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#413: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty
Sep. 29th, 2019 09:51 pmOut of order because shortly after my previous post I realized that this section was missing, and then I didn't have time/energy to post for several days, oops.
Is the left-hand part too hard to play?
Mostly no, but there's an interesting chord near the end where the tenors are up on a middle C (natural, which is unusual for this key), and the basses are down on a low F. That's a jump of an octave plus a fifth, which I think you'd need very big hands for.
What is the significance of the tune name?
It's called "Nicaea," which is a reference to the place where the Nicene Creed was hammered out. I'm not sure exactly how that's relevant--like, the Creed affirms that God is a Trinity, but like...there are lots of other songs about the trinity.
Is this still popular in the modern day?
Apparently so! The story goes that one Thanksgiving or Christmas or something my extended family was having a hymn sing, as they do, and my baby cousins got very eager to sing this song and asked a friend of my mom's (who had just walked in) if she knew how to find it. She was like, "I can use an index," and also, "what even is this family." But yeah, at least in some churches the kids are down with it.
Is the left-hand part too hard to play?
Mostly no, but there's an interesting chord near the end where the tenors are up on a middle C (natural, which is unusual for this key), and the basses are down on a low F. That's a jump of an octave plus a fifth, which I think you'd need very big hands for.
What is the significance of the tune name?
It's called "Nicaea," which is a reference to the place where the Nicene Creed was hammered out. I'm not sure exactly how that's relevant--like, the Creed affirms that God is a Trinity, but like...there are lots of other songs about the trinity.
Is this still popular in the modern day?
Apparently so! The story goes that one Thanksgiving or Christmas or something my extended family was having a hymn sing, as they do, and my baby cousins got very eager to sing this song and asked a friend of my mom's (who had just walked in) if she knew how to find it. She was like, "I can use an index," and also, "what even is this family." But yeah, at least in some churches the kids are down with it.
