Spiritual song in the English cultural area
This article describes the past and present of sacred hymn and hymn in English culture.
history
The Anglican Church in the early 16th century
Soon after the separation from the Catholic Roman Church by Henry VIII. (1491-1547) led the Anglican liturgy reforms by which the use of the English language in the liturgy ( service which included). The Anglican Church's first official liturgical book is Exhortation and Litany (1544), borrowings from Protestant orders of worship are clear. In 1549 the first edition of the Book of Common Prayer appeared .
In 1550, J. Merbeckes Booke of Common Prayer Noted appeared, a collection of unanimous settings of the liturgy in the style of Gregorian chant .
The renewed break with Rome under Elizabeth I led to the 1559 edition of the Book of Common Prayer , the Anglican liturgical book that was binding for many decades.
The Anglican chant
The Anglican Church initially only allowed psalms and cantica for congregational singing . Psalm rhymes had to be based closely on the biblical model. Singable Psalm rhymes appeared in collections called Metrical Psalter . A rhyming of the six penitential psalms by Thomas Wyatt appeared as early as 1540 . A first full English psalm rhyme by Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins was printed in 1562. Although the poems often appeared amateurish, this rhyming remained in use for almost 150 years, in some communities until the late 18th century.
The traditional congregational singing of the Anglican church was the Anglican chant ( Anglican Chant ). In Anglican chant, the rhyming psalms and cantica are sung in the simple, four-part Fauxbourdon movement of the late Renaissance. Some of the melodies come from Gregorian chant or are modeled on it, and some of them have also been adopted, for example from the singing tradition of the Reformed communities on the European continent.
The Sternhold-Hopkins Psalter already contained some melodies. In 1621 Thomas Ravenscroft published an expanded edition that included numerous new melodies by leading English composers of the late Tudor and early Stuart periods, including Thomas Morley , Thomas Tallis , John Dowland , and Thomas Tomkins .
Around 1640 the melodies found their way into most versions of the Book of Common Prayer .
Effects of the Reformation in England and Scotland
At the beginning of the 17th century, the teachings of John Calvin spread in England. Fundamentalist Protestants rejected the rite of the Anglican Church , which was perceived as Catholic , and wanted to cleanse the service of papist accessories ( puritans ). The aversion to hierarchical, official church organization in England led to numerous independent congregations of Calvinist character ( congregationalists ). The Baptists are formed in the congregationalist environment . The Scottish Calvinist state church ( Presbyterians ) had grassroots democratic traits.
Especially among the Puritans, an extreme moral rigor developed in the first half of the 17th century. Luxury , sport , idleness were rejected; they were contrasted with a methodical way of life with a sensible investment of time, useful work, attending church services and regular Bible reading. A mentality of discipline and self-supervision emerged.
Religious restrictions led to the emigration of the congregational pilgrim fathers to New England in 1620 . Persecutions under Charles I around 1630 drive more Puritans to New England.
Expansion of the English cultural area in the 17th century
After the Revolution of the Puritan Cromwell and the restoration of the monarchy, a new edition of the Book of Common Prayer was completed in 1661 . It hardly changed at all until the 20th century.
With the expansion of the British Empire, the 1661 edition of the Book of Common Prayer and the Anglican tradition of psalm singing in English were spread worldwide. On the one hand, they were decisive for the congregational singing of Anglican churches in the British colonies; On the other hand, the Anglican singing tradition had a great influence on the congregational singing of other denominations in the English-speaking world: The first book printed in the British colonies in America, the Bay Psalm Book of 1640, was reissued in various ways, some with the familiar melodies of earlier psalteries, and remained for over in use for a century as the basis for the unanimous congregational chant of the American colonies.
In 1650 a Scottish Presbyterian psalter was published.
The literary quality of the rhymes grew significantly in the 17th century. Nahum Tate , who published a Metrical Psalter with Nicholas Brady in 1696 , was later referred to as the poet laureate .
The English language devotional song in the 17th century
In the 17th century, spiritual songs without psalm templates were also created in the English-speaking world, not for church purposes, but for private use. In this context, the names George Wither (1588–1667), George Herbert (1573–1631), John Milton (1608–1674), Samuel Crossman (1624–1683), John Bunyan (1628–1688) and Thomas Ken (1637) –1711).
The English-language hymn in the 18th century
England in the early 18th century
By the 18th century, poets of English psalm rhymes treated the biblical models more and more freely. Metaphors and allegories found their way into the lyrics. Finally, the Anglican Church of England approved the use of hymns for worship without a biblical text. English-language hymn poetry began to blossom.
Its outstanding representative in the early 18th century is the congregationalist Isaac Watts (1674–1748), who is also known as the Father of English Hymnody because of his productivity and the popularity of his songs . Watts composed psalm rhymes and free song texts, about 750 hymns in all. The focus of his poetry is the reverence and devotion of the individual. Many of them are still sung today, for example Joy to the World ( Joy to the world, your king is approaching , today to a melody by Lowell Mason based on Georg Friedrich Handel ), Come We that Love the Lord ( voices with full sound ) and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross .
With a few exceptions, Watts' songs are used today with melodies that were composed much later, often in the late 19th century.
England in the 1730s: The First Revival Movement
In the 1730s there was a first revival movement within the Anglican Church in England . It was led by the brothers John and Charles Wesley (1707–1788) and the charismatic preacher George Whitefield (1714–1770), who were influenced by Pietism, especially of the Moravian Brethren, and by the enthusiasm and radicalism of the Puritans .
The traveling preachers of the revival movement demanded from the believers a conscious inner conversion (personal conversion), visible in a change in the way of life according to practical Christian ideals. The assurance of salvation through justification through Jesus Christ, understood as being born again, came to the fore. Strong emotions developed: listeners burst into tears during the sermon or had ecstatic experiences. Often the individual associated his conversion with a certain key experience, the awakening experience . The revivalist movement was rejected by the official Church of England , and services were often held in the open air. The appearance of lay preachers increased, and local groups emerged that met for regular Bible study, mutual confession or joint social work.
In contrast to Pietism, the revival movements found their own theology . The first, English revival movement was the starting point of Methodism , of which John Wesley is considered to be the founder .
The first outstanding hymn poet of the English revival movement was Charles Wesley . He wrote more than 6,500 hymns. In addition to more traditional songs of praise, the expression of differentiated feelings in the personal relationship with Jesus and God is the focus of his texts. His songs, such as Hark, The Herald Angel Sing or Jesu, Lover of My Soul ( Jesus, Savior of My Soul ), found wide distribution in Methodism and in the Protestant churches of the Anglo-American region.
England in the mid and late 18th centuries
Around the middle of the 18th century, singing masters based on the American model also appeared in England . However, they remained a marginal phenomenon, traveled to rural regions and had no lasting influence on the English hymn.
The Catholic music teacher John Francis Wade (1710? –1786) is usually credited with the text and melody of the Christmas carol Adeste fideles ( Come, O you believers ).
The slave trader John Newton (1725–1807) survived a storm at sea. Heard of George Whitefield and John Wesley , he became a deacon, priest, and celebrated preacher. He wrote over two hundred hymn texts, for example Amazing Grace , Does the Gospel Word ( God offers rest and refreshment in his Son ) and Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken .
Some of Newton's songs were written in collaboration with William Cowper (1731–1800), one of the most famous poets of his time. Cowper gave a new direction to 18th century English poetry by writing about scenes from everyday life in rural England. As a poet of the romantic movement, the authenticity of the feeling was in the foreground for him. Many spiritual of Cowper seals became popular hymns, including the Olney Hymns (1779, in collaboration with John Newton ) and There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood ( It's a fountain, out of it pure blood , today to a tune from Ernst Heinrich Gebhardt sung from 1875). His texts have significantly influenced the English-language hymn.
Augustus Montague Toplady (1740–1778) wrote various collections of sacred poems. His lyrics, Rock of Ages, are still known today ( rock of salvation, opened to me , today to a melody by Thomas Hastings from 1874).
Great Britain in the 19th century
Hymns were also written and composed in Great Britain in the 19th century. a. Abide with me , For All the Saints and The day Thou gavest, Lord, is ended were also adopted in German hymn books in the 20th and 21st centuries. German hymns were also translated into English, for example by Catherine Winkworth (1827–1878).
Anglican Church Music and Liturgy in the 20th Century
It was not until the 1920s that the Book of Common Prayer was revised , which, however, met with resistance. However, other Anglican liturgical books were published in the late 20th century, such as the Alternative Service Book (1980) and the Common Worship Series (2000).
20th century: ecumenism
Ecumenical hymnbooks originated in Scotland , Australia and New Zealand in the 1990s .
Today in English-speaking ecumenism, songs from the Iona community , especially by John L. Bell and Graham Maule, are popular.