Secretary Michael

Secular Hymnal: 60 Famous Hymns Made Inclusive for All Secretary Michael

Whether we?re aware of it or not, we all know plenty of hymns. They?re part of our country?s soundtrack. In addition to being in churches, they can be heard in movies and many other places. The Secular Hymnal is for anybody who enjoys singing, either alone or with a group. All the music is written in 4-part harmony (soprano, alto, tenor, bass), each on its own staff. If you are singing alone, just sing the main melody (the soprano part). Supportive chord symbols are provided. If you are a family, or a quartet of friends, or a choir, you?ll find the SATB parts easy to read. If you wish to form a singing group with your family or friends, there?s no better way to make that wish come true than with these hymns. We?ve even added SOL-FA syllables to some of the songs so that singers can learn to sing solfege. When it comes to learning about music, hymn tunes are wonderful teaching tools. They are so tidy with their logical structure and simple rhythms. Being so small they are easy to dissect. We can take them apart voice by voice, bar by bar, beat by beat. We can study their structures, their proportions, their harmonies and the counterpoint between the voices. Just page through a few of the hymns. You?ll see that most are only 16 bars long. Those 16 bars are divided evenly into two periods (8 bars each). Each of the periods is divided evenly into two phrases (4 bars each). It?s so textbook perfect! We can even exchange parts between different hymns - like a Mister Potato-Head! And the truths that we learn from studying little hymns can be applied to oratorios, symphonies and other large works of music. Even though the music is important, teachers and others sometimes feel uncomfortable about singing hymns outside of the church walls. The traditional verses were not written for the general public or for the school classroom. They were written for a very different purpose - for worship in the churches. To address this situation, we have provided the old music with rich, new, inclusive lyrics. While nothing can replace the grandeur of the original verses, these new ones were carefully crafted and have a gentle beauty and intelligence of their own. This book contains 60 famous hymn tunes with inclusive secular verses. Previously published in five volumes of a dozen hymns each, this book contains the entire collection.