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An Annotated Anthology of Hymns

Online ISBN:
9780191600791
Print ISBN:
9780198269731
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
Book

An Annotated Anthology of Hymns

J.R. Watson (ed.)
J.R. Watson
(ed.)

Emeritus Professor of English and Emeritus Public Orator

University of Durham
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Published online:
1 November 2003
Published in print:
20 June 2002
Online ISBN:
9780191600791
Print ISBN:
9780198269731
Publisher:
Oxford University Press

Abstract

This is an anthology of 250 hymns plus one, with a foreword by Timothy Dudley‐Smith, one of the greatest living hymn writers (the two hundred and fifty‐first hymn, which is a postscript to the anthology, is by him). It is intended in part as a sequel to the editor's The English Hymn (1997): some of the ideas in that book are here exemplified in hymns taken from the earliest Christian times to the present day. Each of the 250 hymns has a textual, critical, and historical annotation, indicating the circumstances of publication, the church history of the time, and the development of the text, and then drawing attention to special features of the work. The hymns are divided into sections, beginning with ‘Ancient and Medieval Hymns’ (in translation) and continuing through the centuries to the final section, ‘The Mid‐Twentieth Century, and the Hymn Explosion’. Some attention is also paid to the tunes to which each hymn has been set, and their composers, although the tunes are not printed. The foreword and the preface introduce the subject of hymns and hymn singing as a part of worship, and discuss hymns as sacred poetry. The conclusion of the introduction is that hymns are a valuable and underrated art form. The 250 hymns that follow attempt to demonstrate the truth of that argument.

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