This post is for Becky, to let her know that mixups with music in Sacrament meeting happen to everyone. I am the Ward Music Chairman. I choose the music for Sacrament meetings and have been the substitute choirster for awhile. Today I had chosen hymn# 81, "Press Forward Saints" as the intermediate hymn. When I got up to lead it, the introduction sounded off. And as I and the congregation sang all 3 verses, we all realized that the organist was not playing what we were singing, but it worked! We were singing the tune she was playing, but it wasn't the tune in that hymn. I could see congregation members leafing through their hymnals as they continued to sing and as I continued to lead.
Afterward in talking with the organist, she said that she had played hymn# 82, "For All the Saints" and realized that after the 1st verse, she was playing the wrong hymn. She also realized that it was working so continued playing the rest of the hymn. It kept the congregation awake, that's for sure.
Looking in the back of the hymnal under METERS on page 408, those 2 hymns are the only ones with the same meter with "Alleluias". For you non-musicians, the meter count is the number of syllables that are in each line; those hymns with the same meter can have the music and words changed with other hymns with the same meter.
We all had a chuckle over that, and several people came up to me afterward asking what had happened.
So much for my "excitement" for the day.
2 comments:
Hahahahaha! I would have liked to hear that! If only I would have been so lucky when I started playing the wrong hymn a few weeks ago! Unfortunately, I had already played one verse right, then when I glanced up to the music for the next verse, my eyes went to the hymn on the other page. It was in a totally different key and time signature. You should have seen the look on everyone's faces! It took me the whole first line to figure out what I was supposed to be playing. Mistakes on an organ are hard to hide.
I have always enjoyed singing hymns to other tunes with the same meter. Glad it worked out!
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