Inter-church hymnal

By Frank A. Morgan

Subjects: Hymns, English, English Hymns

Description: After half a lifetime of fruitless endeavor to devise some means of producing a hymnal to meet the needs of congregations, the plans adopted for the "Inter-Church Hymnal" came almost in their entirety as an inspiration overnight. Inasmuch as congregations are to sing the hymns, why should they not be given a voice in compiling the hymnal? If churches are to render the final decision respecting the quality of hymns, why should not their verdict be determined before publication, instead of after? From these two simple questions the plans originated. They were acted upon at once. Before evening of the first day a large union church was visited, to determine from the weekly bulletins the hymns sung and repeated often enough to prove their merit. Thirty leading churches in the Chicago area, among nine denominations, were visited for the same purpose. They had sung and repeated 240 different hymns and had sung, without repeating, more than 1500 others. A printed list of the repeated hymns was then sent to the pastors of 500 other churches from coast to coast, with a letter explaining the object in view, and asking for titles of additional hymns, also favorite tunes. This brought the first hundred reports. When carefully examined, they clearly justified a national survey. Other lists were printed from time to time as new hymns and old-time favorites were brought to light, until eight in all were issued and mailed to more than 10,000 pastors in every state of the Union, the churches selected being those most likely to have weekly bulletins from which to glean reports. The tunes selected for use in the "Inter-Church Hymnal" were decided on after securing a consensus of opinion from the best qualified musicians, the 650 members of the "American Guild of Organists" who had passed successfully the examination for the degree of Fellow or Associate Fellow, an honor attained by only one in five of their membership. Their decisions respecting the comparative rank of tunes were secured by submitting convenient methods of grading all the tunes published in present-day standard hymnals. This survey confirms that a large majority of churches sing from 100 to 200 different hymns, and the number most frequently mentioned by ministers as being sufficient for every need is 300. Those who hold this view may wish to confine their selections to the first 325 hymns in this book, which were chosen because of having been sung and repeated by from 10% to 95% of the churches reporting. They are published in the order sung by the greatest number of churches. - Introduction.