I collect hymnbooks, and my New Year’s Resolution for 2022 was to record at least one hymn (it quickly became two hymns) each weekend. These, then, are the hymns I recorded; the hymnbooks credited are the ones I used for that particular hymn.
All these hymns are, so far as I know, in the public domain.
Title | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|
Zangbundel Ten Dienste Van Huisgezin En Samenkomsten (2e Druk) | 1906 | At least I think it’s the 2nd edition from 1906. The cover is too faded for me to tell. The cover also looks very similar to pictures of the 3rd edition, but also similar to pictures of the 4th edition, and it’s clearly not that. This book was a gift from my aunt, who is from The Netherlands. |
The Psalter Hymnal | 1927 | Published by the United Presbyterian Board of Publication and Bible School Work. |
The Hymnary Of The United Church of Canada | 1930 | Published by the United Church Publishing House in Toronto. This particular hymnal came from the Airdrie church. |
Tabernacle Hymns Number 4 | 1960 | Published by the Tabernacle Publshing Company, Chicago |
The New Church Hymnal | 1976 | Published by Lexicon Music Inc. This hymnal was the one my church used when I was a kid. |
Praise! Our Songs And Hymns | 1979 | Published by Singspiration Music of the Zondervan Corporation in Grand Rapids, Michigan |
Worship The Lord | 1979 | Published by Warner Press for The Church of God |
The Hymnal For Worship and Celebration | 1986 | Published by Word Music in Nashville, Tennessee |
Trinity Hymnal | 1990 | Published by Great Commission Publications for the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. |
A song of Golgotha, or The Hill of the Skull.
This famous hymn is a translation of the Irish poem Rob tú mo bhoile, which was written almost 15 centuries ago (judging by the lifetime of the man it’s attributed to).
These three hymns by Thomas Ken are hardly remembered these days, but they were highly controversial in their time; in England at the time, it was believed that only the Scriptures (especially the Psalms) should be sung in Church. Writing new lyrics for worship was seen blasphemy, akin to adding to the Scriptures. Thus, Thomas Ken told the boys under his care at Winchester College that these hymns should be used solely for private devotionals.
Normally, I would not have grouped hymns by the same author together like this, but these three share something very special: Their final verse, which is now often sung on its own as the Doxology.
I also would have recorded only two hymns this weekend—except my research into the tunes led me to discover the hymn My God, Now I From Sleep Awake through The Cyber Hymnal™, a hymn not in any of my hymnbooks. So, this weekend, for the first time, I played a song I found on the internet but is nowhere in my collection.
A song praising God in the morning, and thanking him for a night of rest, and asking for guidance during the day.
A hymn thanking God for the day, and asking forgiveness for the sins we committed during it.
A hymn for midnight, to be sung should someone have trouble sleeping.
This hymn encourages us to be calm and rely on God, who has final say in what happens.
JeanSibelius (1865-1957).
A song about how prayer, the reading of the Scriptures, and Christian fellowship are necessary for a Godly Life
I love the tune Forest Green, but didn’t feel I could perform it yet because I’d only known of its association with O Little Town of Bethlehem, and it’s not December yet as of this writing. When I found it had been used for another hymn about the snow, and considering that I just write this, the first winter snow fell just yesterday (October 22, 2022), I thought it appropriate to play it.
Some of you may hear this and be reminded of the classic game Lemmings. That association is correct; the soundtrack consisted of medleys of various old tunes, and this was one of them.
This hymn is about Christ’s amazing love and grace in leaving the throne of Heaven and coming to free us from our sins.
The tune Sagina comes from what is basically a fan work—Thomas Campbell, a composer who enjoyed botany and Charles Wesley’s hymns, published a work called The Bouquet: A Collection of Tunes Composed And Adapted To Wesley’s Hymns in 1825; all the tunes therein were named after plants. Sagina (named after a flowering herb also known as pearlwort) is the only one well-known today.
This is probably the most technically challenging hymn I’ve played yet. The soprano line jumps around quite a bit, and the sheer grandeur demanded that I double the lines an octave apart, so my tenor recorder got a major workout; the bass line had it playing C♯ near the bottom of its range (it can only go a semitone lower), to B near the top. But in the end, I think it was worth it.
While it is not Easter as I record this, it would be a fitting hymn for that holiday. It compares the crown of thorns that Christ wore on the cross to the crown of Glory He wears in Heaven, and it describes His exultation after His time on Earth.
This particular hymn was provided with two versions of the same tune: the normal one, and one called Faux Bourdon, in which the melody is in the tenor line rather than the usual soprano. So I decided to play both versions together: the normal version first time around, the Faux Bourdon version the second time around, and a mashup of the two the third.
It was only after I’d recorded this that I discovered I had goofed. I have tried to avoid playing the same tune twice throughout this entire challenge, but my memory failed me on this one: Both this hymn and Let Christian Faith and Hope Dispel—which I recorded back in February—use St. Magnus by Jeremiah Clarke.
A good friend of mine, however, told me not to fret: I wasn’t simply reusing a sound file; I had made two genuinely different recordings, so I shouldn’t worry about using both.
A Dutch Hymn about the glories of Heaven.
Due to my repeating a tune last week (namely St. Magnus), I decided to do three hymns this weekend. This song is calling on God for a revival of our faith and zeal.
A bit of a note here: A lot of hymnals attribute the tune to John Jenkins Husband (1760-1825), but this is because the first two measures resemble those of his tune St. Stephen. The actual composer was the hymn’s author, William Mackay (source: Revive Us Again—Hymnology Archive).
In my Psalter Hymnal, multiple hymns are based on the same Psalm. For example, Psalm L has 3 hymns in this hymnal—and here they are.
This psalm is attributed to Asaph, head of one of the priestly choirs, and it’s unusual in that it shows God addressing Israel, rather than the other way around.
It is not the material things we give to God that matters—everything ultimately belongs to God anyways. What matters is that we truly worship and honour him, in how we pray, act, and speak.
The Bible warns us that not all those who talk the talk walk the walk. Isaiah 29:13-14 says of them:
13 Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:
14 therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.
Another hymn declaring God to be the final judge of all.
The Protestent Doxology was originally the final verse of three hymns by Thomas Ken (1637-1711): Awake, My Soul, And With The Sun, Glory To Thee, My God, This Night, and My God, Now I From Sleep Awake, but that shared verse is now normally sung on its own to the tune of Old 100th, a tune which gets its name from its association with Psalm C.
It has appeared in every hymnbook I own with the obvious exception of my Dutch one.
I usually end my busking sessions by playing the Doxology, so I shall close these pages with it as well.
LouisBourgeois (ca. 1510-1559).