Rewriting hymns

[Haruo]

The Hymn Society posted a link to this article: I was reminded of the way Celebrating Grace was forced to drop one of the Getty hymns they had contracted for because they did a little revision, without permission, to make it a little less ... Calvinistic or bloody ... I forget which. At Fremont yesterday, saw our current Offertory Doxology (to OLD HUNDREDTH) was

Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Whose constant love and grace we know.
Bless now, O Lord, these gifts we give
That others may in your peace live. Amen.

Would Thomas Ken object? The John Newton who wrote "Amazing Grace" didn't live long enough to see the "When we've been there ten thousand years" stanza tacked on the end of it, and several of his verses left out to make room for it.

I prefer "What Child is this?" with the "nails, spear" part intact, not dumbed down into a refrain.

I also tend to prefer more stanzas rather than fewer. "How firm a foundation" should be seven verses. Ditto "O come, O come, Emmanuel". "All creatures of our God and King" should have the death verse. Etc. And I don't insist on it for really long songs, for example I'm happy with five or six stanzas of "O for a thousand tongues to sing", no need to do the whole eighteen...

[Haruo]

Your preferences and positions?

[Rvaughn]

Not sure offhand which denomination is Celebrating Grace. I remember awhile back one hymn committee wanted to rewrite substitutionary atonement out of one of the stanzas, but Getty and Townend wouldn't give them permission.

In general, I think it is best to not rewrite someone else's hymn without their permission. A sort of "do unto others" based philosophy. As a songwriter I think I've tried to keep my edits to "meter" -- that is, changes to make hymn meter fit tune meter (though at times I've gone a bit farther). Even in doing that with meter, you have to be careful to not upset the apple cart, so to speak. On the other hand, if it is public domain and one is upfront about it being an edited/adapted version, I suppose there may not be too much harm. Without doing some research it is hard to know whether the old hymns have come down to us intact anyway. Lots of little errors, changes, etc. in transmission. Nevertheless, back to the general rule -- less is better than more. Leave them alone as much as possible.

In The Sacred Harp we often use only a stanza or two in order to leave time for other leaders, especially in larger conventions. But in church, I like singing all the stanzas of a hymn. In a good hymn there is usually a progression and a story that is lost somewhat by dropping stanzas.

[Rvaughn]

But, yes, 18 stanzas might get you kicked out of most churches!

[Haruo]

[JE Pettibone]

Ed: Celebrating Grace was publicly introduce at the 2010 CBF assembly. Each attendee was asked to take the copy found on their chair home with them. The Publisher is Celebrating Grace INC., Macon Ga.

My only complaint is the weight. My Arthritic hands rebel.

See; https://hymnary.org/hymnal/CGH2010

for
Indexes
Authors
First Lines
Tune Names
Topics
Scripture References
Meters
Elements of Worship
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[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]

I think I must have blamed Celebrating Grace for a sin committed by Glory to God. In fact, I'm sure now, because I don't think I ever saw a sampler for Celebrating Grace. Brain flatulence. Sorry all, and especially David Music et al.

[Tim Bonney]

Odd for Piper to talk about grace. But then, I think he means something different with the word than I generally do.

[Haruo]

Crown Him with Many Crowns is one of the most notable cases of rewriting hymns by writing theologically divergent additional stanzas. Matthew Bridges wrote the hymn, eight stanzas, I think. He was a Roman Catholic, though, or soon to become one, though, and some of his stanzas were objectionable to Protestants. Rev. Godfrey Thring, a couple of decades after Bridges'song came out, wrote a number of stanzas (I think he published a version of the hymn where only v. 1 was by Bridges. Nowadays it's not uncommon for hymnals to include a version of the text where it's mostly by Bridges, but one or, rarely, two of Thring's are mixed in.

[Jim]

About 20 years ago, I was asked by a magazine editor to prepare an article on the subject of rewriting hymns in order to remove masculine references or probably violence. I did so but she and I agreed that it would be better not to publish it. In any case, it is found here: .

[James]

My Favorite example of poor rewrites comes from "Eternal Father Strong to Save." Some English editors for one of the dissenter denominations wanted to eliminate archaic language and the strident tone of the final couplet. It came out as "O hear us when we pray to you for those who sale the ocean blue." This does not serve or satisfy