Church music

katerinasol

Hi all! I have a little dilemma about church music and you have all been so helpful in the past so I thought I would ask you again.

We are having music for the bridal entrance (Pachebel's Canon), 3 hymns (Jerusalem, Give Me Joy In My Heart and Oh Happy Day), as well as the Bridal March for the exit.

The thing I am worried about, in particular with Oh Happy Day, is that nobody will sing. None of our relatives are particularly religious so they might not even know the words or want to sing, plus Happy Day is a gospel song and quite difficult to sing I would have thought.

The alternatives are:
1. Play the hymns on CD - but we would like a 'live' organist.
2. Just let people sing them - and risk disaster if nobody knows the words.
3. Find an acapella CD with the tracks - i.e. no music, but the reverend did mention that the organist may find it difficult to play along to someone else singing rather than the singers having to follow her tune if that makes sense?

Any idea how we go about this? I'm a bit baffled as to the best solution!

sammy_wheeler

i dont know oh happy day myself--- but re words-- do you not do a order of service where the words would be??
i think if you would have/know some one who would start it off then generally people do follow and sing along

Curious_George_2

I reckon there will be almost nobody at our service who will know the hymns, i dont think there will be more than 2 or 3 church goers amongst them and if theres that many i will be surprised,
but i had to pick some hymns, and the words are in the misson praise hymn book, they will all have to bluff their way through it!

Little_Vics

The danger with Happy Day is that it's got 2 parts, a call and echo (oh happy day (oh happy day) etc etc) so you need a good set of vocalists to lead it.

I'm not quite sure if you're religious, but if so will people from your church be there? Can you prime them to sing their hearts out??

We had a similar problem in that none of our relatives are Christians, but had heaps of Christian friends there which more than made up for it!

zcrat41

I'm sure they'll have seen sister act ;-)

What about seeing if your church has a choir you can ask to sing?

You'll be surprised how many people know Give me joy... We're having that too and SOOOO many people have yelled "sing hoseanna" when I've told them and relived their primary school days!

ZC

sammy_wheeler

just googled it- and of course i no it- from sister act lol!

Sammy85_2

Hi

We have two hymns that most will know the tune of but not the words - Eternal father strong to save and Amazing Grace. Ive gone and got a local choir to come into our church and sing for a small donation, mainly because i was paranoid that there would be no singing! They will also be singing two pieces during the register signing.

From personal church-going, hymn-singing experience - people may mumble to the first verse, but once they know the tune each successive verse will get louder and louder, plus you have chosen hymns that most will know the basic tune even if they dont know the words by heart. As long as you provide the words either by order of service or hymn book then they will be fine.

Scotsbride

katerinasol wrote: »

Hi all! I have a little dilemma about church music and you have all been so helpful in the past so I thought I would ask you again.

We are having music for the bridal entrance (Pachebel's Canon), 3 hymns (Jerusalem, Give Me Joy In My Heart and Oh Happy Day), as well as the Bridal March for the exit.

The thing I am worried about, in particular with Oh Happy Day, is that nobody will sing. None of our relatives are particularly religious so they might not even know the words or want to sing, plus Happy Day is a gospel song and quite difficult to sing I would have thought.

The alternatives are:
1. Play the hymns on CD - but we would like a 'live' organist.
2. Just let people sing them - and risk disaster if nobody knows the words.
3. Find an acapella CD with the tracks - i.e. no music, but the reverend did mention that the organist may find it difficult to play along to someone else singing rather than the singers having to follow her tune if that makes sense?

Any idea how we go about this? I'm a bit baffled as to the best solution!

couldn't you print out the words to the hymns

katerinasol

I know I started this thread a while ago but we have just emailed the reverend with our choices and I am still undecided whether to have recorded music or the organist. Pachelbel sounds so much better as a string piece, but I want something 'live' because I want the feeling that it's being played just for me, does that make sense? And with the hymns, boyfriend is adamant that none of his family will sing because they're not religious, but wouldn't that just be rude? To turn up at someone's wedding ceremony and not make an effort. There's less than a month to go and this still hasn't been sorted out I don't know whether to laugh or cry!

ladymarmalade

I know how you feel as I have attended lots of church wedding either for pleasure, or to sing at or verge at lol.

All I can say, and it doesn't really help is each congregation is different and you won't know until the day how people will react to singing. I've seen very reigious congregations all sing at about -20 decibals resulting in a squeak and some congregations who you wouldn't expect to join in, really get into the swing of it.

Now, i think most people with know give me joy in my heart, and many jerusalem an agree that the main worry will be Oh Happy Day. There are a couple of things you could do to help.
1) My mum is a pianist at the local church and if she feels there is a less well known song, she plays one verse through first so that people get a feel for it.
2) Enlist some of the more confident members of the bridal party to learn the song and lead the congregation.

Don't worry about it though, people will be more bothered about seeing you get married that if people are singing.

katerinasol

ladymarmalade wrote: »

I know how you feel as I have attended lots of church wedding either for pleasure, or to sing at or verge at lol.

All I can say, and it doesn't really help is each congregation is different and you won't know until the day how people will react to singing. I've seen very reigious congregations all sing at about -20 decibals resulting in a squeak and some congregations who you wouldn't expect to join in, really get into the swing of it.

Now, i think most people with know give me joy in my heart, and many jerusalem an agree that the main worry will be Oh Happy Day. There are a couple of things you could do to help.
1) My mum is a pianist at the local church and if she feels there is a less well known song, she plays one verse through first so that people get a feel for it.
2) Enlist some of the more confident members of the bridal party to learn the song and lead the congregation.

Don't worry about it though, people will be more bothered about seeing you get married that if people are singing.

We will definitely be playing oh happy day as a recording, though boyfriend reckons 'more people will sing along to that than Jerusalem because everyone's seen sister act' - I don't think so somehow! He just keeps saying his family and friends won't sing and it's like OK I GET IT THEY'RE NOT RELIGIOUS WOW BIG DEAL! Everyone knows the words from school surely! And even the really anti-religious people I know love Jerusalem. I think we're left it a bit late to have a choir and don't have the money for it either...