How do the Kigdom Melodies compare to Christendom's Songs?

by Honesty 37 Replies latest jw experiences

  • prophecor
    prophecor

    Kingdom melodies compared to traditional gospel music is like comparing cardboard to pastel construction paper. There is next to no life whatsoever in kingdom songs. They're dorky, many people often left to go to the bathroom to avoid having to sing them. I sung them because I was always trying to be the ever goody two shoes witness. Unfortunately how I really felt inside, truly caught up with the rest of how I was livin' outside.

  • tijkmo
    tijkmo

    being a music man..there are some kingdom melodies that are very good..and some of them can be very emotional..the song about dedication sung at a quick build for example..or the last song at a convention sung by thousands is usually very moving..i always liked the ressurection joy..though most found this a dirge i found the subtleties of the melody uplifting..i remember one thursday night the tms overseer rushing onto platform and asking me what was the song number..i told him 120..there were only 119 at the time and he promptly announced it..i rectified it by telling him it was the ressurection joy (song 53 i think) completely forgetting there had been a funeral the previous day and people from usa had come and there was a lot of grief...it did not go down well and he got hauled over the rack for it.serves him right for not preparing

    my sis took the songbook along to her singing teacher once who told her that the songs are too high and therefore very difficult to sing..no wonder hardly anyone sings them

    the best times to hear the songs sung well though is 1..at elders meetings and schools..and 2..at construction monday night wt study...would rival the mormon tabernacle choir any day

    but there are definately some duffers in the song book....how anyone can spend 7 yrs in solitary confinement..harold king in china..and the best song he could come up with is from house to house is beyond me

    did you have some real awful singers in your hall that thought they were good...flat, out of tune, sung too loud and held every last note too long....and did anyone sing the lyrics in brackets

  • Will Power
    Will Power

    How Great Thou Art

    I'd be interested in the words to this one..... This song title is sung in Catholic churches - very moving.

    will

  • luna2
    luna2

    I have to admit that I liked some of the kingdom melodies, but I couldn't sing them very well. LOL As a whole, though, they can't compare to Chrisendom's songs...and I don't know that the WTS wanted them too really. It's like it was such a virtue to be moderate (boring) in all things.

    There were ones with the most dreadful, out of tune, flat voices that would belt those songs out so loudly that if you were anywhere near them you couldn't hear the tape and pretty soon everybody in their vacinity would be out of tune too. I noticed that the folks with good voices, who could actually sing and hit all those difficult notes, would tone it down because they didn't want to make a "showy display". I get not drowning everybody out with some operatic-quality voice, but I thought it was too bad that they were afraid to sing normally because of what those that couldn't sing might think.

  • GentlyFeral
    GentlyFeral

    tijkmo,

    there are definately some duffers in the song book....how anyone can spend 7 yrs in solitary confinement..harold king in china..and the best song he could come up with is from house to house is beyond me

    Believe it or not, the Unitarian Universalist songbook has at least one song as dorky as that. It's called "Enter, Rejoice and Come In," and it is every bit as dorky as "From House to House" - the melody is just as relentlessly over-cute, difficult to sing, and the words just as clumsy.

    The strange thing is, it was selected for the book by a man whose taste in music is ordinarily sublime; he and the rest of the Hymnal Committee raided the hymnbooks of the entire western world for the past 500 years or so and (where necessary) matched the tunes with the most uplifting humanist or deist verse he could find - or commission - or write his ownself. He must have gone for too long without sleep when he selected "Enter, Rejoice and Come In."

    I now attend a Unity Church (completely different denomination) where the music is incredibly corny, though the ladies in charge of it have ravishing voices.

    gently f eral

  • Ténébreux
    Ténébreux
    They don't hold a candle to christendom's songs. I defy you to stack Kingdumb Melodies up against the collective works of Wierd Al Yankovic.

    LOL... for some reason the Weird Al tune that popped into my head first when I read that was "Everything You Know Is Wrong". Strangely appropriate.

  • the_classicist
    the_classicist

    How about this one, a 17th century Latin hymn:

    My God, I love thee; not because
    I hope for heaven thereby,
    nor yet because who love thee not
    are lost eternally.
    Thou, O Lord Jesus, thou didst me
    upon the cross embrace;
    for me didst bear the nails and spear,
    and manifold disgrace,

    And griefs and torments numberless,
    and sweat of agony;
    yea, death itself; and all for me
    who was thine enemy.
    Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,
    should I not love thee well,
    not for the sake of winning heaven,
    nor any fear of hell;

    not with the hope of gaining aught,
    not seeking a reward;
    but as thyself hast loved me,
    O ever loving Lord!
    So would I love thee, dearest Lord,
    and in thy praise will sing,
    solely because thou art my God
    and my most loving King.
  • talesin
    talesin

    I can recall a couple of KMelodies (barely, please, arrgh I'm shutting that down real quick) that were quite haunting.

    But for me, Amazing Grace will always be "it", the best of all Xtendom songs.

    Hah, it is the only song I can sing and give myself chills.

    t

  • aniron
    aniron
    How Great Thou Art

    I'd be interested in the words to this one..... This song title is sung in Catholic churches - very moving.

    will

    Heres the words to How Great Thou Art. It sung in many churches

    Originally a Swedish folk melody,
    "O Store Gud" by Carl Boberg (1859-1940)
    was translated by Stuart K. Hine in 1899.

    Lord my God! When I in awesome wonder
    Consider all the works thy hand hath made,
    I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
    Thy power throughout the universe displayed;

    Refrain:
    Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
    How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
    Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
    How great Thou art, how great Thou art!


    When through the woods and forest glades I wander
    and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
    when I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
    and hear the brook, and feel he gentle breeze;

    Refrain

    And when I think that God his son not sparing,
    Sent him to die - I scarce can take it in,
    That on the cross my burden gladly bearing,
    He bled and died to take away my sin:

    Refrain

    When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
    And take me home- what joy shall fill my heart!
    Then I shall bow in humble adoration
    And there proclaim, my God, how great thou art!

    Refrain

  • aniron
    aniron

    This song had a great effect on me after leaving the JW's and becoming a Christian.

    Before the throne of God above
    I have a strong and perfect plea.
    A great high Priest whose Name is Love
    Who ever lives and pleads for me.
    My name is graven on His hands,
    My name is written on His heart.
    I know that while in Heaven He stands
    No tongue can bid me thence depart.

    When Satan tempts me to despair
    And tells me of the guilt within,
    Upward I look and see Him there
    Who made an end of all my sin.
    Because the sinless Savior died
    My sinful soul is counted free.
    For God the just is satisfied
    To look on Him and pardon me.

    Behold Him there the risen Lamb,
    My perfect spotless righteousness,
    The great unchangeable I AM,
    King of glory and of grace,
    One in Himself I cannot die.
    My soul is purchased by His blood,
    My life is hid with Christ on high,
    With Christ my Savior and my God

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