Hymns of our ancestors

This morning at church, our family sang the opening hymn, #483 from Hymnal 1940:

Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish;
Come to the mercy-seat, fervently kneel:
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish;
Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot heal.

Joy of the desolate, light of the straying,
Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure,
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying,
"Earth has no sorrow that heaven cannot cure."

Here see the Bread of Life; see waters flowing
Forth from the throne of God, pure from above;
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing
Earth has no sorrow but heaven can remove.

It is not a hymn I know well, but it is one that we’ve sung before. As my daughter sang soprano and I sight-read the (straightforward) bass part, I had a picture of my ancestors (or other American churchgoers) singing it back in the mid-19th century. (It is not in Hymnal 1982, but is in Magnify the Lord/Book of Common Praise 2017: #541).

The same words were in Hymnal 1916 (#388), the hymnal my mother and uncle would have used as teenagers growing up in a tiny Northern California farming town. My grandparents died when I was a kid, so I don’t know the religious practices of my family before then. It is also in Hymnal 1892 (#637), but does not appear to be in any PECUSA hymnals before that. It is not in the main CoE hymnals of 1861-present, including the New English Hymnal (1986).

Ecumenical Impact

Hymnary.org reports it is in 1960 hymnals, with a higher proportion of those of the late 19th century.

Beyond PECUSA, what is the pattern for other denominations?

• Presbyterian. The hymn is in The Hymnbook (1955) and The Hymnal (1933), so my dad might have sung it as a young man or when we attended Presbyterian churches in the 60s. It is also in US Presbyterian hymnals from 1843-1917, but not after 1955.
• Lutheran. The ELCA and its predecessors include the hymn in its latest hymnal, Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006), Service Book & Worship (1958),  American Lutheran Hymnal (1930), and hymnals in 1923 and 1918. The LCMS includes it in The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) and earlier 1918, 1912 and 1892 English-language hymnals.
• Methodist. The Methodist church seems to include it in most hymnals from 1843 to its latest United Methodist Hymnal (1989).

Authorship

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) a Dublin-born Catholic poet; as John Julian says in his Dictionary of Hymnology — echoed by the Hymnal 1940 Companion — “His connection with hymnody is confined to his Sacred Songs,” and that these songs were republished in hymnbooks “mainly in America”.

This text from Sacred Songs (1816) was modified by Spiritual Songs for Social Worship (1831) Thomas Hastings and Lowell Mason. Mason (1792-1872).was a famous American church musicologist who was president of Boston’s Handle and Haydn Society and founder of the Boston Academy of Music.

The tune Consolation by English composer Samuel Webbe (1740-1816), as published in 1792. The tune was arranged by Hastings and Mason for this text in their Spiritual Songs for Social Worship, and is the only tune I found used with this text. Given the dates, this is pre-Victorian 19th century English hymnody (text, arrangement and pairing).

Mason is the author of tunes or arrangements for 7 hymns in Hymnal 1940,, including those for “Nearer My God to Thee” and “My Faith Looks Up to Thee.” As with Consolation, I find his harmonies quite singable: perhaps they were written for an earlier time when accompaniment was more rare, or at least congregational singers had less formal music training than in the latter half of the century. Or perhaps it was before the Romantic era dissonances of the late 19th century classical composers.

No matter what the reason, it seems like the harmonizations from the 18th century to mid-19th century — the era Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Mendelssohn — are more approachable for sight-reading by amateur singers like myself.

Favorite recording of the all-time favorite All Saints hymn

Of course, it wouldn’t be All Saints’ Day without Ralph Vaughan Williams' greatest hit, “For All the Saints.”

Unlike my daughter, my work schedule did not allow me to attend services and hear this hymn live this week. So on the way to work I decided to look for what recordings I had on my laptop among the 426 hymns.

I found four distinct performances. All were from English choirs using (as far as I could tell) boys for the trebles. Here the the performances, ordered from most basic to most ornate:

1. Worcester Cathedral Choir, from the “Vaughan Williams: Hymns and Choral Music” (3 verses, 2:12). Other than only three verses, a model of what I would want a small church choir or medium-sized congregation to do
2. Trinity College Choir, Cambridge, from “A Vaughan Williams Hymnal” (8 verses, 5:32) has several variations, including men only and an a capella verse. This is the straight-up version that I would hold as the aspirational goal for all but the most experienced church choir.
3. Wells Cathedral Choir, from “Christ Triumphant: The English Hymn 1” (6 verses, 4:23) is similar, but a more pronounced retard at the end.
4. Wells Cathedral Choir, from “Favourite Hymns from Wells Cathedral” (6 verses, 5:03) is all out, with trumpet flourishes before the beginning, between the 5th and 6th verses, and with trumpets and organ blasting over the choir in the final verse.

The first three have an almost identical tempo of 0:40 per verse, while the last one is noticeably slower (10% by my copy of iTunes).

Overall, I think I like #2 the best, in between #1 and #3. While #4 would probably be the one I’d prefer to experience live in a cathedral — or perhaps blaring on my high-end stereo in the music room — it’s just not the same with headphones on my laptop or iPod, and the drama actually gets a little tedious after a while.

Update: If you listen closely to these English choirs, you’ll notice a difference from The English Hymnal (#641) original and American practice. The choirs match this text in verse 1 of TEH:

For all the Saints who from their labours rest,
Who thee by faith before the world the confest,
Thy name, O Jesu, be forever blest,
Allieluya, Alleiluya!

So while there are obvious spelling differences, when listening it is noticeable that the English sing “O Jesu” rather than the “O Jesus” used with this text and RVW’s Sine Nomine in Hymnal 1940 (#126.1) or Hymnal 1982 (#287).

It turns out Hymnal 1916 was first American hymnal to use “O Jesus,” but still used the older 1868 tune (Sarum) which was retained in H40 (#126.2). When I went back to Hymnal 1892, not surprisingly it has Sarum — it couldn’t know about the tune that Vaughan Williams composed in 1906 for TEH — but it used the British “Jesu” (while keeping the other American spellings).

Two forgotten gems of Hymnal 1940

A week ago (Trinity III in the traditional lectionary) we visited a Continuing parish, which (like most 28 Prayer Book) parishes, uses my favorite hymnal.

Sometimes I fall into the conceit that the hymns I know are the only ones worth playing. The music director (unintentionally) taught me a lesson both about Anglican hymnody and Hymnal 1940. Two hymns were new (or at least unfamiliar), and certainly ones that deserve further attention.

Give praise and glory unto God

The processional was Hymn 287, “Give praise and glory unto God,” on a the 1675 text by Johann Jacob Schütz.  The Lutheran Hymnal Companion (p.19) makes clear there were nine stanzas in the Schütz original and because of its text  it “was taken up into almost all German hymnals”. Alas, there is significant variation in the text and tunes among the English-language hymnals in my library.

In Hymnal 1940, three verses of the text were translated by Arthur Farlander and Winifred Douglas (1867-1944). Douglas was music editor of Hymnal 1916 and Hymnal 1940, who (according his biography in the Hymnal 1940 Companion) died a few hours after editing the proofs to H40. The hymn was one of 12 H40 translations solely or jointly authored by Douglas. The text was set to Peter Sohren’s 1668 tune, labelled Elbing in H40 and Du Lebensbrot, Herr Jesu Christ in H82 (#375). In the PC H82, “and mortal men” (v2) becomes “and mortals then.”

However, the Douglas translation is idiosyncratic to H40 (H82) and not followed elsewhere. Other hymnals use the 1864 Frances Elizabeth Cox (1812-1897) translation of Schütz, “Sing praise to God who reigns above.” In the CoE, this includes Hymns Ancient & Modern (#294), The English Hymnal (#478) and New English Hymnal (#447); the 1906 uses a Luther melody Nun Freut Euch while the 1986 institutes a new tune, Palace Green, by Michael Fleming (1928-2006). (The earlier A&M seems to use the same tune as TEH except in a different key).

Given its popularity among Germans, the hymn is not surprisingly a staple of the Missouri Lutherans. The Lutheran Hymnal (#19) uses six verses translated by Catherine Winkworth (“All praise to God, who reigns above”) and a tune ihr Lobet den Herrn by Melchior Pulpous (c. 1570-1615). The recent Lutheran Service Book (#819) uses 3 verses of Cox and 1 verse of Winkworth to the same tune (which it labels Ihr Lobt Gott den Herren.)

I could find no record of the text in 1 Baptist or  3 Presbyterian hymnals in my collection, but I don’t claim that collection is comprehensive. Neither the Cox nor Winkworth translation appear in the earlier PECUSA hymnals, Hymnal 1892 or Hymnal 1916.

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace


The recessional was Hymn 433, “Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace,” a 1868 text by William H. Burleigh. The text (not found in 20th century CoE hymnals) began with Hymnal 1892 (#422, Tune: Cassidy). Hymnal 1916 (#248) has the 1862 tune Langran, which is the 2nd tune in 1940.

Out of H40, we sang the 1st tune, Song 22, a tune by the great 17th century organist and composer, Orlando Gibbons originally published in the 1623 The Hymnes and Songs of the Church (and reprinted in 1856). The Gibbons tune is the one retained in Hymnal 1982 (#703); however, as H82 is wont to do, it is cut down to three verses (dropping the 2nd, “Lead us, O Father, in the paths of truth”).

Conclusion

So were I on the committee editing the New Anglican Hymnal, I would propose keeping #433 with Gibbons but suggest using either the Cox or Winkworth translation for “Sing praise to God.” Of course, at an H40 parish, I’d use them both as printed 70 years ago.

A favorite hymn day, but not a favorite hymnal

At the ACNA parish I attended on Palm Sunday, we had a great collection of hymns. The opening hymn was the obligatory processional — “All glory, laud and honor” — that combines a 9th century text and a 17th century Lutheran tune (H40: #62; H82: 154). Since this time we started outside the building, I ended up acting as de facto cantor: all those years as a High Church (PECUSA) choir boy came rushing back.

The second hymn was the other obligatory Palm Sunday hymn “Ride on, Ride on in Majesty.”  The Hymnal 1940 Companion says it was written in the 1820s by Henry Hart Milman, an Oxford poetry professor. As it turns out, on Holy Monday the Issues Etc. (unofficial) LCMS radio show reposted their earlier interview with Pastor Will Weedon on this Passiontide favorite.

On Palm Sunday, we used the tune King’s Majesty — composed for Hymnal 1940 — which is the only tune given in Hymnal 1982 (H82: #156). While it is a wonderful stately tune — suitable for a Cathedral choir — I had forgotten how hard that was to sing: it’s out of my range, the voice leading is difficult, and this year the rest of the congregation clearly didn’t know it well.

Hymnal 1940 (H40: 64) gives an alternate choice, the familiar (and much easier) Winchester New, a 17th century German tune also used for the Advent hymn “On Jordan’s bank.” This is also the tune used with this text in my 1876 edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern. Oremus implies that this is the only tune that Church of England worshipers would know.

H40 also has a third option, St. Drostane, but I’ve never heard that sung. However, it was the first tune for the US Hymnal 1916 (#125), with Winchester New listed as second tune. The Hymnal 1940 Companion says “St. Drostane was composed by John B. Dykes for this hymn in Chope’s Congregational Hymn and Tune Book, 1862,” which implies it is a familiar American but not Anglican tune. (Unfortunately, I don’t have music in any of my 19th century PECUSA hymnals.)

So Hymnal 1982 made life difficult for our small parish by omitting the easier (and more Anglican) of the two melodies. But that’s not the only problem with H82. While singing the hymn, I also noticed their trademarked bowdlerization of the text. Even Oremus (written by a hymnal modernist) lists the original text for the second verse:

The company of angels
are praising thee on high;
and mortal men and all things
created make reply.

This is also the text in Hymns Ancient & Modern. However, that’s not good enough for the PC authors of Hymnal 1982:

The company of angels
is praising thee on high;
and we with all creation
in chorus make reply.

I guess they’re proud of themselves for only changing two phrases, but it’s neither a subtle change nor faithful to the original text:

Coetus in excelcis te laudat caelicus omnis
Et mortalis homo, cuncta creat simul.

Even with my complete lack of formal Latin training, I know that “Et mortalis homo” does not mean “we.”

PECUSA hymnals: first 130 years

In reading about the American prayer book, I found interesting snippets of history regarding the PECUSA hymnals of the 19th and early 20th century. The source was William Sydnor, The Real Prayer Book: 1954 to the Present (1978).

The end of Chapter VII (on the 1892 BCP) and beginning of Chapter VIII (on the 1928) summarize American hymnals up to that date. (No mention is made of Hymnal 1940.) According to the book, the American church distributed hymns as follows:

• 1786: 51 hymns, 8 pages of tunes, appended to end of proposed prayer book
• 1789: 27 hymns (no tunes) as an appendix
• 1826: 212 hymns (no tunes) appended to the prayer book
• 1828: tune book published by Rev. Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright
• 1871: 502 hymns in first stand-alone hymnal
• 1896: 679 hymns
• 1916: 559 hymns, adding 126 and dropping 200. Sydnor favorable quotes a contemporaneous account that praises Hymnal 1916 as “a visible demonstration of the liberality of the [General] Convention to new devotional demands.”

Of course, regular readers know that PECUSA has since published two main hymnals, Hymnal 1940 and Hymnal 1982.

It turns out that this history came from the preface to the Hymnal 1940 Companion, a must have book for any Anglican musician. (By now I would also own the companion to Hymnal 1982, except that it’s multiple books totaling hundreds of dollars, which I am acquiring as I can find them available used.)

Although it’s the only book I’ve found about the history of the American prayer book, I can’t say I care for the book overall. It was written as an apologia for the 1979 prayer book and in the sort of temporo-centrist conceit common to that century, claims that the vast transformation of industrial society justifies new approaches to worship and theology. As with Oremus, it also justifies modernist revisionism with the claim “things were always changing anyway.”

Actually the Brits managed just fine with one prayer book for 300 years. The late Peter Toon argued that if you changed the thees and thous, it would make a fine prayer book for 21st century Americans.