“SM=Short Meter=6,6,8,8”
No, short meter is 6686.
I’m an organist in the Church of England in South Africa - not to be confused with the CoE in England and the American Episcopalian churches which seem by and large to be apostate. We separated from that in the 1800s.
We have a 8:00am traditional Prayer Book service followed by a later more contemporary service. There is someone, usually aside from the pastor, who leads the service and chooses the hymns having been acquainted with the subject of the service, readings, etc. One of the older leaders has made the comment that in our early services we probably have a wider repertoire than the later services because of the regular meters. One can choose many hymns with unfamiliar, but appropriate, words because we can usually find a tune that fits. In fact, I always advise new service leaders, many of whom are graduates of our theological college but who did not grow up with hymns, to choose their hymns based on the words, and to let me sort out the tunes. Even the young ones are expected to be able to lead a traditional service as well as the more contemporary version. They serve the entire congregation, not just those who attend a particular service.
All decent hymn books have lists of tunes by meter and by name.
Thanks for the correction. Since I essentially pasted in what the chap on Mudcat posted back in April of 02 and he obviously knew a lot more about it than I do, I suspect it was a typo.
Noted correction in my archives for future reference.
I’m glad that the old tradition lives on in So. Africa, as it probably still does in at least a few places here in the Colonies.
We have a few traditional “Shape Note” singing groups around, and I think most of them are familiar with meters.
Example: “Morning Star”
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v53/UncleJaque/MUSIC/Morning_Star.gif
...in which the melody line is written in shape notes while harmony / accompaniment in standard notation.
Are you familiar with it?
All shape notes from 1853 - one of my favorites: “Delight”
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/UncleJaque/media/MUSIC/GOSPEL/DelightSoHarmny1853SN_1.gif.html
Bet it would sound nice on your organ. Wonder what our Country Western Singer could do with it?
I always thought it needed soft percussion - like kettle drums behind it. Excellent hammer dulcimer piece.
Shape note singing was quite popular in America from about the 1830s through the early 20th Century, and used a lot in the Churches.
Are you familiar with “Scottish” / Solfa notation?
That’s pretty interesting (I never did figure it out):
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/UncleJaque/media/MUSIC/Banks_of_Allan_Water_solfa.bmp.html
