'Carols for Choirs' is the title is a series of books containing carol arrangements by Reginald Jacques and David Willcocks although I have never heard anybody talk about Mr. Jacques! I have owned a copy for years, since I was 17 in fact. My then organ teacher obtained it for me and it has sentimental value; I've used it every year since 1975. I know that "O Come all ye faithful" is on page 88 and "Once in Royal" is on page 100; it's just one of those things.
Now, anybody who has ever sung Treble or Soprano in a choir is likely to have sung some of the descants in the book such as "Hark the herald angels" on pages 39-41. Sadly, there are a few sad people who think that they have the right to sing these descants in church whenever these carols crop up even if the descants are not being used by the choir or organist. This happened today. What these misguided idiots do not seem to realise is that the harmony has been changed from the normal verse harmony and so, when they sing the descant it doesn't bloody fit with what everybody else is doing.
For example, in "O come all ye faithful" verse 6 on p.90, the melismatic descant on "Glory" contains a D sharp which fits with the chord of B beneath it. This blatantly does not fit with the chord of G which occurs at the equivalent place in the normal harmony. Sadly one is unlikely to stop people singing these descants unless you put a request to this effect in the service sheet.
Another sad fact about singing in church these days is that the pronunciation of words has changed since I was a boy. In "The first Nowell" verse 2 has "and to the earth it gave great light". Please, before a vowel 'the' becomes 'THEE EARTH' it does not stay as 'thuh'. Of course this is what we hear on the TV and radio all the time.
Oh woe is me! The things I have to suffer in church.
Now, anybody who has ever sung Treble or Soprano in a choir is likely to have sung some of the descants in the book such as "Hark the herald angels" on pages 39-41. Sadly, there are a few sad people who think that they have the right to sing these descants in church whenever these carols crop up even if the descants are not being used by the choir or organist. This happened today. What these misguided idiots do not seem to realise is that the harmony has been changed from the normal verse harmony and so, when they sing the descant it doesn't bloody fit with what everybody else is doing.
For example, in "O come all ye faithful" verse 6 on p.90, the melismatic descant on "Glory" contains a D sharp which fits with the chord of B beneath it. This blatantly does not fit with the chord of G which occurs at the equivalent place in the normal harmony. Sadly one is unlikely to stop people singing these descants unless you put a request to this effect in the service sheet.
Another sad fact about singing in church these days is that the pronunciation of words has changed since I was a boy. In "The first Nowell" verse 2 has "and to the earth it gave great light". Please, before a vowel 'the' becomes 'THEE EARTH' it does not stay as 'thuh'. Of course this is what we hear on the TV and radio all the time.
Oh woe is me! The things I have to suffer in church.
0 comments:
Post a Comment