Durham E-Theses Changes in the Methodist Hymnody during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries Hind, Roland How to cite: Hind, Roland (1968) Changes in the Methodist Hymnody during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/9933/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk ABSTRACT OP THESIS. .» Changes in Methodist Hymnody during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Submitted by Roland Hlnd.B.A..M.Lltt* for the degree of M.A. At first the singing was either unaccompanied, led by a choir of Charity Children, with the Parl6h Cleric as precentor; or accompanied by an instrumental band* Tunes were florid, with much faulty verbal accentuation. Taste reached its nadir 1770-1840. Style became superficial, boisterous, with repeats and fugal imitations; the melody and harmony were crude, deriving from nineteenth century Italian opera* There was slavish adoration and adaptation of the great classical composers* In the mid-nineteenth century, through the influence of the Oxford Movement, there were surpliced choirs; prose chant8 were sung and there were tentative attempts at plain- song* Tunes were like part-songs* There was also a better type of more sophisticated composer who produced good melody and sober harmony. Religious music in America was far behind that of England, much of it being orude and vulgar; catchy gospel-conge were prevalent* Unskilled composers wrote revivalist tunes with choruses* Later a more contrapuntal style was adopted, with broad melody (often in vocal unison with free harmony), a wide gamut and free rhythm* At the turn of the century, the Yattendon Hymnal pointed towards the English Hymnal* Songs of Syon was austBBe* The Oxford Hymn Book included many tunes by S.S.Wesley* CHANGES IN METHODIST HYMNODY DURING THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES. Submitted by Roland Hind, B.A. ,M.Litt, The Graduate Society. For tB.e degree of Master of Arts. April 1968. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information derived from it should be acknowledged. CHANGES IN METHODIST HYMNODY DURING THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES CONTENTS. Abbreviations. page.. I. BACKGROUND LEADING TO THE EARLY NINETEENTH 1 CENTURY. II. THE MID-NINETEENTH CENTURY. 55 III. '.THEMORE SOPHISTICATED COMPOSERS. 110 IV. TUNE WRITERS IN AMERICA. 155 V. THE LATE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 17k VI. LIST OP BOOKS. 192 LIST OP ABBREVIATIONS B. B.C. The B.B.C.Hymn Book C. H. The Church Hymnary (Presbyterian, Revised 1927) H.C.H. Handbook to the Church Hymnary (Moffatt) H.C.H.S. Handbook to the Church Hymnary - Supplement (Patrick) C.O.D.M. Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music CP. Congregational Praise C. C.P. Companion to Congregational Praise (Parry & Routley) D. A.B. Dictionary of American Biography E. H. The English Hymnal E.P. The European Psalmist Frost English & Scottish Psalm & Hymn Tunes cl543-l677. Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians, 3rd edition with Supplement (Grove-Colles) H.A.M. Hymns Ancient and Modern H.D.M. Harvard Dictionary of Music (W.Apel) H & S Hymn Tunes and Their Story (Lightwood) H.S.B. Hymn Society Bulletin J.T.S. Journal of Theological Studies M.H.B. The Methodist Hymn Book A.T. Additional Tunes (in the Methodist Hymn Book) M.M.H.B. The Music of the Methodist Hymn Book (Lightwood) O.H.B. The Oxford Hymn Book P.W.U. Praises with Understanding (A.S.Gregory) R.A.M. Royal Academy of Music (London) S.H. Somerset House - S.P. Songs of Praise S.P.D. Songs of Praise Discussed (Dearmer & Jacob) Y.H. The Yattendon Hymnal (1 I. THE BACKGROUND LEAPING TO THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY. Congregational singing in the late eighteenth century suffered from a general listlessness and apathy, and was coarse almost to irreverence. The inferior doggerel of Sternhold & Hopkins was made worse by the unrhythmic drawl of the syllabic tunes. In towns the church praise, what little there was of it, was mostly confined to the few charity children seated around the organ. Some churches had barrel-organs; these had a repertoire of at least thirty tunes and several voluntaries in common use.^1^ Elsewhere the music was directed by the parish clerk who used a pitch- pipe, without any choir; or there might be a cello or a serpent. There was an extraordinary variety of stringed and wind instruments - banjo, bass-horn, bassoon, bass-viol, l) Boston: "Church and Chamber Barrel-Organs", pages 19-20. (2. clarinet, concertina, cornet, cornopean, double-bass fiddle, drum, fife, flute, flutina, French horn, oboe, seraphine, triangle, side-drum, trombone, vamphorn and violin. Also the baritone, keyed bugle, flageolet, harp, ophicleide, piccolo and various sax-horns and drums were in occasional (2) use. In "Sketches by Boz"v ' Captain Purday "says that the organist ought to be asHamed of himself; offers to back himself for any amount to sing the psalms better than all the children put together, male or female". ("Our Parish II The Half-Pay Captain") The Charity Children had an annual gathering in St Paul's Cathedral which continued from 170h to 1877, and which impressed Haydn in 1792 and Berlioz in 1851. The church instrumental bands were replaced by organs in the mid-19th century. In the mid-l8th century^^the organist had only to play three voluntaries (which were usually unsuitable operatic overtures and dances) and a metrical psalm. The psalms were chanted in the cathedrals but were read without music in the parish churches. Burney (1728-I8lh) hated hymns and metrical psalms and all congregational singing; it was lined-out and elaborated with grace-notes. Where the lining- out was discontinued, the organist would play interludes 1) . MacDermott: "Sussex Church Music", page 35 2) . C.Dickeiis (I836). J.S.Curwen "Studies in Worship Music" ist Series, page 26. 3) . Scholes: "The Great Dr Burney", Vol.1, Chapter vi, pages 59-61. (3. (usually in a very trivial style) between the verses. At Kttln the organ played an interlude at the end of each line of the hymn^^- a practice which still continues in Germany. The interludes between verses have never been entirely discontinued in England. Burney's own organ pieces were poor; he published two hymn-tunes, "Fordwich" and "Dartmouth11, in the "Psalmodia Evangelica" compiled by Thomas Williams (1789); their style is typical of the late eighteenth and early nine• teenth centuries. Before 1800 there had been a general prejudice against hymn-singing in public worship; Churchmen and Nonconformists alike sang little except a few metrical psalms. The strong and distinctive "01<i,,,Psalm Tune had largely been forgotten and discarded during the eighteenth century. The few original sixteenth century psalm-tunes which did remain in use were C.M. or D.C.M., whereas Dr.N.Livingston and Sir Richard R. Terryv ' have demonstrated the great variety of metres and rhythms in the 1635 Scottish Psalter. The earlier psalm-tunes were not in uniform rhythm but had long notes in varied positions in the different parts. Long before the nineteenth 1) o Pay: "Music Study in Germany" pages 1-19-120. 2) . "The Scottish Metrical Psalter of AD I635" (I86h) "A Forgotten Psalter" (1929): "CalvinU First Psalter"(l932) "The Scottish Psalter of 1635" (1935) See music example pages 183a - I83.I century the exact and peculiar rhythms were carelessly treated until they disappeared, all the notes becoming equal minims (except for the cheapening addition of grace-notes). Whereas the "Old" Psalter tunes such as"London New" (M.H.B.224) and "York" (M.H.B.31+7) were austere, by the late eighteenth century the melody had become mae enterprising and the harmony more commonplace, with the use of triple time, flourishes and repetitions of words. The better type of eighteenth century tune had broad melody and straightforward vigour, and has been retained to the present day, e.g. "Wareham" (M.H.B.109), "Adeste fideles" (M.H.B.118), "Easter Morn" (M.H.B.201+), "Truro" (M.H.B.272), "Helmsley" (M.H.B.264), "Ridimond" (M.H.B; 305)» "Carey's" (M-;H;B;3U9)» "Warrington" (M.H.B.389), "Irish" (M.H.B.503), "Abridge" (M.H.B.550)j "Duke Street" (M.H.B.78i+), "Crucifixion" (M.H.B.A.T.28). But the worse type of tune was rough, ranting and florid. During the eighteenth century the English hymn-tune had seriously degenerated; and many popular but inappropriate secular melodies were used.^^ During the nineteenth century, psalmody in its strict sense declined rapidly in England; some metrical psalms are still in common use but are generally not distinguished from hymns. A similar decline took place in the Reformed Churches on the Continent. 1). H.C.H. page xxiv. (5 The meretricious decoration of rhythm with turns, triplets and passing-notes and with some unhappy and turgid harmony was characteristic of the period.J.S.Curwen (2) thought that the long notes were slovenly gathering-notes.x ' After 1800 a crude lack of sensitiveness to verbal accentuation, dull rhythms of equal notes, and phrases of similar unvaried length and accent became increasingly customary.