Over a period of time, the writers of metrical psalms turned to fashioning free paraphrases of psalm texts. Eventually, in the seventeenth century, several English authors began to write hymn texts independent of the specific words of Scripture. Nineteenth-century fervor for hymn singing culminated with the publication of the most famous and influential of all hymnbooks, Hymns Ancient and Modern. The first half of the twentieth century witnessed growth in the study of hymnology, which led, in turn, to a variety of carefully planned hymnals that have had great influence to the present day.
Foremost among the early English hymn writers was Benjamin Keath (1640–1704). In 1668, he became the pastor of the Particular Baptist Church in Southwark. Then, as early as 1674, he published some hymns for use in his church—in particular, hymns written to be sung at the close of the Lord’s Supper. His second collection of 300 original hymns appeared in print in 1691 under the title Spiritual Melody. By this time those in favor of singing hymns each week prevailed over the opposing minority.
Similarly, another Baptist pastor, Joseph Stennett (1663–1713) of London began writing hymns to be used by his congregation at the service of the Lord’s Supper. In 1697, his significant collection of Hymns in Commemoration of the Sufferings of Our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ, Compos’d for the Celebration of His Holy Supper appeared.
Isaac Watts
However, it was another pastor, Isaac Watts (1674–1748), who was to become the “Father of English Hymnody.” A Nonconformist, he felt no obligation to follow the Church of England ordinance that only the inspired psalms of scripture were to be sung in corporate worship services, a rule that was held in effect until 1821. Nor did he feel limited by the adherence of the Calvinists to the literal Scripture text.
In order to gain acceptance of his ideas, he published The Psalms of David imitated in the language of the New Testament in 1719. In this collection, he versified and paraphrased 138 psalms in hymn form. He had decided to treat the majority of these psalms using the three best-known meters—the common meter, long meter, and short meter. In this process, Watts strove for two primary goals: to interpret psalms in the light of Christ and to write in a language readily acceptable to those who would sing his paraphrases. His first goal was particularly well accomplished. This is evident to the careful reader who will compare any Watts paraphrase with the psalm text on which it is based. Compare, for example, the text, “Jesus Shall Reign,” with the text of Psalm 72, the stanzas of “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” with Psalm 90, “Joy to the World” with Psalm 98, and “Give to Our God Immortal Praise” with Psalm 136.
His contribution to hymnody is even more significant, beginning with his 1707 collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs. The 210 hymns of this collection appear under three headings: (1) hymns based upon Scripture, (2) hymns composed upon divine subjects, and (3) hymns for the Lord’s Supper. Subsequently, an additional 135 hymns were added in the 1709 edition. Among these was his model hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” Here, he ideally combines objective realities and subjective sensitivities, expressing thoughts and feelings common to all Christians. This hymn and so many others by Watts are still in regular use throughout America. In fact, apart from Charles Wesley, it may well be that there are more hymns by Watts in current American hymnbooks than by any other single author.
There are ten hymns by Watts in the Psalter Hymnal (1987). The Lutheran Book of Worship (1978) and The Presbyterian Hymnal (1990) each have thirteen. The Baptist Hymnal (1991) lists fourteen, The United Methodist Hymnal (1989) has fifteen. Seventeen are indexed in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982; there are eighteen hymns in The Worshiping Church (1990), and Rejoice in the Lord has an amazing thirty-nine!
The contemporaries of Watts who lived in his shadow are also represented in the collections of hymns used by various denominations today. Joseph Addison (1672–1719) is remembered by “The Spacious Firmament on High” and Joseph Hart (1712–1768) by “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.” Philip Doddridge (1702–1751) a pastor of the Congregational Church, had seven hymns in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 and eight hymns in the Reformed Church in America’s Rejoice in the Lord. The best known of these hymns might well be his jubilant Advent hymn, “Hark, the Glad Sound! The Saviour Comes.”
The Wesleys
The two brothers, John (1703–1791) and Charles (1707–1788) Wesley, were inseparable. From their days at Oxford and the Holy Club, John, the great organizer, had the support of his younger brother Charles, “the first Methodist.” Together they boarded the Simmonds in 1735 and sailed for America, John to serve as a missionary to Native Americans, and Charles to serve as personal secretary to the Governor of Georgia, General James Oglethorpe.
During a storm at sea, John was deeply impressed by the conduct of the twenty-six Moravians traveling with them. While the English cried out in fear of being drowned, the Moravians—men, women, and children—calmly prayed and sang hymns. So impressed with their confident faith, John eagerly began his study of the German language and earnestly sought to translate their hymns into English. After his return to England, he journeyed to Hernhut where he made the acquaintance of the founder of the Moravian Church, Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf (1700–1760), himself a hymn writer. Back in London, John pursued an association with the Moravians there.
However, while John was still in America, he edited the first hymnal to be published in America, including in it some of his own translations of Moravian hymns. This Charles Town book of 1737 was entitled A Collection of Psalms and Hymns. A second collection was printed in London in 1738. In 1739, the Wesley brothers began their cooperative work of compiling hymnals, a work that was to include some fifty-six publications within fifty-three years. The culminating book was the famous and influential work of 1780, A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists. Arranging hymns according to Christian experience instead of by the church year, they placed Charles’ “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing My Great Redeemer’s Praise” first. More than two centuries later, this same hymn was accorded the honor of being the first hymn in The United Methodist Hymnal (1989).
This hymn is at once personal, evangelical, and scriptural. The nine stanzas, printed in 1780, were selected from eighteen stanzas previously written in 1739 “for the Anniversary Day of One’s Conversion.” The original text begins with the words “Glory to God, and praise and love”. However, the stanzas in the 1780 collection were rearranged and are, in reality, stanzas 7–10, 12–14, 17 and 18 of the original work. The first line echoes the words of Moravian Peter Bohler to Charles: “Had I a thousand tongues, I would praise him with them all.” The song was likely sung to the tune birstall at the time of its publication.
This and other music that the Wesleys used in their open-air meetings and field preaching was collected in the 1742 Foundry Collection, named after the main Methodist meeting house in London, an abandoned foundry. Only a few psalm tunes from the music editions of the New Version were included. Only four years later, in 1746, their friend, J. F. Lampe (1703–1751), the London bassoonist and composer, issued a collection of twenty-four tunes. And later in 1753, another friend, Thomas Butts, published a complete collection of all of the tunes used by the Methodists at that time. John Wesley compiled an additional collection of tunes in 1761, which appeared ten years later in a second edition.
The tunes were popular in character and were sung at a lively tempo. Old tunes were refashioned and made to sound contemporary. And whereas the older psalm tunes were communal music in which everyone sang the melody together in unison, the new tunes, written out as melody and bass, were better suited for a soloist with accompaniment. They were the ideal vehicle to accompany the evangelical preaching of the two brothers and their associates. They were tuneful, catchy melodies adapted from the opera entertainments heard in London at that time. The Beggar’s Opera and other light operas cast in a more simple style than the Italian operas of the day provided the reservoir which the Methodists tapped for new materials. This adapted music had instant appeal.
Contemporaries of the Wesleys
An early associate of the Wesleys, the evangelistic preacher George Whitefield (1714–1770), is still represented in the current United Methodist Hymnal by his alteration of Charles Wesley’s Christmas song, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” as is John Cennick by his table grace, “Be Present at Our Table, Lord.” Moreover, the work of Augustus Toplady (1740–1778) is signaled by the popular song, “Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me.” Toplady, one of several Calvinist preachers who with Whitefield were a part of Lady Huntingdon’s (1764–1865) “Connexion,” was appointed one of her chaplains. Although she wrote no hymns herself, she encouraged a number of hymn-writing friends in their efforts and promoted the publication of their works. Edward Perronet (1726–1792) had already left the Wesleys when he wrote “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.” William Shrubsole, the composer of the tune Miles Lane used for the hymn, was the organist of one of the chapels established by Lady Huntingdon.
The Olney Hymns
Within the Church of England, the ban on hymn singing in worship services continued. Only psalm-singing was allowed. However, the evangelical influence grew within the ranks of the clergy, and hymn singing was permitted at meetings held outside the sanctuary. Beginning with publications issued in 1760 by Martin Madan (1725–1790) and in 1767 by Richard Convers, new texts became available. However, it was not until 1779 that a truly significant book appeared. That book was Olney Hymns by John Newton (1725–1807) and William Cowper (1731–1800). The two men lived close by each other in the village of Olney, where Newton was the Church of England curate. Together they prepared hymns for the meetings held in the “Great House,” which included weekday services, children’s activities, and prayer meetings.
Cowper is still remembered for his hymns, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way,” “O For a Closer Walk with God,” and “There Is A Fountain Filled with Blood.” Newton, who at one time had been employed in the slave trade, is remembered by his autobiographical hymn, “Amazing Grace,” the most popular of all hymns in America. He was also the author of “How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds” and “Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken.”
During the transition period which followed the publication of the Olney Hymns, James Montgomery (1771–1854) wrote the Christmas favorite, “Angels From the Realms of Glory,” and Thomas Kelly (1769–1855) wrote, “The Head That Once Was Crowned With Thorns.”
The Nineteenth Century
The new literary style of the nineteenth century was established by Reginald Heber (1783–1826). Consecrated as Bishop of Calcutta in 1823, he died only three years later. His work, Hymns, Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year, was then published posthumously. It included the familiar text, often placed first in hymnals of the past, “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty!” The romantic style is also evident in Charlotte Elliott’s (1789–1871) “Just As I Am” and Robert Grant’s (1779–1838) “O Worship the King.” The musical style changed as well. Harmonic enrichment of the melodies became the distinguishing characteristic of English congregational music.
The Oxford Movement. The Oxford Movement was originally known as the “Tractarian Movement” because of the numerous tracts or pamphlets written between 1833 and 1841 by John Henry Newman (1801–1890), John Keble (1792–1866), and others. It all began in 1833 when Keble preached his famous “Assize Sermon” in the church of St. Mary in Oxford. His public stand against national apostasy came to be printed and widely distributed, serving to rally a response in the Church of England to the growing influence of evangelicalism.
This response included bold attempts at the reformation of the worship services of the Church of England and a renewed interest in reviving the ideals of the pre-Reformation Catholic Church. With great respect for the sacraments, the clergy of the church began to counteract the obvious abuses seen in worship services. They also nurtured personal piety. Moreover, with the re-examination of the Book of Common Prayer, the liturgical hymn gained prominence. Whereas the evangelical hymn of personal experience had been read and sung at home and sounded in the fields and meeting houses, the new hymns (which followed the church year), were designed for corporate worship within the sanctuary. Of particular interest was John Keble’s collection of hymns, The Christian Year (1827).
Much of the repertoire was resurrected from the past and was the work of translators of Greek, Latin, and German Hymns. From John Mason Neale’s Translations of Medieval Hymns and Sequences, modern hymnbook editors have retained the Advent song, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” the Christmas chant, “Of the Father’s Love Begotten,” and the Palm Sunday hymn, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor”. From Edward Caswell’s (1814–1878) 1849 collection of translations, Lyra Catholica, many still sing “Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee”, and from Catherine Winkworth’s 1855 edition, Lyra Germanica, several hymns have been preserved: “If You Will Only Let God Guide You,” “Now Thank We All Our God”, “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” and the two great chorale texts, “O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright” and “Wake, Awake, for Night is Flying.”
All of this laid the groundwork for the amazing success of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Although the Church of England had not authorized a hymnal (and would not until 1921), the wide acceptance of this English companion to the liturgy influenced congregational singing in profound ways. Fully 131 of its 273 hymns were by English men and women and were already in use. Another 132 were translations of Latin hymns and another ten of German hymns. The first edition, under the guidance of Henry Williams Baker, was published in 1860. The next year the music edition was released, having been edited by William Henry Monk (1823–1889). For the first time, text and music were printed together. And although sales records were destroyed in the war years of 1939–1945, it is estimated that 150 million copies of this hymnal have been sold. Since the first editions in the 1860s, a variety of editions and revisions of Hymns Ancient and Modern has been issued, including the 1969 supplement 100 Hymns for Today (London: William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1969).
The new hymns called for appropriate music, and it was decided by the musicians who formed the committee that new tunes needed to be written. Speaking in the musical language of Victorian England, John Bacchus Dykes (1823–1876) contributed Nicaea (“Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty”) and Henry Thomas Smart (1813–1879) composed regent square (“Angels from the Realms of Glory”). Sir Arthur Seymour Sullivan (1842–1900) contributed St. Kevin (“Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain”), George Job Elvey (1816–1893), st. george’s Windsor (“Come Ye Thankful People Come”), Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876), aurelia (“The Church’s One Foundation”); and W. H. Monk contributed the more than 16 tunes and harmonizations which are now in the Hymnal 1982, one of the most familiar tunes being eventide (“Abide With Me, Fast Falls the Eventide”).
During the remainder of the century, efforts in evangelism accompanied by enthusiastic singing increased in England, Scotland, and Wales. The singing generally was focused on the hymns of Watts, Wesley, and Newton. Then in 1873, the American evangelist Dwight L. Moody (1837–1899) and his song leader, Ira D. Sankey (1840–1908), introduced the gospel song of America to the English populace. About this time Elizabeth Cecilia Clephane’s (1830–1869) beloved song, “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” and Joseph Parry’s (1841–1903) tune Aberystwyth (“Jesus, Lover of My Soul”) became well known.
The Twentieth Century. The two most influential hymnbooks of the first quarter of the twentieth century, The English Hymnal (1906) and Songs of Praise (1925) set new textual and musical standards for congregational singing. The scholarly effort that editor Percy Dearmer (1867–1936) brought to these outstanding collections was appreciated by the cooperating musicians. The 1906 hymnal is famous because of the efforts of music editor Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) to improve the quality and variety of its hymn tunes. His search took him to the wealth of British folk song which he both recorded and adapted. One highly successful merger was the tune forest green and the text “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” In addition, his own original tunes, Sine Nomine (“For All the Saints”) and down Ampney (“Come Down, O Love Divine”) have continuously increased in popularity. The 1925 collection followed the lead of The English Hymnal but contained more adventurous music that was written or selected by Martin Shaw (1875–1958) and his brother Geoffrey (1879–1943).
In addition to new tunes, a number of new texts came into common usage during the first half of the century. In 1906, Canon Henry Scott Holland (1847–1918) of St. Paul’s in London, and author of only one hymn, penned “Judge Eternal, Throned in Splendor.” In the same year, Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) contributed “O God of Earth and Altar” to The English Hymnal. In 1908, “In Christ, There is No East or West” by John Oxenham (1852–1941) was borrowed from Bees in Amber. Finally, in 1931 Jan Struthers (1901–1953) wrote the inspiring text, “Lord of All Hopefulness.”