Select Hymns

Select Hymns
Name	Select Hymns
Caption	Cover of an edition of Select Hymns
Language	English
Genre	Hymnal

Select Hymns is a title used for various hymn collections compiled in the 18th to 20th centuries for use in Protestant, Anglican, Methodist, and independent congregational worship. The collections gathered texts and tunes from sources associated with the Evangelical Revival, Oxford Movement, Oxford University Press, and denominational bodies such as the Church of England, United Methodist Church, and Presbyterian Church (USA). Editions often reflect influences from figures and institutions like Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, John Newton, William Cowper, and the Royal School of Church Music.

History

Compilations titled Select Hymns emerged amid the late-18th and early-19th century awakenings linked to the Methodist movement, the Great Awakening, and the broader Protestant Reformation aftermath. Early curators worked in the milieu of Anglican parish life at institutions such as St Paul's Cathedral, Canterbury Cathedral, and parish networks in London, York, and Edinburgh. Subsequent Victorian-era editions intersected with currents from the Oxford Movement, the liturgical scholarship of John Keble, and editorial practices exemplified by publishers like Novello & Co. and Hymns Ancient and Modern. Transatlantic editions drew on American hymnody from hymnists associated with Harvard University, Yale University, and revival hubs such as Plymouth, Massachusetts and Salem, Massachusetts.

Compilation and Selection Criteria

Editors of Select Hymns typically balanced doctrinal conformity to bodies like the Church of England and the Methodist Episcopal Church with pastoral suitability for parish, chapel, and camp meeting use. Selection criteria reflected theological positions held by leaders such as John Wesley, George Whitefield, and Charles Simeon, and liturgical priorities advanced by committees in Lambeth Palace and synods of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. Criteria included textual theology influenced by Apostles' Creed orientations, metrification compatible with common metres used by Isaac Watts and Thomas Ken, and tune pairing drawn from collections like those of William Walker and Lowell Mason.

Musical and Liturgical Use

Melodic settings in Select Hymns were often drawn from the repertoires of Henry Purcell, Felix Mendelssohn, and folk-tune sources collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Lucy Broadwood. Liturgical implementation occurred in contexts including services at Trinity College Chapel, Cambridge, St Martin-in-the-Fields, and revival meetings led by preachers such as Dwight L. Moody and Phillips Brooks. The books enabled congregational singing with organ accompaniment by instruments built by firms like Hill, Norman & Beard and Cavaillé-Coll-influenced builders; they also supported a cappella traditions preserved by Shakers and the shape-note tradition of William Walker's tunebooks. Choir arrangements from editors associated with the Royal College of Music and the Royal Academy of Music shaped choral performances in cathedral, parish, and camp-ground settings.

Notable Hymns and Authors

Many editions included works by prominent authors and composers: texts by Isaac Watts, Charles Wesley, Fanny Crosby, John Newton, William Cowper, and Emily Brontë (poetic adaptations); tunes by Lowell Mason, Samuel Sebastian Wesley, John Stainer, John Bacchus Dykes, and William Billings. Select Hymns editions sometimes preserved regional contributions from collectors such as Olive Dame Campbell and Cecilia Sharp, and featured translations of continental hymns by figures like Martin Luther and Philipp Nicolai, with musical adaptations inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach and Georg Friedrich Händel.

Publication and Editions

Various publishers produced Select Hymns editions: religious presses such as Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Routledge; denominational printers connected to the Methodist Publishing House, The Presbyterian Board of Publication, and Church House Publishing. Editions ranged from pocket-sized pocket hymnals used by itinerant preachers in circuits frequented by John Wesley to elaborated choir editions commissioned by cathedral chapters at Westminster Abbey and Glasgow Cathedral. Critical editions and facsimiles have been released by musicology departments at King's College London and archival projects at the Bodleian Library.

Reception and Influence

Select Hymns collections influenced worship practices across England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and the United States. They shaped hymn-singing traditions referenced in studies by scholars associated with institutions like Cambridge University, Oxford University, and the University of Oxford Faculty of Music. Reception ranged from enthusiastic adoption in revivalist circuits associated with Charles Finney to critical responses from liturgists tied to the Tractarian movement. The compilations contributed to hymnody scholarship cited in the work of editors of Hymns Ancient and Modern, researchers at the Royal Musical Association, and curators at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Category:Hymnals