I don't have the skills to improvise hymn harmonizations on-the-fly for
accompanying congregational singing; I don't hesitate to reharmonize a
hymn if I don't like the harmonization in the hymnal, but I do it
beforehand.  One good reason is so the choir can still sing it in harmony!
 I don't tend to use different harmonizations on final verses largely
because it's One More Thing to have to practice.  However, it's an idea I
should consider...

On a related topic: in our church we use a hymn during communion
(supposedly to be sung by all, but in practice only the choir sings it).
The choir takes communion first, so I've made it a habit to do an
improvisation on the communion hymn tune, on the fly with no preparation
other than to think about it for a few minutes during the preceding
prayers.  It's challenging and fun; sometimes it comes out pretty lame,
and sometimes it's pretty decent.  When the choir returns from communion,
I bring the improvisation to a close and start the hymn.  They've gotten
pretty good at figuring out when to start singing!

-- Ed

+--------------------------------------------------------------+
| Edward L. Stauff; Minister of Music, St. Stephen's Episcopal |
|  Church, Middlebury, Vermont, USA; president, Institute for  |
|   Pipe Organ Research & Education (www.ipore.org); author,   |
|       Encyclopedia of Organ Stops (www.organstops.org).      |
+--------------------------------------------------------------+

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