THE TRUNCATED HYMNS

STREET RHYTHMS
14-10-2016

*THE TRUNCATED HYMNS*

Hymns carry messages to us; and sometimes, you can't get the complete message unless you sing all stanzas of the hymn.

Taking out some of the stanzas may break the flow or chain of the information.

During our liturgical services, most a times, you hear our liturgists or MC taking some of the hymn stanzas out of the liturgical hymns. Most of them do it for fun.
"... We shall sing the first and last stanzas... " (most of them sound like this).
A few may decide to read some stanzas though, but must you just read the stanza while it can be sung?
Sometimes, the time used to read the stanza is equivalent to the time that could be used to sing it.

*_Liturgical hymns are the hymns in the liturgy, for church services_*

It may not be bad to truncate the hymn, probably due to time constraints. But when you truncate the hymn right from the opening hymn to the closing hymn, then there is a problem.

Most people don't actually know the essence and the purpose of the liturgical hymns in our services. Yes, at one service, I witnessed a liturgist saying that "the choir will now sing an introit, first and last stanzas". Unfortunately, the choir sung a short Anthem instead of a hymn.

What account for the usage of the 'service hours' in that liturgical hymns, especially, are mostly truncated?

How many minutes will be wasted if the whole liturgical hymn is sung?

Presumably, it may happen that some stanzas need to be skipped to save time, but it will be prudent if the choir master or director is prompted earlier.

Most a times, when liturgical hymns are truncated, the choir is unable to perform the hymn as practiced; variations are missed;etc.

Aside the technical 'blows', when you just skip liturgical hymn stanzas for no good reasons, you may be skipping the stanza that carries a solution to a church member's problem; or that which carries a message to the entire congregation.

Kingsley J.E.K Acheampong
#NANAKRHYTHMS
www.facebook.com/nanakrhythmslive
www.nanakrhythms.blogspot.com

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