Congregation as Song Leader

Every organist and song leader has been confronted with musical moments in congregational singing when their idea of how a hymn should be sung differs from that of the congregation. It is common for a congregation to want to sing slower than the organist wants to play. Sometimes the organist tries to make the congregation sing louder than they really want to sing, perhaps especially on a big last stanza. And frequently the song leader wants to sing more or fewer stanzas than the people.

But this is about more than mere musical disagreement or preference. I am thinking about musical convention — some may call them musical clichs. There are two good examples we endure every Advent and Christmas season.

Consider the third word of the refrain of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" — "Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel ...." and on that word Emmanuel, there was a time in the not too distant past when every Methodist and United Methodist congregation would sing the last syllable for three beats before going on to "shall come to thee, O Israel." In fact, the tune is printed that way in the 1935 Methodist Hymnal and that is the only way I had ever sung it until it was changed in the 1964 Methodist Hymnal. The later volume replaced the dotted half with a quarter. I still remember how jarring it was to me the first time I was forced to sing it the new way by the organist who played it from the "new" 1964 hymnal. Today, forty years and another hymnal later, I am more comfortable with the single beat rather than three, although I still cannot sing that passage without feeling conflicted over it. I would be quite happy if my church organist surprised us all one Advent Sunday and played it the way we used to sing it. I suppose as more and more older people are replaced in the pews by younger people who have never sung it that way, the old way will also die out.

Consider also the end of the first line of "Joy to the World" — "let earth receive her king." All of our hymnals have had a dotted quarter note on king, but I am increasingly aware from recordings, choirs on radio and television, and even congregational singing in worship that it is quite acceptable now to hold king for thee and a half counts, with the additional beats often filled in with chord changes and fanfare-like musical figures. I confess that I enjoy singing it that way and have taken to playing it that way in worship. I find that, even unannounced, the congregation is happy to go right along with it as if that's the way it was written and they had sung it that way all their lives. I'm sure this particular trend is giving lots of organists fits since it's almost never written in the hymnal that way.

Another example of convention is in "How Great Thou Art." For decades many of us heard George Beverly Shea sing it and Cliff Barrows direct it at the Billy Graham crusades with long extended notes at the end of the refrain. The 1964 Methodist and 1989 United Methodist hymnals both include a fermata on great in the penultimate measure, but many congregations take far greater rhythmic and dynamic liberties with this final phrase than the notes would permit.

The first time I accompanied congregational singing for "We've Come This Far by Faith" in an African American church was startling for me. I was somewhat familiar with the song but was not at all prepared for the melodic liberties taken by the people, despite the fact that I was playing the "correct" notes right off the page in Songs of Zion. It was clear to me that they were in charge of what notes would be sung that day.

These are just a few examples of the difference in expectations of the person leading the singing and the people doing the singing, and I know there are many others. The question is, what do we do with that difference? As one with considerable experience in participating in, accompanying, studying, and observing congregational singing, I am inclined to yield to the wisdom and need of the people in such conflicts. It is, after all, their music. It is being sung by them and for them. I may be a leader, but I never want to lose touch with my primary role as facilitator and enabler. Leader and teacher are both secondary. If the congregation wants to hold "Emmanuel" for three beats rather than one, or stretch out the ending of "How Great Thou Art," what is to be gained by my insisting on playing or directing them otherwise?