Singing "Beautiful Savior"

At St John we sometimes sang the hymn Beautiful Savior as a round. The class would be divided into two groups. As soon as the first group finished singing the verse's first three lines, the second group would begin to sing. The two groups would continue singing the verse over and over.

Beautiful Savior,
King of Creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!

Truly I'd love Thee,
Truly I'd serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown.

I don't remember that we ever continued singing all the verses as a continual round, but that would have been super fun.

Fair are the meadows,
Fair are the woodlands,
Robed in flowers of blooming spring;
Jesus is fairer,
Jesus is purer;
He makes our sorrowing spirit sing.

Fair is the sunshine,
Fair is the moonlight,
Bright the sparkling stars on high;
Jesus shines brighter,
Jesus shines purer,
Than all the angels in the sky.

Beautiful Savior,
Lord of the nations,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Glory and honor,
Praise, adoration,
Now and forevermore be Thine!

Unfortunately, it seems that serious musicians don't consider singing rounds to be a serious method of performing music, although this method involves some serious musical principles.

I searched the Internet to find a performance of Beautiful Savior in rounds, but could not find one. I hope that someone eventually does make and post such a video.

Below is a performance by female soloist Deborah Liv Johnson. Her performance is illustrated by flowers, because the lyrics mention woodlands robed in flowers of blooming spring.

Below is a nice performance by the Harding University Concert Choir. How much more fun the audience would have had, though, if this choir had sung Beautiful Savior as a round and then divided the audience into groups so that they could join in singing the round!

Below is a performance by a male barber-shop quartet, called Vocal Spectrum.

Below is Vance Perry singing the song in four-part harmony by himself.

Vince Perry has a good gimmick by singing the four parts simultaneously by himself, but what a better gimmick he would have if he would sing the hymn as a round!