Treasure No 55: Hymns in the Early Church by John Ferguson: An article from Bulletin 180, Summer 1989 (Adapted from an address given to the William Temple Society, York) the ancient Greek world a hymn was a metrical address to a god. In Homer’s Iliad (1.472–4) we read: They all day long sought to appease the god in song, …
Treasure No 54: Copyright in Relation to Hymnody
Treasure No 54: Copyright in Relation to Hymnody by Bernard Braley: An article from Bulletin 179, Spring 1989 The purpose of copyright opyright serves to ensure that a text is not altered without permission. A writer may have wrestled for many hours over a single word or musical phrase or harmony. Copyright ensures that an author or composer is rewarded …
Treasure No 53: English and German Hymnody, Imports and Exports
Treasure No 53: English and German Hymnody, Imports and Exports by Robin Leaver: An article from Bulletin 177, Autumn 1988 anguage barriers are very real. It is not simply that different languages have different words for the same objects, but they also have different sounds, different rhythmical stresses, and different grammatical structures. There are thus enormous problems when one wishes …
Treasure No 52: Barratt, His Successors and the Quality of Faith
Treasure No 52: Barratt, His Successors and the Quality of Faith by Alan Gaunt: An article from Bulletin 173, Autumn 1987 he first ‘official’ Congregational hymn-book was published in 1836. Its publication had been delayed until agreement was reached on whether or not to include the hymns of Isaac Watts in the same volume. The book was published, in the …
Treasure No 51: The Rock Whence we are Hewn
Treasure No 51: The Rock Whence we are Hewn by Cyril Taylor: An article from Bulletin 166 Winter 1986 the Society’s year of golden jubilee the Editor will hardly be censured for inviting a backward look at our origins. What follows here is in effect a review of the first eight Bulletins published between October 1937 and July 1939 (the …
Treasure No 50: What Makes a Good Hymn Text?
Treasure No 50: What Makes a Good Hymn Text? by T. Dudley-Smith: An article from Bulletin 163, Summer 1985 (This is a revision of the text of an address given at the National Convocation of the Hymn Society of America, at Elmhurst, Illinois, 23 July, 1984.) ast February our household was regulated largely by the television transmission from the Winter …
Treasure No 49: The Hymn Tunes of Elgar and Holst
Treasure No 49: The Hymn Tunes of Elgar and Holst by B. Massey: An article from Bulletin 160, Summer 1984 ate laid a heavy hand on English music in the year 1934. Within less than four months death claimed three major figures: Delius, Elgar and Holst. Delius had no impact on the world of hymnody—he would no doubt have been …
Treasure No 48: Pastoral Revision of Hymns
Treasure No 48: Pastoral Revision of Hymns by Michael Perry: An article from Bulletin 156, Winter 1983 (This is a shortened and revised version of a lecture given at our 1982 Conference. Mr Perry is rector of Eversley, Hants., and a member of the words committee responsible for Hymns for Today’s Church (Hodder and Stoughton, 1982), a review of which …
Treasure No 47: I Vow To Thee My Country
Treasure No 47: I Vow To Thee My Country by Eric James, Canon Residentiary of St Albans: An article from Bulletin 153, Winter 1982 nvited to preach at Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral on the Sunday before the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, I decided to take as my subject the hymn Lady Diana had chosen, ‘I …
Treasure No 46: The Tune ‘LASST UNS ERFREUEN’ as we know it
Treasure No 46: The Tune ‘LASST UNS ERFREUEN’ as we know it by John Wilson: An article from Bulletin 150, Winter 1980 ne of the great successes of The English Hymnal in 1906 was its inclusion of the old German Catholic tune ‘LASST UNS ERFREUEN’, linked originally with Easter rejoicing, but now set to ‘Ye watchers and ye holy ones’, …
Treasure No 45: The Secularization of the Victorian Hymn
Treasure No 45: The Secularization of the Victorian Hymn by Lionel Adey: An article from Bulletin 147, Winter 1980 bout 1880, Matthew Arnold forecast that ‘most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry’. Marry to the hymn the Victorian love-ballad; beget of these that heavenly half-breed or earthly miscegenate the sacred song, …