Hymnary

Hymnary
Name	Hymnary
Type	Digital hymnal database
Owner	Calvin College (historical association), nonprofit organizations
Country	United States
Established	2000s
Language	English
Subject	Hymnals, hymn texts, hymn tunes

Hymnary is a comprehensive online repository documenting hymn texts, hymn tunes, hymnals, and related hymnological materials. It aggregates bibliographic data, musical notation, and metadata drawn from a wide range of historical and contemporary sources, serving scholars, clergy, organists, choir directors, and congregations. The project connects primary and secondary material across traditions including Anglican, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Reformed, Pentecostal, and Orthodox hymnody.

History

The project emerged in an era shaped by digitization initiatives at institutions such as Calvin College, Wesley Center, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton Theological Seminary, Duke University, Oxford University, Cambridge University, British Library, Library of Congress, Newberry Library, Vatican Library, National Library of Scotland, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Bodleian Library, Trinity College Dublin, University of Glasgow, King's College London, University of Manchester, University of Edinburgh, University of Notre Dame, Indiana University, University of Michigan, Cornell University, Columbia University, Stanford University, University of California, Berkeley, Brown University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Pittsburgh, Rutgers University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago, Swansea University, University of Wales Trinity Saint David, McGill University, University of Toronto, Queen's University Belfast, University of Oxford Faculty of Music, Royal College of Music and cultural heritage initiatives like the Digital Public Library of America. Early collaborators included hymnologists and editors linked to the American Guild of Organists, Royal School of Church Music, Association of Anglican Musicians, International Society for Music Education, and denominational archives such as the United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Archives, Presbyterian Historical Society, United Church of Christ Archives, and Catholic Research Resources Alliance. Funding and technical support were influenced by grants and partnerships from entities such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, and regional heritage trusts.

Content and Features

The database catalogs entries for hymn texts by authors including Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, John Newton, Martin Luther, William Cowper, John Keble, Reginald Heber, John Mason Neale, Edward B. Pusey, Percy Dearmer, George Herbert, Samuel Crossman, Anne Steele, Katherine Lee Bates, Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott, Horatius Bonar, Cecil Frances Alexander, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Rudyard Kipling, John Donne, T. Tertius Noble, John D. Horman, Gerhard Tersteegen, Paul Gerhardt, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and many others. Tune attributions include Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Felix Mendelssohn, William Henry Monk, Lowell Mason, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Stainer, Henry Purcell, Alexander Gretchaninov, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, George Frideric Handel, Thomas Tallis, Orlando Gibbons, Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, Michael Praetorius, César Franck, Antonín Dvořák, Franz Schubert, Edmund S. Lorenz, John Bacchus Dykes, Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Carl Nielsen, Jean-Philippe Rameau, Camille Saint-Saëns, Gustav Holst, Herbert Howells, Ivor Novello, William Byrd, John Ireland, Samuel Barber, Edward Elgar, Benjamin Britten, Arvo Pärt, Ola Gjeilo. It provides hymn texts, meter, incipits, tune names, key, meter, meter numbers, first lines, and cross-references to occurrences in specific hymnals like The Hymnal 1982 (Episcopal Church), The Methodist Hymnal, The Lutheran Service Book, The Baptist Hymnal, The New Century Hymnal, The English Hymnal, The Australian Hymn Book, Hymns Ancient and Modern, The Oxford Book of English Verse, Common Praise, The Sacred Harp, The Southern Harmony, The Christian Hymnary, The Presbyterian Hymnal, The New Hymnal for Australia, Breaking Bread and specialized collections such as Taizé chants, Iona Community publications, Shape Note editions, and hymnals of the Moravian Church. Advanced search supports queries by author, composer, meter, tune, key, first line, hymn number, and publication, linking to scanned images, editorial notes, and bibliographic records.

Editions and Notable Hymnals

Entries document authoritative editions and notable hymnals including early printed collections like Genevan Psalter, Tynemouth Collection, Sternhold and Hopkins, Tallis's Pervigilium Veneris? and denominational hymnals such as The Methodist Hymn Book, The Baptist Hymnal (1991), The Hymnal 1982, Lutheran Service Book (2006), The English Hymnal (1906), Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), The New English Hymnal, The Baptist Hymnal (2008), The Celebration Hymnal, Presbyterian Hymnal (1990), The Hymnal 1940 (Episcopal Church), Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal, The Church Hymnary (1905/1927/1973), and regional works like Songs of Fellowship (UK), A New Zealand Hymn Book, Sing! A New Creation (Canada). Scholarly critical editions and facsimiles include materials from Oxford University Press, Hymn Society of Great Britain and Ireland, Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, Schola Cantorum of Paris, Cambridge University Press, and archives of hymn editors such as John Julian, William G. Whittaker, Ralph Vaughan Williams (editor), Percy Dearmer (editor), H. R. Bramley, H. F. Lyte, William C. Dix, John Mason Neale (translator), Cecil Frances Alexander (compiler), E. J. Hopkins, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (editor).

Usage in Worship and Denominations

Clergy, cathedral choirs, parish musicians, and denominational worship planners consult the resource for liturgical seasons observed by Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, and feast days tied to figures like Saint Patrick, Saint Augustine, Saint Ambrose, Saint Gregory the Great and the Feast of Saint Michael. Denominational practice documentation spans Anglican Communion provinces, Roman Catholic Church dioceses, United Methodist Church conferences, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America synods, Presbyterian Church (USA) presbyteries, Southern Baptist Convention associations, United Church of Christ congregations, Reformed Church in America classes, Moravian Church provinces, Orthodox Church in America dioceses, and Pentecostal networks. The database supports ecumenical planning used by organizations such as the World Council of Churches, Christian Churches Together (CCT), Council on Christian Unity, National Council of Churches (USA), and academic programs at Concordia Seminary, Princeton Theological Seminary, Fuller Theological Seminary, Union Theological Seminary (New York), Candler School of Theology, and Yale Divinity School.

Editorial Practices and Compilation

Editorial practice follows bibliographic standards employed by libraries and musicology centers including the Library of Congress Name Authority File, Dublin Core Metadata Initiative, MARC standards, and cataloging conventions used by RISM and the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives and Documentation Centres (IAML). Contributors include hymnologists, music librarians, archivists, and editors from institutions such as Smithsonian Institution, British Museum, Royal Library of Belgium, Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, German National Library, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft projects, and university music departments. Attribution practices reflect scholarship about contested tunes and texts by figures like John Stainer, William C. Dix, Isaac Watts (scholar), Lowell Mason (publisher), John Wesley (compiler), Charles Wesley (compiler), Augustan editors, and modern musicologists publishing in journals such as The Journal of Musicology, Hymnology: An International Journal, The Musical Quarterly, The Journal of Ecclesiastical History, and proceedings of the Hymn Society.

Digital Presence and Online Resources

The platform interlinks with catalogues and repositories including the WorldCat union catalogue, HathiTrust Digital Library, Internet Archive, JSTOR, Project Gutenberg, Google Books, Europeana, BHL (Biodiversity Heritage Library)? and digitized collections of Cambridge Digital Library, Bodleian Libraries, New York Public Library, British Newspaper Archive, and national library portals. It offers CSV and XML export, persistent identifiers compatible with ORCID and institutional repositories, and integration for liturgical planning software used by vendors and communities documented by Church Music Publishers Association. The site supports scholarship, performance preparation, and hymn research by linking to scanned sources, editorial notes, and community-contributed corrections, facilitating collaboration among catalogers, clergy, composers, music directors, and historians.

Category:Hymnology