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How to make a regular hymn into a Choral Anthem.
- Choose a hymn that you like but isn't overused. As long as you don't make photocopies, any song in the church hymnal or
other church songbooks will be legal to use.
- Plan what you will do with the entire hymn and have choir members pencil in instructions: which voice sings what
section, what are the dynamics for each verse or phrase, where and how long are the interludes, etc.
- Do you have all four vocal parts, soprano, alto, tenor, and bass? If so, you can just add an accompaniment introduction
and then an interlude between the next to the last verse and the last verse.
- Preludes and Interludes can be repetitions of a phrase or two out of the hymn. If a hymn phrase is not used, the prelude
or interlude used should be the same length as a hymn phrase--same meter, same number of measures.
- Are you missing tenors or altos, or another part? If you're missing vocal parts, don't just sing the parts you have and
omit the missing part.
- Four part hymns can sound quite strange when using only 1/2 or 3/4 of the harmony. Arranging for the parts you
do have is more successful. (See SAB arranging hints in the next column of this web page.)
- Use the voices you have: unison men or unison women on the melody (with keyboard accompaniment) in alternate
verses or phrases can be very effective.
- Use the rounds that are in the hymnal. Sing the melody in unison first and then sing it as a round.
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Hints on arranging for SAB
Choose a hymn that is in the public domain. There will be no copyright notice on that hymn. Look up the author and composer
in the back of the hymnal to be sure. The date will usually be 1860 or earlier. Anything written after that date could involve
copyright infringement.
(See Copyright Page.)
SAB:
- Write out the melody. Decide which part will sing melody in what phrase.
- Changing SATB hymns into SAB hymns will require rewriting for three parts, not just omitting the tenor.
- Figure out what chords are used in the harmony. [Most hymns use triads--chords with three notes that are each a third
apart. The fourth note in SATB harmony is either a doubled note (a note out of the triad that is used twice), or a 7th
away from the root of the triad.]
- The best SAB harmony will use all three notes of the triad and keep the melody but still leave the triad in root
position or first inversion.
- If keeping the melody and making the parts easy suggests that you have to use one note twice and just one other note,
keep the notes in this order: melody, triad root, [seventh if a seventh chord is used], triad third. (keeping two
triad fifths and a third or keeping two triad thirds and a fifth will change the chord. The chord will sound as though
the third of the original triad is actually its root. I.E., A "C" triad--CEG without the C--would sound like it was an
incomplete EGB chord.)
- Writing for all parts to sing in unison at times can be effective.
- As long as the parts don't move in fifths, it is ok to leave out the triad's third occasionally.
Since these open fifths create a "hollow" sound, the third should included almost all of the time.
- Sing all the parts you've written. Are they hard for you? If so, it's time to revise until all the parts are easily singable.
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