Selecting Hymns:

Selecting Hymns: just what is involved? (Part II: music)

In laThis article was placed on our website in July of last year, and a number of parishioners have asked if it could be posted once again (I guess it was a “hit”!), so here it is once again…

Not unlike a great stage play or opera, our celebration of the Mass involves many different components that come together to create the worship experience: choreography, texts that are read and recited, vestments, altar arrangements, body posture, lights, etc. Yet among all these, music is perhaps the most wide-ranging in its content, and certainly the most visceral. This includes hymns, sung canticles (using either plainchant or Anglican chant), musical settings of the Ordinary text, and organ music; indeed, a great storehouse of riches. For the music columns of July and August, a discussion of hymns and their selection will hopefully provide some important information for the parishioner; after all, the selection of hymns involves much thought!

At Trinity Anglican Church we use The 1940 Hymnal of the Episcopal church, which is acknowledged by musicians and laypersons alike as being the finest American hymnal of the 20th-century. The hymns in this book contain strong texts of historical Christian orthodox belief, as well as words expressive of a more personal faith, all set to a wide variety of the finest music dating back to the first plainchants of the emerging church. Containing 600 hymns, music and texts used at Morning and Evening Prayer, special liturgies, and settings of the Mass Ordinary, this hymnal is a treasure trove of living tradition. So, with all this richness, just how are hymns to be selected?

Hymns always need to be carefully selected with a number of important considerations, the particular text being paramount in importance. Hymn texts that directly relate to the scripture readings of the service are the first choice. These texts might serve to comment upon, magnify, or provide a certain perspective for those scripture selections, either generally or in greater detail. For example, a Gospel reading that focuses on Jesus the good shepherd is well served by hymns based on Psalm 23 or other similar texts and mood. Likewise, a scripture text that emphasizes the strong faith of the believer would be illuminated by using Martin Luther’s great Reformation text “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”, itself a transliteration of Psalm 46 which begins with the words “God is our hope and strength”. (In the case of that hymn, the melody was also written by Luther, which is usually not the case; hymn text authors and composers are usually not the same person!) Seen in this light, the hymns become a kind of musical sermon in miniature; the more specific the hymn text, the greater emphasis is given to the scripture as a reinforcement of the meaning.

In The 1940 Hymnal, hymns number 1-265 are all organized by particular sections that cover the church’s year (Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, etc.) as well as hymns for the sacraments of the church (Holy Communion, Baptism, Weddings, etc.) and Saints’ and National days. Because of this helpful means of organization, hymns can be selected that go into great detail regarding texts which most clearly relate to the readings. An example of this can be seen in the Masses of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. For the Eve service, with its Gospel of the angels’ proclamation to the shepherds, hymns such as “While Shepherds watched their flocks by night”, “Angels we have heard on high” and “Hark! The herald Angels sing” all speak directly to the events contained in the Gospel reading. For the Christmas Day Mass, hymns like “Good Christian Men, Rejoice!”, with its closing first line of “Christ was born today!” and “O come, all ye faithful” with its final stanza commencing with the words “Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born this

happy morning” could not be more apropos. Other well known carols can serve to highlight the general mood of Christmas rejoicing, but the ones mentioned show a wonderfully direct commentary; after all, nobody would confuse the night and the day!

Finally, hymns number 266-600 are all organized by themes (faith, sacrifice, the Holy Trinity, the Holy Ghost, etc.) and can serve either for general use or to be included on particular days in which those elements are emphasized. These will be discussed in next month’s column, as will the subject usually most important to congregations, namely the consist month’s music column, the selection of appropriate hymn texts for worship was considered, and now it is time to consider the music as well. The music may seem to be not quite as important, yet it is the hymn tune (along with the first line of text) that is most often remembered by parishioners when discussing hymns. And that itself can be a bit confusing, as there are often multiple tunes set to the same text!

When composers write a hymn tune (by which we include the harmonies as well as the melody), they have usually chosen a text for their composition, and are not themselves the author of the words. Great writers of hymn texts are found in all periods of the church’s history, such as Venantius Fortunatus in the 6th century, Charles Wesley and Isaac Watts in the 18th, John Mason Neale in the 19th, and Robert Bridges in the 20th, all of whom made tremendous contributions to the church’s great wealth of hymnody. In the case of Fr. Neale, he also brought to light many texts from the early Christian and Medieval periods through his elegant and singable English translations from the original Latin. Many of the texts from these authors’ pens were set by musicians of their own time, but many were set to new music at later times as well. This is done by composing music that has the same meter as the text, which makes possible the singing of older texts to more familiar “traditional” hymn tunes; after all, singing early texts to their original Gregorian chants is not the easiest thing to do! The editors of hymnals usually provide some additional help in this, by offering a single text to different musical settings, seen in the hymnal as the 1st, 2nd, and sometimes even a 3rd tune.

When a composer creates a musical setting for a hymn text, he will then give his tune a name, something that creates an instant identification of his tune with the text. Since any number of composers might set the same text to music, this also instantly identifies which music is being referred to. This is also helpful when the organist selects a composition that is based on a given tune, so that we know which tune is being quoted. An example might be Healey Willan’s prelude on the tune “Slane”, which is the music for Jan Struther’s text “Lord of all hopefulness”, hymn 363 in the 1940 Hymnal. When a hymnal gives multiple tunes for the same text, then indentifying the tune by its name clarifies things.

The matching of textual and musical meters also helps the organist with a perennial problem: a text that is particularly appropriate to conclude the service might be set to a tricky tune in the hymnal, which might lead to awkwardness in singing. However, this text can be sung to any familiar melody that has the same meter, which is much better for concluding the service with strength and confidence. In this way, the music planner would not violate one of the unwritten rules of hymn selection, namely “thou shalt not use an unfamiliar hymn as the final hymn”!

The mention of familiar vs. unfamiliar tunes leads to some thoughts about a challenging aspect of hymn selection. Although the 1940 Hymnal contains 600 hymns, many are offered in more than one tune, and different churches use different tunes in their tradition. Church musicians would usually say that the first tune is the more musical one, but many parishes use the second tune for a variety of reasons. However, with such richness of resource, it is often best to use both tunes at different times of the church year, thus not depriving the parish of either one. And it’s always important to realize that 10 people might say they never heard of “that tune”, while another group of 10 might wonder how that was possible, having always sung exclusively “that tune”!

Steven McDonald

The service of sung Evensong is a hallmark of traditional Anglican worship, being heard in it’s most beautiful form in the choral versions offered in the cathedrals and college chapels of England. The psalms, the evening canticles Magnificat and Nunc dimittis, and well-known eventide hymns all combine to create a service of quiet contemplation, a perfect foil to the often chaotic events of daily life, and a fitting way to conclude one’s busy day.

A fine commentary on Evensong comes from the Rev. Michael Till, from 1970-1981 the Dean of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge, England:

“If you are prepared to join in this turning towards God, you will find this is a Service in which you can join, though perhaps in ways that are unfamiliar. Here is a liturgical, architectural, and musical space into which, without fretting too much about the words, you may gather the preoccupations and anxieties of your own life and hold them together with a recollection of the god whose acts we celebrate. But many have found that once they have quietly offered the preoccupations which are chattering in their minds, they are free silently to go on to offer to God all that they are.”

Evensong services at Trinity Church combine hymns, congregational settings of the canticles, and organ music to give utterance to this most distinctive of Anglican liturgies, and our first Evensong will take place on Friday, 11 October, at 5:00 PM.

The music of the historic Anglican church, like the beliefs themselves, reflect the practices and traditions of a reformed catholic faith. Although the actual church was founded in 1534 by King Henry VIII, its music draws from European traditions of both pre- and post-reformation times, as well as having developed music for its own particular forms of worship. Hymns, music for choir, and works for organ form the heart of the Anglican musical identity.

At Trinity Church, congregational singing is the focus of our music, with the hymns, Mass settings, and canticles all being found in the Hymnal 1940. This book has long been acknowledged as the finest hymnal of the twentieth century, and all historical musical styles are well represented: Medieval plainchant, Reformation-era chorales and Psalm-tones, well-known Victorian hymns, and tunes from the early 1900’s are all found in this most versatile book. Numerous hymns are sung during Matins, Mass, and Evensong, as well as musical settings of the texts of the canticles and Mass Ordinary, all of which shows a high level of congregational participation in the service, something that the Reformers valued highly.

The organ music heard in the service occurs at the start (to set a mood of prayer and contemplation), the Offertory (for additional reflection following the sermon) and at the conclusion (to usher the congregation out into the world). These works are selected from the great heritage of music specifically written for the organ, and from the hands of such composers as Bach, Couperin, Mendelssohn, and many others. At Trinity, such pieces are often ones in which one of the hymn tunes used in worship can be heard as a solo melody, thus giving an additional “hearing” of the hymn in a new musical guise.

The music heard at Trinity Church illuminates the service in ways that are both gentle and reflective, as well as extrovert and proclamatory, living proof that the “beauty of holiness” can be found in a small neighborhood parish church as well as in a great cathedral.

Music at Trinity:

Pre-Lent and Lent 2026

      Just as Epiphany culminates Christmas and yet also begins its own season, the ending of the Epiphany season also ushers in a transition of its own as well, which we call the Pre-Lenten season.  This consists of the three Sundays before Ash Wednesday, and it serves as a way to transition out of the Christmas/Epiphany focus and move into a Lent/Easter mindset.  Each Sunday marks the progress toward Easter, being respectively 70, 60, and 50 days prior to our Easter celebration, and they are a fitting preparation for the spiritual disciplines of Lent.  Many churches have discarded this mini-season, the argument being that since Lent is already a preparation for Easter, why do we need another one as a “preparation for a preparation”, as it were.  But how mistaken this is!  A healthy observation of Lent involves many types of disciplines, both of body and spirit, all of which are well served by a period of focus and preparation, and our Pre-Lenten season provides exactly that. The readings and hymns all serve to make a smooth transition in our worship from the extrovert joy of Epiphany to the solemn rigors of a holy Lent.  Perhaps the Oxford Movement priest Edward Pusey summed this up most succinctly when he named these three Sundays as constituting “the vestibule of Lent”.  The first of the three pre-Lent Sundays, Septuagesima Sunday, will this year fall on 1 February.

     Our annual observance of the Lenten season begins on Ash Wednesday (this year falling on 18 February), with its emphasis on repentance and contrition in the face of human sin.  Since the season is one of discipline, restraint and self-examination, exuberant music is out of place (we’ll have to wait until Easter for that!), so the organ music and the manner of hymn playing will reflect this.  The postludes, for example, are chorales (hymns of the Lutheran church, whose texts relate to the day’s theme), rather than larger concert works.  This music serves to conclude each service with beauty and definition but without any sense of extrovert celebration, which would be out of place in the Lenten observance.  Also, the word “alleluia” is not heard during Lent, as it is a word of Easter jubilation.

     The five Sundays in Lent explore various aspects of God’s call to repentance, and the Gospel themes include Christ’s temptation in the wilderness, the driving out of the dumb spirit, God’s call to holiness, and Christ as both Priest and Victim.  The focus on God’s calling of His people to repentance is first heard on Ash Wednesday, and continued on the first Lenten Sunday with the further reading of Jesus’ temptation after forty days of fasting in the wilderness.  Because of this, we will sing two particular hymns on the Wednesday and again on the Sunday, namely “The glory of these forty days” and “Lord, who throughout these forty days”, as this is a wonderful opportunity to sing each hymn in midst of different services with their own particular focus.  The former hymn has a text dating to the tenth century, and the words of the latter hymn originally appeared in a hymnal for children in 1873, yet both texts enumerate the ideas of fasting and temptation in a distinctive yet complementary manner.  The fourth Sunday in Lent is traditionally known as “Laetare” (rejoice) Sunday, from the first word of the Latin introit for the day.  On this day the strictness of the Lenten fast is somewhat relaxed, as this is the midpoint of the Lenten journey to Easter.  Purple hangings are often replaced by rose colour, itself a shade that falls “halfway” between Lenten purple and Easter white.

     Some of the great hymns for Lent are also some of the most familiar and well loved:  “Dear Lord and Father of mankind” (with a text by John Greenleaf Whittier), “O for a closer walk with God”, “Turn back, o man, forswear thy foolish ways”, and the well-known “My faith looks up to thee” all explore different aspects of the Lenten message.  The organ music also illustrates the many aspects of Lenten devotion, whether personal prayer or corporate liturgy.  Music based on many of the hymn tunes provides the listener with the opportunity to hear a familiar tune in an artistic and more complex musical garb, and the great repertoire of the 18th-century masters provide a comprehensive musical canvas for the Lenten observance.

     Our next music column will focus on the great drama of Holy Week, and the joyous celebration of Easter,

Steven McDonald