The Hymn Society (mostly a Protestant Organization) is having its annual meeting next week. They are having a Tournament to pick the greatest hymn of all time, Starting with 32 hymns they are now down to eight. During the annual meeting they will have the play offs. Finals are in bold below with a recap of the action to date. The link has all the specific percentages, also has links for more information about the competitors and how initial seeds were chosen.
What of the following are your favor hymns? Which one have you heard in your parish? Which have you never heard? What favorite hymns are missing?
In the strophic
division, "Holy, Holy, Holy" beat out by wide
margins “O A Thousand Tongues” and then
“Amazing Grace” which had narrowly overcome “Love Divine, O Loves Excelling”
“Be Thou My Vision” easily
overcame “What a Friend We Have in Jesus” but more narrowly defeated “Come,
Thou Font” which had easily prevailed over “ All Power to the Name of Jesus”
In the refrain
division
“O Come All Ye Faithful” easily
defeated “On Eagles Wings” then more narrowly defeated “When Peace Like A
River” which easily defeated “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”
“My Hope is
Built on Christ the Solid” easily overcame “Because He Lives” then narrowly
defeated “Here I am, Lord” which had narrowly defeated “To God be the Glory”
In the Chant and
Cyclical Division “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” walloped both “Soon, and Very
Soon” and “O-so-so” "Soon and Very Soon" had narrowly defeated "Siyahamba"
“Of the Father’s
Love Begotten
soundly defeated “Were you there” which had narrowly defeated “Jesus, Remember
Me.” It had also defeated “Seek Ye First”
In the CCLI and
Staff division, “Holy God, We Praise Your Name” soundly
defeated “Mightly to Save” after narrowly defeating “10,000 reasons Bless My
Soul”. Might to Save had soundly
defeated “Every Praise”
How Great Thou
Art
soundly defeated “In Christ Alone” and “How Great is Our God”
“In
Christ Alone” had defeated had narrowly defeated “Canticle of the Turning”
I love to listen to "Eternal Father, Strong to Save". Never get a chance to sing it, of course. Always glad to hear it in a movie, such as at the end of "The Perfect Storm". They only sang the first verse, I suppose since it is so wonderfully Trinitarian.
ReplyDeleteToday July 10 are the finals???
ReplyDeleteMonday, July 15 – Quarterfinals (online voting via Facebook)
DeleteTuesday, July 16 – Semi-Finals (online voting via Facebook)
Wednesday, July 17 – Finals (online voting via Facebook)
Thursday, July 18 – Winner Announced
A couple of corrections: O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing, and Come Thou Font is more popularly know as Come Thou Font of Every Blessing.
ReplyDeleteI attended a nondenominational church for years and know most of the popular Protestant hymns. They are usually sung with gusto, as opposed to insipid Catholic singing.
It would be really hard to pick just one hymn as a favorite, because I've got a lot of favorites. But of this group I'd have to pick "How Great Thou Art" as my favorite organ accompaniment to play. Really lends itself to a nice legato technique. Close second would be "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name".
ReplyDeleteI've heard all of the ones listed but we don't use them all.
The one that most often gets requested is "On Eagles Wings". Our parishioners love the Marian hymns such as "Sing of Mary, Pure and Lowly" and sing them enthusiastically.
DeleteImmortal, Invisible (Anglican lyrics)
ReplyDeleteO, Brother Man
Amazing Grace
Hail, Holy Queen
All Creatures of Our God and King
Guide me, O Thou Great Jehovah
Precious Lord
Never hear any of these in the parish.
DeleteI never hear "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" without thinking of Robert Mitchum in "Night of the Hunter." Which probably isn't fair to the song.
ReplyDeleteThe elimination round looks reasonable to me, except for the absence of "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," which may have been eliminated because so many Dixieland bands play it, which they do because it just plain swings. I catch myself whistling it all the time. And I wonder what happened to "A Mighty Fortress."
We don't sing or hear any of these, with our music director a fugitive from LifeTeen, except "Amazing Grace" and "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name." The latter used to be semi-official (the parish is Holy Name of Jesus) until someone important got tired of it. "On Eagles Wings" turns up at most funerals but not otherwise. And, of course, the Christmas songs.
Night of the Hunter is one of my all-time favorite movies! One of my girlfriends and I were thinking of taking tours down the Ohio-West Virginia border to visit the sites mentioned in the show.
DeleteJust a Closer Walk with Thee. Always reminds me of Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Delete"A Mighty Fortress" is the Lutheran anthem. I don't know how many Lutherans there are in Florida, but there are plenty here. It's in our music edition but I never have heard it in a Catholic Church.
DeleteCwm Rhondda (Guide O Me Thou Great God Jehovah) is said to be the unofficial Welsh national anthem.
One that puzzled me when we moved to our present parish was "Stainless the Maiden" (Serdeczna Matko in Polish). I had known it as an Advent hymn. But it is sung at a lot of Polish funerals, the old people are very attached to it. I read later that the Polish words are a freedom anthem dating to the 19th century.
Cwm Rhondda is popular in Wales. Here is the national anthem. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=j50W-ZnWx6k
DeleteBoris Johnson wants everybody to speak English first, which has a lot of Welsh people riled up.
Bishop Charles Helmsing of Kansas City-St. Joe waited with almost indecent eagerness for authorization from the appropriate dicastery to sing Martin Luther's hymn, and once it was OK, it turned up at most of his liturgies.
Delete