[NOTE: You can listen to this audio at hmmcclish's Xanga - Some of our singing. I'm sorry, but I don't know how to put audio directly into this blog.]
Today I recorded chapel. It was a singing day, which means we didn’t have a devo and two or three songs like usual, we just sang the whole time--half an hour. I know I’ll want this recording years down the road.
But I also kind of wanted to put up a fraction of the recording, on a whim. I don’t think most people have any idea what we sound like, and it’s surprisingly beautiful.
I’ll try to make sure we’re on the same page here.
This is a song from a session of chapel at Freed-Hardeman University, Tuesday 9/21/10. It is a cappella, as always (without instruments); the church of Christ is of the opinion that it's a sin to use instruments in worship (they say there's no New Testament scriptural precedent and it isn't a matter of expedience). The recording quality is not wonderful; sorry, I don’t have anything at my disposal but my MacBook’s built-in mic, and I believe the school’s professional recordings are made from the stage mics, which pretty much only pick up the song leader, which is no fun. I think you can still grasp the salient qualities despite the recording quality. There are a little under two thousand of us (some of us would have used a chapel absence today, of which we have twelve each, but probably not more than 100 people); chapel is required-attendance, and usually even those of us who don’t want to be here sing along to the best of our ability, just out of habit and for something to do. I am sitting on the far left-hand side of the auditorium; I made sure there was nobody sitting on either side of me. There are people in front of and behind me, but as far as I can tell they weren’t singing loudly enough to disrupt the recording. We did get a little off from the song leader sometimes tempo-wise; either he made a mistake or he tried to get us to ritardando and we were like "kthx no." I think a good contingent of us just sing along with the majority instead of paying any attention at all to the song leader. Oh, and I'm sorry about the volume doing weird things. I tried to smooth it out. Some of it is intentional, though, especially on the last verse, which is traditionally sung louder than the rest.
The song we are singing is a very old and well-known song (at least in the church of Christ) called “It Is Well (With My Soul).” It is common and old enough that you could reasonably expect any member or former member of the church of Christ to know at least one verse (probably two) of it by heart. The people in this school are, with a few exceptions, church of Christ members in good standing, college-age. The vast majority of us have been singing these songs and songs like them every Sunday and Wednesday of our lives. Most of the male students have probably had some degree of formal training in the area of song leading, but not necessarily music in general; we probably have a slightly unusual degree of tendency towards musicality simply because many people come to Freed in part for the singing (and you can probably hear why) and because we’ve been singing four-part harmony since we were little. Our songbooks have shape notes in them, which I can’t read but many others can. I don’t think we have an above-average degree of musical talent necessarily.
The four-part harmony, by the way, is also completely normal and expected. If a song doesn’t have built-in four-part harmony, we (almost without exception) make it up. Or at least two or three parts. I am not singing along because I knew it would be too loud. The distinctly louder voice you hear is the song leader; he is the only one with a microphone and is up on the stage. He is conducting, singing the main melody, and signaling which verse we’re on with his fingers; this is standard practice in the CoC, although in smaller congregations there’s no microphone. We are singing from a PowerPoint presentation on the stage that has words on it but no music whatsoever (so you can tell we know this song very well).
This happens to be one of my favorite songs, and I think one of my parents told me once that it was one of Mama’s favorites. I know it's made me cry at some point in the past.
And by the way, we do a LOT of singing. Chapel every day, devo every week sometimes more than once, et cetera. And in any given group of church of Christ kids, you can expect some church songs to be sung informally at random points in time. As college students we have a tendency toward some newer songs that the older members might not know, but I purposely picked a very traditional song.
Any Freedies, feel free to correct me on my circumstantial details; anyone else, feel free to ask questions.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
[Refrain]
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
[Refrain]
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
[Refrain]
But I also kind of wanted to put up a fraction of the recording, on a whim. I don’t think most people have any idea what we sound like, and it’s surprisingly beautiful.
I’ll try to make sure we’re on the same page here.
This is a song from a session of chapel at Freed-Hardeman University, Tuesday 9/21/10. It is a cappella, as always (without instruments); the church of Christ is of the opinion that it's a sin to use instruments in worship (they say there's no New Testament scriptural precedent and it isn't a matter of expedience). The recording quality is not wonderful; sorry, I don’t have anything at my disposal but my MacBook’s built-in mic, and I believe the school’s professional recordings are made from the stage mics, which pretty much only pick up the song leader, which is no fun. I think you can still grasp the salient qualities despite the recording quality. There are a little under two thousand of us (some of us would have used a chapel absence today, of which we have twelve each, but probably not more than 100 people); chapel is required-attendance, and usually even those of us who don’t want to be here sing along to the best of our ability, just out of habit and for something to do. I am sitting on the far left-hand side of the auditorium; I made sure there was nobody sitting on either side of me. There are people in front of and behind me, but as far as I can tell they weren’t singing loudly enough to disrupt the recording. We did get a little off from the song leader sometimes tempo-wise; either he made a mistake or he tried to get us to ritardando and we were like "kthx no." I think a good contingent of us just sing along with the majority instead of paying any attention at all to the song leader. Oh, and I'm sorry about the volume doing weird things. I tried to smooth it out. Some of it is intentional, though, especially on the last verse, which is traditionally sung louder than the rest.
The song we are singing is a very old and well-known song (at least in the church of Christ) called “It Is Well (With My Soul).” It is common and old enough that you could reasonably expect any member or former member of the church of Christ to know at least one verse (probably two) of it by heart. The people in this school are, with a few exceptions, church of Christ members in good standing, college-age. The vast majority of us have been singing these songs and songs like them every Sunday and Wednesday of our lives. Most of the male students have probably had some degree of formal training in the area of song leading, but not necessarily music in general; we probably have a slightly unusual degree of tendency towards musicality simply because many people come to Freed in part for the singing (and you can probably hear why) and because we’ve been singing four-part harmony since we were little. Our songbooks have shape notes in them, which I can’t read but many others can. I don’t think we have an above-average degree of musical talent necessarily.
The four-part harmony, by the way, is also completely normal and expected. If a song doesn’t have built-in four-part harmony, we (almost without exception) make it up. Or at least two or three parts. I am not singing along because I knew it would be too loud. The distinctly louder voice you hear is the song leader; he is the only one with a microphone and is up on the stage. He is conducting, singing the main melody, and signaling which verse we’re on with his fingers; this is standard practice in the CoC, although in smaller congregations there’s no microphone. We are singing from a PowerPoint presentation on the stage that has words on it but no music whatsoever (so you can tell we know this song very well).
This happens to be one of my favorite songs, and I think one of my parents told me once that it was one of Mama’s favorites. I know it's made me cry at some point in the past.
And by the way, we do a LOT of singing. Chapel every day, devo every week sometimes more than once, et cetera. And in any given group of church of Christ kids, you can expect some church songs to be sung informally at random points in time. As college students we have a tendency toward some newer songs that the older members might not know, but I purposely picked a very traditional song.
Any Freedies, feel free to correct me on my circumstantial details; anyone else, feel free to ask questions.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
[Refrain]
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
[Refrain]
And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
[Refrain]
