For the past few weeks, our chapel has been minus an organ. We were informed that the organ was getting updated with some new registers. Okay. We'll see if any of our organists will know what to do with them. At least one very accomplished organist will know, but will the others?
In the mean time, the organist has been playing the piano for our services. I gave a talk on the first week of this situation. Then, I actually was gone on a trip last weekend, so this Sunday was the first week that I was in the congregation during Church. What I'm getting at is that without the organ, the voices in the congregation were easier to hear.
As we sang the hymns, I was delighted to hear all of the vocal parts -- Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Sure, I heard a few male voices singing melody with the Sopranos, but mostly, I could distinguish the parts in a remarkably equal distribution. And even though we sang a couple of less familiar hymns, they still sang!
What surprised me the most was how joyfully the congregants sang out --- IN TUNE!!! In other chapels where I have attended recently, the people in the congregation hardly sang or they sang out of tune. Many people didn't sing at all. Not my ward. They really sang and we have many really beautiful voices among us, too. Now, I was seated on the second row up front, so all of the voices were aimed my way. I loved it!
One of the hymns we sang was "How Wondrous and Great." I have loved this hymn since I was a young teenager. I eventually made an arrangement of it for Choir using Classical styling. At the time, I had a very fine pianist who loved going off on some grand musical adventures through many keys. So each verse gets a modulation. Since the choir I was writing for had an Alto section that always begged me for a featured part, I gave them the melody on one verse and bumped the Soprano section up to a descant. A win-win for everyone!
In the mean time, the organist has been playing the piano for our services. I gave a talk on the first week of this situation. Then, I actually was gone on a trip last weekend, so this Sunday was the first week that I was in the congregation during Church. What I'm getting at is that without the organ, the voices in the congregation were easier to hear.
As we sang the hymns, I was delighted to hear all of the vocal parts -- Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass. Sure, I heard a few male voices singing melody with the Sopranos, but mostly, I could distinguish the parts in a remarkably equal distribution. And even though we sang a couple of less familiar hymns, they still sang!
What surprised me the most was how joyfully the congregants sang out --- IN TUNE!!! In other chapels where I have attended recently, the people in the congregation hardly sang or they sang out of tune. Many people didn't sing at all. Not my ward. They really sang and we have many really beautiful voices among us, too. Now, I was seated on the second row up front, so all of the voices were aimed my way. I loved it!
One of the hymns we sang was "How Wondrous and Great." I have loved this hymn since I was a young teenager. I eventually made an arrangement of it for Choir using Classical styling. At the time, I had a very fine pianist who loved going off on some grand musical adventures through many keys. So each verse gets a modulation. Since the choir I was writing for had an Alto section that always begged me for a featured part, I gave them the melody on one verse and bumped the Soprano section up to a descant. A win-win for everyone!
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