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:
'Glory in highest heaven' by Charles Wesley (1707-88) is a wonderful praising hymn to the Eucharist and the redeeming sacrifice of our Lord, Jesus Christ. The exciting and joyous expression in this hymn is most certainly unparalleled in Norwegian hymn literature. That is why I had to translate it into Norwegian! The Norwegian language can sometimes be quite challenging because there are fewer words to choose from, the words are often longer, and the stresses of syllables are often the opposite of English. Most times I have managed to find a way around, but this time I had to change the original metre. I hopefully did this in the most obvious manner, by simply ignoring the ties in the music (6 in total). The original metre, which is 7 7.4 4.7 D, has become 8 8.5 5.7.8 7.4 4.7. I'm sorry to deviate from the original, but in practise this is quite common to do. There are many examples of deviations in the Norwegian hymn book that are far worse offences, like changing the melody, changing the rythm or phrasing, or changing the primary message of the text while still pretending it to be a translation. I think my alterations are quite acceptable. Anyway, check it out on The Organ Amateur Page.
And then of course, this is why I found that new link - the world famous Swedish hymn "O store Gud", translated from Swedish to Russian and from Russian to English: "How Great Thou Art". It is said to be the 2nd most popular hymn in the world, only preceded by Amazing Grace.
This is how they do it in South Korea :-) :
How Great Thou Art in Korean, concert version
This is a very popular hymn in the USA, and it is translated to over 100 languages, I have been told. Naturally, this hymn is hard come by in the U.K (a rivalry phenomenon, or ecumenical differences?) and in also Norway, but I guess you may come across it in a baptist church, for all I know, as it was the American baptist minister Billy Graham that really made it so popular. In Sweden this hymn belongs to the Lutheran tradition.
Just let me say it once and for all: None of the translations I have seen can match the beauty of the original Swedish version! You'll find it as no. 11 in the Swedish hymn book "Den svenska psalmboken" (catch up on your Swedish first!).
