- RLD on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “The reason they pick only the very most familiar hymns for general conferences and stake conferences (where I have experience choosing hymns) is that the congregation doesn’t all have hymnbooks in those meetings. If the Church wanted us to imitate that selection in our sacrament meetings, then the new hymnbook would be a very different and much simpler project. But I promise you’d be sick of those very familiar hymns within a year or two. If a hymn is repeated so often that we stop paying attention to it, it cannot accomplish its spiritual purposes. I endorse everything Lisa said. I think my ward’s learning of the new hymns is going fairly well, but we could use more repetition. I’d love to see an intentional approach where the person in charge prayerfully chooses 2-3 new hymns for the congregation to learn and they get sung once a month for six months. Then they’d become familiar and the congregation would be comfortable singing them. And I think in most cases the congregation would learn to love them. I’m not sure there’s a decline in musicality in the Church, but I do see a decline in willingness to participate in music. Sometimes that translates to leadership not giving music the support it deserves, but just as often it translates to leadership trying to make music happen and the ward members just aren’t interested. Yes, it frustrates me–we’re missing out on what music can do for us spiritually.” Aug 28, 13:12
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “I’ve been trying hard to use the ward choir to teach the new songs. The problem is, the bishopbric keeps trying to gradually kill the choir program. At this point, we sing four songs a year, and only have 20 minute rehearsals after church, before the next ward comes and takes over the young women’s room. So, that makes it tricky to introduce new hymns on a regular basis through that. Plus, once the choir learns the hymns, it’s only effective if they get incorporated into regular use to build on that core group of people. That hasn’t happened, since we rarely sing the new hymns.” Aug 28, 13:04
- on Anti-Mormon Depictions So Bad They’re Good: “Honestly, I’m so fatiqued by the never ending drum beat of LDS Church ramblings, blatherings, chaos and banal repetitions – I’ll take ANYTHING that breaks up the monotony of it all. I LOVED American Primeval; just for the shear entertainment value of it!” Aug 28, 07:47
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “To be clear, I’m not bagging on the new hymns, per se. The church shows us which hymns are sung in conference. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/music/music-from-general-conference?lang=eng Dig through there and look at the patterns. Obviously, there’s no clear hard and fast rule here (although I did sit in a meeting where some words similar to what I’m saying came through a GA from Pres. Packer). I could imagine an ideal balance being among the ~12 hymns sung each month that aren’t a sacrament hymn, 8 of them are the familiar ones nearly everyone can sing from that GC list. The rest are others from the hymnbook that fit the theme or to be learned etc. Seems reasonable to me. I agree most wards are to be ashamed of themselves when it comes to the choir. My previous ward had such an amazing choir director (she didn’t pick the hymns though) that when she substituted in primary for a couple weeks, the kids brought me to the tears with how she got them to sing. Incidentally, it was one of the new hymns. Bishops need to take music seriously. It’s more important than the speakers and topics they select.” Aug 27, 23:37
- on Coduction (learning together) in our Meetings (Or What Did Church Lead You to Think About Yesterday), 8/23: “John, great words. I don’t know all the repercussions of the changes, but I think you’re right that in some cases the shorter time will inhibit good conversation. In other cases it might be a blessing. And, like the youngest member of your quorum, I think we are all learning about new burdens. Perhaps the older members of your quorum would observe that aging is a burden—as the poet says, “it’s a dirty trick, this getting old.” I’m feeling that a lot lately.” Aug 27, 21:27
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “Last L.: To clarify, the hymnal itself was printed in Dresden. It’s only the anonymous critique that was printed in Strasbourg. For what it’s worth, my ward is doing pretty well with incorporating at least some of the new hymns. Probably two weeks out of three, one of them is on the schedule, usually as an intermediate hymn. A lot depends on who picks the hymns. In my ward, the organists do, and at least a couple of them are highly invested in the new hymns.” Aug 27, 16:35
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “I should add, that in our ward, 1008 Bread of Life, has been put fully into the rotation of Sacrament hymns, appearing 10 times since the first batch dropped. 1028 This Little Light of Mine has also been a big hit, appearing 4 times now, usually as a closing song. Basically, if I’ve taught it in Primary, it gets sung on repeat in Sacrament meeting, so that’s why 1039 Because, 1005 His Eye is on the Sparrow, 1009 Gethsemane, and 1004 I Will Walk with Jesus have also appeared enough that they seem “familiar” now. I only play ’em (I’m also organist), I don’t pick ’em. I’m pretty sure the music chair takes note of what gets the congregation singing enthusiastically, and schedules those for a repeat. So, if you want your ward to become familiar with the new hymns, talk to the Primary Music Leader. And for pity’s sake… if there’s a song you love you haven’t heard in a while, sing it at home! Sing it in the car! Use it in a talk!” Aug 27, 14:45
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “Resisting the temptation to roll my eyes. Look, I’ve been playing a keyboard for Church since I was a kid, when I used the blue hymnal and the orange songbook. I am a mega-fan of the new material put out. There. I said it. Now as for the curmudgeonly thought that Choir is the place to learn the new hymns… bah? Where on a Sunday is Choir supposed to go, I ask you? There is no soul less sustained by our bishopric than the poor choir director, because choir practice keeps getting pre-empted by new convert baptisms. Can’t have either before church, because the other ward has the building fully in use. Can’t have it after because we keep having baptisms then (admittedly, it is a wonderful problem to have, but still). We’re a geographically large ward, so coming back to the building happens in connection with youth night… and folks who would sing are folks who are also leading the youth. So not then, either. So now choir consists of a new-hymn-sing-along during the prelude before the baptisms.” Aug 27, 14:34
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): “I’m a long-time ward organist. I agree there needs to be balance between old and new. I think there should be something very familiar in every sacrament meeting. I think that about 1/4 of what we sing should be extremely familiar, 1/2 should be mostly or semi-familiar, and 1/4 should be new. If we don’t keep regularly singing the semi-familiar hymns, they will fade into obscurity. It’s one way we can try to combat the musical decline of our congregations. With that said, new hymns will always be unfamiliar until we sing them over and over. There’s really no other way. We can choose to not ever do anything new, but that leads to stagnation. With the current Sunday set-up of our meetings, sacrament meeting is the only place to sing and learn new hymns. Unless the whole ward plans to join the choir, relegating the learning of them to choir practice will mean that only a handful of people will ever learn them. Not learning them, continuing to sing only what we’ve always sung, is a sad option to me. We need both predictability and variety. Trying to balance those two things is a challenge. Our ward sings a “new” hymn once or twice a month. I’d prefer it to be at least twice and to repeat them regularly. But I’m not in charge of that.” Aug 27, 13:18
- on Everything wrong with the new hymn book (1799 edition, colorized): ““…ward music directors . . . pick every obscure, but lovely hymn that leads to awkward plodding and silence from half the congregation. . .” Sadly, I can attest from my own experience that there may be some truth here. We sing one of the new four digit hymns every Sunday. Recently when I went into another ward’s chapel and saw only two- and three-digit numbers on the board up front, my body felt a visceral feeling of relief. In my U.S. ward, I think we sing only obscure hymns, and almost never do we sing any of the hymns that might be sung by the congregation in general conference. Those are great hymns, and I wish we would sing them in my ward’s sacrament meetings.” Aug 27, 13:01
