Customer Reviews: Read 2 more reviews...
 A good hymnal April 9, 2008
A good sampling of hymns from the American Episcopalian church. Some of the settings seem to be archaic just for the sake of including plainsong instead of singable tunes, but the texts tend to be good.
 Episcopal Hymnal January 9, 2007
Serves the purpose for which it was bought: our own copy in the home.
Lift every voice! July 30, 2004
19 out of 21 found this review helpful
Most visitors and regular attenders of Episcopal services will find themselves juggling two books through the service -- the Book of Common Prayer, the standard bearer for Anglican liturgy and identity, and this book, the authorised Hymnal, last revised in 1982. Many denominations revise hymnals in each generation -- this one has served the church well in the past two decades, and is likely to serve for at least another decade, perhaps two. The previous Hymnal, produced in 1940, was greatly revised in the present volume; the classic English hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern also plays a significant part in this hymnal.
There are two primary sections to the hymnal -- service music (denoted by S--- numbers), and regular hymns. There are 288 pieces in the service music section (S1 - S288); these include Glorias, Te Deums, Fraction anthems, canticles, psalm tones, chant pieces, and more for all the major liturgies -- morning prayer, evening prayer, eucharistic services, and more. There are compositions by major composers past and present (Schubert, Willan, Sowerby, Rutter, etc.), as well as pieces of various chants (plainchant, Ambrosian, etc.)
The hymns, 720 of them, are arranged first for the Daily Office use (1-46), hymns appropriate to seasons in the Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Ascension, Pentecost, Saints days and other occasions -- hymn 47-293), hymns for particular liturgies (baptism, eucharist, confirmation, ordination, etc.) and then a long section of general hymns (362-634). These hymns are arranged by broad theological topic -- The Trinity, Praise to God, Jesus Christ, Church, Mission, etc. The hymn section concludes with rounds and canons and some general national songs.
The collection of hymns is remarkable. There are hymns based upon scripture and psalms directly. There are hymns that come from the earliest centuries of the church, the medieval time, the Reformation, and all through the Anglican period proper. There is a generous collection of old standards and modern compositions, between Catholic standard-bearers and Evangelical and Protestant hymns. While some songs give only the melody line, this is in fact a rare thing; most include full-music scores, many even with a descant.
The book is well indexed, with lists according to composer/arranger/source, author/translator, tune names, and first lines/titles. Also, the construction of the hymnal is fairly remarkable. There are nearly a thousand pages here, but the book is not a thick volume; the pages, on the other hand, are not the obnoxious onion-skin, but rather substantial pages that stand up to years of use by many hands, as a hymnal will be used.
This hymnal is a remarkable treasure of hymns old and new, updated for modern times. It is the case that no hymnal satisfies all, even within particular denominations, and people grow remarkably attached to the hymnals with which they grew up; even with this being the case, this hymnal has achieved wide acceptance and admiration within and outside of the Episcopal church, and remains one of the major hymnals available of any denomination.
Lift every voice! July 26, 2004
26 out of 26 found this review helpful
Most visitors and regular attenders of Episcopal services will find themselves juggling two books through the service -- the Book of Common Prayer, the standard bearer for Anglican liturgy and identity, and this book, the authorised Hymnal, last revised in 1982. Many denominations revise hymnals in each generation -- this one has served the church well in the past two decades, and is likely to serve for at least another decade, perhaps two. The previous Hymnal, produced in 1940, was greatly revised in the present volume; the classic English hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern also plays a significant part in this hymnal.
There are two primary sections to the hymnal -- service music (denoted by S--- numbers), and regular hymns. There are 288 pieces in the service music section (S1 - S288); these include Glorias, Te Deums, Fraction anthems, canticles, psalm tones, chant pieces, and more for all the major liturgies -- morning prayer, evening prayer, eucharistic services, and more. There are compositions by major composers past and present (Schubert, Willan, Sowerby, Rutter, etc.), as well as pieces of various chants (plainchant, Ambrosian, etc.)
The hymns, 720 of them, are arranged first for the Daily Office use (1-46), hymns appropriate to seasons in the Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Ascension, Pentecost, Saints days and other occasions -- hymn 47-293), hymns for particular liturgies (baptism, eucharist, confirmation, ordination, etc.) and then a long section of general hymns (362-634). These hymns are arranged by broad theological topic -- The Trinity, Praise to God, Jesus Christ, Church, Mission, etc. The hymn section concludes with rounds and canons and some general national songs.
The collection of hymns is remarkable. There are hymns based upon scripture and psalms directly. There are hymns that come from the earliest centuries of the church, the medieval time, the Reformation, and all through the Anglican period proper. There is a generous collection of old standards and modern compositions, between Catholic standard-bearers and Evangelical and Protestant hymns. While some songs give only the melody line, this is in fact a rare thing; most include full-music scores, many even with a descant.
The book is well indexed, with lists according to composer/arranger/source, author/translator, tune names, and first lines/titles. Also, the construction of the hymnal is fairly remarkable. There are nearly a thousand pages here, but the book is not a thick volume; the pages, on the other hand, are not the obnoxious onion-skin, but rather substantial pages that stand up to years of use by many hands, as a hymnal will be used.
This hymnal is a remarkable treasure of hymns old and new, updated for modern times. It is the case that no hymnal satisfies all, even within particular denominations, and people grow remarkably attached to the hymnals with which they grew up; even with this being the case, this hymnal has achieved wide acceptance and admiration within and outside of the Episcopal church, and remains one of the major hymnals available of any denomination.
 They squandered their chance to make a great Hymnal better! April 11, 2004
11 out of 32 found this review helpful
This is a terrible Hymnal. The type is thin and difficult to read, and they start one hymn on the same page where another finishes rather than starting each hymn on it's own page. They've made the words *Gender-Neutral* (i.e. "Good Christian Friends Rejoice") and needlessly changed the wording on several hymns to make them more Politically Correct. The group that compiled this sorry excuse for a Christian Hymnal had a wonderful opportunity to make the superb 1940 Episcopal Hymnal even better than it already was. Indeed, they did add a couple of good new hymns, but they also deleted far too many excellent hymns from the 1940 Hymnal. All in all, it was a dismal collaborative effort by non-musical, politically-driven cretins. It is still in use by most Episcopal congregations today, perhaps partially explaining the disarray the Church finds itself in today.
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