Hymn singing from 1954
This recording is a radio broadcast made from the church on the 22nd of August 1954 and features two hymns: Father of heaven, whose love profound to the tune Rivaulx; and Lord, speak to me, that I may speak to the tune Winscott. The Rev. Graham Hardy introduces the hymns and the organist is Graham Gould.
Yes, how things have changed! However, …and despite the tempo actually slowing down,… it does have a definite intensity and momentum and merges well with the spirit and tone of the minister.
Listen to Handel done by the likes of Klemperer and there again speeds are much slower (not to mention many other differences). Can one say that one of these musical interpretations is more or less valid than the other one? Every age believes it is an enlightened one in so many respects. Let us say that each interpretation is of its time and all that goes with it.
I note that you are an evangelical congregation in Edinburgh. It is however sad that
in many Presbyterian churches in Scotland and elsewhere, the singing of God’s Word
as given in the Metrical Psalms is now forgotten. How I feel that we need to get back
to the use of the Psalms in our worship ?