Praise ye the Lord, 'tis good to raise

Steven Wild’s Old Methodist Postcard Album contains a picture of Plain-an-Gwarry Primitive Methodist Chapel, Redruth which you can see here.  The chapel is now closed.

This card is unusual in that it unfolds to show a tune written be the chapel organist with the un-Methodist name of Mr R T Beer! Steve says, “‘Redruth Primitive’ isn’t a tune I know – but was probably very popular at the time”

I don’t know the tune either, although I would happily use it if I were playing for a service.   It’s one of those tunes that a congregation would pick up very quickly:  I’d be confident that by the time we reached the sixth verse everyone would be singing.  It’s repeated last line phrases just sung by the men or the women and bright rhythm suitable for use in parades are all characteristic of Prim tunes.

One thing I would have to do though is lower the key by at least a couple of tones for a modern congregation: relatively few singers are comfortable singing top G!