Hymns with Tunes

Hymns and hymn tunes are a very special focus for DARCEY PRESS. Consider how does a hymn and hymn tune get together? What is the background?

1. The “hymn” is the text. It has an author / poet. Such texts have a regular meter and are laid out in stanzas.
2. A singable hymn is published, “wedded” to a tune of the same meter. The tune is very rarely the poet; someone else is usually its composer.
3. And often it’s a third person ( an editor, a hymnal committee) who chooses the right “wedding” of a text to a tune. Do text and tune fit together in spirit, in mood? Does the tune fully “support” the text? (For particularly great text / tune marriages, we can see widespread endorsement; consider “Holy, holy, holy” to NICAEA, or “Joy to the World!” to ANTIOCH).

The Isaac Watts collection here, “In Melody and Songs” , used this 3-step approach. Watts, the “Father of English Hymnody”, published the hymns (i.e. texts only) in 1719. The editor of “In Melody and Songs” considered each text and chose a cooperating composer for the tune, bearing in mind that composer’s musical style. The composer could read the text and decide the “feel” the tune would need, the “right” shape of the melody, the harmonization, rhythm and tempo, etc., which would best serve the words and the ideas of the text. The composer then sent the text/tune to the editor, who heard the excellence of the marriage (or who might make suggestions), and then published it here, for you, and the world, to sing.

ARE YOU on a hymnal committee, or helping to assemble a hymn book? Ask for a complementary “In Melody and Songs.” And Please Note. If you want to use a hymn in a religious setting, no special request is needed.