Songs of Praise

Songs of Praise (1925); Songs of Praise Enlarged (1931). This entry includes Songs of Praise (1925) and Songs of Praise Enlarged (1931). On the cover the latter is entitled Songs of Praise with Music. Songs of Praise was edited by Percy Dearmer*, Ralph Vaughan Williams*, and Martin Shaw*. Its aim, as stated in the preface, was ‘to make a national collection of hymns for use in public worship, and also of such “spiritual songs” as are akin to hymns and suitable for certain kinds of services in church, as well as for schools, lecture meetings, and other public gatherings’ (p.iii). There are two features of note in this statement. The first is the idea of a ‘national collection’: this was to...