Music Ministry: A Joyous Time of the Year
Summer reminds of of the beauty of the earth.
(Posted June 13, 2015)
This a joyous time of the year. The spring - summer weather reminds us of the beauty of the earth, while our church school children remind us of Noah’s Ark and his new beginning. I have to thank Pat Moriarty for working with the Church School children this past year. We all enjoy seeing the children singing and acting!
I also have to thank the members of my choir for giving of their time to enrich our services with so many wonderful anthems! I also want to thank a few friends who have been a part of the choir for just a few Sundays. It often makes for a “...guess who’s coming to ‘choir’…” Sunday morning. But when they are all here, I love and appreciate everything they do!
Last week I explained how I come to choose the hymns that we sing on any given Sunday. This week I’d like to explain how the hymnal helps me in making these selections. Our hymnals have always had a regular index of Titles and First lines. It also has a section in the back called “Topical Index of Hymns”. It has roughly 130 different categories related to things like the Christian Year, Christ’s life, Advent, Lent, Creation, Eternal Life, Forgiveness, etc. Many hymns may be listed under more than one topic.
It also has what is called “Index of Tune Names”. If you look at the bottom right hand side of any hymn, you will see a word like ‘aurelia’, or ‘desmond’, or ‘hamburg’, or ‘maryton’. These names relate to the ‘Tune’ and nothing more. Some hymns in our hymnal have two or maybe three different hymns with the same tune! I keep a record of when we sing a hymn, so that they are not repeated within a six month period. Yet a tune may be repeated sooner if it is for a hymn with different words.
Wishing you relaxing days with your favorite music, -- Jim Moriarty