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| Musical Musings: Hymns and Hymnody | Page 2 |
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Decoding A HymnWhat About the Tune Name?Above the composer's name (or sometimes under the title) is an unusual heading - the tune's name. While the title is given as the name of the hymn text, the tune to which it is sung is rightly called by its own name, some of which may be very strange. Many tunes are named for cities: Stuttgart ("Earth Has Many A Noble City"), Moscow ("Come, Thou Almighty King"), and Salzburg ("At the Lamb's High Feast We Sing"). Many more are named for saints: St. Anne ("O God, Our Help in Ages Past"), St. Louis ("O Little Town of Bethlehem"), St. Flavian ("These Forty Days of Lent"), and St. Agnes ("Shepherd of Souls").Tunes have been named for their composer: Mendelssohn ("Hark! The Herald Angels Sing"), Mozart ("I Sing the Mighty Power of God"), and Neander ("Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty"); named for streets: Duke Street ("Jesus Shall Reign"), Franklin Square ("Jesus, Who Transcends the Ages"), and Regent Square ("Angels from the Realms of Glory"); named in foreign languages: Stille Nacht ("Silent Night"), "Wachet auf" ("wake, Awake, for Night Is Flying"), Stabat Mater ("At the Cross Her Station Keeping"), Bourgeois ("Comfort, Comfort Ye My People"), and Rhosymedre ("Our Father By Whose Name"); or named without a name: Sine Nomine - meaning "without name" ("For All the Saints"). Another enigmatic feature of the heading is a series of numbers given after the tune name or sometimes under the title. These numbers represent the meter in which the hymn text, the poem, was written. "God of Our Fathers" gives 10.10.10.10, meaning each of the four lines of the text has ten syllables. This hymn text may theoretically be sung to any tune having a 10.10.10.10 meter, provided the textual and musical accents coincide. Some meters occur so often that they are abbreviated with letters. CM means "Common Meter" or 8.6.8.6. SM means "Short Meter" or 6.6.8.6. LM means "Long Meter" or 8.8.8.8. A "D" placed after a meter (numerical or abbreviation) means to double the number of lines, using the same formula. For example, under "Crown Him with Many Crowns" we see SMD, meaning "Short Meter Double" or 6.6.8.6.6.6.8.6. Meter designations are useful for interchanging hymns and tunes. "On Jordan's Bank" (LM) may be sung to the tune Old Hundredth (LM), which is usually the tune for "Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow," and vice versa. Often a topic or section heading is included at the top of the page (such as "Advent Hymn") and the essential hymn number is displayed. Please note that "real" hymnals do NOT have page numbers, since having page numbers would lead to confusion. When listing or announcing hymns, especially if one must use disposable hymnal substitutes, give only a hymn number. A page number alone is not precise enough (there may be two hymns per page) and giving two numbers (page and hymn) is redundant and confusing. |
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