A Tale of Two Songbooks: Part 1. Hymnal 1940

The old red copy of The Hymnal 1940 belonged to my mother; 
she had rescued it from our Episcopal parish when they switched to a newer edition. The rescued hymnal lived on the family piano for many years, and now it's here on my shelf.

As a teenager I used to noodle around with those hymn tunes, pencilling in guitar chords to some of my favorites. I perused the "Index of Composers, Sources, Arrangers" to locate wonderful, creepy Plainsongs, Scottish tunes, Appalachian tunes, and other folk tunes from all over the world. (To this day I always check the composer footnotes when we sing an unfamiliar hymn...my husband has also picked up this habit.)

One day, a few years ago,  I picked up the old red hymnal to look up the Doxology:

This tune is "Old Hundredth" written by some French guy way back in 1551. 

I started wondering about that tune name.
Could "Old 100th" refer to a page number? Perhaps it was 'hymn 100' from some ancient & mysterious hymnal? What was that hymn about, exactly? Did it come from France? When did people sing it? How did it end up in our modern hymnals? Old 100th is in every hymnal that I know of. 

Hmmm....are there any other "Old" tunes in this hymnal?
I flipped to the tune index:

Sure enough: Old 104th, Old 112th, Old 120th, Old124th.   

What about my (1990) Baptist hymnal? Nope. 
That hymnal only has the Old Hundredth. So the other 'Oldies' didn't make it over.... This made me even more curious.

Clearly, the Old Hundredth was the most popular tune of the Oldies; it was used for 4 different hymns in mom's hymnal, and for 2 hymns in the Baptist hymnal: the doxology,
and this one:

All People that on earth do dwell 

Sing to the Lord with cheerful voice... 

Those words were written in 1561, based on........ Psalm 100. 

So the Old Hundredth tune was for Psalm 100? (duh...)

People actually sang Psalms?

So where are they now?  Psalm 100 was the only intact psalm that made it into my 1990 Baptist hymnal. I thought Baptists and other evangelical denominations were big on Bible teaching and memory verses...!

The Episcopal churches I attended had Psalm 100 chanted as part of the liturgy and other Psalms were spoken as responsive readings. Again, only Psalm 100 had made it into their collection of hymns for singing.

Why don't we sing Psalms any more? 
What on earth happened?

The little brown songbook sheds some light on these questions in my next post.

'Memory Verses' ?

Thy word have I hid in my heart

That I might not sin against Thee;

That I might not sin,

That I might not sin,

Thy word have I hid in my heart.

            -- praise chorus from the ‘70’s

I was taught early on that it's important to memorize Scripture.

I once knew a guy that had already memorized entire chapters of First Timothy; his intention was to commit the whole book to memory!  Impressive. I was at University of Maine at the time, and had joined the Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship on campus. Lots of my friends already knew many Bible verses by heart, some of them had won awards in their Sunday schools and Bible camps. Not having grown up with all of that, I felt I had some catching up to do. Gotta learn some Bible verses (in addition to my college studies)!

Memorization FAIL

A fellow student told me that a good way to memorize Bible verses would be to place verses someplace where you would see them every day. I diligently wrote out interesting verses on scraps of paper and stuck them in my mirror; I also scrawled them all over the covers of my spiral bound notebooks for my science classes.  I highlighted my Bible enthusiastically, perhaps excessively, just as I highlighted my college texts. My RSV gradually became a DIY 'yellow letter edition’ when I finished highlighting all the words of Jesus. 

My personal ‘memory verse program’ helped me learn a few verses; at least for a while.  But, a year or so later when I pulled out my old chemistry notebook, I sadly scanned the Bible verses on the cover; all carefully written out, and now forgotten!

So much for that idea!

What I didn’t realize at the time was that I had already memorized a fair amount of scripture in another way: by singing.

Singing Praise Choruses 

I had unknowingly learned (is that a thing?) scripture by singing a bunch of little praise choruses with my friends as we all bounced along in the half-empty Old Town Baptist school bus. 

Even on the snowiest Sunday mornings,
we'd hear that old blue bus struggling up the hill to our dorm.

Beloved!

Let us love one another

For love is of God

And everyone that loveth is born of God

And knoweth God.

He that loveth not  (clap-clap-clap)

Knoweth not God,

For God is love,

Beloved!

Let us love one another

First John four seven and eight!

--Scripture chorus from the ‘70’s

These little choruses have stayed with me. I just typed out that song from memory: it's still in my head, decades later! 

And I'm not the only one:

 Praise chorus video

Singing In Public School

And before that, I had learned scripture before I ever cracked open a Bible, without even realizing it (or caring!) by singing in our high school chorus. 

Looking back now, I wonder, was our beloved teacher Mr. Adams intentionally teaching us scripture along with the music? Did he pray for us? I will never know.  We learned several Psalms, chorales and parts of scripture-based oratorios. From practicing them over and over, I can still hear them in my head nearly 50 years later:

Hear my cry, O God

From the end of the earth will I cry unto Thee

When my heart is overwhelmed

Lead me to the Rock

That is higher than I;

For thou has been a shelter for me,

And a strong tower

From the enemy. 

I will trust in the covert of thy wings.

Alleluia.

            -Psalm 61, Hovahness

This was Public school, mind you; in the early 70’s, in liberal Massachusetts. Mr. Adams wisely refused to discuss personal beliefs in the classroom, but said “whether you believe these words or not, I expect you to sing it as if you believe it!”

I found this exact same piece on youtube, enjoy:

Psalm 61, music by Hovahness

  

Singing Psalms in Church...

And even before that, I had learned scripture from congregational singing in the Episcopal churches where I grew up, in the 1960’s and 70's.

All Saints Parish
                                        

 The entire congregation sang this Psalm every week:

Oh be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands!

Serve the Lord with gladness, 

And come before his Presence

With a Song!

Be ye sure that the Lord, He is God

It is He who hath made us,

And not we ourselves,

We are His people, 

And the sheep of His pasture.

Oh, go your way into his gates with thanksgiving

And into his courts with praise!

Be thankful unto Him

And speak good of His Name;

For the Lord is gracious,

His mercy is everlasting,

And his truth endureth from generation

To generation!

-Psalm 100 Anglican chant

From the Book of Common Prayer

From a babe in arms, I heard this sung, and later learned to sing it myself. These English words are 500+ years old, but even a little child learned here, joyfully, that God made us and cares for us.

And I still remember these words.

Oh be careful, little mind, what you sing.