Guiding Congregations Through Unfamiliar Hymns

I think we've all been there, at least once. We receive the hymn list for Sunday, and at least one of them is a hymn that no one will recognize! Or perhaps there's a great hymn that you want to introduce to your congregation. How can you, as an organist, guide your congregation confidently through a hymn that they've never sung before?

In the "Using the Hymnbook" section of the Hymnal, we are encouraged to sing unfamiliar hymns:

In addition to using hymns already known and loved, members are encouraged to become acquainted with new or less familiar hymns. Try to achieve a good balance between familiar favorites and less well-known hymns.

Hopefully these suggestions will help you, as organist, streamline this process for your congregation.

First, Familiarize Yourself

The very first thing you can do, is make that hymn your best friend. Too many times, I've been led by an organist who played the rhythms or notes incorrectly on an unfamiliar hymn, and they didn't know it. Almost every hymn in the LDS hymnal has a MIDI file associated with it on the church's website here. If you enable Adobe Flash Player, you can click the play button and hear it played, notes and rhythms perfect. Otherwise, you can click "Vocals and Music" or "Music" and get a feel for the hymn. Make sure that you get to know the hymn very well.

Second, Practice, Practice, Practice

Once you know how the hymn should sound, practice it until you can play it with complete confidence. The less confident your congregation is, the more confident you need to be. If you make a mistake while playing a well-known and well-loved hymn, such as Joy to the World or Come, Come Ye Saints, your congregation will most likely continue singing with zeal, but if you make a mistake on an unfamiliar hymn, your congregation will not feel comfortable singing out, and many members might stop singing altogether.

Third, Choose an Appropriate Tempo

Read through the hymn. How complicated is the hymn text to read and understand? Does the melody or harmony jump around? Are the notes mainly quarter notes, or are there a number of eighth notes, dotted eighth-sixteenth combinations, or triplets? What is the suggested tempo range?

While it's important to prevent the hymns from dragging, unfamiliar hymns should probably be played at the lower end of the range. Remember that our goal as church musicians is for the hymns to "invite the Spirit of the Lord, create a feeling of reverence, unify us as members, and provide a way for us to offer praises to the Lord," as we read in the First Presidency Preface to the Hymnal. The tempo can either help achieve these goals, or work against them.

A hymn such as #4, Truth Eternal, is fairly basic, easy to follow, made up of mostly quarter notes, and could probably be played around 92 without leaving the congregation behind, provided the organist is properly prepared.

However, a hymn like #11, What Was Witnessed in the Heavens? is filled with triplets ornamenting sustained lyrics, and an unfamiliar text. The men carry the melody at times, there is syncopation, and the hymn text has phrases such as, "It was to be preached in power," with the strong beat falling on the bolded words, and "We their footsteps wish to tread." In choosing the tempo, all of these things need to be considered. The tempo needs to be slow enough that the congregation can read and understand the words, while also managing the complicated melodies and harmonies. This hymn is telling a story, and the congregation needs to be able to follow it. The first time(s) the congregation sings this hymn, the tempo should be the lower end of the range.

Fourth, Support with a Solid Registration

While your registration probably doesn't need to be full organ, it does need to adequately support your congregation, so they feel they can safely sing unfamiliar words and notes. Paint the hymn text, but don't choose a registration that will cause the congregation to feel exposed.

Fifth, Introduce the Hymn Well

If you know several weeks in advance that you'll be singing an unfamiliar hymn, work it into some of your later prelude pieces each Sunday prior to singing it, or use it as your first postlude piece the week before. When it's time to sing, the hymn might feel somewhat familiar to the congregation because they've heard it once or twice before. (I've attended other denominations that actually rehearse unfamiliar hymns a few minutes before the service begins.)

Regardless of the length of the hymn, if it is unfamiliar to the congregation it is a very good idea to play it in its entirety as the introduction.

For example, with hymn #4 Truth Eternal, an effective introduction could be to play the melody of the first line in octaves, then play the second line as written.

An introduction for hymn #11 What Was Witnessed in the Heavens? could include doubling the men's melody part up an octave on lines one and two, playing just the melody of line three in octaves, before returning to SATB parts on line four.

Do whatever you reasonably can to introduce the congregation to the hymn, so that they won't be afraid to sing! Your congregation needs to be able to trust you to guide them confidently through the entire hymn, and they need to know what the entire hymn sounds like before being expected to sing it.

Finally, Evaluate, Adjust, and Repeat

After the meeting, evaluate how it went. Did the congregation sing out? Did they seem to lag behind the organ? Could you even hear them singing? Were any verses louder or softer than others?  Why? Did anyone comment that they loved the hymn, or that they didn't like it? Ask someone you trust to give honest feedback as to how it felt to be in the congregation.

What changes do you need to make for next time? What should you continue to do?

When will the next time occur? If there is a hymn that you want to teach your congregation, it is a good idea to schedule it to be sung at least once a quarter.

With the increased focus on keeping the Sabbath day holy, we introduced my congregation to hymn #148 Sabbath Day, and it was a good, spiritual experience. We sang it once a month for two or three months. Over the course of the next two years we sang it on a regular basis, about once a quarter, and it soon became a familiar hymn.

In Conclusion

Have you ever wondered what hymns the 1985 Hymnbook Executive Committee wished we sang more often? I was privileged to be in attendance at a fireside and hymn sing held March 8, 2015, in the Pleasant Grove Utah East Stake Center where the 30th anniversary of the hymnal was celebrated.  You can view this hymn sing on YouTube. It is wonderful to hear their personal experiences with the compilation of our green hymnal: