Certain Sound
The multilingual songbook for European Anabaptists
"(…) I will sing with the understanding also." I CORINTHIANS 14:15Four-part singing for everyone
Four-part harmonies have a special place in our heart. As Christians, we know the healing and strengthening power of a prayer sung together. In the Mennonite and Schwarzenau Brethren churches across the United States, we have known these harmonies to move souls, to fill with joy and love all those with ears to hear. We want to share that joy with you, and so we have laboured together to create one songbook, with as many languages as possible, made accessible in the easiest possible way for those without prior musical knowledge or choral singing experience.
This songbook will help you to sing without instrumental accompaniment (acapella). You will find all the songs uniformly formatted, with all verses between the staves, Aikin shapenotes, and an accompanying website where you can listen to the parts.
The Aikin shapenote system used in our traditional songbooks will help you to sing in tune, previously unknown songs straight from the page, without needing to study music. Instead of learning all the 12 notes by name and then learning which scales fit which flats and sharps, it suffices to know the scale most commonly used in Western music: the major (or Ionian) scale. You can hear this scale by playing only the white keys starting from C on a piano, and it can also be listened to on anabaptist.nl/major.mp3 - the usual solfège (note names) is:
These names are independent of the clef and scale; a triangle always represents the root note, whether it is located in the upper or lower staff, and at any pitch in the staff in which it occurs. By focusing solely on the shapes, you learn the part relative to the root note. You can also easily see when notes from different parts match; The same shape is always the same note, except that it might be an octave lower or higher.
An exception to this is the sharp sign ♯ and flat sign ♭, where the note is positioned halfway to the respectively lower or higher note; subsequent notes in the same staff also remain adjusted. A natural sign ♮ resets the note in question within the same staff. In the naming of the note, the vowel is changed to ‘i’ for a sharp, and to an ‘e’ for a flat, with the exception of “re”, which then becomes “ra”;
anabaptist.nl/certainsound
On this website, you can listen to all the songs in this book and also choose the volume you want for each individual part. The parts above the lyrics are for the ladies: Soprano (above), Alto (below). The parts below are the parts for the gentlemen: Tenor (above) and Bass (below). For example, if you want to practice the alto part, you can first set “All” to a low pitch, and then set “Alto” a bit higher. Once you know your part well, you can try singing along with the opposite setup: “All” up and then your own part set softly.
With “Tempo,” you can also adjust the speed of the piece. In the list below, you can press the play button to play that song.
May the Lord use your voice to sing praise to His great love and grace, and may this book help you in doing so.
Compiled with love, care, and prayer by your brothers and sisters in Christ
English:
Dutch:
Frisian:
Polish:
Danish:
Want to help?
If you want to help us to transcribe more songs, let us know!