As far as I am aware, all the hymns we used to sing in church were in a major key. Why is this?


Any ideas?

"Follow The Prophet" is in a minor key, IIRC. Also "We Three Kings" (is that still in the hymnbook?)

I'm sure they can't be. Most of them probably are, but there's surely a few that aren't. There's a lot that switch between the two during the song aswell.

One example I can think of is "Nephi's Courage", where it is major when it goes "The Lord commanded Nephi to go and fetch the plates", changes to minor for "From the wicked Laban, inside the city gates. Laman and Lemuel were both afraid to try", and changed back to major for "Nephi was courageous, this was his reply" and the chorus.

If I have a time I might go through the song books later, and list some of the keys they use.

written by LDS were added little by little.
Most hymns are written in a major key. Not all, of course. I wrote a Christmas song in a minor key.

Many hymn keys have been lowered, so the sheeple can drone in the more comfortable lower ranges.

The purpose of Mormon hymns is to hypnotize the congregation into a stupor, like many of the talks. This prepares the mind to be brainwashed. I'm not kidding.

Thanks for the responses folks. I should have entitled this thread "Why are MOST LDS Hymns...etc".

I thought it may be something sinister, like what Forestpal mentions. Major key = happy, so therefore the congregation is happy too; to put it in the simplest of terms!

Possibly. But on the other hand, if most of them were in the minor key, we could say there's a sinister motive behind that too.

Also, in response to someone else saying how some songs are in lower keys in mormon hymnbooks, it's true. Infact, some songs are in different keys in different hymnbook. Like I Am a Child of God is C Major in the Children's songbook and D Major in the normal Hymn book. I might be wrong, as this is off the top of my head, but I know they're definitely in different keys.

...

Pop, rock, country, jazz, gospel, blues and even some classical compositions, for example, utilize the exact same progressions and such. Given the genre, said progressions and such are simply "phrased" differently.

No big whoop. You can take a number of mormon hymns and sing along with Rolling Stones lyrics.

This is the Gospel according to Timothy ... Next phase, new wave, dance craze, anyways, it's still rock and roll to me!

Timothy

My mom used to be the Primary pianist. She has an all consuming passion for the pioneers and loves to play all the Primary pioneer songs -- especially "Here comes the ox cart." One day she was playing this very depressing sounding song as the prelude for Sharing Time as the kids filed in. Her friend who was a convert asked "Sister Chipsnsalsa's mom, why are you playing that funeral dirge?"