Hymn is a song of praise. Most hymns glorify God, but some honor a country or a hero. This article discusses only religious hymns. The ancient Greeks sang hymns to their gods. Since Biblical times, Jews have used the Psalms of the Old Testament as hymns. Today, both Jews and Christians sing hymns during their religious services. There are more than 400,000 hymns. The largest number were originally written in German.
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Words and music.
Most hymns were originally written as poems and were later set to music. The music of a hymn is called the hymn tune. Some hymns have become closely associated with a certain tune, though the words and music may have been written by different persons. For example, “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” was written by Isaac Watts, an English clergyman. But this hymn is almost always sung to a tune created by William Croft, an English composer. In other cases, a hymn is sung to several tunes, or one tune is used for several hymns.
Until the 1900’s, many hymnals had only the words to songs and were commonly considered books of poetry. In many churches, the people memorized certain hymn tunes, and the minister announced the tune for each hymn. Today, hymnals have both the words and the music. Many hymnals include tunes by great composers. For example, “Hark, the Herald Angels Sing,” written by English hymnist Charles Wesley, is sung to music by Felix Mendelssohn, a famous German composer.
History.
Until the 1500’s, most Christians sang hymns in Latin. During the Protestant Reformation, which began in Europe in 1517, many churches began to conduct religious services in their national language. Martin Luther, a German leader of the Reformation, wrote numerous hymns in German and translated a number of Latin hymns. In England, Switzerland, and other countries where many churches followed the teachings of John Calvin, a French religious reformer, most Christians sang only Biblical Psalms during religious services. As a result, verse translations of the Psalms became the chief hymns in those countries.
During the 1700’s, Isaac Watts, known as the Father of English Hymnody, broke the tradition of basing hymns on the Psalms and wrote many original hymns. Charles Wesley wrote approximately 9,500 sacred poems, most of which were sung as hymns. More than 500 of Wesley’s hymns are still sung.
In the 1800’s, Fanny Crosby, an American hymnist, wrote more than 8,000 hymns. During the late 1800’s, Dwight Lyman Moody, an American evangelist, and Ira D. Sankey, an American gospel singer, used many of Crosby’s hymns in revival meetings throughout the United States. The tunes they sang became popular and are used in many churches today.
