How do YOU sing the bass/tenor parts in Come, O Thou King of Kings?

[tobynixon]

I have a very arcane question about interpretation of the hymnbook and I’m hoping you all have some thoughts.

There are three hymns in the 1985 Hymnbook in which the lower voices sing a portion of each verse at a different rhythm, offset from the higher voices, and it is not part of a chorus in which the words are the same on every verse. These are 59/332 Come, O Thou King of Kings; 158 Before Thee, Lord, I Bow My Head; and 201 Joy to the World.

In two of these (158 and 201), it is obvious (and traditional) that the lower voices sing the same words as the higher voices in each verse. But in the other (59/332) it is awkward to do that in the fourth verse where it is necessary to clip one of the words — you have to sing “the heathen nay, the heathen nations bow the knee”. This makes me think that, just maybe, in that hymn the writer intended something different.

So what do people do? Do you sing “the heathen nay, the heathen nations bow the knee” even though it sounds odd? Or do you sing "Come, thou desire, Come, thou desire of nations, come" for all four verses?

Like I said, an arcane question of no consequence, but one that bugs me every time we sing Come, O Thou King of Kings!

Thanks for your thoughts!

[russellhltn]

If you download the Scared Music app, you can hear how an example choir handles it.

So far my attempts to hear how it's handled in General Conference shows they only use the offset timing on one verse, and it's not even the first verse.

[tobynixon]

Great idea to listen to the recording on the Music app! Why didn't I think of that?!

In the recording, the lower voices of the choir sing the same words as the upper voices in the section on every verse. And for the section in question on the last verse, they sing "The heathen nations, heathen nations bow the knee" -- leaving out the second "the". Makes perfect sense.

[Mikerowaved]

This is how I sing it (as a long-time Bass, but by no means a pro):

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The hea    -    then na         -       tions bow the knee.
	The hea-then na The hea-then na-tions bow the knee.

It comes out sounding OK since the orphaned "na" is sung with the other parts, only they hold theirs out as you start the line over.

[lajackson]

In the recording, the lower voices of the choir sing the same words as the upper voices in the section on every verse. And for the section in question on the last verse, they sing "The heathen nations, heathen nations bow the knee" -- leaving out the second "the". Makes perfect sense.

I have always sung it this way, even before I heard the recording. I was never comfortable singing only half a word, and dropping the "the" always seemed to make sense to me.

[sbradshaw]

I do the same as Mikerowaved. Interesting!