by stuckinamovement 47 Replies latest jw friends
Maybe the COs will recommend it on their next round of visits?
Here's an idea...
Now that they have the Book Study night free, they should assign that "Singing Praises to Jehovah" night... aka in the real world as "choir practice"...except for dubbies, it's required of all members, not just the talented ones. Every Tuesday (or whatever night the BS was on) everyone goes to the hall and practices the songs.
Johan Sebastian Bach might argue that point -
Ah, Bach...
I'm more of a Bachman Turner Overdrive man myself...
When the new songs came out, didn't they "encourage" folks to get together to practice?
Sir82 - you're right. There was a letter maybe a month or so read out that announced the songs at the CA so that people could practice ahead of time. I think there were a few songs that hadn't been played yet at a meeting and one where the words were the same but the actual music changed. Needless to say, no one practiced and it sounded just awful. Around where I was sitting, a few folks were laughing when some folks were singing the old song to the old tune rather than the new one.
The best was one of the new songs that was really awkard (more than usual). Hearing 1,000 people quitely mumble was very funny.
Nice job Bethel, way to suck what little life was left in your services.
Do tell us what is says St George
Please tell us.
The download is available on the link below; I do not know how to copy and paste odd bits from a pdf file.
However, paragraph 15 says: "For the past 25 years Jehovah's Witnesses in many lands have enjoyed using the songbook entitled Sing Praises to Jehovah. In the years since that book was first published the light has been getting brighter on a number of topics, and some of the expressions used in that songbook have become outdated. For example we no longer speak of "the new order" but of "the new world." And we now state that Jehovah's name will be "sanctified", not "vindicated." clearly from a doctrinal standpoint there has been a need to bring our songbook up-to-date.
It goes on to state that "as there are fewer songs to learn it should be possible to memorize the lyrics of at least some of the new songs."
It says about taken it for granted what has been published but how much work went into its production etc and we should show appreciation for their efforts.
Twenty paragraphs of utter dribble!
George
I'm more of a Bachman Turner Overdrive man myself...
Evidently a man of taste, undercover
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7miRCLeFSJo
George
The local congregation is suffering through the learning experience without complaint, but with no real enthusiasm either.
It is all very generic sounding and I assume that to be by design. With the new GB, I'm guessing that "new light" = syllabic. It took a few months before I noticed that nearly all the songs are completely syllabic. That means that for the melody line, there is exactly one note to one syllable, one syllable to one note. Wording is adjusted for accents, beats, length, and clarity of content. There is some variation of timing and meter among the songs, but overall, it's extremely formulaic. Melisma has been almost completely abandoned. Melisma means to stretch a syllable over a series of notes. It has a very artistic and fluid sound, but probably sounds too "churchy" for GB 2.0.
For example, we're well acquainted with "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize". This song still has very limited melisma in the new book. The first word, "When..." is sung over two eighth notes (as I recall). I think 2-note melisma occurs 4 times for each verse like that. Most of the songs that previously contained melisma are now syllabic by rewording or just adding words like "the" to fill the second note. Now imagine singing "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize" with the syllabic opening, "When the eyes of blind ones see again..." That gives you some idea of how utilitarian and unartistic JW music has become.
Add the fact that the singers are untrained and singing just one monophonic melody line to homophonic pre-recorded piano accompaniment, and they've taken 'art' out of music. It's almost like they deliberately make the songs sound anti-religious. I'm not a fan of many of the historic styles of religious music, but the current JW songbook hardly qualifies as "music".
B The X
All very good points - excellent points.
Probably the saddest things is, the GB just don't give a rat's ass.
Here's their likely checklist for the new songbook:
-- Do the lyrics include the word "Jehovah" numerous times?
-- Did we remember to include a couple dozen songs extolling how wonderful it is to obey us?
-- Do the lyrics conform to all current "light"?
-- Are there musical notes on the page that a mediocre pianist could play?
If answer to all 4 is "Yes", print songbook. No other consideration has any weight whatsoever.
Some background on the making of the new songbook: http://www.freeminds.org/life-stories/leaders/when-the-kingdom-melody-went-off-key.html
I can't wait to see what blonde has to say about this when she breaks down the 12/15/2010 kool-aid edition watchtower entitled "Sing To Jehovah" which will be studied in all congregations on 2/27/2011. The watchtower seems very concerned about there members attiude toward the song they have approved.
Most people think that they are crap, they wouldnt put it like that though
I gave up singing as well, I just sing other songs in my head - Eg. REM(LOOSING MY RELIGION), if you don't know it Google it, pertinent.
I like the line "Oh no Iv'e said too much, I haven't said enough".
