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Christmastide has just come to end. And what better time to complete our look at the Christmas hymns in The Hymnal 1982? In particular, we will be looking at the less commonly sung hymns in the Christmas section. You may wish to start back at the beginning with part 1 of this series. There is also part 2 (hymns that score a 9 or a 10), part 3 (hymns that score a 6, 7, or 8), part 4 (hymns that score a 4 or a 5), or part 5 (hymns that score a 2 or a 3).

We're using a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being the least popular and 10 being the most popular. Here, in this last installment, we discuss those hymns that are truly the most uncommon in American Episcopal services: hymns that score only a 1 on the popularity scale.

Area 1: The most uncommon

I truly have never sung these, and I do not yet know of any parishes that have sung them.

• Hymn 77: "From east to west, from shore to shore". This hymn represents a gradual modification, both in words and tune, of the plainchant hymn "A solis ortus cardine". This is its first appearance in an Episcopal hymnal.
• Hymn 97: "Dost thou in a manger lie". A fifteenth century hymn matched with a fifteenth century tune. The second stanza is written from the point of view of Christ. The editors of The Hymnal 1940 recommended that this stanza be sung by a baritone soloist. This seems a bit suspect given that the infant Christ would presumably not have his voice change until puberty. This hymn was first included in the 1916 Episcopal hymnal.
• Hymn 103: "A child is born in Bethlehem". The oldest hymn to be awarded the lowest score for popularity, this text comes from the thirteenth century. It is probably best known in the a capella choral setting by Benjamin Britten ("A boy is born"), and not in this hymn setting.
• Hymn 108: "Now yield we thanks and praise". This hymn, by Howard Chandler Robbins, probably could be a little bit better known than it is. Robbins was a great hymn writer, his words naturally imbued with a sense of dignity and purpose, usually seem to me as if they should have already been written. They fill some gap which the church didn't realize had existed. There is a distinctive agelessness to his work, which includes the translation "Most High, omnipotent, good Lord" (Hymns 406/7), the somewhat paleo-futuristic composition "And have the bright immensities" (Hymn 459), and "Put forth, O God, thy Spirit's might" (Hymn 521, to which he also wrote the tune CHELSEA SQUARE). The chorale tune to which it is set, WAS FRAG' ICH NACH DER WELT, suits the words perfectly.
• Hymn 113: "Duérmete, Niño lindo"/"Oh, sleep now, holy baby" is the only fully bilingual hymn in The Hymnal 1982. It could very well be sung in congregations that draw more heavily on a Spanish-language repertory, but that may not necessarily be the case. Syllabification and visual underlay issues present problems (at least to my eye) for congregations who might attempt this hymn in English.

Conclusions

As is true of any slice of hymnody the full history of all these hymns is very rich. I'm more interested here in a reception history, which is a difficult thing to know without more data. I can only really speak to my personal experience with and impressions I have gained about this repertoire working as an Episcopal church musician for about a decade or so.

As someone who grew up outside of the Episcopal Church, I have surely missed some classic usages of these hymns. I am grateful for parishioners at a parish I served previously who alerted me to their fondness for "The snow lay on the ground". And since beginning this serial, I have learned more about historic usages of "Christians, awake, salute the happy morn", and "Sing, O sing, that blessed morn" on Christmas Day in various places. I still believe that these latter two hymns are falling out of favor -- and part of this may be the declining attendance at Christmas Day liturgies in many parishes.

There is a certain cultural weight with many of these hymns, some of them dating back for several centuries or more. Their inclusion in The Hymnal 1982 speaks to their worth, whether they are currently in rotation in a particular parish or not.

As with any portion of any hymnal, there are some hymns in this section that are not destined for a long life. And if certain of these hymns remain very uncommon in our liturgies for a long time it would be expected that they drop out of the next Episcopal hymnal -- if there even is such a thing, but that is another conversation for another time.

But we must be grateful to the '82 Hymnal committee for taking risks alongside those hymns that "must" be included. Our sacred musical life is much enriched, in my opinion, by the inclusion of "A stable lamp is lighted."

We must also thank them for including what we should know but have forgotten, like the simple joys of singing "Christians, awake, salute the happy morn" on Christmas Day, which I will seriously consider for the next 11 months as I work to plan music for Christmas 2014.

There are two interesting shifts that occurred in moving the Episcopal Christmas hymnody from The Hymnal 1940 to The Hymnal 1982:

Firstly, I wonder what psychological impact the "First Tune" and "Second Tune" distinction has in terms of a Christmas hymn's reception history. With the previous hymnal hymn singers could say regarding "It came upon the midnight clear", "Oh yes, I do like to sing Hymn 19. We use the Second Tune in my parish." In the present hymnal there is a dividing line between the two tunes. Today's Episcopalian might say, "Hymn 89 is a favorite of mine," and have no idea that the subsequent hymn in the book is very intimately related, and in fact, might be a pleasing alternative!

Secondly, it seems that the distinction between "Christmas" and "Christmas Carols" made in The Hymnal 1940 is of interest. In this study, I have referred to everything in the Christmas portion of the 1982 hymnal as a "hymn", but we could still make the same distinction that the 1940 makes. This may be of some limited value, but it may also be irrelevant. Still, there are certain portions of the liturgy that clearly call for a "hymn", and others where "carols" would be more welcome.

Finally, it is very interesting to note, from a somewhat longer view provided by this study, the increasing calcification surrounding our Christmas hymnody.

This trend is not surprising given three factors: a precipitous decline in music education, the loss of recreational singing in our culture, and steadily declining numbers in the Episcopal church, both adherents and more so at the Average Sunday Morning. As musical knowledge and ability decreases in our culture, so does the ability to differentiate specific repertories: the shopping mall, the Christian denomination, the local parish church. Where "While shepherds watched their flocks by night" used to be sung to any number of tunes, circumstances have conspired to limit it to one (rather bland) tune.

Tradition speaks out with much greater force at the Church's principal feast days, and Christmas is no exception. The tradition of our Christmas hymnody, however, has been much more fluid than I think many people realize. With the advent of recorded music and a force-fed "secular soundtrack" to a "Christmas season" which begins the week after Halloween and terminates some time around 11:30 a.m. on Christmas Day, it is harder to create the kind of sonic and theological space that our Christmas hymnody used to enjoy.

Anyways, I'd love to chat more about this. Please do weigh in if you have thoughts. I'm going to think a lot more about these uncommon hymns, and this proposed ranking of hymn popularity as a whole. It probably all deserves a second look, sometime around Christmas 2023, perhaps.

Labels: Britten, Christmas, Howard Chandler Robbins, Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982, hymns, less familiar hymns