BIBLIOGRAPHY

What is a (good) hymn?

“Hymns,” Werner’s Magazine, vol. 18, no. 8 (August 1896), p. 756: HathiTrust

“On the principles to which a hymn-book should be constructed,” John Ellerton: Being a Collection of His Writings on Hymnology, Together with a Sketch of His Life and Works, ed. Henry Housman (London: SPCK, 1896), pp. 223–244: HathiTrust

Carl F. Price, What Is a Hymn? Papers of the Hymn Society, no. 6 (NY: Hymn Society, 1937): HathiTrust

V.M. Caird, “The hymn as a literary form,” HSGBI Bulletin, no 38 (Jan. 1947), pp. 1–9: Online

Erik Routley, “What makes a good hymn?” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 3, no. 6 (Spring 1953), pp. 90–96: Online

Erik Routley, “What remains for the modern hymn writer to do?” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 3, no. 9 (Jan. 1954), pp. 148–153.

Nancy White Thomas, The Philosophy of the Hymn, Papers of the Hymn Society, no. 21 (NY: Hymn Society, 1956): HathiTrust

Fred Pratt Green, “Hymn writing today,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 7. no. 6 (January 1971), pp. 122–124: Online

Margaret Clarkson, “What makes a hymn ‘good’?” Christianity Today, vol. 24, no. 12 (27 June 1980), pp. 22–23: CT

E. Margaret Clarkson, Carl P. Daw Jr., and Fred Pratt Green, “Approaches to hymn writing,” The Hymn, vol. 35, no. 2 (April 1984), pp. 78–82: HathiTrust

Gracia Grindal, “Pitfalls in hymn writing,” The Hymn, vol. 35, no. 2 (April 1984), pp. 82–85: HathiTrust

Timothy Dudley-Smith, “What makes a good hymn text?” The Hymn, vol. 36, no. 1 (Jan. 1985), pp. 14–18: HathiTrust

Fred Pratt Green, Brian Wren, and Fred Kaan, with Robin A. Leaver, “New hymnody: Some problems and prospects,” Duty and Delight: Routley Remembered (Carol Stream, IL: 1985), pp. 217–228.

Robin A. Leaver, “Hymnody and the reality of God,” The Hymn, vol. 44, no. 3 (July 1993), pp. 16–21: HathiTrust

David W. Music, Hymnology: A Collection of Source Readings (Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1996).

John D. Thornburg, “Saved by singing: Hymns as a means of grace,” The Hymn, vol. 47, no. 2 (April 1996), pp. 5–10: HathiTrust

J.R. Watson, “Alphas and omegas of hymn writing,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 15, no. 6 (April 1998), pp. 126–131.

Brian Wren, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2000).

Kevin Twit, “My grandmother saved it, my mother threw it away, and now I'm buying it back: Why we still need hymns in a postmodern world.”

Institute for Christian Worship Lectures, SBTS (20 Feb. 2003): MP3 Audio (SBTS)
Reformed Worship, No. 70 (Dec. 2003): RW

Kevin Twit, “Exploring the ‘why’ behind the modern hymn movement,” Institute for Christian Worship Lectures, SBTS

Part 1 (8 March 2006): MP3 Audio (SBTS)
Part 2 (9 March 2006): MP3 Audio (SBTS)

Kathryn Jenkins, “Redefining the hymn: The performative context,” HSGBI Occasional Paper, Ser. 3, No. 4 (Dec. 2010).

Martin Leckebusch, et al., “The living art of hymn writing,” Church Music Quarterly (11 March 2011), pp. 12–14.

Timothy Dudley-Smith, “What can a hymn writer learn from a lyricist? A review and reflection on Sondheim's Finishing the Hat,” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 19, no. 11 (July 2011), pp. 443–450.

Scotty Gray, Hermeneutics of Hymnody: A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach to Understanding Hymns (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2015): Amazon

Timothy Dudley-Smith, A Functional Art: Reflections of a Hymn Writer (Oxford: University Press, 2017): OUP

Andrew Pratt, “Why do we write hymns?” HSGBI Bulletin, vol. 21, no. 10 (2017), pp. 355–363.

Paul Westermeyer, “Reflections on the word ‘hymn,’” The Hymn, vol. 69, no. 4 (Autumn 2018), pp. 27–30.

Christopher Wordsworth

A primary requisite of a hymn-book, whether it be designed for private use or for public worship, seems to be that it should follow the guidance of the Church, and be adjusted to her ritual. A hymn-book of the Church may be expected to represent the mind of the Church, to show an intelligent appreciation of her intentions, and a dutiful submission to her appointments. A hymn-book of the Church of England may, perhaps, best be described as a companion to the Book of Common Prayer.

. . . Thus, in the words of the judicious Hooker, the world, “by looking upon what the Church does, may in a manner read what she believes.” Assuredly these glorious truths ought to be displayed to the eyes and hearts of all Christian congregations in a hymn-book, and ought to be made the subject of praise and thanksgiving to Almighty God.

. . . Christian poetry ought to be a medium for the conveyance of Christian doctrine. A hymn ought to edify the mind, as well as to gratify the ear. It ought to be profitable to be read, as well as agreeable to be sung.

—Preface, The Holy Year, 3rd ed., rev. (1863), pp. v, xv, xxxii.

William Walsham How

A hymn is essentially a form of devotion. It is a channel through which the soul’s best and highest emotions and aspirations should flow. A good hymn is something like a good prayer—simple, real, earnest, and reverent. Of course, it demands some chastened beauty of expression, and sensitive choice of language. The charm and the power of a good hymn depend upon subtle and delicate qualities, which are more easily felt than analyzed. Perhaps purity of tone, admitting no shade of affectation or exaggeration on the one side, or of stiffness or uncomeliness on the other, would describe the first necessary attribute of a really good hymn.

—“Hymns,” Werner’s Magazine, vol. 18, no. 8 (August 1896), p. 756.

John Ellerton

Hymns may express adoration, thanksgiving, commemoration of God’s mercies; they may be prayers, penitential, supplicatory, intercessory; they may be devout aspirations after God; but in any case they must be forms of worship. It is not enough that they suggest devotion, they must be capable of expressing it. The observance of this rule would clear the ground at once of much irrelevant matter with which the Hymn-books of every Church and sect are at present encumbered. The whole multitude of didactic and horatory verses, the addresses to sinners and saints, the paraphrases of Scripture prophecies, promises, and warnings, the descriptions of heaven and hell, the elaborate elucidations of the anatomy and pathology of the soul; all these, whatever be their value in the chamber, the study, or the pulpit, ought utterly and for ever to be banished from the choir.

. . . But is every hymn to be condemned which is not directly addressed to God? This would obviously be too narrow a rule. The spirit rather than the form of the hymn is the test of its devotional character. Hymns inviting the praise of God, on the model of Psalms xcv and c, form a large class, containing many eminently fitted for public worship. Another important class comprises hymns which celebrate the Incarnation, the Epiphany, Passion, Resurrection, or Ascension. Such are most of our good hymns for the Christian seasons.

—“On the principles to which a hymn-book should be constructed,” John Ellerton: Being a Collection of His Writings on Hymnology, Together with a Sketch of His Life and Works, ed. Henry Housman (London: SPCK, 1896), pp. 228–232.

Alfred Lord Tennyson

A good hymn is the most difficult thing in the world to write. In a good hymn you have to be commonplace and poetical. The moment you cease to be commonplace and put in any expression at all out of the common, it ceases to be a hymn.

—Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Memoir, vol. 2 (1897), p. 401.

Robert Bridges

The music must express the words or sense, it should not attract too much attention to itself, it should be dignified, and its reason and use is to heighten religious emotion.

—A Practical Discourse on Some Principles of Hymn-Singing (1901), p. 6.

Erik Routley

Hymns are delightful and dangerous things. . . . Hymns are a kind of song: but they differ from a professional song, or an art-song, in being songs for unmusical people to sing together. They are a kind of poetry, but they are such poetry as unliterary people can utter together. The music carries the poetry into the mind and experience; and if the poetry is too weighty for the music to get it moving, it won’t move; while if the music is so eloquent as to drown the sound of the words, the words, no matter what nonsense they may talk, will go clear past the critical faculty into the affections.

—Christian Hymns Observed (1982), p. 1.

Hughes Oliphant Old

Hymnody needs to be popular. It is more closely related to folk song than to art song. . . . It is because hymnody is, in its very essence, a kind of folk song that we must never close the door to new hymns written in the idiom of our day. . . . Time has a way of selecting the classics. We do not have to worry about that. What is important is that we give each generation its turn at expressing its devotion in the idiom of its day. Christian hymnody is like a great art museum. It has treasures from a great variety of ages and cultures, but it always seems to have room to show the best of contemporary works as well.

—Leading in Prayer: A Workbook for Worship (1995), p. 339.

Kevin Twit

Hymns remind us that the church is bigger than the people we know, or even those who are alive today. Through hymns we connect with believers who lived centuries before us. We can have “mystic sweet communion, with those whose rest is won” (“The Church’s One Foundation” by Stone). When I introduce people to Anne Steele’s hymns, they are struck by the powerful way she dealt with her immense suffering. They find that her cries can become their cries, her tears can elicit their tears, and her faith can encourage their faith. Seeing that we can connect with an English woman who lived in a small village 300 years ago and feel what she felt is powerful. All of the sudden the kingdom of God looks much bigger!

—“My grandmother saved it, my mother threw it away, and now I'm buying it back: Why we still need hymns in a postmodern world,” Reformed Worship, No. 70 (Dec. 2003).

April Brover

As Christians we should care about theology. We should know our Bible and know the character of our God. We should also care about excellence, especially when it comes to theological expression. Hymns are theological poetry in song form.

—“Why Hymns?” Happy Hymnody (3 Nov. 2017): https://happyhymnody.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/featured-content-2/

Timothy Dudley-Smith

Erik Routley, to my mind, the most distinguished hymnologist of his generation, once described hymns as “songs for unmusical people to sing together.” In one of his earliest books, he listed what he saw as three functions of hymnody: “Codifying doctrine, unifying the body, and glorifying God.” Changing the order, we could restate this as “praising God, confirming faith, and uniting us in fellowship.”

I would want to add that hymns help us to verbalize, actually to utter out loud, what is in our hearts: private thoughts and aspirations for which we cannot always find words, and might otherwise speak about. Many Christian people whose faith is real and precious to the find difficulty in articulating it. In ordinary conversation, even the name “Jesus” appears sometimes hard to say. Those who perhaps have had little help or teaching about prayer may often feel deeply a sense of penitence or thankfulness, or a desire to trust God more fully, but somehow lack a way to express this. Hymns, carefully chosen and thoughtfully sung, can offer just such a way.

—A Functional Art: Reflections of a Hymn Writer (2017), p. 3.