We had a funny experience in sacrament meeting this last Sunday. The closing hymn was an altogether unfamiliar song (#132 God is in His Holy Temple). I hadn't heard it before. The melody is of those that sort of meanders around without a purpose so that it is difficult to pick up. I am a decent sightreader, and even I had a hard time with the melody.
Hobbes was sitting on my lap during the song. After a while, he seemingly got tired of the hymn and turned the page. Since I wasn't enjoying the song anyway, I decided to just go with it...and give up. I stopped singing and looked around the room. Every single person had their noses buried in their hymn books, brows furrowed, trying their hardest to pick out that melody. No one was really singing.
After the meeting, the chorister (who chose the hymn in the first place) approached me. She relayed the same story from the stand as I had just witnessed from my pew. Even with no one singing, the chorister and organist soldiered on, and when it was over, she sat down. Another particularly musical member of the ward happened to be sitting behind her on the stand and said, "Well, they should just take that one right out of the hymn book!"
I laughed out loud, but completely agreed. I added it to my mental list of "Hymns I'd Rather Not Ever Hear Again."
I realized that I have been compiling this list for years, but when a friend asked me what songs are on the list, I had a hard time remembering. So, here is it. The Top 10 hymns that, in my opinion, should be removed from the current LDS Hymn Book, listed in no particular order:
(With the exception of the first one, the list does not include all of the many songs that I skipped over because I just don't know them. I think all of those should be removed from the book because no one knows them.)
For good measure, let's start with our example from Sunday.
#132 God is in His Holy Temple--What?! This one makes no sense.
#134 I Believe in Christ--This is the longest hymn in the hymn book. It looks like three verses, but it is really six because of the mid-verse written repeat. It is also always Always sung too slowly. It is never "fervent" but always durge-like.
#309 As Sisters in Zion--There is really nothing appealing about this condescending melody. It makes me feel like less of a woman to sing it.
#52 The Day Dawn is Breaking--This one has the most uninteresting chord progression of all hymns, including severely repeating I, IV and V chords only. Just ask the tenors and basses.
#26 Joseph Smith's First Prayer--I know this is a beloved hymn for many people. I just don't care for the sticky sweet melody.
#307 In Our Lovely Deseret--Does any one like this song? I'm actually really curious about that. Well, I guess the chorus is okay, although I find the words at the end ("happy hearts and cheerful faces meet") to be difficult to spit out quickly enough.
#260 Who's on the Lord's Side?--This one makes me feel like I'm trying to rile up some Primary-aged soldiers with that over-enthusiastic smile on my face that is associated with the way people think they Should talk to children.
#237 Do What Is Right--Seriously, do what is right here and sing the better subject choice, "Choose the Right."
#232 Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words--I believe in the subject matter, heart and soul. The song is just so...sing-songy. Shudder.
#177 'Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love--This if the version that comes second in the hymn book. The first one is lovely. The second one is not. This is the song that I'm always excited to sing when I see it in the program, and then seriously disappointed when I realized which version it is.
That's it, in a nut shell. I'm happy to report that it was easier for me to list off hymns that I love rather than those I dislike. I do have a deep love for many of the hymns in our book. Just not these ones.
What's on your list?
3 comments:
Wow do I agree! I have wanted to axe "I believe in Christ" for YEARS. I feel the same way about "I know that my redeemer lives" and I also know that they are beloved hymns that everyone says is their favorite so WE SING THEM ALL THE TIME. I don' tdisagree with the sentiment in the words, its just they're long, melodically dull and the words themselves are not particularly poetic. Out.
I also agree on As Sisters in Zion. I think we could just change words in other hymns so that they are gender inclusive or gender neutral, instead of having a token woman song. I do it all the time anyway, substituting "another" for "brother" or "us" instead of "man." It makes me even madder that some of the men only songs are kind of rousing and interesting, and our woman only song is saccharine.
I disagree strongly about In Our Lovely Deseret. Who doesn't love chanting Hark! Hark! Hark! I think you'll like it more if you affect a southern twang and pretend it is a bluegrass song.
Know what nobody knows how to sing? "Song of Michael, He Approaches"
Our ward (or possibly just the chorister) has a strange affinity for "Truth Reflects Upon Our Senses" and we seem to always sing ALL FIVE VERSES. Enough.
I do think we could sing some obscure songs more often like I saw a mighty angel fly and Let Zion in her beauty rise. I also like Adam-ondi-Ahman even though it is sort of weird.
Truth reflects upon our senses, like a truth reflecting thing. Reflecting truth....etc. Mhana knows I always sing this with a real twang. I believe in christ is the worst.
#163 Lord dismiss us is the most boring alto part in the whole book, it consists of 2 notes
#158 Before thee lord, tooooo sappy
#88 Has anyone ever sung"Great God attend while Zion Sings? I know I haven't
I used to think a lot of the songs were Mormon hymns until I sat around with some friends and sang from a little book of gospel songs, dozens of the ones we know are common revival old timey songs.
This was a great post, Mindy! I had never thought about it, but I dislike many of those too now that I think about it. You should do a "Favorite Hymns" post too!
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