Interesting hymnal

[jbird604]

That would be fun, Michael. If you'll start the thread, I'll be sure to contribute (if I'm able to work the computer after Friday's surgery...)

I once tried to collect hymnals representing all the denominations in which I serviced instruments, though I fell far short. Now and then I'd run into a church yard sale where they'd be selling surplus or obsolete or damaged books for a song. (no pun intended) I've picked up a few oldies that way.

I'll be watching for the thread.

[myorgan]

Folks,

What do you think about a thread where we list the hymnals we have in our collection? Last fall, we did an Old-Fashioned Hymn Sing at one of my churches, and afterward, we had a hymnal display going back to the early 1800s with maybe 50-75 of our hymnals--including some of the shaped note hymnals my maternal grandparents had. It was quite interesting when we found an alternate melody and harmonization of the familiar words, Jesus Loves Me. It was a fun night for all who attended. As always, I over-planned, so we went long, but I plan to rectify that in the future. Upcoming events include a hymn-history night, learning to sing harmony night, etc.

What do y'all think?

Michael

[buricco]

I grew up with the 1966 one, and actually bought a copy recently (because I was looking for a hymn I remembered, and in the form I remembered it I couldn't find it on hymnary.org, but it was there in the '66 — "Come ye sinners, poor and needy" set to PLEADING SAVIOR), which I scanned in completely, so the dead tree copy can remain in near-pristine condition.

I've also got the '89 hymnal that is still in use, a 1990 Presbyterian hymnal, and the 1985 Mormon hymnal, and would be happy to look anything up if needed.

[davidecasteel]

Speaking of interesting hymnals, I came across one a couple of years ago while visiting a cousin who is Seventh-Day Adventist. The SDA hymnal has a very nice selection of hymns, and I bought an accompanist copy at their bookstore in Lancaster, Massachusetts.

I grew up with the dark blue 1933 Methodist Hymnal (not UMC yet) and it is still one of my favorites. (The arrangement of W ZLOBIE LEZY is just fabulous!)

David

[buricco]

Probably a bit late of me to suggest, but I do have a copy of Worship & Rejoice if there's any information anyone here would like out of it.

Personally, I have a fondness for the hymnal I grew up with, the 1966 Methodist hymnal. But I have a few others, too - and I've done some of my own arrangements of stuff out of them.

[MtHermonMaple]

When is someone going to come out with a hymnal that uses off-white pages so the music isn't overly-contrasted between black and white? Lately, there's been a big push to make the pages whiter/brighter than ever, and I find that difficult to play from--especially with a light within 6">12" from the page.

Michael

My favorite older hymnal from 1964 has cream colored pages, and as you said it is such a joy to read the notes from! The contrast is not violent, and no matter what source of light hits the page you can still make out all the notes correctly. The pages are also all a bit thicker and the darker cream color just makes it look better overall. The 1964 "The Northfield & Mount Hermon Hymnal" is that to which I refer, and although it is not associated with any denomination directly, it seems to lean kind of Methodist. I have noticed has has the broadest collection of everyone's favorites however. I would be interested to know if anyone else has even heard of it, being that it was only used at the two schools in its namesake...

[Silken Path]

I didn't see a link or a price to order the acc. version Silken. Did ya just walk down there and knock on the door? Smiles.

Nope, but I could have. Here's the one I ordered.

http://www.celebrating-grace.com/sto...panist-edition

[denf]

I purchased a choir edition of Celebrating Grace recently. It IS a nice hymnal, and I've been going through it looking at hymns for future use. Thanks for mentioning it. As an aside, when I called the publisher to place the order, I got a good dose of Southern hospitality - sweet people.

[searchinferu]

I didn't see a link or a price to order the acc. version Silken. Did ya just walk down there and knock on the door? Smiles.

[Schnarrwerk]

The problem with "contemporary" music is that the definition of contemporary changes every decade or so. I have a couple of "independent" hymnals from the early Eighties that have a lot of tunes from the Sixties and Seventies. While those songs certainly had their fans then, nearly all of them have disappeared. I don't have anything against Contemporary Services per se; one just needs to keep in mind that the music will not have a terribly long shelf life. . . .

[myorgan]

When is someone going to come out with a hymnal that uses off-white pages so the music isn't overly-contrasted between black and white? Lately, there's been a big push to make the pages whiter/brighter than ever, and I find that difficult to play from--especially with a light within 6">12" from the page.

Michael

[Silken Path]

I also think the 77 "New Broadman Hymnal" is a good hymnal to play from. Even the pew edition is sharp, although the typesetting is a bit dark and a little bit of a throw-back. At least it's consistent.

[jbird604]

I hadn't thought about either of those in a long time, SP! Yes, "The Kingdom Is Coming" would be far from PC these days. I suppose "His Way With Thee" might sound a little suggestive in the wrong way to some people!

Your references gave me a reason to pull my 1956 off the shelf for the first time in a long time. I always thought it was a great hymnal, and I still think it was produced with a lot of attention to detail. Compared to the old Broadman that preceded it by a decade or so, it is highly refined, and of course more "high church" style too. I remember when my church changed over from the Broadman to the 1956 some time in the 60's, and I thought it was a great upgrade, though I wasn't all that aware of the reasons for the changes. It just looked so much neater to me, as a pianist. However, looking at it today, I realize how much cleaner and readable the 1991 is.

The 1975 was a blip, a slip-up, not a helpful revision. The book itself looked less substantial, the pages seemed somehow bare, the font seemed less clear. And a number of "new" hymns were included that were out of date before they sold the first copy. Baptists' first attempt to get relevant and cool, I suppose. The "young people" were being exposed to the music of Ralph Carmichael and the like via the "youth musicals" that were all the rage in church camps and youth conferences. So I guess the powers at Broadman Press thought it time to put some of that material into the hymnal.

Then 1991 gave us a genuine classic. They left out the fluff from 1975 that didn't survive, returned to a bolder font, made the paper sturdier, restored a few hymns from 1956 and even from the Broadman, I think. And included just a smattering of the best "new" stuff. Remarkably, almost every new song they chose has endured to this day. Somebody learned a lesson from 1975.

My disappointment with 2008 is well known, and I'm not the only one of course. But it's nice to see these good new ones coming off the presses. Let's keep on singing the good ones!

[Silken Path]

My main go-to hymnal has been a 91 SBC accomp. version that I bought used. I'm looking for a better used one so I can retire this one. The pages are so wavy it's hard to get consistent lighting. I think CG is actually a little nicer in the fonts/clarity department and the contrast is terrific. New hymnals are so NICE to have.

I still play out of the 56 Baptist, as it's what I grew up with. Nothing else is like "The Kingdom is Coming!" and talk about no longer politically correct... But I fail to see what's politically incorrect about "His Way with Thee."

[jbird604]

I think the current trend of mixing in the responsive readings and other spoken materials with the hymns is a bad idea, though I understand why they do it. I sort of liked the old system of having a completely separate portion of the book for those. Having them all in one place made it easier to find an appropriate selection when seeking one on a given theme. Perhaps future publishers will go back to the old way of doing it.

Glad to hear that it has excellent clear printing. From what I've seen in the on-line ads, it looks very much like the Baptist 1991, which was also a marvel of clarity, with perfect fonts and just the right contrast and darkness of the printing in the scores.

I also think that the pages have just the right amount of extra info on them, not too cluttered, but showing all the important stuff, such as the tune name, meter, alternate tunes and keys, dates, etc. That's another thing that the Baptist 1991 had just right.

Also, to the Baptists' credit, their hymnals have always featured the best arrangements of just about every tune, and their judicious emendations and stanza selections have always been more thoughtful than some other hymnals. I've especially become aware of these two things in trying to adapt to the Chalice, which has some rather peculiar arrangements of several tunes, and seems to have chosen some of the most peculiar stanzas to include on certain hymns while leaving out a few that I thought were the best.

So you might say that I still love the Baptist 1991 that I enjoyed for so many years in my former denomination, and I'm glad to see what amounts to a nice updated version of the same hymnal with a number of worthy additions, and without any of the fluff thrown in to appeal to the contemporary worship crowd.