Least Favorite Hymns

[LinaSt.Cecilia2772]

[quote name='USAirwaysIHS' timestamp='1316747363' post='2308781']
Why?
[/quote]

i've just never liked the sound of the organ. Every now and then there is a song that is good on the organ, but in general i just dont like it.

One of my favorite songs that is played on the organ is "Make Of Your Hands A Throne." I heard that song at Notre Dame in an ordination mass, and i like lost it. It was beautifully sung and played by the Notre Dame Folk Choir.

[Vincent Vega]

[quote name='LinaSt.Cecilia2772' timestamp='1316747768' post='2308788']

i've just never liked the sound of the organ. Every now and then there is a song that is good on the organ, but in general i just dont like it.
[/quote]
I hear this a lot, and in general, it indicates a poor exposure to the organ - either their experiences have been with a poor player, a nasty instrument, or simply too limited to fully grasp the organ. This particularly sticks out when someone refers to the "sound of the organ". A good organ has a virtually infinite number of "sounds" that can be effected by some combination of its stops. For instance, our organ here has 72 stops (made up of 99 ranks of pipes, which equates to about 5400 individual pipes). Inc[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]luding all of our combination action, that gives some 6x10[sup]103 [/sup]possible combinations of stops (yes, that's more than 6 [i]googol [/i]possible combinations). Even if we cons[/font]ider that 99.99999999999999999999% of those might be registrations that you just wouldn't use[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"] (for whatever reason), that leaves .0000000000000000001% of total possible combinations, or about 6x10[/font][sup]80[/sup][font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"] possible registrations. I bet out of those 6[/font][font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"][color="#444444"]0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 possibilities, I could find even one registration that you could listen to all day long.[/color][/font]



[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1316747753' post='2308787']

I don't know - it was one we sang when I was at Carmel in England. I hated it the first time I heard it and couldn't believe how much they all loved it! It's so bleak!
[/quote]
Oh okay. There is one tune that is just awful, but I happen to like Cranham a lot (mainly because I like Holst a lot).

[bernadette d]

[quote name='nunsense' timestamp='1316747548' post='2308783']
I can't stand 'In the Bleak Midwinter' or whatever it's called - I can't stand the name of the hymn or the song itself!
[/quote]
I think it must be that word "bleak"!
I love this verse:
[b][color="#00509F"]What can I give Him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him: give my heart.[/color][/b]

[faithcecelia]

Any hymns, [i]any -[/i] old or new, popular or rare - if the congregation (led by choir if applicable) do not phrase it properly! Aaaarrrggghhhh it drives me nuts! If there isn't a comma or other similar symbol [i]don't breathe!!![/i] And if you really, reall, reeeeeally must, then be discreet and not when everyone else does!




Rant over. For now.

[FutureSister2009]

There is this on hymn that gets sung WAY too much at our Daily Masses called All Who Hunger. I liked it at first but it's been overdone here. There have also been a few weird things that we've done in Liturgical Choir. Fortunately we've done some good stuff too

[brandelynmarie]

[list]
[*][i]All Are Welcome [/i]by Marty Haugen *shudder*
[/list]

[brandelynmarie]

Or any song (mostly '80's & '90's) that moves among low & high notes in such randomness as to sound like a whale calling out from the deep.


[url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJGeeryk0Eo"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJGeeryk0Eo[/url]

Edited November 19, 2011 by brandelynmarie

[AccountDeleted]

I don't know the tune but I hate the words of the hymn in the Divine Office that starts out "I am the holy vine" - in a song it just seems harsh... it sort of threatens - be one with me or else.I know it is what Jesus said, but I don't like it as a morning hymn.

On the other hand, I love "It were my soul's desire to see the face of God."

[MissyP89]

Canticle of the Sun
All Are Welcome
City of God

Did I mention Canticle of the Sun?

[Luigi]

On This Day, Oh Beautiful Mother

[FutureSister2009]

I have to agree with All Our Welcome. We just sang it recently at one of the Daily Masses and at first I was happy because I haven't sung it in years but then we ended up singing ALL FIVE VERSES which was totally unnecessary. So that took care of that. But I object to Canticle of the Sun because I just discovered it and it's AMAZING!!!!

[ChrisInMI]

Newcomer here, and I'm sorry to bump an old thread, but my music director has a knack for choosing certain songs that drive me absolutely batty, so I've been trying to find an outlet to vent.

Here are my personal least favorites:

* "All That We Have" - the verses in particular
* "Hail Mary: Gentle Woman" - I wouldn't mind this one so much if it had a little harmony to spice it up; as it is, it's rather enervating
* "Ashes" - A, we don't offer ashes to God; and B, we don't create [i]ourselves[/i] anew. My previous music director threw this in every Ash Wednesday, which could be explained by the fact that he came from a Lutheran background.
* "Sing of the Lord's Goodness" - Ernest Sands is lucky he hasn't been sued by Dave Brubeck for ripping off "Take Five"
* "Open My Eyes" - "I live within you, deep in your heart, O Love. I live within you, rest now in me." That verse baffles me every time - addressing "Love" as though it were a person. Not to mention, the bridge is ridiculously difficult for anyone without musical training to grasp.
* "All That Is Hidden" - As with "Open My Eyes," parts of this song are ridiculously difficult. And there is one part that bears a very suspicious resemblance to the "Jesus Christ Superstar" ballad "I Don't Know How to Love Him." Anything Bernadette Farrell does generally gives me the willies.
* "O Spirit All-Embracing" - The new-agey-ness of the lyrics and the fact that Christ/God is not mentioned anywhere in the lyrics mean that we could just as easily be singing to Amaterasu as to the Holy Spirit. Terrible lyrics sung to a piece of Holst's "The Planets."
* "Sow the Word" - The bad pun in the refrain is just the beginning of this song's troubles. The melody of the verses seems to have been written to fit the text, which, again, is fine if it's being sung by just a choir or someone with musical training, but makes the song unsuitable for congregational singing.
* "Anthem" - A previous poster summed this one up pretty nicely. Argh, this one stinks.
* "Walk in the Reign" - Rory Cooney, except for "Canticle of the Turning" and "Jerusalem, My Destiny," is another composer whose work I generally dislike.
* "The Cry of the Poor" - This psalm just sounds so gloomy, it's impossible to be happy about the Lord hearing the cry of the poor when listening to or singing it.

My old music director had us sing "Trading My Sorrows" once for Confirmation Mass. Once was MORE THAN enough. No, Lord, no, Lord, no, no, Lord! "On That Holy Mountain" is '70s PTL/Lawrence Welk/middle of the road cheesy; it reminds me of those TV musical-variety telethons of the '70s and '80s with endless renditions of "Up, Up and Away."

I actually like "Shine, Jesus, Shine," although the lyrics are cheesy as Velveeta and the second verse in particular is badly written. My old music director had us do this one a lot from the octavo, and it was fun to sing.

I massively disliked "Gather Us In" because of that problematic fourth verse ("Not in some heaven, light years away") until our church got a new Gather hymnal which omits that fourth verse (it also omits "Walk in the Reign" and "Sow the Word"). Now I don't mind it.

On the other hand, some of my favorites include:
"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"
"Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty"
"Panis Angelicus"
"Holy God, We Praise Thy Name"
"Ubi Caritas"
"You Are Mine" (the octavo version is gorgeous)
"Come to the Water"
"How Great Thou Art"
"Amazing Grace"
"I Have Loved You"
"People, Look East" (always a fun one during Advent)
Most Christmas hymns
(If you're sensing I really prefer the old standards, even if they are Protestant, you're right! I'm also a sucker for Gregorian chant or anything else in Latin.)

[DiscerningCatholic]

"We Are the Light of the World."

"One Bread, One Body"

"City of God"

"Sing to the Mountains"

"Morning has Broken"

"Gather us In"

"All are Welcome"

Basically, most of the songs written in the 60's and 70's. Our church uses the Adoremus Hymnal and has a huge pipe organ, if that clues you in to what kind of hymns I like. xD

[DiscerningCatholic]

[quote name='vee8' timestamp='1314070263' post='2293612']
When we have Aquinas' Eucharistic hymns why do we need "Gift of Finest Wheat"?!?!?!?
[/quote]

THIS.

[Tony]

He's Got the Whole World In His Hands. (Yes, my parish has actually sung that a few times)