›

Hymnary advice

PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
in Ecclesiantics
I hope Eccles is the right place for this.

The subject of hymnbooks came up at our Vestry meeting tonight, and the fact that some of ours are falling to bits.

The Rector raised the possibility of rather than just replacing them, possibly getting a completely new book, and asked me to look into it.

Much as I loathe The Orange Book™ (Complete Anglican Hymns Old and New), I'm not sure what it would be replaced by; I'm not very familiar with Anglican books apart from those used in the Church of Ireland and the Anglican Church of Canada.

It needs to be fairly broad in its scope: she won't swallow anything that hasn't got a chunk of chorus -type stuff in it, but I'd want a decent amount of traditional hymns as well, preferably not too messed about with.

Any advice would be welcome.

Comments

  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Mission Praise is fairly conservative in dealing with traditional hymns, and now weighs in at 1365 items. The issues with it are that because it's only been added to rather than edited there's probably a fair bit of (1980s) dead weight; and due to its origins it leans in a fairly evangelical direction; and lastly it's music or words, there is no melody edition.

    New English Hymnal still seems to have its fans, though having grown up with HA&M and MP I've often encountered hymns with considerably different words to what I'm used to. It's also nearly 40 years old and quite lacking in the "chorus" genre.

    You can get the Church of Scotland Hymnary under, as it were, plain covers as "Hymns of Glory, Songs of Praise". It's obviously heavier on psalms and paraphrases than most Anglican hymnbooks, and John Bell's hand is fairly evident in the compilation (for good and/or ill). There's a fair mix of older and relatively modern songs, but it is 20 years old now.

    Hymns Ancient and Modern also have an updated version but I'm not familiar with the content.

    Would Vestry authorise the purchase of a words copy of the various options for review?
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    I believe that publishers will sometimes offer churches free sample copies if they're seeking to renew their hymnbooks.

    I think one also has to realise that hymnbooks seem to be a dying species - for instance the Baptists and the URC haven't produced one since the 1980s. I think this is because church sizes (and the number of churches) are shrinking, because congregations don't want to be restricted to one book, and because many churches have gone over to projected hymns and/or bespoke Sunday hymnsheets.

    You might have a look at CH4/"Hymns of glory", I'd say that John Bell's hand is very evident in it ... but you are in Scotland!
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    And of course if you can tolerate the CH4 branding there will, undoubtedly, be a lot of spare copies floating around just now. :(
  • Bishops FingerBishops Finger Shipmate
    The New English Hymnal came to my mind, too.

    IIRC, Mayhew's Orange Book has been replaced by a much more recent edition - it might be worth looking at, to see if there are any major differences.
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Bishops Finger wrote: »
    The New English Hymnal came to my mind, too.

    IIRC, Mayhew's Orange Book has been replaced by a much more recent edition - it might be worth looking at, to see if there are any major differences.

    I think, like Bible translations, families of hymn books (particularly ones like HO&N that have so many versions in quick succession) tend to be consistent in approach. In this case, I fear, that means aggressive "modernising" of words.
Sign In or Register to comment.