Descants

Right along with my hymn reharmonizations come new hymn descants. Descants give your higher singers the rare treat of singing something other than the melody—a curse in some non-readers’ opinions. Like hymn reharmonizations, descants are generally saved for the closing verse of a hymn. Also like hymn reharmonizations, descants are a ‘spice’ that is more effective when not overdone. Personally a maximum of one descant per service is quite sufficient, and, in my career, I have leaned to scheduling a descant every few weeks. Make sure learning the descant for an upcoming Sunday is planned for at least one rehearsal before Sunday morning. Descants can be glorious, and send chills up and down folks’spines, but painful and send fingernails up and down chalkboards when poorly done. The latter, of course, is a distraction from worship, the exact opposite of what we are attempting to accomplish when adorning our services with hymn reharmonizations and descants. Please note that my descants only ‘fit’ with my reharmonizations.

Composer / Arranger and Lifelong Church Musician

Songs of Home

  • Released: 7/10/2018
  • Label: Universal Sounds Group
  • Format: Digital Download, CD
Composer / Arranger and Lifelong Church Musician

Reflection of Hope

  • Released: 10/5/2005
  • Label: Universal Sounds Group
  • Format: Digital Download, CD
In my career in church music ministry, I have invited my choirs to sing, on most hymns, unison on the first and last verses. This ‘practice’ permits the choir to sing as much as eight-part harmony, once you’ve taught them how, on the inside verses—i.e., sopranos and tenors singing each others’ parts in their own octaves (resulting in an automatic descant when the sopranos singing the tenor part up an octave floats above the actual melody) and altos and basses singing each others’ parts in their own octaves (thus thickening the texture). This practice also teaches women to read the bass clef. Allowing the Choir the freedom to roam on the inside verses gives the organist the freedom to ‘roam’ on the closing verse. I often remind my choir: “I’ll give you the inside verses; please give me the last verse?” As I described in my writing on hymntunes, these descants (like any descants) are ‘tied’ only to a given hymntune, not the hymn. If you should see/hear an ERT descant that you would like to use with your choir, but the text you see here is not the text that appears with the hymntune in your hymnal, just let me know the text you need, and—sometimes in mere moments—your ‘custom-texted’ descant will be on its way to you.
In my career in church music ministry, I have invited my choirs to sing, on most hymns, unison on the first and last verses. This ‘practice’ permits the choir to sing as much as eight-part harmony, once you’ve taught them how, on the inside verses—i.e., sopranos and tenors singing each others’ parts in their own octaves (resulting in an automatic descant when the sopranos singing the tenor part up an octave floats above the actual melody) and altos and basses singing each others’ parts in their own octaves (thus thickening the texture). This practice also teaches women to read the bass clef. Allowing the Choir the freedom to roam on the inside verses gives the organist the freedom to ‘roam’ on the closing verse. I often remind my choir: “I’ll give you the inside verses; please give me the last verse?” As I described in my writing on hymntunes, these descants (like any descants) are ‘tied’ only to a given hymntune, not the hymn. If you should see/hear an ERT descant that you would like to use with your choir, but the text you see here is not the text that appears with the hymntune in your hymnal, just let me know the text you need, and—sometimes in mere moments—your ‘custom-texted’ descant will be on its way to you.