A bride rang me four days before her wedding service to let me know what hymns and music she had chosen (despite the fact, like all prospective brides, she had a sheet which said "Please return this two weeks before your wedding) and told me she was producing the wedding service sheet herself - always a signal for alarm bells to ring! Then announced that she was having a gospel choir to sing two of the four hymns!
I asked her what her choice of hymns were, and they turned out to be This Little Light of Mine (which is in our Hymns Book, and had completely different words compared to the verses in our hymn book!) and Oh Happy Day (which isn't in our hymn book!) I asked if the choir were bringing their own accompanist and she didn't know. I explained that we didn't have the music to Oh Happy Day, so if the choir were not bringing their own accompanist she would need to provide the music!
Knowing the style of Gospel choir singing (not exctly as your average church congregation!) I politely suggested that she could have a recipe for chaos here if she was expecting the congregation to join in!
I then asked if I could see a copy of her service sheet , which was e mailed to me.
Oh Dear, Oh Dear Oh Dear!
The hymn "One More Step" had verse one printed correctly (as a four line verse), then verse two appeared to be a six line verse (it was actually the chorus and verse two printed as verse two!)
The second hymn was If I Were A Butterfly - the last line of each verse should read:
"And I just thank you Father for making me, me."
Verses one and two did, but verse three lost the word Father so two syllables missing from this meant it didn't fit to the music!
It wasn't until I arrived to play for the wedding that I discovered that the Gospel Choir did have their own accompaniment!
And there are people who think an organists life is easy...............
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