b. The importance of tunes.
The tune is of great importance to the success of the hymn. Our “best hymns” owe their popularity in many instances, to the tune with which they are associated. On the other hand many excellent hymns remain unused because the tunes given them are too difficult or too uninteresting. It is the tune that creates the mood of worship and charges the words with emotion so that their message is carried forth with feeling and power.
c. Composers of tunes.
The story of the development of the hymn tune begins with the worship song in the Temple at Jerusalem where the psalms were sung antiphonally by priests and people accompanied by harps and trumpets. Little is known of these tunes or their composers. This early Christian music would doubtless sound strange to modern ears.
The important names in the roll of church musicians, from the early centuries to the present time, include the following:
Italian—Ambrose, 4th century Gregory the Great, 6th century Palestrina, 1525-94 French—Louis Bourgeois, c. 1510-? German—Luther, 1483-1546; Nicolai, 1556-1608; Hassler, 1564-1612; Praetorius, 1571-1621; Crüger, 1598-1662; Bach, 1685-1750. English—Tallis, 1510-85; Gibbons, 1583-1625; Croft, 1678-1727; Gauntlett, 1805-76; Monk, 1823-99; Dykes, 1823-76; S. Wesley, 1810-76; Barnby, 1838-96; Stainer, 1840-1901; Sullivan, 1842-1900. American—L. Mason, 1792-1872; Bradbury, 1816-68; Hastings, 1784-1872; Stebbins, 1846-1945.
The great composers, besides Bach, whose names are found in church hymnals are: Haydn, Beethoven, Handel, Mozart, Mendelssohn, Gounod, and Sibelius.
The above is only a partial list of composers of good church music. Among their works is a corpus of fine hymn tunes far greater than has been utilized by the church so far. For years to come, compilers of hymn books will have a vast reservoir of excellent tunes, old yet new, to draw from.
d. Sources of tunes.
An examination of the origin of church tunes shows a variety of sources. Many tunes were especially written for the words to which they are set; others are adaptations from early medieval chants; still others, as for example, the “Passion Chorale” and “Londonderry Air”, were folk tunes originally used with secular words. Some of our best tunes are adaptations of melodies from larger musical works, as for example, “Hymn to Joy” ([10]) from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony; “Finlandia” ([54]), from a tone poem by Sibelius; and “Seymour” ([36]), from Weber’s opera, Oberon.