Hymn
A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word hymn derives from Greek ὕμνος, which means "a song of praise". A writer of hymns is known as a hymnist. The singing or composition of hymns is called hymnody. Collections of hymns are known as hymnals or hymn books. Hymns may or may not include instrumental accompaniment. Polyhymnia is the Greco/Roman goddess of hymns.
Although most familiar to speakers of English in the context of Christianity, hymns are also a fixture of other world religions, especially on the Indian subcontinent. Hymns also survive from antiquity, especially from Egyptian and Greek cultures. Some of the oldest surviving examples of notated music are hymns with Greek texts.
Origins
Ancient Eastern hymns include the Sumerian Kesh temple hymn ; Egyptian Great Hymn to the Aten, composed by Pharaoh Akhenaten; the Hurrian Hymn to Nikkal; the Rigveda, an Indian collection of Vedic hymns; hymns from the Classic of Poetry, a collection of Chinese poems from 11th to 7th centuries BC; the Gathas—Avestan hymns believed to have been composed by Zoroaster; and the Biblical Book of Psalms.The Western tradition of hymnody begins with the Homeric Hymns, a collection of ancient Greek hymns, the oldest of which were written in the 7th century BC, praising deities of the ancient Greek religions. Surviving from the 3rd century BC is a collection of six literary hymns by the Alexandrian poet Callimachus. The Orphic Hymns are a collection of 87 short poems in Greek religion.
Patristic writers began applying the term ὕμνος, or hymnus in Latin, to Christian songs of praise, and frequently used the word as a synonym for "psalm".
Christian hymnody
Originally modelled on the Book of Psalms and other poetic passages in the Scriptures, Christian hymns are generally directed as praise to the Christian God. Many refer to Jesus Christ either directly or indirectly.Origins
In the New Testament, Saint Paul wrote to the Ephesian and Colossian churches, enjoining the singing of psalms and hymns for "mutual encouragement and edification". This was demonstrated when he joined Silas in singing hymns in the Phillipian jail,even during unfortunate circumstances. and,
among other Scriptural verses, encourage Christians to sing hymns to praise God. As such, since the earliest times, Christians have sung "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs", both in private devotions and in corporate worship. Non-scriptural hymns from the Early Church still sung today include 'Phos Hilaron', 'Sub tuum praesidium', and 'Te Deum'.
Traditions
The hymn 'Te Deum' is sung or recited in the Liturgy of the Hours and in thanksgiving to God for a special blessing, and on December 31st to thank the Lord for the past year.The hymn "Gloria in excelsis Deo" is sung or recited at Mass, after the Kyrie, on Sundays outside of Lent and Advent, on Christmas, during the octaves of Easter and Christmas, and on solemnities and feasts.
Definition
One definition of a hymn is "...a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper's attitude toward God or God's purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely emotional, poetic and literary in style, spiritual in quality, and in its ideas so direct and so immediately apparent as to unify a congregation while singing it."Special occasions
Christian hymns are often written with special or seasonal themes; such hymns are used on holy days such as Christmas, Easter and the Feast of All Saints, or during particular seasons such as Advent and Lent. Others are used to encourage reverence for the Bible or to celebrate Christian practices such as the Eucharist or Baptism. Some hymns praise or address individual saints, particularly Mary, mother of Jesus; such hymns are particularly prevalent in Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Evangelical Lutheranism, and to some extent in High Church Anglicanism.Terminology
A writer of hymns is known as a hymnodist, and the practice of singing hymns is called hymnody; the same word is used collectively for those hymns associated with a particular denomination or period. A specific collection of hymns is called a hymnal, hymn book or hymnary. These may or may not include music; among the hymnals without printed music, some include names of hymn tunes suggested for use with each text, in case readers already know the tunes or would like to find them elsewhere. A student of hymnody is called a hymnologist, and the scholarly study of hymns, hymnists and hymnody is hymnology. The music to which a hymn may be sung is a hymn tune.Nondenominational evangelical churches may classify traditional songs as hymns while more contemporary worship songs are not considered hymns. The reason for this distinction is unclear, but according to some it is due to the radical shift of style and devotional thinking that began in the late 1960s with the Jesus movement and Jesus music. In recent years, Christian traditional hymns have seen a revival in some churches, usually more Reformed or Calvinistic in nature, as modern hymn-writers such as Keith & Kristyn Getty and Sovereign Grace Music have reset old lyrics to new melodies, revised old hymns and republished them, or simply written a song in a hymn-like fashion such as "In Christ Alone".
Music and accompaniment
In ancient and medieval times, string instruments such as the harp, lyre and lute were used with psalms and hymns.Since there is a lack of musical notation in early writings, the actual musical forms in the early church can only be surmised. During the Middle Ages a rich hymnody developed in the form of Gregorian chant or plainsong. This type was sung in unison, in one of eight church modes, and most often by monastic choirs. While they were written originally in Latin, many have been translated; a familiar example is the 4th century Of the Father's Heart Begotten sung to the 11th-century plainsong Divinum Mysterium.
[Western church
Later hymnody in the Western church introduced four-part vocal harmony as the norm, adopting major and minor keys. The organ and choir came to lead the singing. Western hymnody shares many elements with classical music.Today, except for choirs, more musically inclined congregations, and a cappella congregations, hymns are typically sung in unison. In some cases, complementary full settings for organ are also published; in others, organists and other accompanists are expected to adapt the available setting, or extemporise one, on their instrument of choice.
In traditional Evangelical Lutheran and Anglican practice, hymns are sung during the processional to the altar, during the receiving of communion, during the recessional, and sometimes at other points during the service. The Doxology is also sung after tithes and offerings are brought up to the altar.
Contemporary Christian worship, as commonly found in certain forms of Evangelicalism and Pentecostalism, may include the use of contemporary worship music played with electric guitars and drum kits, sharing many elements with rock music.
Other groups of Christians have historically excluded instrumental accompaniment, citing the absence of instruments in worship by the church in the first several centuries of its existence, and adhere to an unaccompanied a cappella congregational singing of hymns. These groups include the Brethren, the Churches of Christ, Mennonites, several Anabaptist-based denominations—such as the Apostolic Christian Church of America—Primitive Baptists, and certain Reformed churches. However, during the last century or so, several of these groups, such as the Free Church of Scotland, have abandoned this stance.
Eastern church
has a variety of ancient hymnographical traditions. In the Byzantine Rite, chant is used for all forms of liturgical worship: if it is not sung a cappella, the only accompaniment is usually an ison, or drone. Organs and other instruments were excluded from church use, although they were employed in imperial ceremonies. However, instruments are common in some other Oriental traditions. The Coptic tradition makes use of the cymbals and the triangle only. The Indian Orthodox use the organ. The Tewahedo Churches use drums, cymbals and other instruments on certain occasions.Development of Christian hymnody
, in the introduction to his commentary on the Psalms, defined the Christian hymn thus: "."The Protestant Reformation resulted in two conflicting attitudes towards hymns. One approach, the regulative principle of worship, favoured by many Zwinglians, Calvinists and some radical reformers, regarded anything that was not directly authorised by the Bible as a novel and Catholic introduction to worship, which was to be rejected. All hymns that were not direct quotations from the Bible fell into this category. Such hymns were banned, along with any form of instrumental musical accompaniment, and organs were removed from Reformed churches. Instead of hymns, biblical psalms were chanted, most often without accompaniment, to very basic melodies. This was known as exclusive psalmody. Examples of this may still be found in various places, including in some of the Presbyterian churches of western Scotland.
The other Reformation approach, the normative principle of worship, produced a burst of hymn-writing and congregational singing. Martin Luther is notable not only as a reformer, but as the author of hymns including , , and many others. Luther and his followers often used their hymns, or chorales, to teach tenets of the faith to worshipers. The first Protestant hymnal was published in Bohemia in 1532 by the Unitas Fratrum.
Count Zinzendorf, a Lutheran bishop of the Moravian Church in the 18th century, wrote some 2,000 hymns.
Some of the works of the Anglican "metaphysical poet" the Reverend George Herbert have found their way into hymnals.
The earlier English writers tended to paraphrase biblical texts, particularly Psalms; Isaac Watts followed this tradition, but is also credited as having written the first English hymn which was not a direct paraphrase of Scripture. Watts, whose father was an Elder of a dissenter congregation, complained at age 16, that when allowed only psalms to sing, the faithful could not even sing about their Lord, Christ Jesus. His father invited him to see what he could do about it; the result was Watts' first hymn, "Behold the glories of the Lamb".
Found in few hymnals today, the hymn has eight stanzas in common metre and is based on Revelation 5:6, 8, 9, 10, 12.
Relying heavily on Scripture, Watts wrote metered texts based on New Testament passages that brought the Christian faith into the songs of the church. Isaac Watts has been called "the father of English hymnody", but Erik Routley sees him more as "the liberator of English hymnody", because his hymns, and hymns like them, moved worshippers beyond singing only Old Testament psalms, inspiring congregations and revitalizing worship.
Later writers took even more freedom, with some even including allegory and metaphor in their texts.
Charles Wesley's hymns spread Methodist theology, not only within Methodism, but in most Protestant churches. He developed a new focus: expressing one's personal feelings in the relationship with God as well as the simple worship seen in older hymns.
Wesley's contribution, along with the Second Great Awakening in America, led to a new style called "gospel", and a new explosion of sacred-music writing with Fanny Crosby, Lina Sandell, Philip Bliss, Ira D. Sankey, and others who produced testimonial music for revivals, camp-meetings, and evangelistic crusades. The tune style or form is technically designated "gospel songs" as distinct from hymns. Gospel songs generally include a refrain and usually a faster tempo than with hymns. As examples of the distinction, "Amazing Grace" is a hymn, but "How Great Thou Art" is a gospel song. During the 19th century, the gospel-song genre spread rapidly in Protestantism and to a lesser but still definite extent in Roman Catholicism; the gospel-song genre is unknown in the worship per se by Eastern Orthodox churches, which rely exclusively on traditional chants.
The Methodist Revival of the 18th century created an explosion of hymn-writing in Welsh, which continued into the first half of the 19th century. The most prominent Welsh hymn-writers are William Williams Pantycelyn and Ann Griffiths. The second half of the 19th century witnessed an explosion of hymn-tune composition and congregational four-part singing in Wales.
Along with the more classical sacred music of composers ranging from Charpentier to Mozart and Monteverdi, the Catholic Church continued to produce many popular hymns such as "Lead, Kindly Light", "Silent Night", "O Sacrament Most Holy", and "Faith of Our Fathers".
In some radical Protestant movements, their own sacred hymns completely replaced the written Bible. An example of this, the Book of Life is the name of all oral hymns of the Doukhobors, the Russian denomination, similar to western Quakers. The Book of Life of the Doukhobors is firstly printed hymnal containing songs which have been composed as an oral piece to be sung aloud.
Many churches today use contemporary-worship music which includes a range of styles often influenced by popular music. This often leads to some conflict between older and younger congregants. This is not new; the Christian pop-music style began in the late 1960s and became very popular during the 1970s, as young hymnists sought ways in which to make the music of their religion relevant for their generation.
This long tradition has resulted in a wide variety of hymns. Some modern churches include within hymnody the traditional hymn, contemporary-worship music and gospel music. This distinction is not perfectly clear; and purists remove the second two types from classification as hymns. It is a matter of debate, even sometimes within a single congregation, often between revivalist and traditionalist movements.
Swedish composer and musicologist Elisabet Wentz-Janacek mapped 20,000 melody variants for Swedish hymns and helped create the Swedish Choral Registrar, which displays the wide variety of hymns today.
In modern times, hymn use has not been limited to strictly religious settings, including secular occasions such as Remembrance Day, and this "secularization" also includes use as sources of musical entertainment or even vehicles for mass emotion.