Sunday, December 21, 2008

fun in advent

I had a lot of fun in church this morning. At Cambridge Drive we do a mix of music - old hymns done in a new style, stereotypical current church music, current Roman Catholic music, newly written hymns, popular secular tunes when they fit, and occasionally an old hymn done in its original style. We have a great band of dedicated and talented players who are willing to take chances. Today, we sang mostly carols even though it is still Advent but we played around with them a bit.
O Come All Ye Faithful was done reggae style
Joy to the World - imagine the Ramones playing it.
Hark the Herald Angels Sing we did with the Rebecca St. James arrangement.
The Friendly Beasts, which was one of my favorite carols as a child, we played more or less in the traditional style.
O Little Town of Bethlehem we played as a ska piece.
And we ended with a little song we do after a ritual of healing called Peace I Am.

2 comments:

Steve said...

I'd love to hear those, Roy. Does your church record the songs? We did all carols today - but it really wasn't much fun: 3-5 verses of traditional carols done in traditional style with contemporary instrumentation forced into the mix. I'd love to try different arrangements. Last week, though, we did 'What Child is This' in a jazz style, inspired by Jimmie Bratcher's version. Now THAT was fun :)

roy said...

Steve, we don't record our music... it wouldn't work well if we did because some of the instruments and the vocals go through the board while others do not so we don't bother.
I'll check out Jinnie Bratcher's version of What Child...