"Be Thou My Vision" might be my favorite hymn, but I grow weary of the pounding rhythm, slower every time someone new covers it. Any hymn that gets emotional eventually starts to drag unless someone makes a clear effort not to. For example, "How Great Thou Art" has a great bass harmony, but I find it intolerable now. It is usually called a Swedish hymn, but I have heard it is based on a Russian tune. I believe it. It sounds like "Volga Boatman" now. I have been looking for something bright for BTMV and frankly more Irish on YouTube but not finding one.
BTMV is supposed to be light, with the rhythm variable, like an air. (Okay, some airs.) Though airs tend to be slower, they don't have to be. It should be uptempo, perhaps unaccompanied. I never hear it done that way, but it's the way I sing it to myself. Sixteen to twenty seconds and done for each verse. And work in some dotted quarters and eighth notes, can ya? Most versions go above double that, and one I just listened to goes over a minute. Dramatic pause after each line, while they stand on a mountain and show you the waves pounding on the shore in a bay. Pretty, but...
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir gets it down to twenty-six, but it's got kettle drums, and when you have that many singers you can't free-form the melody. Best so far, though.
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