I have composed a new Anglican chant for psalm 16. This chant has the last 4 bars in common with the earlier chant for psalm 7, which is intended. However, there are no more similarities. This chant breaks almost every classical rule of composing, but I think it does the trick anyway. It requires skilled singers to sound good - not saying all music doesn't. You'll find it at the organ amateur page under the Chant section.
Some times I just can't help myself. I might just as well publish it. Check it out on The Organ Amateur Page under "Special hymn arrangements".
Choir music and solo singing are always challenged by the acoustics given by the building, the consonants simply disappear. Because of this, singers must exaggerate the consonants. If the pronunciation is poor as well as not managing to make clear consonant sounds, the perceived singing as heard by the congregation will impossible to understand.
From this I have developed a bad habit of criticising song performance of other genres, which of course have no relevance. One time I found a YouTube clip of an Asian artist singing Beatles' Black Bird. In it's own environment the song was probably quite al-right, but from a church musicians point of view it was ridiculous. I made the effort of writing down what I actually heard (and not what I knew he was trying to sing), and the result is given below. Imagine a similar case in a church service, we are trying to proclaim the Gospel, but the congregation may hear something quite different. I will certainly carry this experience with me as a big warning sign in everything I do related to church singing. Here it goes:
