Christian hymnals are the work of a number of contributors - authors and translators of hymn texts and composers and arrangers of tunes, but also of the editors responsible for selecting and pairing hymns with hymn tunes. The work of these editors is very important in determining the success and popularity of a particular hymn.
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Editors bring extensive knowledge of theology, poetry, and music to the process of compiling a new hymnal. They seek texts that are capable of communicating complex theological concepts to lay people, and they strive to partner those texts to tunes which are singable by the non-professional musicians of a congregation. "Ideally, a hymn is set out in clear, unambiguous language. Although it deals with profound thoughts, a hymn states them so simply and directly that 'he who runs may read' and understand. Simplicity, which is the servant of clarity, is the first characteristic of hymnic expression."[1]
When editors choose a text for the planned collection, it may already be paired to a tune that supports its meaning, catches its spirit, and allows for congregational participation. This pairing may be used elsewhere, even ecumenically recognized, appearing in many other hymnals. However, if a hymn has been linked to a tune the editors think is not the best partner for it, they can arrange a new pairing. Partnerships of texts and tunes can give special attention to the interpretive opportunities in a text by providing artistic support of the message through its musical setting. Editors must consider whether the important words in the text fall on stressed notes, whether climax points in the ideas correspond with musical climaxes, and whether the tempo for the music matches the style of the text.
Often the author of a text has not composed a setting of that text or otherwise paired the text to a particular tune. It then becomes the editor's challenge to complement that text with a tune for publication. Where the meter of a text is regular, editors can choose an existing tune of the meter that fits the text. Often there is more than just one good possible partner available. The editors may marry a text "X" to a tune they feel is best, with which it appears on the hymnal page, and they may also suggest singing text "X" to an alternative tune that appears elsewhere in the hymnal (sometimes with a different text). If one refers to the hymnal's metrical index, more possible tunes may be found, of the same meter, which might be used for singing text "X".
In The Anatomy of Hymnody, Austin C. Lovelace explores the relevance of the meter to a text.[2] A meter of few syllables, perhaps with a trochaic stress pattern, fits best an exhortive or forceful declamation of ideas. A stirring, motivating text will fit this meter well. Using a more lyrical meter suggests a more expansive or introspective treatment of ideas. An author may have superb ideas but may have chosen a meter which exhorts when it should be expansive, or is solid when it should be introspective. In such cases the editor is challenged to achieve an overall fit which doesn't distract from the message of the text.
Editorial skills are evident in the complex credits of some hymns. For the well-loved and great hymn, "All creatures of our God and King," the words are attributed to St. Francis of Assisi, circa 1225, are translated by William H. Draper in 1925, with adaptions added in 1987. It is wedded to the tune LASST UNS ERFREUEN, first printed in the Geistliche Kirchengesangbuch, dated 1623, and is presented with a harmonization by Ralph Vaughan Williams, dated 1906.[3]
Some texts become associated with several tunes. For different reasons, some tunes set numerous texts. Tunes which are very singable and easy for a congregation to pick up, and do not have musical demands which would interfere with understanding and assimilating the ideas of a text, can be used to set two or three texts in a hymnal, when the editors see that as advantageous. WAREHAM LM, melody William Knapp (1698–1768), alt., harm. Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1875, after James Turle (1802–1882), sets three texts in Hymnal 1982. It has supported more than 20 texts in various hymnals.[4]
The Book of Psalms has sometimes been called the first hymn book.[5][6][7] Some psalms are headed with instructions relating to their musical performance, music to which they were "married," even though no music is included with the texts.
Psalters contained metrical versifications of the psalms. Using a regular meter, authors would translate the psalms into the vernacular, and create versions which could be set to music for the people to sing.
The earliest English psalters included a few tunes in regular meters, which could be used to sing all the psalms in the psalter. Which tune was sung was determined by the fit of the meter. The Ravenscroft Psalter of 1621 was the first English book which "married," specified by name, which tune should set each text.[8] In that early time of defining text/tune marriages, editors of different psalters sometimes used different names for the same tune. For example, THE FRENCH TUNE, in the Scottish Psalter (1564), is the same tune as DUNDEE in the Ravenscroft Psalter.
Hymnals evolved from psalters, in that hymns are songs for the congregation and choir to sing, but go beyond metrical recasting of only psalm texts. In early hymnals, only texts were printed. By the mid 18th century, hymnal editors began marrying particular tunes, by name, to individual texts. A century later, in the 1861 (first) edition of the English Hymns Ancient and Modern, for the first time, the music was printed with its text on the hymnal page. Many marriages from that book became and remain ecumenically endorsed, including those where a tune was composed and appeared in print for the first time in that 1861 edition. Heber's text, "Holy, holy, holy" had first appeared in Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury, 3rd edition, 1826. NICAEA (1861) was written by J. B. Dykes to set it "for the first edition of Hymns A & M." [9]