English hymns and their tunes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this research was to supply information necessary to clarify our understanding of the first English hymns and tunes. The objectives of this writer were: 1. To establish the fact that congregational hymn singing has never been forbidden in the Anglican church and has been used since the Reformation was established by Elizabeth I. 2. To examine the early hymn tunes against the background of the musical practice of the period, and ascertain from an analysis of the music if these small compositions reflected the transition from the sixteenth century strict polyphonic writing based on the ecclesiastical modes, to the chordal writing of the seventeenth century; the latter using major and minor scales and a freer treatment of dissonance. 3. To make available an index of the first lines of English hymns written between 1539-1707, showing the date of their first publication, and the earliest date at which they were sung. For the purpose of the research, hymn was defined in much the same way as the definition given by Carl F. Price in his article "What is a Hymn" published in The Papers of the Hymn Society, No. 6, New York, 1937. A hymn was poetry suitable for congregational singing when joined with a tune. It expressed either God's purpose in the life of man or man's praise or prayer to God. Throughout the dissertation~referred to poetry; hymn tune, to music. The dates 1539-1707 were chosen for the limits of the period covered in the index because the first English hymns were published around 1539, and 1707 was the date of Isaac Watts first hymnal. It has been thought that Isaac Watts was the "father of the English hymn." A few writers have indicated that this idea was not grounded on fact, but no detailed study had been made of the hymns written before the time of Watts. The number of hymns written between 1539 and 1707 was sought by this writer to prove that the freely composed hymn in England was a well established form before the time of Watts. Every effort was made to distinguish between freely composed hymns and psalms in meter, scriptural paraphrases, and translations from other languages. Only freely composed hymns, written originally in English, were included in the index. The realization of the objectives of the research showed the following results: 1. Quotations from psalters and hymnals showed nine bases for the belief that congregational hymn singing in the vernacular dated from 1559 in the Anglican church. 2. The tunes faithfully reflected the musical practice and atmosphere of the period in which they were written. 3. The tunes which were capable of arousing the finest religious experiences, even though not as popular as other tunes of the period, were necessarily whose which in themselves were works of art. These tunes have survived and are being used to-day. 4. The index of first lines of hymns written in English between 1539-1707 showed 960 hymns by 60 authors, 60 hymns by unidentified authors, and 7 hymns by unknown authors but dating from the period. This number was sufficient to dispel the idea that the English hymn was born with the publication of Watts' hymns. 5. The contribution of Isaac Watts would seem to have been the successful way in which he merged the very free paraphrase of the psalm with the already flowing stream of freely composed hymns, and won acceptance for the religious song which resulted from this union. The sharp distinction between metrical psalms and freely composed was usually not made after his publications

The American Hymnal for English Speaking People Everywhere: Containing the Best Loved and Most Commonly Used Old Standard Church Hymns, the Most Popular Gospel Songs and a Wealth of New Songs

The American Hymnal for English Speaking People Everywhere, edited and published by Robert H. Coleman. Contains 530 hymns and gospel songs in English, with music. Responsive readings : pages 449-468.Text on lining papers. Includes index.https://digitalcommons.gardner-webb.edu/round-note-collection/1017/thumbnail.jp

Lutheran Hymns in English Translations

Nothing makes so forcible and lasting an impression as contrast, nor are truths taught more easily through the employment of another method of presentation. Perhaps, then, in prefacing a study of Luther’s hymns, no better means of evaluating the Reformer’s real worth could be used than a contrast of the German Hymnology of the Medieval Period with that of the Reformation

The Historical and Modern Significance of the Choctaw Hymnody

Working with the Native Choctaw populations of early America, missionaries did much in the way of music and composition. One result was a compilation of original hymns written by English missionaries in the native Choctaw tongue, but there were also Choctaw composers and contributions. Singing these hymns in church services, gatherings, and social situations remains an activity where the Oklahoma and Mississippi tribal members participate today. The recorded history of the known hymns and composers is scarce and is disappearing daily in favor of teaching the ancient cultures rather than the religion of the white colonists. The research chose a qualitative method to study the lives, backgrounds, and motivations of the Choctaw composers of these hymns. The study further employed a form of historical observation to examine the members of the tribe who promoted the hymns throughout the community and the white missionaries that collaborated with them to translate the hymns into their original tongue. Little has been written or published regarding hymns in the Choctaw language. A few writings on the subject exist from the 1940s and the 1970s. The study should specifically target the Choctaw community by reevaluating the origins of these hymns and their place in modern and historical Choctaw culture. Additionally, the results of such an investigation should benefit and further other studies into Native American cultures of various tribes and the outside and inside influences regarding Christianity and musicality within those tribal cultures

Mining Hymns: Exploring Gendered Patterns in Religious Language

While hymns are a popular source for studying religious language, large scale analysis of changes in these texts over time is rare. One reason for this gap is the focus of scholars on stable versions of popular hymns, a pragmatic choice due to the amount of source material. However, digital methods enable scholars to move beyond this constraint to examine broad patterns across a wide variety of texts. In this paper I will present an exploratory project that applies text-mining and topic-modeling to nineteenth-century, English language hymns to uncover patterns in religious language as linked to the gender of the author. Early analysis of the results reinforces the viability of digital methods for examining large collections of hymns, despite also revealing substantial weaknesses in the data currently available. The database I used favors recent hymnals and popular hymns, resulting in the under representation of texts by nineteenth-century women. Despite this, initial text-mining reveals a prevalence of language that is earth-focused and positive in tone across the female authors, which contrasts with a prevalence of abstract language across male authors. These encouraging results support the extension of this analysis to a larger collection of hymns

Mining Hymns: Exploring Gendered Patterns in Religious Language

While hymns are a popular source for studying religious language, large scale analysis of changes in these texts over time is rare. One reason for this gap is the focus of scholars on stable versions of popular hymns, a pragmatic choice due to the amount of source material. However, digital methods enable scholars to move beyond this constraint to examine broad patterns across a wide variety of texts. In this paper I will present an exploratory project that applies text-mining and topic-modeling to nineteenth-century, English language hymns to uncover patterns in religious language as linked to the gender of the author. Early analysis of the results reinforces the viability of digital methods for examining large collections of hymns, despite also revealing substantial weaknesses in the data currently available. The database I used favors recent hymnals and popular hymns, resulting in the under representation of texts by nineteenth-century women. Despite this, initial text-mining reveals a prevalence of language that is earth-focused and positive in tone across the female authors, which contrasts with a prevalence of abstract language across male authors. These encouraging results support the extension of this analysis to a larger collection of hymns

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

Hymns have always been part of Christian liturgy, expressing the faith in congregational song. The NZ hymnwriter of the late twentieth century writes within a secular society which increasingly questions the relevance of religion. This thesis examines and describes issues with which modern hymnwriters are confronted in the practice of their work, the intention being to produce a work of practical benefit to those using hymns in some way. The thesis begins with an historical overview of the ways hymnology has developed. From this background it is possible to ascertain a working definition of a hymn, and to discover how hymns have been used over the centuries to express certain theological points of view about the nature of the church, particularly as it relates to society as a whole. Hymns are a combination of doctrine and song. How words and music combine to form the complex experience of a hymn is discussed in Chapter two. Music has always been a contentious issue within the church for it brings the possibility of the "secular" into worship. Music style is an expression of a church's theology of church in the world. The choice of music as part of the experience of a hymn is a crucial issue. In a secular society, the charge of irrelevance is levelled at religion in general, and hymns in particular. Chapter Three discusses the meaning of "relevance" for hymnology. This is related to hermeneutics, liturgy, and tradition, with particular focus on Reader-Response Criticism as a tool for understanding the dynamics of the texts relationship to the reader/singer. The modern hymnwriter must overcome the conservatism of hymnbook collections. The quest for relevance and the exploration of new styles takes place largely outside the confines of hymnbooks. As liturgy is the milieu within which hymns are experienced and for which they are written, the thesis raises four questions by which to test the effectiveness of hymns in worship. During the writing of this thesis an issue arose several times which is more properly the province of religious sociology or theology; the way in which hymns express the power struggle between the "organisation" and the people. many music forms used in the church began as people's songs and dances, but church use has dampened the original liveliness of these forms. I have addressed this issue in passing without exploring it fully. Because I am a Methodist presbyter, there are times when my Methodist bias shows. I make no apology for that. The NZ context from which I write is also an important factor in the choosing of illustrative material. I have deliberately used With One Voice as a source book for most hymn quotations as it is used in many NZ churches and can therefore add to the practical nature of this work. The thesis is not a critique of With One Voice

The Fathers\u27 Faith, the Children\u27s Song: Missouri Lutheranism Encounters American Evangelicalism in its Hymnals, Hymn Writers, and Hymns, 1889-1912

Jon D. Vieker, The Fathers\u27 Faith, the Children\u27s Song: Missouri Lutheranism Encounters American Evangelicalism in Its Hymnals, Hymn Writers, and Hymns, 1889-1912. Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2014. 581 pp. This dissertation offers an accounting of the hymnological sea change in the Missouri Synod as it transitioned from German into English toward the end of the nineteenth century. It explores how this immigrant, Lutheran church body brought a large portion of its German hymnody into English, while at the same time appropriating a substantial number of English-language hymns from the surrounding ecclesial culture of American Evangelicalism. The dissertation is divided into three sections. The first section explores the formation histories and backgrounds of three principal hymnals during this period: the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (1889, 1892); the Sunday-School Hymnal (1901); and the Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (1912), the first, official, English-language hymnal of the Missouri Synod. It explores the role of August Crull and William Dallmann as they edited these hymnals and encountered the American Sunday School movement and the hymnody of American Evangelicalism. The second section explores the background of representative German- and English-language hymn writers, as well as a number of hymn translators. Toward that end, it provides a chronological narrative of German hymnody from the Reformation, through German Pietism, and into the nineteenth-century. A second parallel study of English hymnody—from Watts and the Wesleys and into the flowering of Victorian hymnody—is also provided. An excursus into the background of Revivalism and the Gospel Song as well as Missouri Synod attitudes toward these movements concludes this section. The third section provides a review and assessment of representative hymn texts according to a standard definition of Evangelicalism suggested by David W. Bebbington—the so-called “Bebbington Quadrilateral (Bible, cross, conversion, and activism). These four loci and a variety of sub-themes are employed to explore the respective thematic emphases of the German-and English-language hymn corpuses. The ranked hymn lists of Stephen A. Marini are also employed to assist in identifying the most prominent hymns and themes of American Evangelicalism. In just one generation, the hymnody of the Missouri Synod changed from an entirely German-language hymn corpus to a hymn corpus dominated by English-language hymnody. While the German-language core was renewed with great vitality in English translation, a theologically rich and eclectic collection of English-language hymns was incorporated alongside that would serve this branch of American Lutheranism well into the twentieth century and beyond

How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at Massey University

Hymns have always been part of Christian liturgy, expressing the faith in congregational song. The NZ hymnwriter of the late twentieth century writes within a secular society which increasingly questions the relevance of religion. This thesis examines and describes issues with which modern hymnwriters are confronted in the practice of their work, the intention being to produce a work of practical benefit to those using hymns in some way. The thesis begins with an historical overview of the ways hymnology has developed. From this background it is possible to ascertain a working definition of a hymn, and to discover how hymns have been used over the centuries to express certain theological points of view about the nature of the church, particularly as it relates to society as a whole. Hymns are a combination of doctrine and song. How words and music combine to form the complex experience of a hymn is discussed in Chapter two. Music has always been a contentious issue within the church for it brings the possibility of the "secular" into worship. Music style is an expression of a church's theology of church in the world. The choice of music as part of the experience of a hymn is a crucial issue. In a secular society, the charge of irrelevance is levelled at religion in general, and hymns in particular. Chapter Three discusses the meaning of "relevance" for hymnology. This is related to hermeneutics, liturgy, and tradition, with particular focus on Reader-Response Criticism as a tool for understanding the dynamics of the texts relationship to the reader/singer. The modern hymnwriter must overcome the conservatism of hymnbook collections. The quest for relevance and the exploration of new styles takes place largely outside the confines of hymnbooks. As liturgy is the milieu within which hymns are experienced and for which they are written, the thesis raises four questions by which to test the effectiveness of hymns in worship. During the writing of this thesis an issue arose several times which is more properly the province of religious sociology or theology; the way in which hymns express the power struggle between the "organisation" and the people. many music forms used in the church began as people's songs and dances, but church use has dampened the original liveliness of these forms. I have addressed this issue in passing without exploring it fully. Because I am a Methodist presbyter, there are times when my Methodist bias shows. I make no apology for that. The NZ context from which I write is also an important factor in the choosing of illustrative material. I have deliberately used With One Voice as a source book for most hymn quotations as it is used in many NZ churches and can therefore add to the practical nature of this work. The thesis is not a critique of With One Voice

Gender and authority in British women hymn-writers' use of metre, 1760-1900

This article is part of a cluster that draws material from the recent conference Metre Matters: New Approaches to Prosody, 1780–1914. It comprises an introduction by Jason David Hall and six articles presented at the conference, whose aim was to address renewed scholarly interest in versification and form across the long nineteenth century, as well as some of the methodologies underpinning it. The papers included in the cluster look both to the minutiae of Romantic and Victorian metres and to their cultural intertexts. The conference, hosted by the University of Exeter's Centre for Victorian Studies, was held 3–5 July 2008