New hymn book

[Bernard Gui]

2 hours ago, Calm said:

They are creating a basic smaller hymnal to use worldwide with additional pieces that can be digitally downloaded to add local pieces.  My memory says that additions can be made to the digital file later on.

Yes. When the new hymn book was announced I suggested printing localized inserts that could be added to a general hymnal, even including national patriotic  music and regional composers. The revolution in computerized music publishing makes it really easy to do exactly this. 

Edited May 9, 2021 by Bernard Gui

[Calm]

1 minute ago, Bernard Gui said:

Yes. When the new hymn book was announced I suggested printing localized inserts that could be added to a general hymnal, even including national patriotic  music and regional composers. The revolution in computerized music publishing makes it really easy to do exactly this. 

Iirc the digital library may have older pieces from the current hymn book too. But if I were them, I might wait a few years in case some just stuck to the older stuff. But why not have a massive digital library...as part of the handbook for the music conductor or whoever chooses the music, it could be required to have at least one song per meeting from the basic handbook to encourage overall unity. 

[Peacefully]

I miss some of the good, ol’ Church of Christ hymns. Blessed Assurance, The Old Rugged Cross, As the Life of a Flower, Where the Soul of Man Never Dies, and When the Roll is Called up Yonder to name a few. We need to spice it up with Southern Gospel:) 

I’ll also be thrilled if Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Amazing Grace make it in:)

Edited May 9, 2021 by Peacefully

[bluebell]

16 minutes ago, Peacefully said:

I miss some of the good, ol’ Church of Christ hymns. Blessed Assurance, The Old Rugged Cross, As the Life of a Flower, Where the Soul of Man Never Dies, and When the Roll is Called up Yonder to name a few. We need to spice it up with Southern Gospel:) 

I’ll also be thrilled if Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing and Amazing Grace make it in:)

I'm voting heavily for Amazing Grace.  I think we need to embrace that hymn in the church, because so many members completely misunderstand that we are saved by grace (and not after we do everything we can do ourselves first).

[Hamba Tuhan]

18 hours ago, Stargazer said:

Is the version your ward sings available at all? I got goosebumps listening to it, and I've love to have the piano/organ music ...

We just use the arrangement from the Church's Tongan hymnbook.

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... and is it translated into English?

Not that I'm aware of (yet!), but I've heard American missionaries make the lyrics from 'O Love That Glorifies the Son' fit the tune, with a bit of tweaking for the chorus.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Hamba Tuhan

[Hamba Tuhan]

16 hours ago, Bernard Gui said:

From my experience, there is no way to satisfy everyone’s taste in music, so putting together a collection that would appeal to folks across so many cultures will be a daunting task.

Indeed, but, in my opinion, even an imperfect attempt may be far superior to asking all Church members everywhere to sing exclusively in the style of 19th-century American Protestants.

I also suspect that monocultural wards/branches are on their way out in many parts of the global church, so we're already primed for a more inclusive selection of hymns.

I myself am a migrant, and we have members in my current ward who speak, to my knowledge, the following mother tongues:

• Burmese
• Cantonese
• Croatian
• Cebuano
• Dinka
• Dutch
• English
• Farsi
• Fijian
• Finnish
• German
• Igbo
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Krio
• Lao
• Macedonian
• Malay
• Mandarin
• Māori
• Portuguese
• Russian
• Samoan
• Serbian
• Spanish
• Tagalog
• Tamil
• Thai
• Tok Pisin
• Tongan
• Twi
• Urdu
• Vietnamese
• Yoruba

The Restored Gospel has brought us together and binds us together. We already greet each other in one another's languages, we (mostly) eat each other's food, and we are learning to sing (and appreciate!) each other's sacred music. We often have musical items in sacrament meeting the words of which can only be understood by the ones singing.

And in the process we are forging a brand new Latter-day Saint culture and identity that I suspect won't struggle with a new hymn book that reflects a number of musical 'tastes'.

[Hamba Tuhan]

12 hours ago, Rain said:

It makes me wonder how much culture will still be there once you translate it to English and use an organ with them. 

English and every other language in the global Church.

I have repeatedly sung from Latter-day Saint hymn books filled with hymns translated from English. The culture is definitely still there ... blended, of course, with the localising influence of our voices.

Regarding the organ, I've wondered if guidelines on accompaniment may be updated. The current handbook language is that 'organs and pianos, or their electronic equivalents, are the standard instruments used in Church meetings. If other instruments are used, their use should be in keeping with the spirit of the meeting'.

Personally, I've been in congregations that have sung to amplified acoustic guitar, mixed strings, and once even a violin and harp together. It all works. My last branch in Indonesia sang a capella each Sunday because we had no musical instruments in our little one-room chapel. But the 14 of us still nearly managed to raise the roof!

We also regularly have musical items in sacrament to guitar and other stringed instruments.

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I think some American wards will be excited to try new things and some will express that excitement, but it will end up not sounding very different.

And that will be perfectly fine.

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I personally am excited.

Same!