Sunday, July 25, 2004
Sick and Weary
Our church is weird, and today I will discuss one reason why. There are some crazy conventions in the way we sing our hymns. I don't know why or how these quirks got introduced, but it must have been somewhere in Utah a long time ago, because it has spread all throughout the Church.
I'm talking about the way people sing hymns differently than the way they are clearly written, but consistently the same wrong way every time. The most glaring example of this is the Hymn (#223) "Have I Done Any Good?". It's a nice leisurely 6/8 time signature, but apparently someone somewhere decided that it needed to be a little more leisurely than Will L. Thompson, the composer and lyricist (1847-1909) intended. In the chorus, on the words, "Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure," everyone, everywhere holds out the last syllable of "pleasure" and "measure" as though there were fermatas on them.
Even worse, though, is the veritable double ritardando and cessura on "Have the sick and the weeeearyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy [big breath] been helped on their waaaaaaaaaaaay?". Every single time anyone sings this song, those notes are held out for at least five or six times longer than they are written. If the conductor knows what he or she is doing (which is another Mormon music pet peeve that will have to wait for another post), he or she will always distinctly hold and cut off on that line, twice. There isn't a written fermata in the whole song, but oral tradition says that we have to do it that way. It's even painfully evident on the official Church recording that you can download at LDS.org. It bugs the crap out of me.
I'm talking about the way people sing hymns differently than the way they are clearly written, but consistently the same wrong way every time. The most glaring example of this is the Hymn (#223) "Have I Done Any Good?". It's a nice leisurely 6/8 time signature, but apparently someone somewhere decided that it needed to be a little more leisurely than Will L. Thompson, the composer and lyricist (1847-1909) intended. In the chorus, on the words, "Doing good is a pleasure, a joy beyond measure," everyone, everywhere holds out the last syllable of "pleasure" and "measure" as though there were fermatas on them.
Even worse, though, is the veritable double ritardando and cessura on "Have the sick and the weeeearyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy [big breath] been helped on their waaaaaaaaaaaay?". Every single time anyone sings this song, those notes are held out for at least five or six times longer than they are written. If the conductor knows what he or she is doing (which is another Mormon music pet peeve that will have to wait for another post), he or she will always distinctly hold and cut off on that line, twice. There isn't a written fermata in the whole song, but oral tradition says that we have to do it that way. It's even painfully evident on the official Church recording that you can download at LDS.org. It bugs the crap out of me.
Comments:
Don't forget hymn number 3, now let us rejoice. In the chorus, the part that says "When all that was promised/the saints shall be given" no one can ever get the rhythym right. they always add another half beat or something that i can't figure out.
and most hymns are too slow in general...
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and most hymns are too slow in general...
