CHURCH MUSIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21396, 20 October 1934, Page 11 (Supplement)

CHURCH MUSIC

NEW HYMNAL ISSUED DEVELOPMENTS OF TASTE The music rendered in churches Sunday after Sunday is obviously a potent inlluence in the formation of taste, good or bad; and hymns and hymn tunes necessarily play a large part in the process. It follows that much may be learned from an examination of the numerous new tunc books (and new editions of old ones) which have issued from the press in the last 20 or 30 years. The Presbyterians brought out the revised edition of their " Church Hymnary," a uniquely judicious compilation, in 1927. The Anglicans, who started a reforming movement with the " English Hymnal " in 1906, pushed the process a stage further in 1925 with the earlier edition of " Songs of Praise," and another group in the same communion showed a desire to set their house in order when they brought out in 1922 a revised form of the popular " Hymns, Ancient and Modern." The latest contribution, published in London in December and shortly to be adopted in New Zealand, is intended to meet the needs of the recently reunited Methodist Churches of Great Britain, and its appearance is highly significant. It was John Wesley who brought out in 1737 the very first hymn book (as distinguished from collections of versified psalms) ever compiled for use in the Church of England, and he and his successors have had an enviable prominence in the use and development of this department of public worship. The new book takes the place of the not very satisfactory publication of 1904. This, like the earlier edition of the Presbyterian " Church Hymnary," suffered slightly from the rather effeminate gentility which is generally traced to the influence of the earlier editions of " Hymns* Ancient and Modern." The music of the 1933 book is definitely healthier in tone. There are many more old melodies and traditional airs, English, German, French and Welsh, and the reasonably numerous new tunes in many cases show a like directness and strength and freshness. Composers who have been in the forefront of the recent reforming movement in church music are well represented: Martin Shaw has six tunes; Vaughan Williams Has three, including, of course, "Sine Nomine"; Walford Davies has four; Hubert Parry has six.

Earlier Methodist tune books have notably failed to take account of the musical sons (Charles and Samuel) and grandson (Samuel Sebastian) of Charles Wesley the hymn writer. The new book goes some way toward restoring the balance; there is one tune (and a very good one, too) by Charles, the musical prodigy of whom it is said that at the age of two and three-quarter years he could play " a tune on the harpsichord readily and in just time " and " always put a true bass to it"; there are three tunes by the younger brother Samuel, the comparatively backward child, of whom we are told that he was three years of age before he played a tune (but he made up for this by composing and writing down an oratorio when he was about eight). Samuel Sebastian Wesley, one of the great figures in the history of English church music, is here represented by |en tunes, whereas in the earlier book he had only four. Even now it must be felt by those who rightly estimate his stature that the representation is inadtequate. A rather startling innovation is the inclusion of a considerable number of hymns and tunes of what is called the Moody, and Sankey type. This provides some rather strange juxtapositions; on one opening, for example, you find, side by side, a fine translation by Robert Bridges of an old Latin hymn, set to a noble tune by Dr. William Croft., and, just across the street (so to speak), an American hymn and tune of quite a different pattern. But the compilers probably knew whaf; they were about and the usefulness of the book may prove to have been increased by an element of liberality in their outlook. This new collection is remarkably comprehensive, containing as it does 984 hymns, as against 656 in the " English Hymnal," 707 in the Presbyterian " Church Hymnary " and 779 in the current edition of " Hymns, Ancient and Modern." It may not succeed in completely satisfying either ultra-con-servative diehards, on the one hand, or red-hot reformers on the other, but there is reason to think that it will be generally accepted as a successful attempt to meet all reasonable demands.