Monday, January 01, 2007 AD
Hymn scores
Christopher Idle's booklet, Real Hymns, Real Hymn Books (see previous posts 1 | 2), includes Idle's (highly personal) checklist for assessing a hymnal. Here are his twenty questions to pose to any hymn book you are thinking of adopting:
Q.18 was a breeze, since Catherine Winkworth - translator of many of Luther's hymns - has a whopping 41 entries in the book (though if you think that's a lot, try looking up "Wesley, Charles" next time you come across a copy of the Methodist Hymn Book!).
By way of contrast, Hymns Ancient and Modern New Standard (a personal favourite of mine) scored 1 negative (q.7) and 7 positives (qq.2, 4, 6, 12, 14, 16 and 18).
Anyone care to tot up a score for their own church's hymn book? Or want to take Idle to task over any of his criteria? Please feel free to take this up in the (intermittently functioning!) comments.
- Does it include The old rugged cross?
- Does it have There is a land of pure delight and Give me the wings of faith?
- Or O valiant hearts? [Note: that's the post-Great War hymn with the infamous line about "our lesser Calvaries", referring to the war dead. If you think American "civil religion" is bad enough, just read the words of this hymn to see what British civil religion looked like, when we still had such a thing.]
- Or For the fruits of his creation?
- Or When I feel the touch?
- Or Forgive us our sins, as we forgive?
- Or City of God, how broad and far?
- Or All glory be to God in the sky and Glory be to God on high?
- Are there plenty of copyright addresses printed under each hymn?
- Will the music edition stay open, or even stay put, on the piano/organ/keyboard?
- Does its version of Amazing grace have anything at all about ten thousand years?
- Are the words and music clearly readable?
- Does its version of Thy/Your kingdom come, O God include "o'er heathen lands afar"?
- Can the words be sung with integrity and conviction by your congregation?
- Do more than 5% of first lines start with "I"?
- Is it a simple matter to find a hymn on the Transfiguration?
- Do more than three tunes go above top E or below middle C?
- Can you easily find a hymn by Anne Steele, Catherine Winkworth or Alan Gaunt?
- Does the book include its own supplement bound in at the end? [Note: a reference to "Hymns for Today's Church", for which Idle was one of the contributors.]
- Can you readily find a hymn connected with Psalm 98, Luke 13 or James 5?
Even numbers:Doing a check on the first hymnal that came to hand (Lutheran Worship), this scored 0 on the odd-numbered questions (probably the first time anyone has described LW as being in any way "ideal"...), and 4.5 on the even numbers (qq. 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18; I docked it half a point on q.12, because I don't think putting the text within the score is particularly clear for congregations to follow). However, it has to be borne in mind on both counts that questions 1 to 8 are very anglocentric, and LW scored zero on all eight, positive and negative.
10: Check again; there is no such book.
7-9: This could be the one for you.
<6: Hmm.
Odd numbers:
10: I hope there is no such book.
6-9: Forget it.
1-5: There may be something better.
0: Ideal.
Q.18 was a breeze, since Catherine Winkworth - translator of many of Luther's hymns - has a whopping 41 entries in the book (though if you think that's a lot, try looking up "Wesley, Charles" next time you come across a copy of the Methodist Hymn Book!).
By way of contrast, Hymns Ancient and Modern New Standard (a personal favourite of mine) scored 1 negative (q.7) and 7 positives (qq.2, 4, 6, 12, 14, 16 and 18).
Anyone care to tot up a score for their own church's hymn book? Or want to take Idle to task over any of his criteria? Please feel free to take this up in the (intermittently functioning!) comments.
Labels: christopher idle, hymns, now this is just a bit of fun, questionnaires
