Ideas for Improved Parish Singing

Regular readers know how important I think it is for every Anglican church to have a vibrant worship program (centered on traditional hymnody). One oft-recommended solution is shortening the list of hymns to give average singer a chance to sing a given hymn more than once a year.

This month, I’m helping our church leadership brainstorm options for improving parish singing. I was unable to find even a simple summary of conventional wisdom, so I fed some books from my bookshelf into Gemini and massaged the results until I found them plausible. Below is what I came up with. 

I offer them in hopes that the provide a starting point for conversations at your local parish or mission. See also my 2025 Continuing Forward interview on singing in a small church, as well as the recent article in the Trinitarian.

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Ideas for Improving Parish Singing

Based on the music research identified in the Bibliography, this memorandum outlines the structural, psychological, and procedural barriers that suppress congregational vocal participation and offers a human-centered framework to help reclaim corporate singing in the parish.

Problem Assessment

The following points isolate why ordinary worshippers stay silent during public worship, focusing on individual attitudes and musical execution:

Skills, Attitudes, and Behaviors of Individuals

• Vocal Disenfranchisement: Many adults carry self-consciousness from childhood when an authority figure labeled them tone-deaf, creating a mental block against singing in public (Bell, 2000).
• The Amateur Illusion: The congregation is a unique musical group expected to perform publicly and read music at sight without any regular practice or rehearsal (Ashton, 1947).
• Passivity in a Performance Culture: Modern media culture conditions people to be passive consumers of hyper-produced professional audio, inducing vocal inadequacy among ordinary worshippers (Bell, 2000).

The Choice and Delivery of Music

• The Theological Disconnect: Worshippers stay silent when a hymn text feels like a dead historical artifact rather than a living symbol connecting their history to their present reality (Clark, 1991).
• Repertoire Overload: Dropping unfamiliar or complex music into services without a plan for repetition alienates the congregation, who rely on a small core of familiar hymns (Ashton, 1947).
• The Speed and Energy of the Tune: Slow, dragging tempos and a lack of rhythmic vitality from the accompanist drain energy out of the text and leave the congregation without a reliable anchor to follow (Sydnor, 1983; Wesley, 1761).
• The Perfection Trap: Prioritizing a performance-level standard of musical virtuosity over simple, accessible communal structures inadvertently intimidates the pews into silent spectatorship (Bell, 2000).

Options for Improving Singing

The following practical interventions focus on human and logistical adjustments to build familiarity, momentum, and communal confidence:

1. Establish a Strict “Core Hymnal” and Practice Repetition: Restrict the congregation’s active singing vocabulary to a smaller, deeply familiar core of 100 to 150 hymns, repeating unfamiliar selections over consecutive weeks (Ashton, 1947).
2. Introduce Brief, Un-rehearsed Congregational Learning: Dedicate two or three minutes right before a service begins to briefly walk the pews through a tricky phrase, a specific vocal part, or an unfamiliar tune (Ashton, 1947; Bell, 2000).
3. Enforce Rhythmic Vitality and Proper Tempos: Direct the accompanist to play with a firm, energetic, and rhythmically precise pulse, completely eliminating any tendency to drag (Sydnor, 1983; Wesley, 1761).
4. Provide Context to Build Shared Meaning: Have leaders briefly frame a hymn before it is sung by sharing its historical origin, its theological weight, or how the text connects to immediate, lived reality (Clark, 1991).
5. Disperse the Choir and Use Proximity to Combat Spatial Isolation: Ask worshippers to sit closer together toward the front, and occasionally disperse confident choir members to sit directly among the people in the pews (Ashton, 1947; Bell, 2000; Sydnor, 1983).
6. De-escalate Musical Virtuosity in Leadership: Ensure that musicians treat hymns as an open invitation rather than an exclusive, flawless artistic performance (Ashton, 1947; Bell, 2000).
7. Audit and Lower the Musical Keys: Transpose traditional hymns down a step or two to keep melodies within a safe, accessible vocal range for untrained and aging voices.
8. Balance Sound Reinforcement Volumetrics: Manage accompaniment and microphone volumes carefully to ensure a supportive baseline without drowning out the congregation’s physical sound.
9. Secure Pastoral Modeling Up Front: Ensure clergy actively and visibly participate in singing from the chancel, as their behavior establishes the primary cultural cue for the nave.

Bibliography

Ashton, Joseph Nickerson (1947). Music in worship: The use of music in the church service. Boston, MA: Pilgrim Press.

Bell, John L. (2000). The singing thing: A case for congregational song. Glasgow, Scotland: Wild Goose Publications.

Clark, Linda J. (1991). Hymn-singing: The congregation making faith. New York, NY: Church Hymnal Corporation.

Sydnor, James Rawlings. (1983). Hymns: A congregational study (Student ed.). Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press / Hymn Society of America.

Wesley, John (1761). “Directions for singing.” In Select hymns: With tunes annext: Designed chiefly for the use of the people called Methodists. London, England: [Publisher unknown].

BBC music abandons the rest of the world

After listening to the annual King’s College Lessons & Carols, I kept wanting to replay it — but the link would not work.

I sent several bug reports to BBC.co.uk. It turns out the BBC has abandoned their non-UK listeners. Since July 2025, the new BBC policy has become

• Live L&C on BBC 4 (Christmas Eve) tape-delayed on BBC (Christmas Day)
• Replay from the BBC app for up to seven days after Christmas Eve
• Nothing else

So ignore what it says on the BBC website: if you are outside the UK, the “12 days left to listen” should "12 days too late to listen.” 

The web crew at the BBC is too lazy to either display accurate information for non-UK users, or provide a more useful message than a generic “404” message when you click through.

With this change, the Beeb assumes that their only globally valued content is the news.

The loss of the KCC service to the ROW is a cultural travesty. The KCC Choir doesn’t seem to care — perhaps because they prefer to sell audio and video recordings of their services, rather than worry about free replays. 

This year's Kings College Cambridge carols

Update Jan 11: Recordings of BBC broadcasts (including Lessons & Carols) are no longer available to non-UK listeners on the BBC websites.

I just got through listening to the 2025 edition of the iconic Lessons & Carols service from King’s College Cambridge, broadcast live by the BBC since 1928. (KCC published a 16-page history of the service for this year’s broadcast).

This is the 7th year the choir has been led by Daniel Hyde, who took over in 2019 before the untimely death of Stephen Cleobury (1948-2019). 

I must say that I was pleasantly surprised. I’m a sentimental traditionalist, but I get that the goal of any music director — and certainly the temporary trustee of this historic treasure — must do things that are novel and creative, or at least mix it up with unfamiliar classics. At the same time, I have often found it jarring when an in-your-face dissonant modernity was thrown in with the most familiar and influential sacred music of the English-speaking church.

This year, as in 2023 under Daniel Hyde, there was both new content but continuity with what made the service so well-loved and influential for more than a century.

This Year’s Music

I looked up all the music in the booklet. Here is what was performed (hymns in bold)

1. Once in royal David’s city. Irby. Henry Gauntlett, harm. Arthur Henry Mann†. descant (V6) David Willcocks†
2. The blessed son of God. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1967)
3. Adam lay ybounden. Boris Ord† (1957)
4. Nowell, Nowell, Nowell. Elizabeth Maconchy (1967)
5. On Christmas night all Christians sing. Sussex Carol. arr. Philip Ledger† (1978)
6. It came upon the midnight clear. Noel. adapt. Arthur Sullivan, descant (V4) John Scott
7. The Darkling Thrush. Rachel Portman (2025)§
8. The Lamb. John Tavener (1982)
9. Ave Maria. Anton Bruckner (1861)
10. There is no rose of such virtue. arr. John Stevens (1963)
11. A boy was born. Benjamin Britten (1933/1955)
12. Unto us is born a Son. Puer Nobis. from Piæ Cantiones, arr. David Willcocks†
13. Nativity Carol. John Rutter. (1963)
14. The Shepherds' Farewell. from Hector Berlioz, L’Enfance du Christ, Op.25.
15. Dormi, Jesu! John Rutter (1999)§
16. I saw three ships. arr. Stuart Nicholson
17. O come, all ye faithful. Adeste, fideles. John Francis Wade. arr. and descant (V6) David Willcocks†, descant (V7) Daniel Hyde†
18. Hark! the herald-angels sing. Mendelssohn. Mendelssohn. descant (V3) David Willcocks†

† KCC composer. § KCC commissioned

Reflections

For congregational singing, the most important thing was that (as in normal years) there were five congregation hymns for those lucky enough to attend. This year, the melody is printed in the booklet (but as always in England, no harmony for the congregation). Four of the five had a descant, including the double descant for “O come all ye faithful.”

"Unto us is born” had revised harmony in the final verse rather than pure descant; I realize that the Willcocks arrangement is a local favorite, but I don’t care for V3 and don’t find it an improvement over the original. Ditto for the Nicholson arrangement of “I saw three ships.” OTOH, the Ledger arrangement of Sussex Carol was and is a keeper, as is Stevens’ adaptation of “There is no rose.”

First, the elephant in the room. The new carol by Rachel Portman (OBE) from a text by Thomas Hardy was surprisingly good — something worth considering for a parish service. Unlike the normal transgressive modern music by “proper” composers, this Academy Award-winning film score composer has an ear for harmony and thus found a reasonable medium between noveaux and familiar. Similarly, the 1967 carol by Elizabeth Maconchy was unfamiliar but definitely fun. I’ll take both of these over Judith Weir any day. 

Another surprise was the prominence of Sir John Rutter, who turned 80 in September. I love much of his work, particularly the Requiem. However, on an unfamiliar piece, I just never know which Rutter will show up: like Mahler or Stravinsky, it can be a tonal piece with novel and sparing dissonances, or it can be so out there that I’ll flip the station. I already knew and loved “Dormi Jesu,” which was written for KCC but not for Lessons & Carols; his Nativity Carol was also quite nice. I generally find Britten even less tonal, and so “A boy was born” was also pleasant surprise.

It was also great to get back the Boris Ord version of “Adam lay ybounden,” the one I sang as a choirboy in the 1960s with the St. Paul’s Choristers in San Diego. I’m certainly glad to be rid of the Peter Warlock (1894-1930) version — sung by KCC in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2022 — which was written by a composer with an affinity for the demonic.

The other type of surprise (disappointment) was the classical music. I spent four years as a music minor in college (across three majors) and it was a very formative period of my life. Tavener is a brilliant composer, but I guess like Britten I like (grok) some of it and not others; today was the latter. In contrast, I rarely like Bruckner and today was no exception.

What was really surprising was the Berlioz: I love Hector stocked up on his key works my freshman year, and took a 4-person seminar on him my senior year. This particular carol is lyric, but the melody from his sacred oratorio L’Enfance du Christ doesn’t seem any more sacred than “White Christmas.”

I enjoyed the works by two other English composers. I had never heard “The blessed son of God,” by Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), but it was tasteful, solemn and reverent. But it felt odd to hear it four pieces before Noel — the British tune for this American text and the second most famous hymn of Sir Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900) — given RVW’s (largely successful) effort to banish Sullivan. (I just finished an article on Sullivan’s hymns and will say more when it is published).

References

• Peter Relph, "A list of carols commissioned for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King's College, Cambridge, 1983 - Present,” updated Dec. 8, 2025, https://www.peterrelph.com/post/a-list-of-new-music-commissioned-for-the-festival-of-nine-lessons-and-carols-at-king-s-college-camb 
• David Sinden, “Carols”, updated Dec. 24, 2025. https://www.sinden.org/carols  (the definitive resource for comparing the recent KCC and St. John’s carol service music)

Congregational singing at Advent lessons & carols

This weekend, our family attended an Advent lessons and carols at another church where we knew some people. I normally just go to the one at my church, so it was a chance to see how other people interpret it.

I’m not sure there is a standard set of lessons for Advent lessons (as King’s College Cambridge has set the standard for Christmas lessons). While the lessons differed from St. John’s Cambridge, I did find a 2018 Advent L&C service with identical lessons (and other US churches that had nearly-identical lists):

1. Genesis 3:1-15
2. Isaiah 40:1-11
3. Jeremiah 31:31-34
4. Micah 5:2-4
5. Isaiah 11:1-9
6. Zephaniah 3:14-18
7. Luke 1:26-38

Congregational Singing

One great thing was that this church has a strong music tradition (apparently with a special fund) and one that emphasizes congregational singing. We sat about 1/3 of the way from the front, and there was strong singing throughout. In contrast, this month at my home parish, I can recall the congregation was tenative on the early verses of some hymns (perhaps less familiar) until they got the hang of it.

The music director had two hymns where verse 3 was a capella, and two other hymns where men and women alternated. This is not rocket science, so I'm surprised more parishes don’t do this, particularly on longer hymns.

With the seven lessons, there were only four choir-only pieces. I only recognized one: the Peter Warlock version of “Adam Lay Y Bounden,” which KCC did on Christmas Eve in 2002, 2004, and 2006 (according to David Sindon’s latest report). My wife asked me if this is the one that I and her younger brothers sang as St. Paul's Choristers in San Diego decades ago, and I said no. I went to my KCC iTunes playlist, and we did the more tonal Boris Ord version (that both our daughter and I prefer). Still, a reasonable choice, and the Brahms anthem “The White Dove” had possibilities.

Hymnal 1982

There was a great choice of hymns and lots of chances for the congregational to sing. However, this was a service at a parish where they use my least favorite hymnal, Hymnal 1982 (when compared to Hymnal 1940, Magnify the Lord or even Sing Unto the Lord). And the music we sang out of the booklet (straight from H82) was a reminder why.

Here are the six hymns that we sang:

1. O come, O come Emmanuel to Veni Emmanuel. In 2018, I posted a detailed discussion of how (unlike H40 and also MTL) Hymnal 1982’s idiosyncratic phrasing (breaks only on every other phrase) is unnatural and hard to sing, and my daughter & I felt it again this week. There is a compromise position, which I heard this fall at another H82 parish for an ordination: do a lift (gentle pause) in the middle of the doubled phrase, to keep the energy moving forward but allow everyone to catch their breath. Instead, we plowed like a metronome to the end of the long phrase. To its credit, SuTL uses the H82 notational look, but maintains two beats at the end of every phrase. (yes!)
2. Comfort, Comfort me my people. A worthy hymn that's not in H40, but in H82, MTL and SUtL. However, H82 (as is its wont) omits the harmony for the pews and the choir, while both MTL and SUtL include the 4-part harmonization (which SUtL attributes to "Johann Jeep, 1659"). (The tune is variously listed as Genevan 42, Psalm 42, or Freu Dich Sehr.)
3. Savior of the Nations, Come! This Martin Luther adaption of an Ambrose (4th century) text is sadly not in H40. Both H82 and SUtL use Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland without harmony (sigh), while MTL includes four parts for a different tune, Antioch. The former is more familiar — but needs parts.
4. Come thous long expected Jesus. Everyone has Wesley's text with the familiar Stuttgart. That wasn't so hard, was it?
5. Hark! A thrilling voice is sounding. Everyone uses Caswall's translation with Merton. Ditto.
6. Lo! he comes with clouds descending. This is where my daughter and I agreed to disagree. I prefer the four part St Thomas, while our true Anglophile loves the flowing Helmsley sung by all the English choirs. All four hymnals provide both (the correct choice), leaving it to the choirmaster or priest to decide. However, H82 omits the harmony for Helmsley. H40 directs unison but the organ part becomes SATB in MTL. SUtL follows MTL, except (for an added treat) includes the Rutter descant(!) on verse 4.

At this week's service, there was the other (milder) disappointment: no descants! And I can't blame that on H82, because descants are a choir thing that doesn't require (although can be helped by) a hymnal descant. Our parish is an H40 parish, but we are blessed with descants several times a month, particularly during festal season.

The Rutter descant for Helmsley is beautiful, but I can't find an Oxbridge descant for Veni Emmanuel. The Oxford Book of Descants includes one by Robert Gower, and in my library books by Antony Baldwin and Charles Webb include one. For this historic plainchant, I have heard (and prefer) a descant sung only on the last two refrains — providing additional emphasis to our vow that "Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel."

References

David Sindon, “Carol Service Spreadsheets,”  https://www.sinden.org/carols/

J.W. West, "Veni Emmanuel out of sync thanks to Hymnal 1982," December 19, 2018, https://anglicanmusic.blogspot.com/2018/12/veni-emmanuel-out-of-sync-thanks-to.html

Congregations Sing Better with Familiar Hymns

Since the Anglican choral revival of the 19th century, music has been a central part of the Anglican identity — second only to the prayer book. At best, parishes that neglect their music are offering an incomplete version of Anglican worship, which both disappoints though who know better, and lowers the expectations (and musical understanding) of those who’ve only experienced second best.

In visiting various traditional (hymnal-based, mostly Rite I) parishes over the past 20 years, I’ve always tried to get ideas about how improve the music in the church. Still, there is a wide range of variation across local parishes.

Some differences are pretty obvious when you walk in. St. Martin’s in Houston — the largest Episcopal Church in the country — has a well-trained and screened 32-voice choir, suitable for a presidential funeral. Other U.S. parishes have impressive soloists, fancy organist, or the most demanding repertoire of the great English cathedrals or collegiate chapels.

At the other extreme, many small churches have a piano or no accompaniment at all. Worse yet, some give up entirely and only offer a said service, every service of every week of the year.

But if you pay attention, you will also notice a difference in congregational singing. Two churches 10 miles apart may differ dramatically in singing from the pews, particularly if one has made a conscious effort to improve congregational participation and skill.

Webinar: “Music in a Small Church”

I’ve just posted the video (on YouTube) and a story (on the Continuing Forward website) from a panel discussion that I recently led with two parish priests and a music director on how to improve the music in a small Anglican church. Our focus was on Continuing Anglican parishes, which worship from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer and (most often) from Hymnal 1940. (Some parishes have adopted the Book of Common Praise 2017).

Some of the advice is not surprising, as when one said “any music is better than no music.” I certainly have lived out this maxim over the last decade when organizing a capella singing at diocesan and national retreats (including at our 2022 and 2024 national mission retreats). The singing has been quite effective when there is a core group familiar with the sung liturgy (both chant and hymns) and willing to sing out.

The panelists minced no words about the importance of the priest leading the congregation’s singing by example. They also encouraged expanding the congregation’s repertoire through regular use of a hymn sing (congregational singing practice) held midweek.

A Standard Canon of Anglican Music

However, one topic that did not (directly) come up was the importance of leveraging and reinforcing a recognizably standard repertoire of hymns. I can’t tell you how often people have left a service with comments “Did you know that hymn?” and “No, did you?” — sure signs that the musical choices have created confusion.

There are really three issues here:

1. Each parish will have a list of hymns they know. When we joined a (recently formed) ACNA church in 2009, the rector shared with me a list of 90 “Hymn Favs.” Given a chance, I might have “accidentally” dropped a dozen and would not have cared either way about another 10 or 20, but certainly 50 or 60 are ones that would be recognized at any US Anglican church.†
2. A musically savvy Anglican visitor or new member walking into a parish will rightfully expect certain hymns to be sung on certain days of the liturgical year, choices that have remained steady across a range of hymnals in the last 90 years.
3. Conversely, a parish should be teaching the standard canon of Anglican hymnody as part of their annual repertoire. If every parish has its own idiosyncratic hymns or mass settings, then we’re failing to provide the common worship sought by Cranmer — just as much if every parish had its own prayer book.

Together, these point to the importance of teaching and reinforcing a standard list of pieces that is shared by hundreds of other churches around the country. This usually requires selecting a recognized hymnal, and being judicious in what is (and is not) selected from such hymnal.

For the ordinary of the Mass, the choices are more bounded. Traditional language U.S. parishes have standardized on three settings: the medieval (Douglas’ Missa Marialis), Reformation (Merbecke’s Booke of Common Praier Noted) and early 20th century (Willan’s Sancta Maria Magdelena). If you walk into a parish on any given Sunday, if the congregation is singing the ordinary (rather than listening to the choir), it will normally be one of these three.

For Rite II or (2019) liturgy, there is less standardization. My favorite to sing (as someone who tries to avoid Rite II or Hymnal 1982 wherever possible) is Proulx’s adaptation of Schubert’s Deutsche Messe. However, the most reverent is Hurd’s New Plainsong, while it seems difficult to avoid the Powell mass setting among those who use H82. (The latest ACNA hymnal introduces five new modern language mass settings, and it’s unclear which if any will become widely used).

† For various reasons beyond the scope of today’s post, there are key differences between the US and English canon of Anglican hymnody.

The Canon of Anglican Hymnody

Picking common hymns is a numerically more challenging exercise. Across the four most recent U.S. Anglican (including Episcopal) hymnals — H40, H82, MTL and SuTL — I identified 1225 distinct hymn texts and 1650 text-tune pairings. Using the latter definition, the four hymnals have 639 to 751 “hymns”, and thus none has even half of the available list of hymns.

Still, at certain times of year, some choices are obvious:

• Advent: “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus,” “Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending,” “On Jordan’s Bank,” and “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” 
• Epiphany: “What Star is This, with Beams so Bright” and “Earth Has Many a Noble City” 
• Lent: “Forty Days and Forty Nights“
• Palm Sunday: All Glory Laud and Honor”
• Holy Week:  “O Sacred Head Sore Wounded”

and of course Vaughan Williams’ “Hail Thee Festival Day” once (or all three times) at the high feasts of the spring. Yes, on Christmas and Easter there are so many great hymns to choose from, but if you don’t sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” and “I Bind Unto Myself Today” on Trinity Sunday, you need a new music scheduler. Certainly, those hymns that are found across all four hymnals are those who have stood the test of time.

I will concede that there are two problematic areas:

• Choice of Tunes. Hymnals include multiple tunes, and different parishes will have different habits. As a choirboy, we always sang “Ride On, Ride On in Majesty” to King’s Majesty, composed for this purpose for The Hymnal (1940). I was shocked when I joined a parish 400 miles away that had never heard of this tune, and instead preferred Winchester New, the tune best known for “On Jordan’s Bank”; however, my preferred tune proved very difficult to sing in tempo and in tune without accompaniment.
• Ecumenical Considerations. In many congregations, the majority of the members come from a different Christian denomination, and want to import their own hymns into the parish. Recent hymnals include more borrowed hymns — particularly hymns well known across many traditions — as a way to address this concern within reason.

Conclusion

None of this should suggest that parishes won’t have their own local preferences. But if the majority (or even a large plurality) of hymns are not familiar to other Anglican parishes, I would submit that the worship isn’t very Anglican.

The clergy or musical staff will certainly want to widen the parish’s comfort zone by adding important hymns that may be unfamiliar. But — and I know some will disagree with me here — it should not come at the cost of ruining the worship experience of those who come to church to sing, and are among the vast majority of Americans who cannot sightread an unfamiliar melody or rhythm. If a majority of the day’s hymns are unfamiliar, it will be no surprise if the congregation responds accordingly.

I believe the best test of congregational singing is how well people sing when there’s no choir or organ to carry them. At our 2024 retreat, we had wonderful singing by 30 people in the small chapel — not because of a large number of top singers, but it was because we chose familiar hymns. For the two masses we sang

• Tuesday: “Glorious things of thee are spoken,” “Lo, he comes with clouds descending,” “Humbly I adore thee,” and “Jerusalem, my happy home” 
• Wednesday: “I bind unto myself,”  “O spirit of the living God,”  “Come with us, O blessed Jesus,” and “Christ for the world we sing”
  

Yes, it’s a challenge to maintain pitch and tempo when singing all seven verses of St. Patrick’s Breastplate a capella. But on the other hand, the hymns were all well known to those assembled from across the country. Also, consistent with longstanding best practice,  the closing hymns were familiar, upbeat melodies with a message aligned to the theme of the respective masses.

As Anglicans, we have a proud heritage of creating and sharing distinct hymns. We also borrow specific hymns by authors and composers from other traditions, such as “A Mighty Fortress” (Luther), “O God Our Help in Ages Past” (Watts) or “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” (Wesley). But together, these form a standard corpus of Anglican hymnody, one we should proud to celebrate every Sunday morning.