Talk:Kingdom Melodies

New article with a few details still to be filled in.
Just created this article. There are a few details I'm not clear about or don't remember accurately, which I've noted in comments coded into the article (using the H.T.M.L. comment tags) so that they are not visible when the article is read, but can be seen during editing.

I will fill these in later if I can find out - probably by finding and checking my own copies of the recordings (I can't locate them right now). Or else if anyone else knows, perhaps they could fill these bits in. Thanks. M.J.E. (talk) 01:18, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

Reasons against merging "Kingdom Melodies" and "Kingdom songs".
I've just read that it has been suggested that the articles "Kingdom Melodies" and "Kingdom songs" be merged. I wish to state why I think it would be better not to do this.

"Kingdom Melodies" and "Kingdom songs" actually represent different entities, albeit closely related ones.

1. Kingdom songs are the range of songs, published in songbooks in a piano and vocal arrangement similar to hymn books generally, used by Jehovah's Witnesses during their meetings. They typically use recorded piano versions of the songs as accompaniment, maybe still occasionally have an actual pianist play the music on a piano. (The piano recordings actually don't follow the songbook exactly, but are considerably more elaborate.)

2. "Kingdom Melodies" is the name of a series of orchestral arrangements, without singing, of most of these kingdom songs, and intended for listening to only, not as an accompaniment to singing. They do not follow the order of the current or any earlier songbooks, and do not quite cover all the current songs. The piano recordings intended for singing to are not called "Kingdom Melodies", but rather "Sing Praises to Jehovah", following the title of the current songbook these recordings follow exactly (apart from the expanded arrangements of the actual music noted above).

The two article titles are rather different in function: "Kingdom songs" is a descriptive label for a category of songs, whereas "Kingdom Melodies" is a proper noun referring to a specific series of recordings. "Kingdom songs" would in practice now refer to the songs published in the current songbook, "Sing Praises to Jehovah", although it could conceivably be applied to any songs from earlier songbooks that have been used in the past. "Kingdom Melodies" cannot refer to anything other than the specific recordings so titled, and these recordings draw from the current songbook and the previous one.

Since the two article titles refer to quite different things, it seems clearest to me to keep the articles separate.

If the articles are merged, I think it would be necessary for the merged article to be in two distinct sections anyway. So these might as well be different articles. M.J.E. (talk) 12:13, 23 January 2008 (UTC)


 * I actually think it would be fit if the orchestral arrangements are discussed in the article about Kingdom songs in its own section. The Kingdom melodies are actually one interpretation of the melodies applied to the songs, they are not totally another topic that should be discussed in an independent article. That is what I feel. Summer Song (talk) 18:19, 23 January 2008 (UTC)