Hymn Collection: Hymns Ancient and Modern
Similar to the development of culture, hymnody has never developed in a vacuum — it is always shaped by previous building blocks, current musical styles, cultural influences, and often conflict. However, while popular culture often encourages innovation and forward thinking, there have been times in church history in which reflecting on the past has shaped hymnody and doctrinal practices in order to connect modern day Christians to earlier roots of our faith.
A product of the Oxford Movement (mid-nineteenth-century), Hymns Ancient and Modern is a fascinating case study in the aforementioned characteristics of hymnody development.
Previous Building Blocks — Because the Oxford Movement emphasized the desire for the Anglican church to return to earlier church practices and aesthetics (namely Roman Catholic), a renewed interest in former Latin hymns resulted in their translation and modern use of such ancient texts. In fact, the first edition of this collection included 132 Latin translations, nearly half of its 273 hymns.
Current Musical Styles — Musically, the Oxford Movement took place during the Victorian era in which emotion and personal experience was shaping art. Popular parlor and part song forms resulted in the contemporary musical influence of modern hymns both in melodic style and harmonization.
Cultural Influence — The contemporary secular language representative of the Victorian era often influenced hymn writers, resulting in flowery, sentimental, and subjective texts. Although the various editions of Hymns Ancient and Modern have never been recognized as the official hymnal of the Anglican church, its contents were greatly influenced by the liturgical practices and church calendar observances of this denomination.
Conflict — Much of the motivation behind the hymnody produced during the Oxford Movement as evidenced in Hymns Ancient and Modern was due to the rejection of eighteenth century evangelicalism. In fact, tunes associated with the evangelical movement were purposefully avoided in this collection. The Oxford Movement itself was a response to the perceived individualistic and revivalistic nature of evangelicalism.
Contributing Editors
The first edition which contained only words was edited by Henry W. Baker and released in 1860. By the following year, a music publication was released under the musical editorship of William H. Monk.
Contributing Musicians
Although much of this collection adapted previous Latin, German, and Greek texts and tunes, brand new (“modern”) hymns were included as the title suggests. Monk himself contributed 17 of these tunes. John B. Dykes and Frederick A. G. Ouseley contributed seven and five new tunes respectively.
Notable New Tunes
Some of the “modern” hymn tunes first appearing in Hymns Ancient and Modern which are still heavily utilized today include:
•EVENTIDE (“Abide with me: fast falls the eventide”) by William H. Monk
•NICAEA (“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!”) by John B. Dykes
•DIADEMATA (“Crown Him with many crowns”) by George J. Elvey
Major Contributions to Modern Hymnody
Hymns Ancient and Modern is referred to as “one of the most popular hymnals of all time” with many editions and supplements first appearing in 1860 until its most recent New Standard Edition published in 1983. Because of its original inclusion of ancient, Reformation, and Victorian hymnody, it is a valuable resource which broadly reflects Western hymnody both regionally and historically. Roman Catholic church history and the Reformation were not isolated to one nation, therefore the translations and adaptations of ancient texts and tunes paint a lager picture of how music of the church has developed in the West. This benefits the modern believer because we can see how modern English hymnody has adapted over the years, as well as join together in singing widespread texts and tunes now found in hymnals all over the world. With more than 100 million copies sold since its first publication, it is obvious that Hymns Ancient and Modern has significantly shaped hymnody by connecting modern day Christians to earlier roots of our faith.
Source: Reynolds, William J., Milburn Price, and David W. Music. A Survey of Christian Hymnody. 5th Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing, 2010.
