It was in the late sixties that someone decided we could repurpose pop songs for church use. I know they did a bit of that over the previous hundred years but it kind of took off when someone worked out that When I Survey could be sung to O Waly Waly… Church congregations all over have been desecrating the beautiful words and metre of both songs by swapping the tunes – well, that is to say using the lilting folk tune so perfectly written for the love song The Water is Wide and singing it to the profound words written by Isaac Watts in the early 18th century. It’s the WRONG TUNE! Edward Miller’s tune ‘Rockingham’ has to have been inspired by Watts’ words as it matches the heartfelt, sincere poetry: it captures the intensity of the hymn and gives opportunity for harmony as we stop and contemplate ‘the wondrous cross’.
On the other hand, if you sing the lyrical folk song – ‘The water is wide, I cannot get o’er and neither have I wings to fly: give me a boat that will carry two and both shall row my love and I’ – you will appreciate that this tune, O Waly Waly, had no place masquerading as a hymn tune. (For a beautiful version of this song, listen to James Taylor on his album, ‘Before this World.’)
I remember someone writing new carol words so that they could use the song, ‘Vincent’ (Starry, Starry Night) by Don Mclean in a church service – make up your own tune! Worse still, someone adapted The Beatles’ ‘Yesterday’ to accommodate the words ‘Calvary’ – just awful…
And another thing – why did the guitarists who added the chorus to Amazing Grace think it was a good idea to change from 3/4 to 4/4 (or 2/2, I think)? Why not write the new chorus to match the highly evocative 3/4 original rather than rush the tune through to match their new chorus – sorry, boys – it’s actually a good chorus, but with a bit of work it could have matched the original and allowed us to enjoy the metre of the words and tune as gospel singers down the ages have before us.
Well, that’s what I think anyway. On a positive note, Be Thou My Vision has benefitted hugely by stretching the waltz time to a jazz 3 -123,123,12 – reinvigorated the hymn. So it can be done.
