From time to time one of those seemingly eternal chestnuts surfaces in or around this third of the page. Why suffering? Where will it all end? Why are hymnwriters so greedy?
Leaving the first two for a moment, I approach the third with no particular complaint in mind. I write this months ahead, so if the letters column is bulging with outraged pastors, the coincidence is not of my making. Have we any defence?
A word, first, for the musicians. Unless you live in America or Spring Harvest, where the words are printed inside the music, your average congregation needs ten times as many words-only copies as full-music ones. So composers' royalties come in tens rather than in hundreds. Many of them live by their music. Fees for copying, performing, recording and so forth are their bread and butter. I hope we value their work.
