Monthly column on hymns and songs

Of all the questions winging their way to me as a result of this column, the most frequent is: 'Where can I find out more about these hymns?'

It depends on which hymns you mean, which book you use, what kind of information you're after. But here are some sources I have found helpful, in five groups.

Group 1 comprises two items, one of which isn't a book at all. John Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology is the Britannica of hymns and hymnwriters, appearing in 1892; second edition with New Supplement, 1907. Many contributors were authors in their own right. Most were clergy; among those who were not is Catherine Winkworth. Look in secondhand lists; I paid £25 some years ago and would double that now. An inexhaustible gold mine. One snag; you may want to know about hymns written since 1907.

CD-ROM

There'll never be another 'Julian'. In a computer age the next best thing is the CD-Rom HymnQuest, available from Stainer and Bell in two formats with annual supplements. Weighted towards books still in print, and so to 20th century hymns; rather like a building site, with some bits finished to near-perfection next to holes with the scaffolding around. But constantly improving.

Group 2: The 'Companions' to hymn books giving details of each hymn in order, and (usually) separate potted biographies. Snags: they are confined to the contents of the parent book, and not all parent books have one. Most recently, the URC produced in 1999 its Companion to Rejoice and Sing, 1290 pages for £37.50. Oddly arranged, inclined to nag, but fascinating up-to-date research on disputed points.

EN readers might be more at home in Cliff Knight's A Companion to Christian Hymns (a 1994 partner to the 1977 hymnal). This is more modestly produced but thorough, containing more than you are ever likely to need, including details of many hymns not found elsewhere. Before that came in 1988 the Methodist Companion to Hymns and Psalms with heavy Wesleyan emphasis.

Past and contemporary

Some bookshop burrowing might unearth its 1962 Baptist equivalent, The Baptist Hymn Book Companion; or from the same year the Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and Modern where full hymn texts occupy undue space; useful for biography and original versions of untranslated hymns, a bit thin on the hymns themselves. So is Cyril Taylor's Hymns for Today Discussed (1984), which brings us to the 1983 edition.

His title is borrowed from another out-of-print classic, Songs of Praise Discussed (1933). Percy Dearmer's faded liberalism is lightened by his most readable wit. We ignore his warnings at our peril. America has produced some heavyweight Companions for those with access to them; I consult more often the Australian Songs of the People of God (Collins, 1982).

Group 3: Individual biographies. Buy your favourites; libraries can supply the rest. These are generally our best sources, because biographers should work from primary material and present their subjects whole.

Group 4: Many contemporary writers produce their own collections; one of the fullest is Timothy Dudley-Smith's Lift Every Heart (1984), already with three supplements. Nearly all such volumes tell us how the hymns came to be written; they should know.

Myths and legends?

Group 5, sadly, is the least trustworthy; every year sees yet another Great Hymns and their Stories, or similar. Enjoy them by all means (I wrote two myself!), but use them cautiously; their compilers often prefer a dramatic story to the more prosaic truth, or lazily recycle exploded myths from similar books. More reliable than most, bridging Groups 3 and 5, is Elsie Houghton's Christian Hymnwriters (Evangelical Press of Wales, 1982), featuring over 50 authors, and thus indirectly more than half of Christian Hymns.

Or do what your friends do. Ask Chris.

Where to find out more about hymns?

CD-ROM

Past and contemporary

Myths and legends?

Christopher Idle

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