THE ENGLISH HYMN - 1
"CHRIST TRIUMPHANT": Great Hymn Tunes of the Twentieth
Century
BARNARD John Guiting Power (Christ
triumphant, ever reigning)
NAYLOR Ken Coe Fen (How shall I sing that
majesty?)
TREDINNICK Noêl Old Yeavering (Like a mighty river
flowing)
FERGUSON Barry Cypress Court (Father, hear the prayer we
offer)
HOLST Gustav Thaxted (I vow to thee, my
country)
NICHOLSON Sydney Bow Brickhill (We sing the praise of him
who died)
SCHUTTE Daniel I .Here I am, Lord (I, the Lord of sea and
sky)
HOWELLS Herbert Michael (All my hope on God is
founded)
WILLIAMS Derek San Rocco (Give me the wings of
faith)
APPLEFORD Patrick Living Lord (Lord Jesus
Christ)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Ralph Sine Nomine (For all the
Saints)
IRELAND John Love Unknown (My song is love
unknown)
ARCHER Malcolm Vicars' Close (Praise the Lord of
Heaven)
TAYLOR Cyril Abbot's Leigh (Glorious things of thee are
spoken)
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Ralph Down Ampney (Come down, O love
divine)
TERRY Richard Runciman Highwood (Hark what a
sound)
ARCHER Malcolm Redland (King of Glory, King of
Peace)
HOWELLS Herbert Salisbury (Holy Spirit, ever
dwelling)
JACKSON Francis East Acklam (For the fruits of his
creation)
HARRIS Sir William Alberta (Lead, kindly
light)
BAUGHEN Michael Lord of the Years (Lord, for the years your
love has kept and guided)
HARWOOD Basil Thornbury (Thy hand, O God, has
guided)
Wells Cathedral Choir, Rupert
Gough (organ) Malcolm Archer
Hyperion CDP12101 [67'
40"]
Crotchet
Amazon
UK
AmazonUS
Some of my best arguments have been about hymns, until I came to realise
that musical value judgements have precious little to do with it. Hymns are
part of us from our childhood days and our affections centre around those
we learnt to love then, each intimately bound up with some half-forgotten
face, event or association. Of course, new favourites are added later, especially
for those whose life continues to revolve around a church, and almost manage
to stand shoulder to shoulder with our first loves (but they still seem to
be new hymns). And what a shock when we attend another congregation and find
that they nurture a collective love for a completely different set of hymns
and, horrors of horrors, sing some of our most-cherished words to a different
tune (and won't change it for anybody). This was where my best arguments
started and how misguided they were. It's no use pointing to clumsy harmonies,
overworked sequences, weak cadences, bits of hymns that sound like bits of
other hymns and the like; and never let the words "bad taste" cross your
lips, for you're arguing with a person's psyche.
When I say "us", I suppose I should make it clear at this point that I am
talking about English-speaking Christians, and mostly Protestants. Those
who come from Catholic-dominated countries are not brought up to communal
hymn-singing at all (Italians who move towards Protestantism find the hymns
the hardest part of it); the German Lutheran church has its repertoire of
classics that sound severe, almost unmelodious, to us, but have deep meaning
for them; Scandinavian countries can, I believe, boast a very fine hymn
repertoire scarcely known outside their own countries. And, though many hymns
of the Anglican tradition are equally well-known on either side of the Atlantic,
there is a long line of American hymns going back to pioneer days and leading
to the present. One such, "Here I am, Lord", is included here in spite of
the series title "The English Hymn", and the booklet writer's notes sum up
British ambivalence towards the American style. "The refrain walks a knife-edge
between humility and sentimentality, and singers need to be aware of this
spiritual danger". These singers are certainly fairly laid-back, but aren't
they missing the point? No commandment in the Bible says "Thou shalt not
go over the top" and would it really have been such an awful thing to do
to give this refrain its head? But I shall end up arguing again.
What I am trying to say is that "Great hymns of the twentieth century" is
a risky title that is likely to mean in reality a selection of those with
particular meaning for the compiler of the anthology. There are a certain
number of tunes over which there is an almost unanimous consensus (at least
one, Vaughan Williams's "Sine Nomine", is here in a slowish performance which
substitutes a certain majesty for the energetic drive we more normally hear;
Basil Harwood's "Thornbury" is perhaps another). These can qualify as great,
but it is surprising how few of them there are. So if Hyperion are planning
an extended series based on the English hymn, I feel they should set aside
the "great" angle and either plan a full-scale musicological-historical
investigation (the note-writer here comments on the authors and composers
of the individual hymns but offers no overall introduction or conclusion),
or else invite the chosen choirs simply to present a string of their favourites.
I rather suspect that this is more or less what has happened here anyway.
In Wells taste tends toward the high Anglican, with Malcolm Archer favouring
broad, dignified tempi. His own two tunes say much for his predilections
and "Vicars' Close" is one of the high points of the disc. Elsewhere, as
I have already hinted, the automatic application of this approach no matter
what the hymn is not always happy. So, while the performances are good enough
to provide a very moving experience for those whose choices and tastes are
close to those of this choir (I am sure their Wells congregation will love
it), neither in blend nor in ensemble nor in tonal range are they quite good
enough to convince, say, a Czech Catholic or an Orthodox Bulgarian that this
is music worth hearing for its own sake.
Hyperion have produced some wonderful records of British Cathedral choirs
over the years and I hope the next in this series will inspire a more positive
response. And they'd better look to their type-setting, too, for somebody's
portable has come to grief every time the hymn-texts spread on to the next
page. Try following through "Thornbury" and you'll find you have to turn
back and forth three times to stay with the choir. This didn't happen in
the days of the manual typewriter. Computers can be obtuse servants and
treacherous masters.
Christopher Howell
