am: pre: Howells: Saraband for the Morning of Easter; post: Harris: Fantasy on Easter Hymn

6.30pm: Andriessen: O Filii et Filiae

 

P.

[Colin Harvey 0]

In a bid to do something "not French" and to celebrate his bicentenary year, I did Mendelssohn Sonata III

[AJJ 0]

Away in France so someone else played my Easter vol. We got an improvisation at Tours Cathedral.

 

A