The other day I scheduled Jesus Shall Reign for a Communion hymn. That's not something I ordinarily do, but it was the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. My choir's greatest strength is SATB harmony: power in every voice, and a certain lovely motion. So at the organist's excellent suggestion, we did this:
- verse 1: in canon. Men first, women closely following in the second measure. Jesus shall... Jesus shall... It breaks up somewhat in the very last measure, but by then the impact has occurred. It was light and almost fun.
- organ interlude
- verse 2: SATB harmony
A nun friend of mine who is by her own admission very tired of this hymn attended the Mass, and she paid us a very high compliment: she said we made it new for her.
2 comments:
Can I check which tune you were using for your canon? We sing Jesus shall reign to Truro, which means that if the second part starts at the start of the second bar, they'll enter with "Je-" as the first voice sing the " 'er" from "where'er". (That's fine, but it does sound a little odd when the first part gets to "kingdom stretch").
Or do you sing this hymn to something totally different?
Robin
We sing it to Duke Street. I wonder if this is just RC practice--but I'm guessing it isn't. Jesus Shall Reign is one of the hymns I consistently program for ecumenical prayer services and people sing it to Duke Street with gusto. Maybe it's a US practice in general.
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