New English Hymnal

New English Hymnal (1986). The New English Hymnal, published in 1986, represented the most recent development in what might be described as ‘the ongoing English Hymnal project’; that is to say, the succession of publications which shared and continued to disseminate the literary and musical objectives pioneered by EH in 1906 (an EH with revised music appeared in 1933). A further development took place in 1975 with the publication of English Praise, a supplement to EH.

In order to understand the place of NEH within the context of this continuing sequence of hymnals, it will be useful to outline briefly the essential elements of the editorial policies adopted by Percy Dearmer* and Ralph Vaughan Williams* in the compilation of EH in 1906. Their work sprang from a total commitment to the highest standards of excellence within an explicitly revivalist cultural agenda. This involved the investigation of an exceptionally wide range of sources; the rejection of much second-rate Victorian material; the revival of the work of many poets and composers ignored by recent hymnbooks; and the inclusion of major contemporary English literary and musical figures. To this list must be added Vaughan Williams’ innovatory adaptation of a significant number of English folksongs as hymn tunes. EH revolutionised the whole concept of the hymn book, setting new standards of musical and literary excellence, and, equally importantly, eradicating the excessive Victorian bias of the later editions of A&M, replacing it with hymns and tunes that emanated primarily from English and early continental cultural sources.

It says much for the shrewd judgment of the first editors of EH that eighty years passed before a completely new edition appeared. However, the time eventually came when a wholesale revision was clearly necessary. The Editorial Board consisted of George Timms* (Chairman), Anthony Caesar, Christopher Dearnley*, Martin Draper, Michael Fleming*, Arthur Hutchings* and Colin Roberts. The new book was much reduced in size, from 816 entries in the 1933 edition (including an Appendix) down to 542 in NEH (it had no Appendix).

The Preface clearly stated that ‘The New English Hymnal is only in a very limited sense an experimental book. Its aim is to be what its predecessor claimed to be, “a humble companion” to the common prayer and worship of the Church of England and, it may be, of other provinces of the Anglican Communion’ (p. vi). The editors acknowledged their debt to the original 1906 publication: of the 656 hymns in EH some 400 had been retained for the new book, with 100 new ones being added. The plainsong sequences* were also retained, as were the Office hymns, though the less successful translations had been omitted. A number of the hymns for Saints’ Days were revised or rewritten. The layout of the hymnal remained unchanged, and was based around the Church’s year, as in 1906.

In its choice of texts, NEH naturally included the great classics, to which were added recent and completely new hymns from Timothy Dudley-Smith*, Brian Foley*, James Quinn*, George Timms and other living writers. The Christmas section was doubled in size, incorporating several favourites that had been included in English Praise, such as ‘Away in a manger’* and ‘Silent Night’*. Other noteworthy imports from EP included several modern classics, such as Sydney Carter*’s ‘I danced in the morning when the world was begun’* (‘Lord of the dance’), Hilary Greenwood*’s ‘Walking in a garden’* and Brian Wren*’s ‘Christ upon the mountain-peak’*. The common ground between science and religion was celebrated in Albert Bayly*’s ‘Lord of the boundless curves of space’*. From SofPE came Eleanor Farjeon*’s ‘Morning has broken’*, Jan Struther*’s ‘Lord of all hopefulness, Lord of all joy’*; and there were three hymns by James Quinn, including ‘Forth in the peace of Christ we go’.

An important addition to the hymnal was the new Liturgical section comprising two straightforward Eucharist settings, a set of versicles, responses and collects for processional use, and a number of Responsorial Psalms with musical settings by Dom Gregory Murray*.

The major musical change was a general pruning of tunes that had proved to be little used, in order to make way for some 100 additional ones from both old and new sources. These included several new arrangements of some of the old French church melodies, such as ST VENANTIUS (‘Why, impious Herod, shouldst thou fear’*), and several fine tunes by Parry*, Stainer* and Stanford*, which for copyright reasons had not hitherto appeared in any edition of EH. Parry’s RUSTINGTON (‘Ye that know the Lord is gracious’*), Stanford’s arrangement of ST PATRICK’S BREASTPLATE (‘I bind unto myself today’*) and Stainer’s ALL FOR JESUS (‘Holy Spirit, come, confirm us’*) are all outstanding examples. The folk-song element was well represented, with several well-established traditional melodies such as LONDONDERRY, Michael Fleming’s re-harmonization of the Irish tune popularly known as the Londonderry Air (‘O Christ the same, through all our story’s pages’*), and Arthur Hutchings’ arrangement of the Somerset folksong O WALY WALY (‘O Lord of hosts, all heaven possessing’).

There were a good number of newly-composed hymn tunes by the music editors and other recent composers such as Kenneth Finlay*, Bryan Kelly, Henry Ley, Wayne Marshall and Gordon Slater*. Especially noteworthy are Arthur Hutchings’ DOLPHIN STREET (‘Beyond all mortal praise’*) and Michael Fleming’s PALACE GREEN (‘Sing praise to God who reigns above’*).

Following in the tradition of EH 1906 and its successors, NEH contained plainsong melodies, the music of the early psalters, French church melodies, German chorales, English music from the Tudor and Restoration periods, traditional airs from various parts of the British Isles and tunes by a number of living British composers. NEH was an anthology of the very best of EH, SofPE and EP, together with many new hymns and tunes from a variety of other sources.

A supplement to NEH, New English Praise, was published in 2006.

John Bawden