BACKGROUND

Named after a town in Gloucestershire, England, this strong and stately tune in bar form shape (AAB). The second and fourth line have a different ending (third and tonic). The B-part starts with a part in F#-minor, concuding with a strong ending where the melody mainly uses the tonic and dominant. 

SINGING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

The festival origin of this tune is evident: it is a "big tune" with stately accompaniment. This tune needs firm organ support and a majestic tempo.

SHEET MUSIC

Link

PRACTISE EXAMPLE

www.bookofpraise.ca

BACKGROUND

In the time of the Reformation and restoration of the church this hymn was written by Johann Schop (1641). When composed this tune was progressive, because some of the Lutheran church leaders found his tunes being too joyful, regarding the rhythm and notes. Nevertheless, the hymn text writer Johann Rist boasts in 1652 that his text are sung on Schop's tunes throughout Germany. Apparently the church people liked these tunes. The infuence of the 18th and 19th centuries has changed this tune into an isometric melody, in a minor key, usually sung slowly. The inspiring original tune was hidden, until the 20th century, when rediscovery of this gem resulted in inclusion in many hymnals.

SINGING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

Hymn 31a is written for a jubilant text. Please pay attention to the beat: it goes 1-2-3, 1-2-3... We have almost the whole time a long note, short note, a long note, short note etc. The composer had in 1641 not any idea of our rhythmic music - rather he used this rhythm as a "musical picture" of joy and celebration. This tune should be sung upbeat and in a faster tempo (once we know the melody).

Two or three things to watch out for:

- The first and third line start with a rest. Because we need this first beat, the organ/piano will "play the rest". If you keep the beat going in your head, the third line should not be a problem.
- The line before the last one ends with a note that is very easy to sing - that is: as long as you don't know hymn 31b! We need to reshape our ears with some practice.

The pitch was not a=440hz when this tune was composed, and it would be very acceptable to accompany this hymn in a lower key than in the hymnals.

SHEET MUSIC

Link (regular key)

Link (lower key)

PRACTISE EXAMPLE

 bookofpraise.ca

BACKGROUND

Both the tune and the text of this Easter hymn were published in 1524 in Enchiridion, the very first reformed hymnal. Three years after the Diet of Worms and one year after the martyrs Hendrik Vos and Joannes van Essen were burned in Brussels. The tune is based on "Victimae paschali laudes" * and “Christ ist erstanden”.

Characteristic for the hymns composed in the early time of the Reformation (1520-1600) was the somewhat irregular rhythms and unusual emphasis in note values. These rhythmic chorales were usually
sung in a fairly fast tempo without accompaniment. (Other example of a rhythmic tune: SOLLT’ ICH MEINEM GOTT, Hymn 31a.) These tunes flow nicely, without strong rhythmic emphasis.

* "Victimae paschali laudes" is also the basis for the tune of Genevan Psalm 80. 

Martin Luther was a talented and conscientious musician and text writer (his texts are rich in tautology and bold in choice of words). Consideration for the composer’s purposeful chosen musical notation (especially at the end of the first 4 lines) is given by many hymnals, such as Cantus Christi (269), Lutheran Book of Worship (135), Liedboek voor de Kerken (203). Exploiting the opportunity to revise the musical notation of the hymns, the Book of Praise can now also be added to this list.

SINGING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

The lines 1 and 2 are repeated in lines 3 and 4. Note that line 1 and 3 start with a whole note and line 2 and 4 start with a half note. Lines 5 to 8 form a second part of the tune.

The melody of lines 1 through 4 underlines the urgency of the message. Considering lines 1 and 2, there are whole notes at the beginning of line 1, the end of line 1 (which is the middle
of the first 2 lines) and a whole note at the end of the 2^nd line. All other notes are half notes. This suggests a drive, a push, maybe unrest: as if the composer wants to say that there is something important said here. The music is alerting the singer and the listener by this “special effect”.

Lines 2 and 4 also act as a confirmation, closing at the tonic. The very last line of this hymn has this same character of a confirmation, confirming everything what was said
before.

The second part of this tune (lines 5-8) has a different character than the first 4 lines. The melody becomes more dynamic with larger intervals and difference in rhythm. The climax is in line
6: “and sing to God right thankfully”. In this line the melody exceeds the range of an octave, which gives a jubilant effect. The lines 6 and 7 give an extra dimension to the outburst of joy in the quarter note at the beginning of the line.

This is different than the tune we have learned a few years ago, in which the composers intention regarding the note values was eliminated and the notation was changed to meet our (rhythmic)
expectations. Just like we learned new tunes when the Augment came out (and are used to them now), we can learn this tune as well, and hopefully easier when we understand why it was written the way it is written.

SHEETMUSIC

Link

PRACTISE EXAMPLE

This is a practise of this hymn (April/May 2011) by the Canadian Reformed Church at Langley BC.

www.bookofpraise.ca

BACKGROUND

This tune was written by the deputies of the Synod Leeuwarden in 1920. Whether the tune was written for the Apostles' Creed I don't know for certain. This hymn was composed with the same note values and there were no rests. This gives a good feeling for singing a stanza instead of line-by-line.  There are three stanza's (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Each stanza is sung as a continuous story line.

SINGING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

This tune is sung not too fast. We need to take time off the last note of every line to breath. This is a common technique, and we are using this already with many other hymns (such as Hymn 74 on the tune Melita).

SHEET MUSIC

Link

PRACTISE EXAMPLE

This is a practise of this hymn (April/May 2011) by the Canadian Reformed Church at Langley BC.

www.bookofpraise.ca

BACKGROUND

This hymn was published in 1806 in the Evangelische Gezangen. At this time the Reformed churches in the Netherlands were dealing with many issues. Not only dogmatic issues, but also church musical issues. Church music itself was not of such a high caliber: the psalms and hymns were sung slowly and isometric, meaning that every note has the same length or value.

The Psalm singing was improved since 1773 when a rhyming of the Psalms was finalized and released for use in the churches. The hymn book Evangelische Gezangen was also an attempt to improve the singing of the churches, and it was answering the call for more hymns. (In turn, the new hymns played also a role in the Secession of 1834...)

This hymn, as we have it, was composed with the same note values, as people were used to in that time, and there were no rests. Steady, majestic and powerful singing was the result. This hymn is the result of the time it was written, and it provides us with a great example of church musical history from the Romantic era.

SINGING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

This tune is sung not too fast. We need to take time off the last note of every line to breath. This is a common technique, and we are using this already with many other hymns (such as Hymn 74 on the tune Melita).

With the accompaniment it is important to indicate the tempo in the prelude (and do not slow down at the end of the prelude so that the congregation loses the beat). At the end of every line lift the soprano and bass voices for the last half of the last note: this is the time the congregation should breath and you can help them breath. Keep a steady tempo throughout - a changing tempo (faster of slower) makes it more difficult for the singers.

SHEETMUSIC

Link

(More information about this hymn and the Reformed church music in around 1806 in the Neterlands, can be found in "Compendium bij de Gezangen uit het Liedboek voor de Kerken" (Prof. Dr. G. van der Leeuw Stichting), "Daer wert om 't seerste uytgekreten..." (Dr. Jan Luth), "Een in Lied en Leven", Dr Jan Smelik, "Zanger en Speellieden" W. Milo, and other sources.)

HYMN PRACTISE

www.bookofpraise.ca

Some of the musical notation of the hymns has changed in the 2010 BoP compared with the 1984 BoP.

General changes are removal of phrase marks and fermatas, update of time signatures and barlines.

Specific changes are:

In the next few posts I will discuss the individual hymns and provide more details about the changes and what that means for the congregations and the organists (pianists).

The Queen of England started her speech with an interesting history lesson. It was recorded in Hampton Court in Londen. In this building King James (1566-1625) ordered a new bible translation, which was completed in 1611, now known as the King James translation.

"Sometimes organ playing is a disaster. I hear the wrong tempo, thick, fat chords, slow and dragging playing, heavy slurring, use of the wrong stops, and so on. At times there is not enough preparation and you can hear too many mistakes. That really upsets me. As pastor you need to prepare yourself, but as organist too."

Rev. G. J. Baan in the "GezinsGids", December 9, 2010

Note: Rev. Baan is pastor in the Netherlands Reformed Church of Kapelle (the Netherlands).

MONDAY @ 7:30 PM

Admission 15/adults, 10/seniors and children are FREE!

Selections from the Messiah, the Nutcracker, Canadian Brass arrangements, and much more...
Children from the audience will also be involved with some of the pieces!

The organist will perform Carillon de Westminster by Vierne and other works...

The Brass with Organ will also accompany our singing of "O come all ye faithful",
"O little town of Bethlehem", "Hark! the herald angels sing",
and we close with the "Halleluia" from the Messiah
(music will be provided to all)!

In the Canadian Reformed Church at Langley we are broadcasting the church services through the Internet since summer 2010. Several questions have been asked about this project and therefore I would like to explain this briefly.

THE REASON

The reason for live broadcasting of the church services was primarily the Manoah Manor home for the elderly. They watched the church services on a DVD of one week old. One week old DVD recordings resulted in inaccurate information, for example in the congregational prayers, but also prayers for other actual concerns in the world we live in. And the church services around Christmas, Good Friday and Easter made Manoah Manor use DVDs from the previous year. Real time viewing of the church services would be preferred, but the challenge was the distance between church and Manoah Manor.

Also other church members would benefit from this:

• Our congregation is blessed with many young families. Not all infants can go to the nursery two times and sometime children are sick, so that one of the parents stays home.
• Other people that have to stay home are the elderly that are only able to come to church in the morning.
• Sick people also stay home, not able to join the congregation for worship, and getting a DVD on short notice is a hassle.
• There are also members of our congregation that are travelling for a longer period, sometimes down south, sometimes to other parts of the world. They are not always able to attend a local church. Sometimes they miss congregational life for several months.
• We also have members that are working on Sundays in the healthcare or other necessary jobs. Sometimes they could watch (part of) a worship service, but on a DVD that is not always easy to arrange.

All of these people would benefit from a direct link on the Internet that brings them real-time, live into the church service.

ADDITIONAL BENEFITS

Other benefits of having this technology available would be that other meetings and events in our church can be "attended" (watched). We have family and relatives follow funeral services live, even from oversees. The graduation ceremony of our Credo Christian Elementary School 2010 was watched by grandparents from Ontario. The Evangelism Course of pastor Ryan deJonge was attended by a group of people from our and other congregations and an on-line discussion room was available for interaction from the online participants. A congregational meeting was attended online by many members that were interested in the meeting and they could also follow the interaction of the members present through the wireless microphone that was used by the various speakers. When Joyce De Haan spoke about "coping", it was valued by many people that it was available live through the Internet.

TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION

Several evangelical and Baptist churches in the US do use broadcasting regularly. We have researched these churches and evaluated their technology. Often their equipment and services are on professional levels, and they have dedicated, trained staff that takes care of the audio and video. Our church does not want to go into that direction (although if leveraging of web technology would become a focus of the home mission committee, this may change). Our sister churches in the Netherlands also use live broadcasting over the Internet. We found out that there are companies that specialize in providing live online audio and video as a package. These packages could be used here in Canada, but the cost was significant. Therefore we searched further...

We found several web services for streaming video. There are different service levels, costs, quality, and 'terms and conditions' for each provider. We have tested several services and we found that it is not easy to get a good quality signal in the Internet that works uninterrupted through the church services. Even the more expensive solutions do not always guarantee good quality. Paid services does not always guarantee no advertising. All free services we experiences insufficient quality or advertising that is contrary to God's Word. 

What we have decided and found the best working solution for our church in Langley is the following setup.

ADSL connection

We have a basic ADSL connection with Telus. This could be upgraded to monitored, and more bandwidth. At this time we have a regular account that is used by the church office during the week and for the streaming video on Sunday.

Computer

Our computer is a new, entry level, DELL desktop computer. (Dual Core E6500 w/ VT, 293 Ghz, 4 GB Dual Channel RAM, and 1GB NVDIA GT220 video card, 320 GB HD, and an EEE 1394 card.) Video can be connected through the LAN, USB or Fire-wire. We are using Fire-wire.

Camera

The camera we have is the camera that we use for DVD recording. It is a Sony Camcorder. For streaming video this is much more then we need, but it is convenient because the camera is already operational.

Broadcasting

We have an account with the commercial division of Ustream called Watershed. This service provides a web components that we integrated with the church website for both viewing and broadcasting (the latter is a hidden, secure page, and can only be accessed from within the church website). It is possible to integrate Ustream with desktop applications to manage and control the camera. We decided that broadcasting should be easy, simple, non intrusive, and allow the operator to participate in worship as well. Therefore we used the Ustream web applications. 

Ustream offers pay-as-you-go, or packages. We first signed up for pay-as-you-go, until we were sure this was a good service. After that we purchase a package of 49 dollars per month (USD). This gives us 500 viewer hours and 500 GB storage space. One viewer that watches one hour is one viewer hour - watching two hours is two viewer hours. Two people watching two hours makes four viewer hours, etc. We have between 25 and 60 unique viewers on a Sunday. They watch between 30 and 50 hour in total, making our total hours for a month around 200. That means we have 300 minutes left for other events and activities.

Our viewers are located for 85% in Canada, 5% in the USA, 8% in Europe, 1% in Asia, and 1% in Australia. A few church members went to Hawai and to Mexico - these are one-time hits. (This is based on the past 5 months of history that Ustream provides.) The majority of the viewers are in British Columbia and that is the main purpose of this service is for our own church members.

We have the services automatically stored on Ustream. Through a link on the church website visitors can not only listen to previous services, but also watch the recorded video of the church services.

TESTING

We tested the streaming video with several people that were staying home from the church services regularly. We also knew what their Internet connection was and their computer. We found that most people with a newer computer and a non-wireless (wired) Internet connection have the best results, mostly un-interrupted.  People with a wireless connection experience regularly buffering issues and lose a few seconds because of the live streaming. Older computers also result in connection issues.

Once we had reports back from our testing viewers for two months, we had a good idea about what we were doing. What needed adjustment was the sound and it took some time to get that under control.

The video also was adjusted. The camera is now switched on 5 minutes before the service so that people at home have a chance to test their connection and make adjustments if necessary before the service starts. During the collection the camera slowly moves around so that the people at home can see that the church is filled with people, which gives a greater sense of belonging together. After the service the camera is not switched off but shows people leaving the sanctuary. This gives the viewers a closure to the service as the people leave rather than a sudden black screen.

At this time there are moments that the technology fails, and we are trying to address every issue when it comes up, in an attempt to perfect the signal.

CONCERNS

There are also other sides of streaming video of a church service.

• Although it is a public worship service, with the streaming video you reach a larger group of people. Mentioning personal circumstances and concerns in prayer could be broadcasted to thousands of anonymous people. Mentioning members and their personal circumstances reach potentially world-wide. There could be privacy concerns, when there are situations of imprisonment or personal security concerns.
• If the sermon would deal with controversial issues in this society, such as homosexuality, what is said from the pulpit is broadcasted world-wide. It is also recorded and can be copied and passed around quickly over the Internet. In case something is specifically addressed to and prepared for the local congregation, one needs to be aware that the message will be broadcasted to a much larger audience.
• There is a chance that some members may choose to "attend" the worship services from home, where they can sit comfortably and enjoy a cup of coffee at the same time.
• I know of one organist who told me that he would be against having his playing live broadcasted into the world, and then available as recorded video which could be multiplied and offered on countless websites. He had no specific reasons but he was uncomfortable with the idea.

Practical example 1: At our bible study a comment was made about "the boys of family X" who were "beating each other up" before the service. Seated on the chairs in front of the pulpit, these boys were without parents for a few minutes, entertaining the online viewers with what boys often do...

Practical example 2: When we had three babies baptized the church was full. After parking away from the church, three younger members arrived seven minutes before the service started. When they found out that they had to sit in the overflow, they turned around and made it home in time to hear the announcements by the elder (the service started a bit later due to the large crowd). They watched the entire service through the Internet and their dad verified that they heard the sermon and understood it.

AWARENESS

In our churches not everyone realizes the consequences of the live video streaming. If you would attend the services in the Crystal Cathedral in California, you would be aware of the public nature of the service and the broadcasting worldwide. There are no personal aspects in their services pertaining to individual situations. In our services the broadcasting happens in the background. We are not prepared to change our services to make them "broadcast friendly", by adjusting what is being mentioned. How online broadcasting can serve the Canadian Reformed churches best will be discovered over time as more churches will start using this service.