5th verse drama

You know how there are only 2 real Easter hymns, right? What's the most popular Easter hymn in the US? "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" I have played this on Easter Sunday for, I think, 5 years in a row now. You would think that a church pianist would have enough of a brain to remember how to play it, right? Yeah....right.

The hymnal that we use in our church has tons of hymns where there are too many verses to fit on one page, so they put the first 4-6 inside the score on one page, and then the last verse(s) are put annoyingly on the next page w/out music. Believe me, when you're playing piano, or any instrument, it's annoying. I am the QUEEN of forgetting the last verse and ending after the 4th verse with a great big embarrassing AMEN on the piano while the congregation is busy singing the 5th verse. Oh my goodness...how many times have I done that?? Too many.

Ok, so that was useless information. In our hymnal, "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" has 5 verses, 4 of which are inside the score and the last is on the next page. The first Easter our church celebrated, I was playing this hymn and skipped the last verse. I had no idea the last verse was elsewhere and didn't know what in the world everyone was singing...were they making it up? Ok, well, stupid me, I'll write a great big star there on the page so next year I'll remember.

2nd Easter: I make the "last" verse really big and octavey, slow down on the last line and there we go, it's done. Wait, they're still singing. Dang it. Where am I? Where am I? Ok, I come back in halfway through the verse and at the end, I look around to see if anyone's staring at me. Great, only my sisters. I take a different colored pen than last time and draw 3 big, huge, arrows from the main page to the next verse. Surely next year I will get a grip and see that.

3rd Easter: Same thing, different year. Only this time, when everybody starts singing the 5th verse and I'm lost again, I start freaking out in my mind going, "Great, 3rd year in a row, I'm an idiot. Now what do I do? Do I start playing and look like a moron or do I let them keep singing a capella and let them think this was planned? Oh, I don't know!" Ok, I start playing anyway. So embarrassing. I take another pen and draw colorful circles and stars around the 5th verse. My hymnal is starting to look ridiculous.

4th Easter (last year): Of course, in keeping with tradition, I forget the last verse. What was I thinking? This time though, I don't start playing again. I let them end it a capella and hope no one notices. Yeah, whatever. My sisters are glaring at me because they remember. I take a sharpie and write 5TH VERSE NEXT PAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

5th Easter (Today): 5th time's a charm, right? Ok, this time, things were going to be different. No longer is it just me playing piano all by my lonesome, but I have a cute little "ensemble" backing me up now. At practice last week, we were going through the Sunday lineup and we really wanted to get everything perfect because it was Easter. Before we practiced this hymn, I turned around on the bench and explained to everyone my plight (or curse) from the years before. I beseeched them, in the name of God, not to forget the last verse. I showed them my hymnal with all the ridiculous colorful markings and told them to do what they had to do to make sure we played that verse. We practiced it perfectly, all 5 verses sounded beautiful and we were ready to go. At church this morning, 2 hours before service started, we did it again...gorgeous. I was feelin' good. Ok, the moment of truth...first hymn of the service, here we go.... 4 verses down, none to go..... oh man. There they go, singing the 5th verse without me. And did the viola or the violin or the guitar or the keyboard or the flute forget to play? Nope. Just me. Where did I come from???

I don't know what's wrong with me. My hymnal is so marked up on that page that you can barely tell what hymn it is. But do I see the colorful decorations? No I don't. I just see music with those 4 stinkin' verses.

Maybe next year I'll hire out a pianist to play just that hymn for me.
Excuse me, would you like to play 5 verses of Christ the Lord is Risen Today on Easter Sunday at a church you've never been to before? You're hired.