Hymnody Ascendant

Today was a rare midweek feast day for me: two sung Eucharist services, plus an evensong in one day. But the reason I'm blogging is that three hymns overlapped on the two Ascension masses.

Overlapping Editor Choices

The morning HC and evensong were part of the REC’s Anglican Way Institute annual conference, hosted by Holy Communion, the REC’s Dallas cathedral. The evening HC was at Chapel of the Cross, a sister REC parish a half hour away.

The former uses Magnify the Lord (Book of Common Praise 2017) as the former home parish of the MTL editor, while the latter since uses The Hymnal (1940). I sang in the (ad hoc) AWI choir at the former and in the pews at the latter, but essentially three hymns were the same with the same words and harmony.

I’ve also just finished by master database of 1600+ hymns in MTL, H40, H82 and the new Sing Unto the Lord (as part of finishing part 2 of my SUL hymnal review), so I was able to cross-references these hymns into H82 and SUL.

Here are the three hymns I sang twice, all with four part harmony:

1. All Hail the Pow’r of Jesus’ Name (Coronation in F): 6 verses (H40: 355 1st, H82: 450, MTL: 156, SUL: 175). Hymnary.org list 3,501 hymnals.
2. Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise (Llanfair in F): 4 verses (H40: 104 1st, H82: 214, MTL: 160, SUL: 181). Text by Charles Wesley in 553 hymnals
3. Crown Him With Many Crowns (Diademata in G): 5 verses (H40: 352, H82: 494, MTL: 149, SUL: 186).  807 hymnals

I don’t have a copy of H82 handy, but the H40 and MTL melody and bass part sung the same, and the SUL mens’ parts eyeball the same.

SUL has a descant by Richard Proulx, which (according to the Hymnal 1982 Companion) was previously found in H82. Neither H40 or MTL have any descants for any hymns.

Overlapping Musician Choices

Both services opened and ended with a crowd pleaser, but the AM had #1 for entrance, #2 for gradual and #3 for exit, while PM had #3 for entrance, #2 for sermon and #1 for entrance. Interestingly, MTL and SUL treated all three as Ascension hymns, while H40 and H82 only treated #2 as such.

The two hymnals I sang from have different hymn selection guides. I asked the PM music director about the overlap, and all he could offer is “great minds think alike.”

Both also used the Willan mass setting, but that is not surprising then since the 1940s that has been the standard “high” (or “ordinary”) season mass setting for US ECUSA (and later Anglican) parishes — at least until Rite II came along, when that role was taken by the Hurd or Powell setting. (Hurd seems normal to me but probably others would see it as serious and thus penitential rather than festive).