THE METRICAL HYMNS AND PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE FIRST SECTION. TUNES AND CHORALES. Compressed Score Edition. EDITED BY HENRY ALLON, D. D., AND HENRY JOHN GAUNTLETT, Mus. Doc. LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON, 27, PATERNOSTER ROW; NOVELLO, EWER, & CO., BERNERS STREET, OXFORD STREET, AND QUEEN STREET, CHEAPSIDE, E.C. Mas HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY MAY 24, 1939 "THEY SHALL SING IN THE WAYS OF THE LORD." Psalm cxxxviii. 5. LONDON J. AND W BIDER, TYPOGRAPHICAL MUSIC PR NERS, M 2136 A53 18 PREFACE TO THE ENLARGED EDITION. THE first edition of the "Congregational Psalmist" was published in 1858. In 1868 fifty-three tunes were added to the book. The copious additions to the hymnody of the Church, both of Hymns and Tunes, which have since been made, necessitate a further enlargement, in order that the Churches may possess for their worship such compositions as the manifold gifts of holy men in all sections of the Church continue to supply. Finality in the provision for the Service of Song is as impossible as it were fatal. While each generation inherits what is most precious from the past, it will, so long as the Church is a living Church, bring its own contribution of fresh Hymns and Tunes-the exact expression of its own distinctive life. The revolt of hymn writers from the cramped and meagre Iambic forms, to which in England we have chiefly been restricted, is in every way a great gain to Church Song. Trochaic and other metres give variety and richness to hymns, which not only gratify the taste, and fill the imagination, but like all forms of beauty directly minister to feeling. Just now, perhaps, this diversity is in danger of becoming excessive and eccentric; but it is only a passing phase, a not unnatural reaction from stiff traditional forms. Nothing that is merely odd endures. It is indicative, that of the hundred and seventeen additional tunes in this edition, nearly eighty are for metres, or for hymns, hitherto unprovided for in the book; provision for which has become imperative through the general acceptance which the hymns have found. It is matter for great satisfaction that we are no longer contented tc sing a hymn to any tune for which its metre may be practicable. We demand that the music shall be the best possible expression of the distinctive sentiment of the hymn. Hence some hymns of ordinary metres, demand tunes exclusively for themselves, e.g., the hymns tc which the tunes 453, 469, 478, 479, and 488 are respectively set. Music is the eloquence of a hymn; and the difference of devotional inspiration |