Christian Music

Discussion of performing arts, including theatre, film, television, and music.
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Lalaith
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Lalaith »

Oh, I don't think my ears can learn to be okay with that.

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elengil
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Re: Christian Music

Post by elengil »

Jude wrote:If you're not tired of Christmas music yet, here is something interesting I discovered - The Medieval Baebes' version of "God rest ye merry, Gentlemen". At first I thought the lead singer was out of tune in one note, until I realized they were doing it in the Dorian mode instead of the minor. Check it out!
I've heard that version, it always did sound a little strange - I mean I can hear when I expect one note but they sing another - but I had no idea it was anything other than artistic license. That's interesting to hear that it's a thing and not just... uh... a thing? Wow I'm so literate.

What is Dorian mode? (Yes, I am on the internet, I could look this up myself, but I figure if I ask here I'll get much more interesting answers.)
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was a 2020 planner.

"Does anyone ever think about Denethor, the guy driven to madness by staying up late into the night alone in the dark staring at a flickering device he believed revealed unvarnished truth about the outside word, but which in fact showed mostly manipulated media created by a hostile power committed to portraying nothing but bad news framed in the worst possible way in order to sap hope, courage, and the will to go on? Seems like he's someone we should think about." - Dave_LF
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Jude
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Jude »

Modes differ from each other by the pattern of tones and semitones in a scale. In your regular major scale, the pattern is, starting from the bottom, tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone.

In an unaltered minor scale, the pattern is tone-semitone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone. I say "unaltered", but in practice the minor scale is rarely used that way. The seventh note from the bottom is usually raised a semitone to create a stronger attraction to the tonic note (i.e. the note the scale starts and ends on). This creates an awkward interval of a tone-and-a-half between the sixth and seventh note. To avoid this, the sixth note is often raised in passages where you move from the sixth to seventh note. In passages where the melody is moving down, the seventh note is not raised as often because you don't need that attraction to the tonic note, and therefore the sixth note does not need to be raised as well. Of course, composers often don't bother to raise the sixth note because they like the effect of the extra-wide interval between the sixth and seventh note. And sometimes they raise the sixth and seventh in passages that go down, and leave them lowered in passages that go up. This is less common, but if that's the sound you want, that's the pattern you use.

There are many other modes that used to be more common before music gravitated to using the major and minor modes exclusively. The Dorian mode is one of these, with a pattern of tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone. Another way to think of it is to play a scale on the piano starting on D, but use only the white notes. In modes where there is a tone between the seventh note and the tonic, the seventh is sometimes raised in passages that move from seventh note to tonic. So if you start on D, that would mean playing a C# on the way up, and a C-natural on the way down.

If you know the song "What do you do with a drunken sailor", that's another example of a song in the Dorian mode:

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Jude
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Re: Christian Music

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So I recorded some Christmas music for you all*. The acoustics sounded great when I was singing, but now when I listen to the recording, I find the reverb to be too strong. It's the first time I've used a Zoom H2N to record instead of hiring a sound engineer. Should I just upload it as is, or learn how to edit sound recordings? Any advice?


________________________________________
* Actually, I wanted to do this a month ago when it was still the Christmas season, but when I had booked the church hall and the accompanist, we showed up and discovered that they had locked the piano and neglected to provide me with a key. Yes, I'm still furious about that.
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Lalaith
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Re: Christian Music

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Why don't you upload it as is for now and play around with sound editing (harder than it seems) later? I'd love to hear it.

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Jude
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Re: Christian Music

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Well, okay. The first one, in honour of Prim's new hearing prowess, is "Frohe Hirten" (joyful shepherds) from Bach's Christmas Oratorio. You can really tell that I didn't hire a professional sound engineer.

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Lalaith
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Re: Christian Music

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:bow: Just very lovely! :love:
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Primula Baggins
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Primula Baggins »

It's good I can type when I'm choked up. . . .

Thank you, Jude. That was utterly lovely. And my new ears loved hearing the texture in your voice. And I loved the echo from the piano—no doubt a sound engineer would have eliminated that, but it made it sound real to me—as if I were sitting in the real space listening to you both. Churches echo!

Thank you. Thank you. :hug:
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
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Jude
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Re: Christian Music

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You're welcome!

For the next one, does anybody have some good pictures of night winter scenes? Both country and city scenes would be good.

If not, maybe I'll google for night winter scenes of my favourite city...
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Voronwë the Faithful
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Voronwë the Faithful »

Jude wrote:You can really tell that I didn't hire a professional sound engineer.
But you can equally tell that you did hire a professional singer. Or at least a great one!

:bow:
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
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Jude
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Jude »

This is one of only two songs that Viktor Ullmann wrote in the English language. Until 1942 he lived and composed in Prague. Most of his Prague works have disappeared, presumably destroyed by the Nazis, but a number of items that he published privately and entrusted to a friend for safekeeping have survived.

In 1942 he was deported to Theresienstadt, where he continued to compose. When he was deported to Auschwitz in October 1944, he entrusted his Theresienstadt compositions to his friend Emil Utitz, who was able to preserve them until the war was over.

This song, written in his Prague period, is based on a rather strange poem by American poet Percy MacKaye:

"I met God walking leisurely,
So calm the time, so keen the air,
It seemed a simple thing to see him walking there.

His little son was at his side,
They held each other by the hand.
Under a shining cloud they eyed the shadowy land.

The cloud, the father, and his son
All moved with such melodious pace,
It was as if they went in one encircling grace.

My heart that beat so quick and wild,
Right then I felt its fears allay,
'Grüß Gott!' I said.
The Three all smiled: 'Grüß Gott!' said they."

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Jude
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Jude »

Ave Verum Corpus, by William Byrd, in my opinion one of the greatest masterpieces in the sacred music repertoire. Right up there with Allegri's Miserere.

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RoseMorninStar
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Re: Christian Music

Post by RoseMorninStar »

Lovely.
My heart is forever in the Shire.
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Re: Christian Music

Post by Sunsilver »

We have a bad situation in my church when it comes to music. Our music director has been very sick for quite some time, and between that, and COVID, we've had mostly music videos for the service for many months.

Now that COVID restrictions have been lifted, we've been trying to get back to actually SINGING, but without any leadership, it's difficult. The music director had major surgery last week, and is going to need a very lengthy recuperation period.

Meanwhile, one of the lay readers has been persuaded to bring his guitar to church. Although he says he only knows about a dozen chords, he has a good voice, and actually managed to get people singing!

I used to lead worship for a house church, and have been inspired to pick up my guitar again, but most of the tunes I know are at least 10 or 20 years out of date. So...question...those of you who play the non-traditional music in your churches, what are the best worship songs you've heard over the last few years? Things that just made you go WOW!! the moment you heard them? Things like Graham Kendrick's 'Shine, Jesus Shine' or Darlene Zschech's 'Shout to the Lord'?

I don't want anything too complicated or difficult to sing, because I'm not that skilled a guitar player, and my singing isn't much to write home about either, though it's good enough that I can lead.
When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.
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