Hymns with Tunes

Hymns and hymn tunes are a very special focus for DARCEY PRESS. For instance, consider: How does a hymn and its hymn tune get together? What is the background? Here is one way….

1. The “hymn” is the text. 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 by the poet; someone else composes it. 3. And often, it’s a third person (an editor, a hymnal committee) who chooses the right “wedding” of the text to a tune. Is the tune the “right” one? Do text and tune fit together in spirit, in mood? Does the tune fully “support” the text? For particularly great text/tune marriages, look for widespread endorsement. Consider for instance, “Holy, holy, holy” to NICAEA, and “Joy to the world” to ANTIOCH.

The Watts collection here, “In Melody and Songs”, used the 3-step approach. Isaac Watts, the “Father of English Hymnody,” was not satisfied with singing only Psalms in church (all that congregations were allowed to sing at that time). He wrote hymns that people liked and sang in church. In 1719 he published his freer hymn versions of the psalms. The editor of “In Melody and Songs” liked these hymns, and chose cooperating composers to write tunes for them, bearing in mind each composer’s musical style. The composer could then read the text and decide what “feel” the tune would need, the “right” shape and sound of the melody, the harmonization, rhythm, 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 (and who might make suggestions). Then the editor published the result here, for you, and for the world, to sing.

Are you on a hymnal committee, or helping to assemble a hymn book? Use the “Contact Us” button to send your regular mail address, and ask for a complimentary copy of the Watts and/or the Austin C. Lovelace book. And please note: no special permission is required to duplicate any of the hymns for use in a service; that permission is given at the bottom of each page.