THE CONTENTS
Introduction. PART I: The Character of the Hymn. Chapters: What Is a Hymn? The Purpose and Value Of Hymns. The Literary Aspect of Hymns. The Emendation of Hymns. The Content of the Hymn. The Gospel Hymn.
PART II: History of the Development of the Christian Hymn. Chapters: Apostolic Origin and Development. The Post-Apostolic Hymn. The Greek Hymnody. The Latin Hymnody. Luther and the German Hymn. The Later German Hymnody. Metrical Psalmody. The English Hymn before Watts. Isaac Watts and His Period. The Wesleys and Their Era. Hymns in the Church of England. American Hymnody.
PART III: Practical Hymnology. Chapters: The Study of Hymns. The Practical Use of Hymns. The Selection of: Hymns. The Announcement and Treatment of Hymns. Epilogue.
The study is pre-eminently thorough both in literary analysis and in historical research. The altogether practical treatment illuminates the whole field of hymnology and its values.
THE SINGING CHURCH
The Hymns It Wrote and Sang
By EDMUND S. LORENZ
This book merits the careful study of the minister, the choir master, the organist, and others who wish to vitalize public and private worship by an intelligent use of our Christian hymnody.
The book is at once scholarly and practical. No other treats so informatively and yet so interestingly:—
(1) The religious and musical heritage of the hymn writers in the Greek, the Latin, the German, the English, and the American epochs;
(2) The outstanding personalities who made valuable and permanent hymnological contributions in those epochs;
(3) The occasions and emotional crises out of which many great hymns were born;
(4) The critical standards by which hymns may be adjudged great.
No less important is the closing section of this impressive study, Practical Hymnology. Here Dr. Lorenz discusses the ways and means of utilizing the hymn in achieving a new awareness of the presence of God.
Edmund S. Lorenz, LL.D., Mus.Doc., became interested in church music very early in life, and helped himself through the years of his academic and seminary training (at Otterbein University, the United Brethren Seminary, and Yale Divinity School) by writing gospel songs and editing various songbooks. After two years in the ministry and a year as president of Lebanon Valley College, where at the beginning of the second year overwork brought on a complete collapse, he turned again to music. In 1890, he began the business known as Lorenz Publishing Company.
Dr. Lorenz has had many years of experience as editor of Sunday-school Songbooks, church hymnals, and choir magazines. This experience and his years of close contact with the work of the Church have given him a peculiar qualification for the writing of services, choir cantatas, sheet music solos, organ compositions, and songbooks. He has written many books, such as Practical Church Music, Church Music—What a Minister Should Know about It, Music in Work and Worship, Practical Hymn Studies. At home and abroad, he has been in wide demand as a lecturer on church music.
COKESBURY PRESS NASHVILLE TENNESSEE
Publishers of Cokesbury Good Books