Saturday, June 7, 2008

Our 63 universal hymns

Here is a list of the 63 hymns (text-tune pairings) found in all eight of the hymnals at my disposal that are used by Evergreen Baptist Association English-language congregations:

A mighty fortress is our God Ein' feste Burg
Abide with me fast falls the eventide Eventide
Alas and did my Savior bleed Hudson
All hail the power of Jesus' name Coronation
Amazing grace how sweet the sound that New Britain
Angels from the realms of glory Regent Square
Angels we have heard on high Gloria
Be still my soul Finlandia
Beneath the cross of Jesus St Christopher
Blessed assurance Jesus is mine Assurance
Blest be the tie that binds Dennis
Break thou the bread of life Bread of Life
Breathe on me breath of God Trentham
Christ the Lord is risen today Easter Hymn
Come thou almighty King Italian Hymn
Come thou fount of every blessing Nettleton
Come we that love the Lord Marching to Zion
Come ye thankful people come St George's Windsor
Faith of our fathers living still St Catherine
For all the saints who from their labors rest Sine Nomine
Go tell it on the mountain Go Tell It
God of our fathers whose almighty hand National Hymn
Great is thy Faithfulness Faithfulness
Hark the herald angels sing Mendelssohn
Holy holy holy Lord God almighty Nicaea
How firm a foundation Foundation
I am thine O Lord I have heard thy voice I Am Thine
I come to the garden alone Garden
I love to tell the story Hankey
I need thee every hour Need
It came upon the midnight clear Carol
Jesus keep me near the cross Near the Cross
Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Duke Street
Joyful joyful we adore thee Hymn to Joy
Just as I am without one plea Woodworth
Let us break bread together on our knees Let Us Break Bread
Love divine all loves excelling Beecher
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming Battle Hymn
More love to thee O Christ More Love to Thee
My hope is built on nothing less Solid Rock
O beautiful for spacious skies Materna
O come all ye faithful Adeste Fideles
O come O come Emmanuel Veni Emmanuel
O for a thousand tongues to sing Azmon
O God our help in ages past St Anne
O little town of Bethlehem St Louis
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross Old Rugged Cross
Rejoice ye pure in heart Marion
Rock of Ages cleft for me Toplady
Silent night holy night Stille Nacht
Sing them over again to me Words of Life
Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling Thompson
Sweet hour of prayer Sweet Hour
The church's one foundation Aurelia
There is a name I love to hear O How I Love Jesus
There's a sweet sweet Spirit in this place Manna
We gather together Kremser
Were you there when they crucified Were You There
What a fellowship what a joy divine Showalter
What a friend we have in Jesus Converse
What child is this Greensleeves
When I survey the wondrous cross Hamburg
When peace like a river attendeth my way Ville du Havre

The complete list of the texts and tunes in the eight hymnals is in a spreadsheet at this location on the Fremont Baptist website. I've tried to treat various modernizations and inclusive rewrites, wherever possible, as "the same as" their older versions; details can be found in the notes in the spreadsheet. I probably missed a couple of those, however, where the New Century Hymnal's first line differs drastically from the received text.

Note that a text that is not uniformly found with the same tune may be underreported. For example, "Away in a manger" is in all eight hymnals, but failed to make the "universal" list because although seven of the hymnals give it to Mueller (aka Away in a Manger, the eighth gives it only to Cradle Song (four of the hymnals give both tunes).

I would be thrilled to receive feedback triggered by these data.

Leland

4 comments:

Can Bass 1 said...

My word! (Is that sufficient feedback?)

C.W.S. said...

Took a while to get around to this, BUT...

The trial materials for the possible MCC hymnal included 52 of these 63.

Omitted for copyright reasons:
Be still my soul
Great is thy faithfulness
There's a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place

(I don't recall if the issue was that the fees were too high or if they would not allow any word changes, but all of these three would have somehow made it into the final hymnal)

Omitted this particular version:
Christ the Lord is risen today
(We used the other composite version, Jesus Christ is risen today)

Omitted for various other reasons:
Beneath the cross of Jesus
Faith of our fathers
I need thee every hour
Mine eyes have seen the glory
More love to thee, O Christ
O beautiful, for spacious skies
The Church's one foundation

Used, but with diffeent tunes:
Love divine, all loves excelling
(HYFRYDOL)
When I survey the wondrous cross
(ROCKINGHAM)

Of the omitted hymns/tunes, we used the following tunes with other texts: AURELIA, BATTLE HYMN, BEECHER, HAMBURG, ST. CHRISTOPHER

Oh, and we wrote a new refrain for I am thine, O Lord

robert said...

Thanks for your list of hymns Leland. As a hymn historian, I'm always interested in such things. In 1982, a man named Homer Duncan went through 42 hymnals and created a list of 1,521 hymns. He then ranked them according to how many hymnals each was found in.

Topping the list were: Abide with Me, and Joy to the World, in 23 books. Silent Night, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Rock of Ages, and O God Our Help in Ages Past were in 22. And so on.

Of these "chart-toppers" you're only missing Joy to the World on your own list. And since you have a special interest in hymns, I encourage you to check out my daily blog at...
www.wordwisehymns.wordpress.com
It will tell you what happened in hymn history on that date. God bless.

robert said...

Thanks for your list of hymns Leland. As a hymn historian, I'm always interested in such things. In 1982, a man named Homer Duncan went through 42 hymnals and created a list of 1,521 hymns. He then ranked them according to how many hymnals each was found in.

Topping the list were: Abide with Me, and Joy to the World, in 23 books. Silent Night, What a Friend We Have in Jesus, Rock of Ages, and O God Our Help in Ages Past were in 22. And so on.

Of these "chart-toppers" you're only missing Joy to the World on your own list. And since you have a special interest in hymns, I encourage you to check out my daily blog: www.wordwisehymns.wordpress.com
It will tell you what happened in hymn history on that date. God bless.