Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE RIGHT PLACE OF THE CHOIR

 INTRODUCTION: Many Christians are well used to having a choir sing in their church services and today, the singing of a choir has been a fixture of the worship in many churches; this is understandable as choirs feature in the Bible’s own description of divine worship. Their singing complements the spoken word of God that is given by the clergy. The role of the clergy is widely known; what about the role of the church choir; and where can they be positioned in the church to play their role very well? All churches have designated sitting places for their choirs in the temple; but which part of the temple should be the best place for the choir in other to perform their role very effectively? This is the problem that was examined.
3 comments
Read more

MISMATCH OF MUSIC

STREET RHYTHMS 06-02-2017 *MISMATCH OF MUSIC* Many a times, choirs sing the 'nice music' at occasions and you (if you really understand music) will realize that the song, though nice, has nothing to relate to with the occasion. One possible cause is that some choir leaders don't find the meanings of song text (especially, in languages they don't understand) before teaching them.
1 comment
Read more

ROBING AND DISROBING IN PUBLIC

Most of our choirs use choir robes as their uniform for every divine or full service. These robes are either sewn in the American robe style (the academic gown/single gown style) or the British robe style (the cassock & surplice style). Some choristers are always found robing and disrobing outside the vestry; this practice is not good.
Post a Comment
Read more