Missionary College Hymns (1914)

Missionary College Hymns (Scotland, 1914) This compilation for the Free Church Women’s Missionary Training Institute in Edinburgh was remarkable in including hymns from traditions other than the Christian: Vedic, Buddhist, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Syrian, African, Islamic – one of the latter being the Muezzin’s call to prayer. They were set to tunes appropriate to their provenance, many Indian, but also melodies from Japan, Syria, Africa, China, Persia and Egypt, with instructions regarding performance. The hymns could be original texts from such sources as the Christian Literature Society, or texts that were moderated through contemporary, often missionary, writers. They affirmed the...