Glory to God: A Companion

By Carl P. Jr. Daw

This informative resource provides a brief history of each hymn in the popular hymnal Glory to God. Written by one of the foremost hymn scholars today, the Companion explains when and why each hymn was written and provides biographical information about the hymn writers. Church leaders will benefit from this book when choosing hymn texts for every worship occasion. Several indexes will be included, making this a valuable reference tool for pastors, worship planners, scholars, and students, as well as an interesting and engaging resource for music lovers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Release date: May 25, 2016
• ISBN: 9781611646528

Carl P. Jr. Daw

Carl P. Daw Jr. is Adjunct Professor of Hymnology at Boston University School of Theology and one of the most respected hymn scholars today. An Episcopal priest, he has served as Executive Director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada and the author of many books and articles on hymnology. He has been the text writer of numerous hymns that have appeared in hymnals in the United States, Canada, and throughout the world.

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© 2016 Carl P. Daw Jr.

First edition

Published by Westminster John Knox Press

Louisville, Kentucky

16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25—10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. Scripture quotations marked NEB are taken from The New English Bible, © The Delegates of the Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press, 1961, 1970. Used by permission.

Sing a New Song to the Lord: An Historical Survey of American Presbyterian Hymnals, by James Rawlings Sydnor, was previously published in American Presbyterians 68, no. 1 (Spring 1990). Reprinted, with minor edits, by permission of the Presbyterian Historical Society. Lyrics appearing in Sing a New Song are reprinted by permission of Hope Publishing Company. Lyrics appearing in hymns 24, 349, 503, 512, 515, 691, 716, 733, 769, and 818 are reprinted by permission of Hope Publishing Company. Lyrics appearing in hymns 26 and 827 are reprinted by permission of Augsburg Fortress. Lyrics appearing in hymn 297 are reprinted by permission of The Pilgrim Press. Lyrics appearing in hymn 315 are reprinted by permission of Julian B. Rush. Lyrics appearing in hymn 316 are reprinted by permission of World Library Publications. Lyrics appearing in hymn 332 are reprinted by permission of the Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC). Lyrics appearing in hymn 449 are reprinted by permission of Christopher Webber. Lyrics appearing in hymns 453 and 674 are reprinted by permission of OCP. Lyrics appearing in hymn 526 are reprinted by permission of the estate of John W. L. Hoad. Lyrics appearing in hymn 852 are reprinted by permission of GIA Publiscations, Inc.

Book design by Allison Taylor

Cover design by Allison Taylor

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Daw, Carl P., Jr., 1944- author.

Title: Glory to God : a companion / Carl P. Daw Jr.

Description: Louisville, KY : Westminster John Knox Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and indexes.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016000540 (print) | LCCN 2016001352 (ebook) | ISBN 9780664503123 (alk. paper) | ISBN 9781611646528 ()

Subjects: LCSH: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)—Hymns—History and criticism. | Hymns—United States—History and criticism. | Glory to God.

Classification: LCC ML3176. D39 2016 (print) | LCC ML3176 (ebook) | DDC 782.27088/285137—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016000540

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Westminster John Knox Press advocates the responsible use of our natural resources. The text paper of this book is made from 30 percent post-consumer waste.

CONTENTS

Preface

Abbreviations

Sing a New Song to the Lord:

An Historical Survey of American Presbyterian Hymnals

by James Rawlings Sydnor

The Development of Glory to God

by David E. Eicher

Hymns and Tunes

Biographies

Glossary

Works Cited and a Select Bibliography

Indexes

Index of Authors, Translators, Composers, Arrangers, and Sources

Alphabetical Index of Tunes

First Lines and Common Titles

PREFACE

This Companion to Glory to God is intended to help worship leaders, especially clergy and musicians (as well as interested members of the congregation), to become better informed about what they sing. In particular, this information is offered here with the hope that it will enlarge the choice and enhance the use of what is sung, so that a congregation will have the fullest possible repertoire and will employ those hymns and songs in a way that engages people on multiple levels.

Where does such a task begin? The entries in hymnal companions traditionally open with a consideration of the text, perhaps because it is often written before its musical setting is composed and perhaps because historically the word hymn denoted a literary form rather than a musical one. Whenever possible, these entries include information about the creation and earliest publication of the text, as far as such facts can be determined. Sometimes there will be an engaging story behind the writing of a hymn, but the measure of the value of a hymn cannot be fully assessed by its biographical or narrative connections.

To take a case in point: Many people associate the John Newton text Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound (no. 649) with his regretted participation in the slave trade and sometimes even assert that this hymn is connected with the moment of his conversion. Such an explanation is appealing but untrue: as indicated at that entry, the text was written years later as part of Newton’s regular pastoral duties in conjunction with a New Year’s Day sermon he preached on January 1, 1773. Many people are also surprised to learn that this hymn’s customary final stanza in many hymnals (including this one) is not by Newton and was not annexed to this text until 1910. As a result, modern singers seldom encounter all six of Newton’s original stanzas, leaving them with a distorted sense of his intentions.

Although the distance between fictionalized background and actuality is not always as striking as in this instance, the origins of a popular hymn are often less remarkable than the story of its transmission. How a hymn written to support a New Year’s sermon by a relatively obscure English vicar could become almost universally familiar is worth as much consideration as any purely biographical event. In other words, the most interesting (and perhaps most significant) aspects of a text’s history may be connected not with the author’s biography but with the fortunes of the hymn itself.

This is one reason why the entries for individual hymns do not attempt to provide the primary biographical material for an author or composer: the biography may not be the most important thing to connect with the text. Also, grouping biographies in a separate section of a hymnal companion provides an opportunity to draw attention to relevant biographical factors for multiple texts and to compare the extent to which such factors played a role in the work of various writers. Not having to incorporate biographical material has the further benefit of keeping the individual write-ups focused on the text or tune at hand and heightening an awareness of how well its concerns have been dealt with.

Separating general biographical information from textual and musical entries further highlights the need to deal with their content and structure. Two decades ago, Madeleine Forrell Marshall wrote a book called Common Hymnsense (Chicago, 1995), arguing strongly for people who sing hymns to approach them with the same linguistic and critical acumen that they bring to other texts: What are these words actually saying? Do they accomplish what they are trying to do? How well do the parts of the hymn fit together? Is there a discernible pattern in the order of the stanzas? How might the text be clearer or more convincing? Consequently, this companion attempts to call attention to the literary strengths and weaknesses of each hymn text.

One place where such engagement with the written word becomes especially important is in texts that we now sing almost exclusively in translation. It is a longstanding truism that to translate is to betray, a remark reflecting the difficulty of conveying in another language all the meanings and connotations of the original vocabulary. But as anyone knows who has sung any substantial choral work both in the original language and in English translation, there is much more to a text—especially a text set to music—than simply its linguistic pedigree. In particular, there are patterns of sound inherent in the original language that both evoke and reinforce—or perhaps even contradict—the musical patterns to which they are set. In a Latin text, for example, the fullness of the vowel sounds creates a very different sonic aura from that of the fricative consonants in a German text. Often English translations do little to convey the resonances that connect the text in its original language with the tune written for it.

A corollary point can be made here about the transition of English texts from an archaic or Elizabethan pattern of pronouns (thou, thee, thy, and thine) and related verb forms (often ending in -eth or -est) to one that is rather vaguely called modern or contemporary. While considerable clarity can be gained by substituting you and your, such decisions also need to include attention to the sound of the text. In other words, questions of vocabulary need to take into account more than simple denotation or even connotation; they also involve consideration of what is communicated by the sound of the words.

Admittedly, this is a level of attention that few, if any, hymnal companions have addressed. The customary pattern has been to deal with the origin of the text in a fairly documentary way, either by citing the text in its original language or by indicating its first known appearance. Especially when no engaging narrative can be supplied about the origins of the text, this information has often been thought sufficient. In some cases attention has been given to alterations or omissions in the hymnal at hand when compared with the original version (occasionally with reference to a facsimile of one or more early printings).

Often hymns are a response to other texts rather than to specific events. Right at the head of the list of such materials are the Scriptures. There are still countless hymn lovers who are unaware that A Mighty Fortress Is Our God (no. 275) is based on Psalm 46 or that Joy to the World (nos. 134 and 266) and Jesus Shall Reign Where’er the Sun (no. 265) are Isaac Watts’s paraphrases of Psalms 98 and 72, respectively. Similarly, the hymn texts of Charles Wesley have an abundance of biblical allusion that often goes unnoticed by most singers.

Much of this lack of recognition is owing to the fact that such patterns of allusion have almost entirely changed their function in modern times. When these texts were created, in an age of biblical literacy, the hymn writers wove in such language as a means of gaining authority. Now it is often the case that such a hymn or song is an introduction to Scripture passages people do not know and do not recognize. It therefore becomes especially important for the compiler of a hymnal companion to indicate as fully as possible what scriptural passages have shaped a hymn text and, as much as possible, to distinguish between allusions that are thematic and those that are idiomatic. Charles Wesley, for example, was so thoroughly steeped in the language of the Authorized (King James) Version that he could incorporate its cadences almost unconsciously, with the result that modern readers may well need some help in distinguishing what is figure and what is ground in the shaping of his hymns. Above all, in its treatment of scriptural paraphrases and scriptural allusions this hymnal companion endeavors to convey both an appreciation of the spiritual discipline of creating such hymns and a willingness to hold them up to scrutiny in order to evaluate whether they have faithfully and artfully represented the intention of the original passage.

Which leads to the much less tangible area of theological implications. Thomas Aquinas, Philip Doddridge, and Brian Wren, for example, have all written hymns on themes related to the Lord’s Supper, yet each of those texts arises out of a distinct theological position (often within a milieu of divergent theological positions) and needs to be appreciated for the views that inform it. Yet even in calling attention to the author’s theological stance, it is possible to show how the text in question is not necessarily limited to the writer’s assumptions. Sometimes language that once was used with factional emphasis (e.g., table vs. altar) has with the passage of time been subsumed into a common ecumenical vocabulary, so that its original precision has been dulled. While it is good that modern readers and singers familiar with current usage do not hear these old battle cries, they need to be alerted to the shift in meaning that has taken place, both because calling attention to the theological care with which a text has been created becomes a means of highlighting its artistry and because the waning of past divisions gives hope for the demise of current ones.

Even authors who are clumsy or uninformed in theological matters may write well, and it is important for the commentary on a hymn text to identify its particular poetic strengths and weaknesses. In order to avoid repeated definitions in the body of the entries, a glossary of technical literary terms is printed at the end of the volume. At the very least, the literary discussion attempts to convey some sense of the poetic craft required to construct cogent texts in special situations: the unstressed rhymes that conclude the odd-numbered lines of many German chorales, the challenge of writing a forceful short line, the constriction of using only one rhyme at the end of the even-numbered lines of a six-line stanza. Even the choice of poetic foot has implication for the resulting text: a trochaic text is more likely to be declamatory, an iambic text to be narrative or beseeching, a dactylic text to be written in a longer line length. Not every text deserves or will sustain extended literary analysis, but close attention to a few masterpieces, such as Watts’s When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (nos. 223 and 224), can help to communicate the possibilities of a characteristic hymnic form.

Turning now to musical considerations, many of the same principles regarding documentation of first appearances apply. But, contrary to the general situation with texts, a tune may have been in existence long before it was written down and even longer before it was adapted to or published for sacred use. In many cases, the secular musical predecessors of a hymn tune are great fun to identify, largely because they demonstrate a more robust willingness to adapt music for sacred use than many people are comfortable with today.

The more difficult aspect of the musical commentary comes in articulating musical analysis in a relatively nontechnical way. To bridge possible gaps in a reader’s familiarity with music-related terms (like melisma or pentatonic), the essential ones are included in the glossary near the end of the book. But even with a reasonable arsenal of such terms, it is no easy matter to put into words all the pertinent qualities of a hymn’s musical setting.

To take a well-known example, a chord-by-chord analysis of the sort one would do in a music theory course is likely to be overkill when dealing with even such a straightforward tune as NICAEA (no. 1), yet it seems necessary to call attention to how adroitly John Bacchus Dykes has avoided the trap of using only I, IV, and V chords, which would have been entirely possible for his relatively spare melody. Not all musical settings, of course, will merit or sustain extended commentary. Many tunes, for example, appear in the pew edition only as melody lines, with the result that accompaniments are not available to the singers.

Also, some of the musical commentary for settings given only in melody line calls attention to intervening performance practices that are now recognized as being unadvisable. A notable example of this sort is Genevan psalm tunes. In original practice, all such tunes were sung in unison by the congregation without accompaniment. The numerous surviving four-part versions by Claude Goudimel and others were intended for recreational use at home, not for worship. As these tunes came into use by other singing traditions, especially those with the expectation of organ accompaniment, the harmonized versions became normative. Now that an appreciation of the intended singing style has been regained by many hymnal compilers, more and more Genevan psalm tunes are appearing with only a single melody line. There are, however, some practical limits that impinge on the fruit of such scholarship: few, if any, present-day congregations would be willing to sing the GENEVA 134/OLD HUNDREDTH tune (especially to the Thomas Ken doxology text at no. 606) only in the original manner. In the present hymnal one compromise between scholarship and current singing practice has been to mark some tunes Unison or harmony with the hope that the former will prevail (and that accompanists will encourage such singing).

In these and other ways, this companion is intended to help people who sing hymns to do so with informed appreciation and engaged imagination. This guide to the textual and musical materials of Glory to God is both a description of what has been gathered in that book and a suggestion of the potential for expanding both words and music beyond what is printed on the page. By articulating the implications of the text and by suggesting how alternative tunes might make possible new appreciation for a familiar text, this commentary can help the leaders in a particular congregation to make fuller use of the resources of this hymnal. For example, a choir with limited musical resources can create a simple anthem by merely singing familiar words to a different tune. A hymn that pulls together the themes of a church season or a local emphasis can be used in successive weeks in order to provide a focus of worship and meditation. Alternatively, a group of hymns dealing with an issue from different perspectives can be a means of affirming the varying viewpoints within a congregation or even a denomination. Conversely, calling attention to the many denominations from which hymn writers have expressed an ecumenically shared faith can be a powerful affirmation of unity in the face of divisive forces.

More important than the information this companion contains or any insights it may provide into literary, musical, theological, or liturgical history and practice will be its effectiveness in encouraging an appreciation of the sung prayer of the church as the deepest and truest expression of all that the church is called to be and to do. The ultimate goal of the materials gathered here is to claim or reclaim the full range of the church’s voice of proclamation and prayer, demonstrating the ancient and future wisdom of Augustine’s maxim that whoever sings prays twice.

In the course of compiling a resource like this, one necessarily incurs many debts of gratitude for those who have assisted in this task.

At the head of that list come the compilers of hymnal companions past and present, a cloud of witnesses represented in the first section of the bibliography. The longer I have worked on this project, the greater has been the sense of connection I have felt with others, both dead and living, who have preceded me in such labors, and the greater has been the gratitude I wish to express.

•To LindaJo McKim, who compiled the companion to The Presbyterian Hymnal 1990, I am especially grateful for identifying many Presbyterian connections that I, as a non-Presbyterian, would not have recognized and that often figure significantly in appreciating the dimensions of a hymn.

•To I-tō Loh for the wealth of information about Asian hymnody gathered in his Hymnal Companion to Sound the Bamboo and for his help with particular questions.

•To colleagues Michael Hawn and Carlton (Sam) Young, on whom I have so often relied for advice and direction in pursuing background information and in evaluating multiple ways of understanding partial and inconclusive evidence.

•To Paul Westermeyer, who (as the most recent compiler of a comparable book) has often saved me the trouble of tracking down important details, especially biographical information about living authors and composers. I have benefited greatly both from the data he has compiled and from the insights he has offered regarding texts and tunes.

In addition to these principal supports, there are numerous people to whom I extend thanks for helping me in various specific ways:

•To Rhidian Griffiths, who has been so graciously helpful and informative about matters related to Welsh hymns and to the meaning of various Welsh terms. Any remaining errors of translation result from my overconfidence in moving ahead without consulting him.

•To Martin Hoondert, who has been similarly patient and responsive to questions related to Dutch hymnody and the Dutch language.

•To Yasuhiko Yokosaka, for similar help with Japanese matters.

•To Marylynn Rouse of the John Newton Project (U.K.), who furnished me with the very helpful background materials I used in preparing the text commentaries for nos. 81 and 649.

•To Jason Runnels, who has been of invaluable assistance in providing me with scans of many items from the Bowld Music Library at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

•To Adam Tice, who has been similarly helpful in locating materials at Goshen College and the Mennonite Historical Library.

•To Greg Scheer, for help with matters related to global song.

•To Anthony Ruff, OSB, for patient and informed responses to questions about Roman Catholic liturgical matters, both old and new.

•To Michael Silhavy, for patient responses to my questions about GIA publications.

•To Valerie Ruddle, for the gift of a full set of her travel narratives to locations in the British Isles commemorated in hymn tune names.

•To Stacey Battles de Ramos of the Boston University School of Theology Library, who has often gone the second mile in obtaining materials for me through interlibrary loan, even after an initial request was refused.

•To the staff of the Presbyterian Historical Society, especially Charlene Peacock, Elaine Shilstut, and Lisa Jacobson, for courteous and professional responses to my requests for information.

•To the numerous authors, composers, translators, and arrangers who have responded to appeals for biographical information. Their cooperation has greatly enhanced the materials offered in the biographies included on the CD.

•To David Eicher, for serving so diligently as the editor for this project and for his essay concerning the creation of Glory to God.

Lastly, and chiefly, I am grateful for my beloved wife, May, who has endured the strains and stresses of this project with graceful resolve and especially in its final, hectic stages has kept me grounded in the realities of eating regularly and getting adequate sleep.

Carl P. Daw Jr.

ABBREVIATIONS

SING A NEW SONG TO THE LORD

AN HISTORICAL SURVEY OF AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN HYMNALS

*

JAMES RAWLINGS SYDNOR

I

The use of The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs in the life of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will be inaugurated at the 1990 General Assembly. This momentous launching of a new hymnal happens thirty-five years after the publication of The Hymnbook in 1955. This period of time matches the experience of many major denominations which issue a new hymnal each generation. It is appropriate at this time that we review the history of Presbyterian hymnals in the United States.

The contents of Presbyterian hymnals were shaped by many people, beginning in the Old Testament. But the two men who had the most profound influence on the course of Presbyterian congregational song were John Calvin (1509–1564) and Isaac Watts (1674–1748). The former established a norm for the source of texts of church song, and the latter, about a century and a half later, expanded the scope. As we trace the development of hymnals in the major Presbyterian branches in America, we will find the philosophy of these two men not only defining the contents of our books of praise but also influencing the alliances within the church.¹

John Calvin sets forth his conviction as to the content of church song in the Epistle to the Reader of his first Genevan metrical psalter: Now what Saint Augustine says is true—that no one can sing things worthy of God save what he has received from Him. Wherefore, although we look far and wide and search on every hand, we shall not find better songs nor songs better suited to that end than the Psalms of David which the Holy Spirit made and uttered through Him.² This declaration has given psalmody a large influence in the worship and life of Presbyterians up to the present time. Our new hymnal will have a large special section devoted to the psalms arranged in numerical order.

Genevan psalmody spread in many directions.³ It was channeled into our American Presbyterian praise mainly through the Church of Scotland. And the psalter which had wider use in colonial Reformed churches than any other was the one adopted by the Church of Scotland on 1 May 1650. It bore the title The Psalms of David in Meeter: Newly translated, and diligently compared with the original Text, and former Translations: More plaine, smooth and agreeable to the Text, than any heretofore. It had its beginnings nine years earlier in the version written by Francis Rous, a member of the Westminster Assembly, and, during the Commonwealth, a member of Cromwell’s Council of State.⁴ This was the psalter which the Scots and Scotch-Irish brought with them to America. Frequently it was bound in with their Bibles and often called Rous’ Version.

For approximately 150 years after Calvin’s death, his followers sang almost exclusively metrical psalms, especially in England and Scotland. But in the first two decades of the eighteenth century the genius of Isaac Watts loosened the hold of metrical psalmody. In Millar Patrick’s words, he opened the sluice gates to let the stream flow free.⁵

Isaac Watts, the creator of the modern English hymn, had a powerful, originative mind and a dauntless spirit. After a brief pastorate in London, being in fragile health, he spent the rest of his life in semi-retirement at the home of Sir Thomas Abney, devoting most of his time to writing. He was author of about sixty volumes, including hymns and metrical psalms as well as theological and philosophical works. His textbook Logic was used in Oxford for many years.⁶

In 1707 he published Hymns and Spiritual Songs, which contained 210 hymns in three meters, Long, Common, and Short. Many of his hymns stand with the finest in the English language and some of them with the greatest in the world, including When I survey the wondrous cross, I sing the almighty power of God, and Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove.

His Psalms of David imitated in the language of the New Testament, and apply’d to the Christian state and worship. By I. Watts was published in 1719. The book contained versions of 138 psalms. The remaining 12, and some passages from those retained, were excluded from Watts’s volume as unsuitable for Christian use. In his lengthy Preface, or an Enquiry into the Right Way of Fitting the Book of Psalms for Christian Worship, Watts wrote, I come therefore … to explain my own design, which in short is this, namely, to accommodate the book of psalms to Christian worship … to make them always speak the common sense of a Christian. My shepherd will supply my need, for example, was based on Psalm 23, Jesus shall reign on Psalm 72, Our God, our help in ages past on Psalm 90, and From all that dwell below the skies on Psalm 117.

With this introduction, we turn to examination of the major hymnals of the American Presbyterians from colonial times to present. Because The Presbyterian Hymnal: Hymns, Psalms, and Spiritual Songs (1990) was commissioned at the time of the healing of the division of the Civil War of 1861, this essay will focus on the traditions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States, often referred to during these years as the Southern and Northern Presbyterian churches.

II

The Presbyterian Church of the colonies was largely a psalm-singing church. Although there was no prescribed version of the metrical psalms, The Psalms of David in Meeter from Scotland was widely used in Presbyterian congregations. In 1717 Presbyterians organized the Synod of Philadelphia. This was two years before Watts published his Psalms of David Imitated in London. In 1729 Benjamin Franklin issued the first American edition of Watts’s Psalms. During the next century the psalms and hymns of Watts’s gradually, with much resistance, made their way into the worship and life of Presbyterians.

A strong influence in modifying the hold of the old psalmody was the evangelical fervor aroused by the Great Awakening in the late 1730s and early 1740s. Watts’s Christianized psalms and his hymns were well adapted for giving expression to the gospel message of this revival.

Watts’s texts had a very mixed reception in Presbyterian congregations. In 1752, the Synod of New York heard complaints from a congregation about the introduction of Watts’s Imitations and appointed a committee to adjust the difficulties. In 1754 the Synod decided, since Dr. Watts’s version is introduced in this church, and is well adapted for Christian worship, and received by many Presbyterian congregations, both in America and Great Britain, they cannot but judge it best for the well-being of the congregation under their present circumstances, that they should be continued.⁷

But, by contrast, there is evidence that many churches and pastors had only slight acquaintance with Watts’s psalms and hymns. In 1763, when the Synod of New York and Philadelphia was questioned as to whether churches were at liberty to sing Dr. Watts’s imitation of David’s Psalms, the Synod was not prepared to give a full answer, as a great number of this body have never particularly considered Dr. Watts’s imitation.⁸ However, Samuel Davies (1723–1761), engaged in missionary work in Virginia, was enthusiastically introducing not only The Psalms imitated but even the Hymns of Watts. In 1755 he wrote from Hanover, Virginia, that Watts’s Psalms and Hymns was the system of psalmody the Dissenters use in these parts. In the same year he requested the London Society for Promoting Religious Knowledge for a good number of the Psalms and Hymns for use by black people. He said that they have a kind of ecstatic delight in psalmody.⁹

The propriety of singing evangelical hymns as well as metrical psalms was settled in 1788 by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia. Whereas the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) had stated that it was proper in public worship to include singing of psalms with grace in the heart,¹⁰ the 1788 Directory for the worship of God stated: 1. It is the duty of Christians to praise God, by singing psalms, or hymns, publicly in the church, as also privately in the family. The new General Assembly thus accepted hymns and psalms.

This chapter Of the Singing of Psalms continues with practical advice about how to improve congregational song:

2. "In singing the praises of God, we are to sing with the spirit, and with the understanding also, making melody in our hearts unto the Lord. It is also proper that we cultivate some knowledge of the rules of music, that we may praise God in a becoming manner with our voices, as well as with our hearts.

3. "The whole congregation should be furnished with books, and ought to join in this part of worship. It is proper to sing without parceling out the psalms, line by line. The practice of reading the psalms, line by line, was introduced in times of ignorance, when many in the congregation could not read; therefore, it is recommended that it be laid aside, as far as convenient.

4. The proportion of the time of public worship to be spent in singing is left to the prudence of every minister; but it is recommended that more time to allowed for this excellent part of divine service than has been usual in most of our churches.¹¹

The early collections of psalms and hymns used in Presbyterian churches had no tunes. As described above, the Directory for Worship stated the singing was led by precentors who would read a line, after which the congregation would sing it, and so on to the end of the psalm or hymn. Presbyterians had to wait until 1866 to receive their first authorized hymnal with music score included.

Percy Scholes graphically describes the musical bedlam which hymns obtained in many colonial congregations. "The tunes, being learnt only by ear, have diminished in number down to eight or ten in some congregations or half this in others;¹² so many graces [ornaments or shakes] have been introduced that the tunes have become unrecognizable; the graces differ so much that no two congregations sing a tune in the same way; for want of knowledge of the notes the various members of a congregation do not keep together. Scholes then quotes an early writer who said that the tunes were miserably tortured and twisted … which sounds in the Ears of a Good Judge like five hundred different tunes roared out at the same Time."¹³

As a result of this cacophonous situation, a considerable clamor for improvement arose in the 1700s. The reform was based on what was called Regular Singing (i.e., singing from notation and observing uniformity of rhythm and pitch). A number of instruction books appeared, among them one written by Thomas Walter of Roxbury, Mass.: The Grounds and Rules of Musick explained, or an Introduction to the Art of singing by Note fitted to the meanest capacity, (Recommended by several Ministers, 1721).

The move toward regular singing was hastened by the enthusiastic work of early singing masters like William Billings (1746–1800) who in the late 1700s went from place to place establishing Psalmody classes. Billings’s New-England Psalmsinger (1770) contained a large number of his own compositions. In the 1800s Lowell Mason (1792–1872), Congregationalist, and Thomas Hastings (1787–1872), Presbyterian, were leaders in a movement to reform church music. By lectures and writings, by establishing singing schools for the young and singing classes for congregations, by training church choirs to be leaders of congregational singing, and especially by publication of tune books, they helped create a revolution in congregational music.

As early as 1796 the new General Assembly was overtured to appoint a committee to compile a hymnbook, but the proposal was allowed to lie on the table. In 1820 the Assembly decided that it might proceed without offending any of our churches, and appointed a committee to prepare a compilation of Psalms and "a copious collection of hymns and spiritual songs from various authors, giving the preference to those now authorized [i.e., Watts’s Hymns] so far as good taste, sound sense, and enlightened piety admit."¹⁴ Archibald Alexander, president of Princeton Seminary and a member of the committee, wrote the preface, which extolls the unsurpassed excellence of Watts’s hymns and made a sharp distinction between hymns that are or are not suitable for public worship.¹⁵

After years of work and revision, the book was accepted in 1830 by the General Assembly and published the next year as Psalms and Hymns adapted to public worship, and approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Philadelphia: published for the General Assembly.

The first part of the book contains the entire metrical psalter mainly in long, common, and short meters, concluding with several pages of doxologies. Two-fifths of the 531 hymns were written by Watts, with the remainder written by seventy authors, including 12 by Charles Wesley and 27 from Olney Hymns, published in 1779 by John Newton and William Cowper. Both the psalms and hymns are printed without music or the name of the author, each text being headed only by its number and meter. The alphabetical Table of First Lines gives the page number and last name of the author.

This was the only hymn book made by the undivided church. In 1837 Presbyterians split, the sections being called Old School and New School. The next year the Old School General Assembly took steps to revise the 1831 psalter. This revision was published as Psalms and Hymns adapted to social, private, and public worship in the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Approved and authorized by the General Assembly. Philadelphia (Presbyterian Board of Publication, 1843). The metrical psalter begins the volume, followed by 680 hymns. There is no identification of authorship either with the individual text or in the indexes of psalms and hymns. Each hymn is headed with a phrase summarizing the text, such as Renunciation of the World and Divinity and Humanity of Christ. The volume concludes with the Form of Government, the Directory for Worship, and the Shorter Catechism.

The New School General Assembly of 1840 authorized a committee to procure an edition of Psalms and Hymns for general use without expense to the Assembly. They adopted with some revisions a collection of psalms and hymns made by Dr. Nathan S. S. Beman of Troy, New York, in 1841. The Assembly accepted it without opposition. It was published as Church Psalmist; or Psalms and Hymns, for the public, social, and private use of evangelical Christians (1843).¹⁶ The expression Social in the title means adapted also for the use of families and private circles in seasons of revival, to missionary meetings, to the monthly concert, and to other occasions of special interest.

Louis F. Benson states that during these decades the psalms and hymns in the hands of the congregation were not very appealing and, being without music, the singing was almost wholly in the hands of the choir. Benson thus describes the singing of the 1840s: With the hymn books not only dull but misapprehended and misused in the pulpit, and the constantly changing tune books confined entirely to the choir loft, the congregations had fallen into the habit of leaving the choir to do all the singing.¹⁷

When the first authorized hymnal appeared in 1831, there had been one Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. By the close of 1861 that church was divided into the Old School Presbyterians, New School Presbyterians, the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America, and the United Synod of the Presbyterian Church.

III

One of the actions of the organizing General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States of America, meeting in December 1861 in Augusta, Georgia, was the appointment of a committee to revise and prepare for the use of our Church a suitable Hymn Book.¹⁸ The Moderator of this Assembly, the Rev. B. M. Palmer, was made chairman of this committee. Because of the travail of the war, this book did not appear until 1867. It is interesting to note that the 1866 General Assembly, in adopting the report of the special committee on the hymn book, directed the committee to incorporate in the Book of Psalms not less than fifty from the version used in the Scottish churches, arranging these under the several Psalms as part 1st, 2nd, etc., as it may deem best.¹⁹

The first praise book of the Southern Presbyterians was Psalms and Hymns for the Worship of God. Approved by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, at its meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, November 1866 (Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1867). This book was printed in three editions of different page sizes. Part 1 is the Psalter, consisting almost exclusively of Watts and Rouse [sic]. For example, Psalm 1, First Part That man hath perfect blessedness was by Rouse and the Second Part, Blest is the man who shuns the place, was by Watts. Each of the 697 hymns has a heading. For example, Jesus, lover of my soul is titled Christians have all in Christ. Hymns are arranged in topical categories whose titles are as follows: God, The Saviour, Holy Spirit, Salvation Needed, Salvation Revealed, Salvation Provided, The Gospel Call, Effectual Calling, Benefits of Called, Graces, Duties, Worship, Particular Seasons, Particular Classes, Sacraments, Christ’s Kingdom, Time and Eternity, and Doxologies.

The 1865 General Assembly had instructed the hymn book committee to initiate measures for the compilation of suitable music for the Hymn Book, which will be adapted alike for social and public worship, and for use of Sabbath Schools.²⁰ The committee completed this task and the church published the Book of Hymns and Tunes comprising The Psalms and Hymns for the Worship of God, Approved by the General Assembly of 1866, arranged with appropriate tunes, and an Appendix, Prepared by the Presbyterian Committee of Publication, by Authority of the Assembly of 1873 (Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1874).

Although the title states that this book was based on Psalms and Hymns, published eight years earlier, its format made it very awkward to use in conjunction with it. Instead of printing the texts in the same order as the earlier book, the editors chose to arrange the book according to the meters. The first 71 pages have Long Meter tunes, the next 129 pages have Common Meter, and so forth. Each page has the four-part score of a tune with one stanza of a text interlined. Then below, depending on lengths, the texts of two to four psalms or hymns are printed. Indexes enable readers to find the desired psalm or hymn. The composer and date of the music are listed above the score. However, to find the translator of the psalm text, one has to consult the index of first lines of psalms. Authors of hymns are listed in an expanded Table of Contents in which the 697 hymns are catalogued under the various topical groupings. An appendix of 154 hymns was added, one of which is What a friend we have in Jesus with the familiar tune which had been recently composed by the music editor of this volume, C. C. Converse. The book concludes with Rules of Parliamentary Order.

The difficulties of using these hymnals led subsequent General Assemblies to commend to the church the following two hymnals with music: Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs. A manual of worship for the Church of Christ (New York: Barnes, 1875), edited by Dr. Charles S. Robinson, and Hymns of the Ages for Public and Social Worship (Presbyterian Committee of Publication, New York, 1891). The latter was compiled and edited by the Rev. Robert P. Kerr with aid of six clergymen, one of whom, Dr. Moses D. Hoge, recommended it in a two-page introduction. The full music score is at the top of the page with one stanza between staves. The tune name, meter, and composer with dates are included. At conclusion of each text is the name of the author with birth and death dates.

The General Assembly of 1898, responding to overtures of at least one-third of the presbyteries, appointed a committee to prepare a hymn book which will meet the demands of our Church, the product of her own life and effort and to have the book ready for use by 1903. Their work, completed by 1901, was The New Psalms and Hymns published by Authority of The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. A.D. 1901. The preface gives large credit to the personal assistance of the Rev. Louis F. Benson, whose excellent book of praise, The Hymnal, 1895, of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, had been a model.

The book contains 715 psalms and hymns intermixed and concludes with 15 chants. The Preface states: A large number of the versions of Psalms has been distributed through the book, under appropriate classification. An index of these, at the beginning of the book, puts them within as easy reach as if arranged separately, after the old way. Indexes include Table of Contents, First Lines, Alphabetical Index of Tunes, Metrical Index of Tunes, Index of Scripture Texts, Index of Subjects. Hymns are printed with one text per tune. Amens were not appended to any hymns. There are no biblical passages for unison or responsive readings. A words-only edition was also published.

At the Indianapolis Y.M.C.A. convention of 1870, Dwight L. Moody first met Ira D. Sankey, and in 1872 they started the first evangelistic campaign in Great Britain. These leaders popularized the gospel song in Britain and America and were followed in their use of them by many other evangelists. Benson explains some of the effects of the gospel song movement: In many denominations the Gospel Hymns took possession of the Sunday schools, Christian Endeavor societies and devotional services, and encouraged a generation to grow up largely without the help and inspiration of great hymns. To many of these the tone of Church Praise seems still to lack the ‘go’ and vivacity to which they had grown accustomed; and Gospel Hymns, old and new, keep knocking at the church gates for admission.²¹

The Presbyterian Church in the United States clearly illustrates Benson’s analysis. The 1910 General Assembly authorized and directed the Publication Committee to issue a new collection of sacred music especially suited for evangelistic services and for general services of the Church and Sabbath Schools.²² This collection was Assembly Songs for use in Evangelistic Services, Sabbath School, Young People Societies, Devotional Meetings, and the Home (Presbyterian Committee of Publication, 1910). It consisted of 238 items, which were almost exclusively gospel songs, with a few standard hymns toward the back of the book. It was followed in 1917 by Life and Service Hymns, another gospel songbook published by the Committee of Publication. Then in 1926 this Committee issued Premier Hymns: Selections for the Church, the Sunday School, Young Peoples Meetings, Evangelistic Services and great religious conferences, assembled with a happy balance. This was a gospel song collection with B. D. Ackley as music editor and composer of many of the entries.

The General Assembly of May 1925 appointed a committee to prepare another church hymnal with instructions, among other things, to print all of the hymn texts within the music scores, to add Amen to each hymn, and to include Scripture passages for responsive reading. The book was issued by the Presbyterian Committee of Publication in 1927 as The Presbyterian Hymnal published by authority of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Its quality was severely diminished by the absence of a trained hymnologist or musician on the eight-man committee. In 1940 the Publication Committee broke the cycle of gospel songbooks for Sunday schools by issuing the Hymnal for Christian Worship (Richmond: John Knox Press), which contained 340 of the standard hymns arranged in topical categories. A limited number of gospel songs were included.

IV

The General Assembly of the Old School branch of the Presbyterian Church published its first authorized hymnal in 1866. This book was the first Presbyterian hymnal to introduce hymn tunes on its pages. Its title was Hymnal of the Presbyterian Church Ordered by the General Assembly (Presbyterian Board of Publication). The hymnal opens with 69 Scripture selections set to Anglican chants followed by the Ten Commandments, The Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. Then follow 534 hymns with music score at top of the page without any text between words. There is no Preface but at the end of the book there is an Explanatory Note followed by a Table of Contents and several indexes. The three-page Explanatory Note acknowledges the musical assistance of Mr. C. C. Converse and Dr. Lowell Mason. In 1867 a text-only edition of this hymnal was published with the addition of 257 hymns labeled Miscellaneous. In 1870 the Old School North and the New School North were reunited amid great rejoicing. The Presbyterians of the South declined an invitation to join this union. After reunion the Assembly appointed a committee which prepared The Presbyterian Hymnal (Presbyterian Board of Publication, Philadelphia, 1874). It was largely the work of the Rev. Joseph T. Duryea under direction of a committee of five appointed by the General Assembly. The hymnal included 972 hymns with full score without interlining of text. This book was strongly influenced by Hymns Ancient and Modern, a famous hymnal which in 1861 had been published in England. From it Duryea drew recently composed tunes like the ones for Abide with me and The church’s one foundation. The book concludes with the Form of Government and Discipline, Directory of Worship, and the Shorter Catechism. A text-only edition was also published.

The decades after the Civil War witnessed the publication of many hymnals without denominational sponsorship. Between 1862 and 1892, Dr. Charles S. Robinson, a Presbyterian pastor, published not less than fifteen, one of which became the official praise book of the Southern branch of the Presbyterian Church. One of the most influential hymnals was compiled by the Rev. Henry Ward Beecher with the aid of his organist, John Zundel, and published in New York in 1855. Its title was Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes; for the use of Christian congregations. Beecher’s 1,374 hymns were drawn from hymnals of many denominations. The fame of the spirited singing of the large congregation of Plymouth Church spread far and extended the use of Beecher’s Collection into a number of other denominations.

During this period the impatience of some Presbyterian congregations for a more adequate hymnal was evidenced by a number of hymnals edited for a particular congregation. In 1855 the Rev. Leonard W. Bacon, pastor of the St. Peter’s Church, Rochester, NY, published Church Music; with selections … from the Psalms and Hymns of the Presbyterian Church. Adopted and recommended by St. Peter’s Church, Rochester. Then in 1864 The Book of Worship in use in St. Peter’s Church of the Presbytery of Rochester City, New York was published. This was a collection of 483 hymns with 104 Scripture lessons and a large collection of forms of worship. The Brick Presbyterian Church, New York City, published The Sacrifice of Praise (1869: revised ed. 1870; musical ed. 1872). This collection of 616 hymns won favor in other congregations as well. Hymns of the Church: Ancient and Modern for the use of all who love to sing the praises of God in Christ (1837), a collection of 410 hymns, was compiled by the pastor, the Rev. Samuel R. Wilson, First Presbyterian Church, Louisville, KY.

The plethora of independently published hymnals created a large problem for the Presbyterian Church. Benson describes the situation and solution: Every pastor was being pressed by agents of hymn book publishers, and the number of churches which turned from the Assembly’s authorization to the market to find their praise books was increasing with each year. To regain the position thus sacrificed was impossible. To regain at least something of it, the only course left open was to prepare an authorized hymnal that might make its way by the force mainly of its superiority to those in the market, coupled with whatever sanction still remained in the recommendation of the Assembly.²³

The church’s answer was for the General Assembly of 1888 to order the Board of Publication to prepare a new hymnal. Its editorship was entrusted to the Rev. Louis Fitzgerald Benson (1855–1930), America’s foremost hymnologist.²⁴ After a brief pastorate of the Presbyterian Church of the Redeemer in Germantown, Pennsylvania, Benson devoted the rest of his life to editing hymnals and teaching liturgics and hymnology in seminaries. His magnificent library on hymnology and liturgy is now housed in the Speer Library of Princeton Seminary.

The Presbyterian Church published The Hymnal published by authority of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath-school Work, 1895). Dr. Benson, with his encyclopedic knowledge of hymnody and the resources of his enormous private library at hand, had surveyed the whole field of hymnody. He stated that the hymns were chosen in the interests of devotion as distinguished from homiletics.²⁵ He prepared a book unexcelled in utility and editorial carefulness. It set a new standard of church praise. Amens were included after each hymn. Shortly after the publication of this hymnal, the Board of Publication, in order to round out the Presbyterian books of praise, issued under Dr. Benson’s editorship The Chapel Hymnal (1898) and The School Hymnal (1899).

The 1911 revision of The Hymnal of 1895 reflected recent concerns and emphases of the church’s life. For example, a section of 29 hymns for Evangelistic Services was added. Also, this was a period in the church’s life when Walter Rauschenbusch and others were writing and preaching the Social Gospel. As an example of this emphasis, Benson included Frank Mason North’s Where cross the crowded ways of life, written in 1903. Also added was Henry van Dyke’ s recently written Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee. In 1917 a wartime edition of this famous hymnal incorporated a Supplement of three patriotic songs—Kipling’s God of our fathers, known of old, The star-spangled banner, and The battle hymn of the republic.

In 1926, a smaller Benson hymnal titled Christian Song was published by the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education. In a four-page Preface, Benson gives the rationale for this more compact book by saying, The use of the hymnal as a companion of our private devotion, its place in the home circle, the thought of it as a book to be owned and loved and read, seem almost to have passed away. Hence the reduction of this hymnal to 410 hymns. Then, two years later, he edited The Smaller Hymnal, published by the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education. In his Preface, Benson said that this book with 375 hymns was designed for congregations where a book is desired somewhat less cumbersome than the accustomed church hymnal.

It is significant to note that all of Benson’s hymnals had only the first stanza interlined between the two staffs of the music score. Presumably he believed that the congregation could master the tune while singing this one stanza and then be free to concentrate on the text which was written as a poem below the music. In his 1926 Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, he called the growing custom of placing all stanzas between the music staffs the latest menace to the integrity of our hymns. He then gives three pages to explaining his objections to this movement.²⁷ His main objection was his fear that congregations would not be able to read and/or sing hymns with comprehension of the words if the text were printed between staves. His concern is not shared by editors of most American hymnal publishers, who almost universally interline all or most of the hymn stanzas.

Another landmark hymnal of the Presbyterian Church was published by the Presbyterian Board of Christian Education in 1933. It was The Hymnal published by authority of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. Edited by Dr. Clarence Dickinson and his associate editor, the Rev. Calvin Laufer, it became known fondly as the Dickinson hymnbook. This hymnal was prepared at a propitious moment in church music history. Never before had there been such an abundance of hymnological knowledge with channels for compiling and communicating this information. Many persons and events contributed to this. In 1892 Canon John Julian, with the aid of his many scholarly contributors (including Dr. Benson), published a monumental opus—A Dictionary of Hymnology setting forth the Origin and History of Christian Hymns of all Ages and Nations. In 1896 Dr. Clarence Dickinson and fellow church musicians founded the American Guild of Organists. In 1906 The English Hymnal, edited by Dr. Ralph Vaughan Williams, was published. In 1922 The Hymn Society of America was organized. Several years later two Presbyterian musicians founded prestigious church music institutions which have graduated thousands of professional church musicians. Dr. Clarence Dickinson (1873–1969) established