Welcome to Mario's church

The 8-bit hymnal
posted by Blasdelb (5 comments total)

Turns out that some of the old hymn tunes are pretty decent tunes, independent of anything else.

More than that, there's a long history of secular tunes being appropriated for sacred purposes and vice versa. For example, a central European folk song was adapted by Haydn for a birthday piece for HRE Emperor Francis II, to which what is still the German national anthem was set in the mid-nineteenth century (though they abandoned some of the more overtly nationalistic verses after 1945 for obvious reasons). But the underlying tune was adapted in the 20th century into the hymn tune "Abbot's Leigh," which is now the traditional setting for John Newton's "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken,", and which is also now being used for a setting of one of the Psalms (though which one exactly escapes me at the moment).

And that's to say nothing of the fact that a ton of Baroque and early Classical music, both instrumental and choral, was originally written as church music, but almost no one actually uses it that way anymore.

All of which to say: look, there's some genuinely good music here. It's a shame more people aren't having fun with it. Whether what's been done here is appropriate for use in Christian liturgical worship is an entirely different conversation, and the answer to that question has no bearing on whether this project is worth doing. It is.

Now if only he could start playing around with some Goudimel. . .

Unless you simply hate chiptune, in which case I'm not sure I can help you.
posted by valkyryn at 8:37 AM on October 25, 2013 [1 favorite]

My favourite hymn tune is John Ireland's setting of Crossman's "My Song is Love Unknown" which Coldplay ripped off and ruined completely. It's got one of the best chord sequences of all time and is unbelievably satisfying to play.
posted by sweet mister at 5:20 AM on October 26, 2013

Samuel Crossman:

My song is love unknown,
My Savior's love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

Coldplay:

My song is love
Love to the loveless, shown
And it goes up
You don't have to be alone

*commits suicide*
posted by sweet mister at 5:23 AM on October 26, 2013

I have never wanted the ability to animate more than I right now listening to the happy 8-bit pop of "Christ the Lord Has Risen Today." It just calls for the most righteous cutscene ever.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 12:42 PM on October 28, 2013 [2 favorites]

that hymn title makes me think of a hungover angel oversleeping and suddenly springing up out of bed, panicky: "Christ! the Lord Has Risen Today!"
posted by threeants at 11:39 PM on November 11, 2013