Hymn books could soon be a thing of the past as churches switch to high-tech services with the words on giant screens, assisted by an iTunes app.
The fashion for ”˜hands-free worship’ has led to a decline in book sales. But it is said to have improved the singing, as congregants look up at a screen instead of down at the page.
Some vicars also prefer screens because they are less likely to spread germs and are said to be environmentally friendly.
The universal difficulty with projected hymns is that they NEVER include the musical score. Any attempt to do so results in everything being so small as to be illegible.
So, even great hymns become praise songs with the congregation trying to keep up with the organist while having no way, on their own to measure the tempo, understand the melodic structure, or, dare I mention it, sing harmony. The singers accompany the instrumentalists rather than the usual reverse of that situation.
The end result is that, while the volume of the singing may increase, (Shout louder than the organ, if you can!) the quality, of necessity, decreases. Hardly a worthy offering to God.
We may lament the loss of printed music but the reality is that we live in a culture where most people do not know how to read music so hymn books with the music in them are pretty much wasted on people who don’t. Besides, everyone having books with music in them is a relatively new phenomenon. When I was a lad growing up in London, Ontario in the 60’s we sang from the ‘old blue hymn book’ and only the choir had books with music in them. The rest of us had small prayer book sized books (sometimes the two were combined) with only the words to the various hymns. Projecting the songs and hymns also allows a congregation’s repertoire to increase beyond the restrictions imposed by hymn books.
We had a former organist/chior director who refused to sing anything without the score lest one note be incorrect. However, she had no problem in changing the text to reflect her own views of political correctedness. I agree with 1 and 2 but hymn books may be passing from the scene.
Which is better? (1) There are gratis beignets in the undercroft which is directly outside the narthex; or (2) There are free donuts in basement, just out the back door. If you are trying to convey church speak to insiders, the answer is (1). If you are trying to reach the people in the congergation, then the answer is (2).
Further to David’s point, I think projecting the hymns and he entire service as well is much user friendly and not just for regular congregants but for visitors maybe especially. Not only do people no longer have to flip between a hymn book a prayer book, they don’t have to navigate their way through a prayer book with its many options.
The problems with typing too quickly and not proof reading.
Further to David’s point, I think projecting the hymns and the entire service as well is much more user friendly and not just for regular congregants but for visitors maybe especially. Not only do people no longer have to flip between a hymn book and a prayer book, they don’t have to navigate their way through a prayer book with its many options.
A couple of things. First, the three music reproduction licenses that our and many churches use — CCLI, OneLicense.net, and LicenSing Online — allow for reproducing lyrics only, and not the music. Second, projecting the entire service — liturgy, scripture readings, and lyrics — frees everyone from juggling books and flipping pages, and allows people to put greater focus on worshiping God. This is true no matter if your worship is contemporary, traditional, or somewhere in between. Although I will allow that I’ve seen some horrid powerpoint presentations that are a hindrance to worship. So care must be taken when doing this.
#7, And we’ve all been to traditional BCP services that would make an Apostle say “just kill me now”.