The Most Difficult Hymns

I recently asked the Methodist Musicians Listserv which hymns in The United Methodist Hymnal they thought were the most difficult for congregations to sing. I made it clear that I was looking for the most difficult hymns to sing and not their least favorite hymns. There were numerous responses, but there were more votes for the following seven hymns than others. They are presented here in their frequency of selection, along with reasons why they were selected.

1. No. 728, "Come Sunday": Duke Ellington's sacred song in secular pop-jazz-blues style has many characteristics that make it difficult. It opens with Oooo-ing that may be a moan, pain, or ecstasy. The wide melodic range is one step less than two full octaves, from very low to very high. There are large melodic leaps of a fifth and a seventh (twice). The lyrics include a section of spoken (not sung) text. The lyrics tend toward the popular, with "gray skies," "goodness time," and "brighter by and by." It is perceived as more suited for a soloist or well-rehearsed choir than congregation. Despite these qualities and the many who find this song difficult, other research has shown it to be among the favorite hymns and songs of many United Methodists.

2. No. 260, "Christ Upon the Mountain Peak": Reasons contributing to this hymn's difficulty include: its large range of a major ninth; non-diatonic chord spellings; non-traditional chord progressions and lack of resolution; difficulty of playing the accompaniment; general dissonance. Despite these, the melody, if taught outside the context of its accompaniment and in sections, is not difficult to learn or sing. Also note the marvelous literal depiction of a mountain peak as the melody rises and precipitously descends.

3. No. 264, "Silence, Frenzied, Unclean Spirit": The heavy dissonance is the greatest obstacle. The melody is divided into two sections: repetitive melody notes in the beginning followed by a more melodic shape in the second section. One observer wrote the following, similarly expressed by many: "I think Carol Doran writes terrible hymn tunes. If they were art songs, sure, but her unpredictability and dissonance rob Troeger's great texts from common use."

4. No. 499, "Serenity": As with others on this list, the most frequently cited quality contributing to the difficulty in singing was general dissonance. The dissonant ostinato in the accompaniment is set against a melody in contrasting style. The accompaniment does not support the melody; it conflicts with it. Many find the repetitive accompaniment ostinato to be annoying or nagging. The rhythmic shift of the melody between duple and triple rhythms is challenging. Much of the hymn does not have an identifiable tonal center, or it appears to be bitonal. While finding it difficult to sing, some remarked on the beauty and serenity of the setting as highly appropriate to the text, even in its modern style. One wrote, "It's an Ives piece; any rearrangement would do violence to the music."

5. No. 86, "Mountains Are All Aglow": While frequently mentioned in responses, not many were able to cite reasons for its difficulty. Features mentioned include the pentatonic melody, the Korean folk song style of accompaniment, the triple rhythm and syncopations in the melody ("is from our Lord").

6. No. 93, "Let All the World in Every Corner Sing": This text appeared in the 1935 and 1966 Methodist Hymnals and the 1957 EUB Hymnal with the rousing and familiar "All the World" tune by Robert McCutchan. The new tune, Augustine by Erik Routley, is challenging for its non-diatonic harmonies and melody and its dissonance. Routley's tune does, however, preserve the original structure of the text's antiphon-stanza-antiphon-stanza-antiphon. When the 1989 hymnal committee selected Routley's tune, a number of them predicted "That'll never be sung." (Carlton Young, Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal, p. 461)

7. No. 563, "Father, We Thank You": This hymn may suffer more from its appearance on the printed page than from its actual difficulty in singing. Its cluster chords, many accidentals, changes in meter, and octave shifts make it look more busy, dissonant and challenging than it actually is. One wrote, "This might work as a bell piece with solo, but the chord clusters in the keyboard part don't support the melody. If I tried to play this as written, the congregation would quickly get lost."

Other difficult hymns cited less frequently included:

* 538, "Wind Who Makes All Winds That Blow"
* 478, "Jaya Ho"
* 113, "Source and Sovereign, Rock and Cloud"
* 120, "Your Love, O God"
* 222, "Niño Lindo"
* 274, "Woman in the Night"
* 275, "The Kingdom of God"
* 330, "Daw-Kee, Aim Daw-Tsi-Taw"
* 350, "Come, All of You"
* 552, "Here, O Lord, Your Servants Gather"
* 579, "Lord God, Your Love Has Called Us Here"
* 718, "Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending"
* TFWS 2048, "God Weeps"
* TFWS 2212, "My Life Flows On"

Some hymn characteristics were cited a number of times as contributing to the difficulty of hymns, including:

* wide melodic range and leaps
* nondiatonic melodies
* dissonant harmonies
* lack of tonal center; bitonality
* accompaniment that does not support the melody
* many accidentals
* harmonies that do not resolve in a traditional manner, or that do not resolve at all
* syncopation
* multiple or changing meters

These qualities are many of the very qualities that define much of twentieth century art music, a good deal of which is also challenging to, even disliked by, the general public. It is not surprising to find these same qualities contributing to hymns perceived to be challenging. The choice for the music leader is what to do with them. Shall we ignore these difficult hymns? Should we attempt to teach them, meeting their challenging characteristics head-on and encouraging our people to embrace them as music of our own time? Should we try to rewrite or re-arrange them to make them less difficult? Should we use them only with soloist or choir? Or perhaps we should do what we've always done -- find another, easier, more familiar tune that works with the text. The choice, of course, depends upon your skill, the openness of your people to such challenges, and the ability and willingness of your musicians to render support and assistance to the people.