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Guessable hymns
Our local village church is Presbyterian but it's not as if there are any around here; this morning I attended a Methodist church. They still had copies of
I got to thinking about how common it is for hymns to vary: different visiting preachers favor different ones, new hymnals are introduced, traveling Christians on vacation or after moving house or whatever visit new churches, etc. Some musical artists or genres are notably experimental. At the other extreme, it would be or perhaps is a virtue of hymns for them to tack well within traditional musical patterns so those of us new to them can quickly rise to the level of passable guessing as we sing along.
Hymns & Psalmswhich I know well but today they sung from
Singing the Faithwhich were marked as being in my mother's memory. I wasn't familiar with many of the hymns but was lucky to be sitting near longstanding congregants, including being behind the choir director.
I got to thinking about how common it is for hymns to vary: different visiting preachers favor different ones, new hymnals are introduced, traveling Christians on vacation or after moving house or whatever visit new churches, etc. Some musical artists or genres are notably experimental. At the other extreme, it would be or perhaps is a virtue of hymns for them to tack well within traditional musical patterns so those of us new to them can quickly rise to the level of passable guessing as we sing along.