This hymn is easily one of my least favorites, though
my dislike for it has nothing to do with the words. It
also doesn’t really have anything to do with the
tune, though I don’t enjoy the music much anymore
either. The reason I don’t like the tune, though, is
a piano festival I was in several years ago.
The festival was divided into several categories, and
one which I always participated in was the hymn
category. For this category, you had to play two
hymns. One could be any one y...(+)
This hymn is easily one of my least favorites, though
my dislike for it has nothing to do with the words. It
also doesn’t really have anything to do with the
tune, though I don’t enjoy the music much anymore
either. The reason I don’t like the tune, though, is
a piano festival I was in several years ago.
The festival was divided into several categories, and
one which I always participated in was the hymn
category. For this category, you had to play two
hymns. One could be any one you wanted, but the other
had to be one listed in the festival book for your
skill level. This one was listed, which meant I had to
play the tune, but that didn’t mean I had to play any
specific arrangement.
It was back before I’d started playing out of the
hymnal, and we had a couple of books that had
“easy” arrangements of hymns in them. That is, one
of the books had easy arrangements in it. The
other—well, they weren’t so bad—most of
them—except for this one!
So, did I play the easy one? Nooo…my teacher made me
play the harder arrangement. It was terrible! I
didn’t like it, I hated playing it, and by the time
the festival rolled around, I’d been thoroughly sick
of it for months. I was so glad once it was over, and
I never wanted to play it—or any other arrangement of
this hymn—again! Even my teacher acknowledged, by
the time the festival rolled around, that the
arrangement was too hard (something I’d been trying
to make her aware of all year!).
Not long after the festival, though, I actually started
playing out of hymnals, and I do have to say, the
arrangement probably prepared me for the experience.
Playing chords out of the hymnal isn’t easy when you
first start, but neither was the arrangement, and
learning it helped me develop skills I’d use a lot
later on. Perhaps my teacher knew this, perhaps she
didn’t, but it all wound up working out in the
end.
Except that to this stay, I still hate this hymn.
I’ve played it for church a few times, and I even
played another arrangement of it once, but I probably
won’t play it for an offertory anymore unless I’m
asked. However, I know that most people haven’t
agonized over it, and many people actually enjoy the
hymn for some reason, so I figured I’d make an
arrangement of it for you all. I might not enjoy it
much, but I think you pianists will, so this is for
you! Hope you enjoy!
Oh, and if you think it’s hard—tough! This hymn is
just difficult. Remember, you’re the one that wanted
to play it in the first place—otherwise, you
wouldn’t have clicked on this page! :)
