Psalm 121: Anglican Chant with a congregational response

Byartsyhonker March 30, 2011 1 Comment
Continuing with the inclusion of psalms to our liturgy during Lent, on 20th March at St Andrew's we sang Psalm 121. This is a favourite of mine and of many others, and I wanted to use Anglican Chant this time. There are various chants that can be used; the one by H. Walford Davies, with solos in the first and third quarters, is certainly well-known. But it wasn't really appropriate for our very...

With cheerfulness rejoice

Byartsyhonker March 13, 2011 0 Comments
Psalm 51 on Wednesday night went well, I thought: the congregation sang their response and the choir led well. There were even some positive comments after the service! For this morning's service I wanted to keep things simple -- fitting in the extra music for Ash Wednesday had already squished our rehearsal time a bit. So I decided we'd do the same thing, using a metrical version of Psalm 32 and...

FairTrade Fortnight and Metrical Psalmody in Stoke Newington

Byartsyhonker March 7, 2011 0 Comments
It's FairTrade Fortnight, which means lots of tasty, guilt-free chocolate floating around, among other things. Others have laid out, far better than I can, the reasons for buying FairTrade when possible, so I won't add much to that except to say that I don't buy tea, coffee or chocolate at all if they aren't FairTrade and I try to avoid non-FT sugar, cotton and bananas. On Sunday, 13th March the...

Starts with P and that rhymes with T

Byartsyhonker March 6, 2011 5 Comments
Lent approaches fast and, at St Andrew's at least, this will be a time of penitence, prayer, purple vestments and psalmody.The latter is my concern. During Advent we tried adapting the Common Worship psalter to a simple plainchant melody from Palmer's "Manual of Plainsong". It worked well for the choir, who could rehearse, but the congregation struggled to join in. Even when using the same...

The Volunteer Organist

Byartsyhonker February 26, 2011 0 Comments
Last Sunday I rolled along to Christ Church Wanstead as I often do for Evensong; it's usually quite a small service and I enjoy turning up, singing, and going away again without having to worry about messing anything up. Evensong doesn't have to be all cathedrals and choirboys and processions and Stanford; it can be an intimate, quiet occasion, comfortable like an old coat -- even if, for me,...

Building a Case for a Serpent, Part I

Byartsyhonker February 12, 2011 2 Comments
In order to attempt longer and more adventurous Snake On A Bike journeys, I want to build a better case for Charlie the Serpent. The existing case is a box, lined with blue muppet pelt, with some padding on the two largest sides. But there's nothing that really holds the instrument securely within the box, it is very heavy, and the box itself is worryingly flexible. It has all the weight of a...

Snake on a Bike! Snake on a Bike!

Byartsyhonker February 10, 2011 2 Comments
On Sunday I tried an experiment. Carefully, gingerly, I manoeuvred the serpent case onto the back of the bicycle, and used several bungee cords to secure it there. The plan was to then walk the bicycle to St Mary's Wanstead, where the London Gallery Quire were providing music for Evensong. It seemed a better option than taking the Tube one stop, and a more comfortable one than walking with a...

Warmer wrists!

Byartsyhonker February 9, 2011 0 Comments
On Saturday a pair of these arrived in the post:They were knitted for me by my aunt, and my mum sent them along to keep my wrists warm while I'm practising at church.St Andrew's, like many church buildings of its time, was built with not much regard for temperature regulation. Once upon a time there was some kind of underfloor radiator system but that has since been replaced by radiant electric...

A Response to that “CCM praise songs we can’t stand” meme:

Byartsyhonker February 5, 2011 3 Comments
"There are two musical situations on which I think we can be confident that a blessing rests. One is where a priest or an organist, himself a man of trained and delicate taste, humbly and charitably sacrifices his own (aesthetically right) desires and gives the people humbler and coarser fare than he would wish, in a belief (even, as it may be, the erroneous belief) that he can thus bring them to...

The Singer and the Song

Byartsyhonker February 3, 2011 0 Comments
Maggi Dawn, looking for debaters on the subject of scripture and translation, asked some questions on Twitter this morning which got me thinking.@maggidawn: The Message: do you love it or hate it? I'm looking for debaters on the subject of translation@maggidawn: The King James Version: beautiful or incomprehensible? I'm looking for debaters on the subject of scripture and translation@maggidawn:...