...sing Brian Wren's 'Great God, your love has called us here' to the tune 'Sagina' (And can it be) as the church organist at a church in the sticks had us do tonight. Yes, the metre is the same but it just does not work. Trust me, it doesn't.
... sing 'I will enter his gates with thanksgiving in my heart' whilst looking for any evidence of gladness in the congregation... unless you want to sing one of the alternatives I recall from the 80's, either "he has made me sad" or "he has made me glad, what a job he had." I wouldn't mind but they picked it! (Actually I did manage to get a couple of them to smile, maybe they were thinking likewise?)
... follow directions which include 'go down the hill and along a few country lanes' in an area where the land lies low and is surrounded by steams and brooks, to say nothing of foot deep ford, on a night when it is cold and there is patchy fog. Boy was I glad to see the M69!
(But at least it made you laugh)
Comments
of course Brian Wren deliberatly wrote "Great God..." to be sung to Abingdon, the tune that Erik Routley wrote to be sung to "And can it be ..." because Nat Micklem wanted a modern tune for "And can it be.." that "celebrated the musical idiom that Wesley could have known" - the early tunes for the hymn being far more reflective than Sagina.
So yes the metre fits ... but little else.
Thanks Craig, that's useful background. BPW has Abingdon as the set tune for 'Great God', just this organist thought he knew better!