Hymns

My choir are fed up with getting all robed up only to sing unison. So as they come up, I am setting some of the hymns and songs in HON for SATB, with the text between the staves.

Even as a boy treble I didn't understand why "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" was unison. It has lovely harmonies. I have a versoin of that too.

HON's version of "Ode to Joy" is boringly distant from Beethoven's bass line. I've brought it back to life, I hope.

I'm happy to share with anyone else who's stuck with HON.

Glyndwr

Sorry - HON = Hymns Old & New - churches chose it because it contains a mix of old hymns and more recent ones, along with some songs and Taize-style chants. They soon realise that a lot of traditional words have been messed about with - removing gender references, anti-militarism, anti-imperialism, or just a feeling that people don't want to use thou, thy, art, and wert, any more.

If that side of it doesn't wind you up enough, you then find your vicar has chosen a hymn which is set in unison - where everyone sings the tune. If (s)he has a robed choir that begs the question, why run a bunch of experienced harmony singers and regularly ask them to sing in unison.

I take the hymn list when the priests set it up, and I re-write some of the music so that all four voices can sing it - Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass (=SATB). Sometimes I add a descant for a chorus, or for a final verse, if it feels right.

Here's the "Ode to Joy" with hymn words, for example. HON (the hymn book) uses a different harmony. No idea why. Surely Mr Beethoven is out of copyright by now!

My choir likes singing from this layout, with the words inside the "piano" part. They wouldn't do that for polyphony, but they'll only encounter that in anthems and other major items like a Magnificat, Nunc Dimittis, Te Deum, or Gloria. I know other choirs that would prefer to see four separate voice lines on the sheet, but that's easy enough to do.

Fortunately, HON has very clear copyright indications on each page, for both the poet and the composer. I always copy these onto the arangements, plus a note of what I have done (eg, SATB - Glyndwr).

Having bought a set of congregation, melody and harmony hymn books for your church, chapel, school, or college you clearly have the right to use them in worship. If you were to be invited to take part in a broadcast like "Dechrau Canu, Dechrau Canmol" or "Songs of Praise" then the TV or radio company would check out the rights.

Your church's copyright officer will know what needs reporting and how. And they'll be delighted if you turn out to be the copyright holder and aren't seeking royalties on your new work.

Your soprano and bass lines are usually as written, unless the bass runs too low. Then you have to decide where to break it and bring it up an octave, or whether to use another note of the chord - the third or the fifth.

You can allow the tenor and the alto to cross each other occasionally (though probably not in the first and last chord of a hymn). and you don't usually want more than one voice taking the third of the chord.

Overall what you are aiming for is singable lines, avoiding unpleasant or difficult intervals. I sing the inner parts with the playback feature as a final check, but usually I've spotted any odd intervals before then.

If you have singers who don't read music but are on email, why not post them the PDF of the music plus the MIDI file at the beginning of the week? They'd have a chance to hear what's coming up on Friday's practice.

10 years ago it got to have been MuseScore 0.9.x
Actually it is 0.9.5.

Oh, the question was about the SOP edition not the MuseScore version...