Although we couldn't fully appreciate it at the time, being neophytes who didn't know any better, we sang for several years in one of the best small church choirs ever. It has been downhill since then, meaning no disrespect to our various choir directors nor to our fellow singers, but times and situations have changed and we have been mostly reduced to singing music that would never have enticed us into choir if we hadn't been already hooked. But—O frabjous day!—this Lent we will be singing John Stainer's God So Loved the World! I believe it has been a dozen years since we last had that privilege, quite long enough to make us not mind so much that we have neither the voices nor the rehearsal time to do it anything close to justice, and simply rejoice in being able to sing such music again. Here, for your listening pleasure, especially those of you for whom this will bring back lovely memories, is a performance by the St. Paul's Cathedral Choir, which is a tad better even than our best. :)
Did we try to sing that at the hymn sing at Valda's? It's in the hymnal and oddly familiar-sounding, as if I'd tried struggling through it before.
Hmmm...I don't think so. My memory is unreliable for faces and names but usually pretty good for songs, and I think I would remember if we'd found this one in the book. I do know that if I'd found it, I would have requested it. :) That's an amazing hymnal, to have this as well as the full-part, original-key Hallelujah Chorus. Can you tell if the harmony is the same? Here is a pdf of the sheet music.
I can find slight differences in the first two systems (is that the right term? is it lines? staffs?) so I'm not going to check any further unless you're very interested.
It's #207 in the hymnal in case you can get it at your library. (The Hymnal for Worship & Celebration, Word Music - senior editor Tom Fettke.)
Thanks. I'm sure our music director has it. I think that's the hymnal he says is used in more churches than any other, although many denominations are shocked when he tells them it's just the Baptist Hymnal under a different name. Now that I have the name, I'll check it out.
We also think that maybe we sang a version in German Bible study, though I can't remember it specifically, we sang lots of good quality and difficult music there. I don't recall singing it in church.
I was able to get a quick glimpse Sunday at the hymnal our director was talking about, and it's not quite the same one. I think the title was just "The Worship Hymnal" or something, at any rate it wasn't "The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration" I'm certain. But it did have the Hallelujah Chorus and God So Loved the World (the latter in the 400's I think, however, not 207, which is part of what makes me think it's a different book). Funny how I own so many hymnals, yet here are two I'm not familiar with at all, and each have those two anthems as hymns. It's a big music world out there, even if you limit yourself to church hymnals!
