Church on television

[mtbc]

I rather liked the Easter service from St Albans that the BBC showed and it seems a lovely cathedral, not that I'll ever afford to live in the area. For the most important days the BBC usually shows something reasonable but for regular weekly services I typically have to resort to some amateurish webcam like that from St Mary of the Angels in Worthing. In the US it was far easier to find services on television.

At St Albans the sung parts, with responses, weren't to the tunes I am used to. I have wondered where to find the music for tunes I grew up with for lines like, Glory to God in the highest, We lift them to the Lord, Christ will come again, God of power and might, etc. The tunes do seem quite widespread, as I heard the same in Ohio, but perhaps have since been changed in the Church of England.

Songs of Praise isn't really what I want. These days they jump from place to place during the show and interview all manner of people and have celebrity singers and whatnot. I instead seek something more like a straight church service.

Comments

[gerald_duck]

The first place I'd look if after the music for tunes you grew up with would be one of the hymnals: Songs of Praise or Ancient and Modern — preferably whichever of the two you actually used as a child.

The former appears frighteningly expensive, so possibly best tracked down in a second-hand book store.

Note that many hymns can be sung to alternative tunes. Songs of Praise, especially, contains an index of such alternatives, which is worth consulting if the tune you know isn't the default.


To state the obvious, if you want a church service, you could always… go to a church. That wouldn't work if you were after watching some time other than a Sunday morning, but I'm guessing you're wanting a live or near-live experience. Otherwise, in the Internet age, if you were happy with US church services I assume you'd just watch US church services.

You've already noted a liking for ritual. Church services are a rather more compelling experience if you're actually there with other people.

[mtbc]

It's possible that I was misleadingly unclear: the lines I quoted are from sung responses in High Church orders of service rather than from hymns; I've heard the same in Roman Catholic Mass. On a re-reading I suppose my context is unobvious indeed, sorry about that. But, especially Songs of Praise may not be hymns only, and I can check in the library. I find hymn books useful anyway as a source of simple music to tunes I know for learning to play instruments.

Going to church involves more time and planning: traveling and weekly donations and whatnot. They might even try to suck me into doing good. I'm mostly trying to be with my family when I can so I slip in services when opportunity happens to arise: for instance, I watched the St Albans one when mst3kmoxie went out for a while yesterday evening and I could pause it to interact with the children and make tea.

It would probably make a difference if there were something more anonymous and formal but nobody in cities seems to let us rent with a cat so we're stuck out in the villages.

I'm also not quite feeling quite up to socially appropriate interactions. (That's possibly one reason I enjoyed watching Jessica Jones.) When I was chatting to a librarian and she was saying how badly the library hours had been cut I think I was supposed to say how terrible that was but as the hours still suited me and I know that councils these days have difficult budget balancing I didn't really care that much and didn't want to lie. Though, last time I went to the village church I ended up in a safe professional conversation with an ENT guy about image files generated from DeltaVision microscopes.

I could just watch US church services; I'll investigate. I'm still thinking on your comment on ritual; thank you for that.

Update: Latest I've tried Church Hymnary. It has the correct parts, but to unfamiliar tunes. Still looking…