h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Anglican Psalm Singing - A2476064
Author: Vip - U188069

I am quite sure this topic has not been covered before. I hope it is in depth enough. I haven't included the history as that has been written about elsewhere (linked).

Vip x

I can positively guarantee it has never been covered before.

Nice entry...

Possible addition could be a paragraph on how the Psalter is broken up into 30 days, Morning and Evening...
(And if memory serves me you could then add a line as to how hacked off choirs can get when they get half way through evensong and suddenly remember it's the 15th of the Month )

Ah, yes, I'd forgotten about that (I sing for the Catholics these days, and don't sing evensong).

Nice entry

A couple of things:

Isn't the general format for a double chant something like

Bar 1: Semibreve, Bar 2: Two minims, Bar 3: Semibreve |
Bar 4: Semibreve, Bar 5: Two minims, Bar 6: Two minims, Bar 7: Semibreve ||

and then repeat this? This certainly fits the pointing for the Nunc Dimittis you have there.

Also "If there is two notes in a bar, and two syllables," -> "If there are two notes in a bar and two syllables," reads better, I think.

You mention that the soprano part is usually more ornate - is this done by using two crotchets instead of a minim? Sometimes this happens in alto/tenor parts too (particularly in modern anglican psalms where there are lots of suspended chords going on).

I might come back with something else later given more time to read the entry again, for now though I think it's pretty good!

Oh, just noticed - "Excersise" in the final path is spelt wrongly - "exercise" is the right spelling.

Perhaps it's worth mentioning that if you want to hear good Anglican Psalm singing then a cathedral choir will probably do it better than most. Certainly the cathedral choir at Durham were a very good example of how to do it right.

Should be "amateur", next-last paragraph. Had to get that in before I forgot (really must get the hang of opening windows).

Brought up in an atheist household, my experience of religious singing was based on school assembly, so psalms (at weddings, funerals and the occasional services I did attend) have always intrigued and baffled me: how did people know the tune and how to fit the words to it? So this entry is very helpful! Although I did have to read it three times to get the hang of what you were saying. I can read music and I understand now about the length of the notes, but is there consistency in the pitch (I hope that's the right word)? Is it possible to translate the tune into tonic sol-fa or have I still not grasped the essentials here? If this is possible then I think it should be included, because this is the sort of entry that will interest people who know very little about Anglican procedure as well as those who sing in choirs or have been brought up with it. Good entry though.

Tonic sol-fa? Hmm. I can't read that notation myself, as I've never had to. However, I think that anything can be translated into sol-fa, can't it? I don't know enough about it.

The pitches (as in the note sounds, the tune as it were) are as varied as there are composers. They tend to follow basic harmony rules, but every one will write one sounding slightly different.

I can be clumsy in my writing. I'll see if I can do anything about it.

No no no! (is there a distraught smiley?) It's not clumsy, just a more technical subject than I was expecting when I first started reading the entry.

I did still miss the point though (less distraught now)& you have answered my question - there are different tunes - which means that part of my original bafflement about Anglican psalm singing was justified: "they" knew the tune, because there are different tunes which presumably one gets to know when one attends services more regularly than once a year, just as there are different tunes for different hymns. Which sounds vaguely like something you wrote, come to think about it (I clearly just don't pay enough attention ) (sorry that should be the embarrassed one). So tonic sol-fa would add nothing to the entry anyway. I was just thinking that if they all went (say) GAGFD (with harmonies) then this could be included. But they don't so it can't.

At least next time I'm in church I'll be able to recite the words in time with everybody else even if I get the actual notes wrong. So thank you for that!

You really, really aren't the only one. I can't sing psalms if I am in the congregation, because they don't give you the music (often). Its so silly! The singers (the trained people) have it there in front of them, and the non-singers (who are presumed to have little or no musical training) are expected to pick everything up straight away! Sometimes you don't have the pointing either, which makes it actually imposiible to sing correctly first time. So really don't worry.

I will get around to clarifying the tunes bit soon, promise!

Hey Vip, any chance yet to work on this one?

Same goes as to the bellringing; I'll be back on the case shortly. Thanks for reminding me!

Just drop a line here when you've had a chance to get back to us, and we'll come back and see it again!


Mikey

*strokes Vip's hair to get her attention*

*smiles with that far away look*


Sorry, guys, I'm still without internet connection, and will be for a few months I'm afraid. Still on hold.

Oh well if you ever want to come around and use my internet connection you're most welcome!!

We need to meet up soon actually m'dear.

If it's going to be a few months before anything even starts to happen again, I think it might be most appropriate to move this thread back to the entry for the time being. What do other people think?

First things first. Whats a high church as opposed to a low church?

I think I may know what you mean but I'm not really sure.

2/3

See post 17 above.

I'd rather free up space in PR until author can get back on regularly to complete an interesting guide entry... yep a move?

speller