{"id":13377,"date":"2022-03-30T17:42:17","date_gmt":"2022-03-30T15:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=164379"},"modified":"2022-03-30T18:13:11","modified_gmt":"2022-03-30T16:13:11","slug":"best-hymns-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/best-hymns-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Best hymns of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By Jeremy Pound\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 30 March 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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As we explore elsewhere on this site, religious hymns have been sung since at least the Ancient Greek era and have been a core part of Christian worship since its earliest centuries. Very occasionally, a hymn\u2019s words and music are written by the same person, but more often, one person\u2019s text is set to another\u2019s melody. But what are the greatest hymns of them all? Here, we suggest our favourite combinations of fine words and equally magnificent music\u2026<\/p>\n

6 best hymns of all time<\/h2>\n

Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer<\/h3>\n
Chosen by Prince William and Catherine Middleton<\/a><\/strong> to begin their wedding in April 2011, few hymns set such an uplifting tone as this Welsh masterpiece \u2013 and few are as enjoyable to sing as. Usually accompanying the words by Welsh Methodist William Williams (1717-1791) is John Hughes\u2019s magnificent \u2018Cwm Rhondda\u2019 tune from 1905, named after the valley in South Wales. To many, however, the hymn is better known as \u2018 Bread of Heaven<\/strong><\/a>\u2019, due to those famous repeated words in the first verse. After this, the following \u2018Feed me till I want no more\u2019 traditionally divides the congregation between those who stick with the high note in the tune and those who prefer to dip down to sing the upwardly accompanying \u2018Want no moooooore!\u2019 with appropriate gusto. The choice is yours.<\/p>\n
\u2018Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer<\/a><\/strong>\u2018 is also a popular rugby song<\/a><\/strong> for the Welsh fans, and is considered\u00a0 Wales\u2019s second national anthem (behind \u2018\u2019Land of My Fathers\u2019<\/a><\/strong>).<\/p>\n\n<h3>Jerusalem<\/h3>\n<p>Another deserved favourite at weddings, and a regular at patriotic sing-alongs such as the<strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-last-night-of-the-proms\/"\"> Last Night of the Proms<\/a><\/strong>, <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/jerusalem-lyrics\/"\"><em>Jerusalem<\/em><\/a><\/strong> is also something of an enigma. What exactly was William Blake referring to in his 1804 poem? Was \u2018And did those feet in ancient time\u2019 really eulogising England, or did the \u2018dark Satanic mills\u2019 imply a more ominous vision of the future? Hubert Parry wrote his famous tune for it in 1916, at which point another layer of controversy was added \u2013 when the Gloucestershire composer was reluctant for it to be used to support of the patriotic Fight for Right campaign (for which it had been commissioned), it was taken up instead by the National Union of Women\u2019s Suffrage Societies. Unusually, Parry\u2019s setting has a four-bar intro on the organ before each verse, at which point everyone joins in together in glorious, boisterous unison. The word \u2018belter\u2019 springs to mind.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""BBC\" proms=\"\" hubert=\"\" parry:=\"\" jerusalem=\"\" elgar=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sERiPuOQyvo?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3>Be Thou My Vision<\/h3>\n<p>Next, we head over to Ireland. The words to this uniquely evocative hymn are traditionally said to be the handiwork of Saint Dal\u00edan, an Irish poet who spread the word in the north of the country before meeting a sticky end at the hands of pirates in the early seventh century. They may well date from later than that, however. They are commonly sung to the folk-derived hymn tune \u2018Slane\u2019 which, named after a village in County Meath, is first found in Patrick Joyce\u2019s <em>Old Irish Folk Music and Songs<\/em> in 1909. \u2018<strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-are-the-lyrics-to-the-hymn-be-thou-my-vision\/"\">Be Thou My Vision<\/a><\/strong>\u2019 doesn\u2019t have the beautiful chant-like phrases of \u2018Slane\u2019 all to itself, however \u2013 the tune is also used for the hymn \u2018Lord of all hopefulness\u2019.<\/p>\n<iframe title=\""King's\" college=\"\" choir=\"\" cambridge=\"\" hymns=\"\" be=\"\" thou=\"\" my=\"\" vision=\"\" width=\""200"\" height=\""113"\" src=\""https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZyFu0rl58qQ?feature=oembed"\" frameborder=\""0"\" allow=\""accelerometer;\" autoplay=\"\" clipboard-write=\"\" encrypted-media=\"\" gyroscope=\"\" picture-in-picture=\"\" allowfullscreen=\"\"\/>\n<h3>Dear Lord and Father of Mankind<\/h3>\n<p>Long before he penned <em>Jerusalem<\/em>, Hubert Parry also wrote an <strong><a href=\""https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/features\/articles\/what-oratorio\/"\">oratorio<\/a><\/strong> called <em>Judith,<\/em> which relates the gruesome story of the eponymous Old Testament heroine and, despite its gory subject matter, features a rather lovely aria in which Queen Meshullemeth tells the children about how their ancestors arrived in Israel. Little could Parry have known that, six years after his death in 1918, the aria\u2019s tune would be taken by George Gilbert Stocks, a music teacher at Repton School in Derbyshire, and adapted to fit \u2018Dear Lord and Father of Mankind\u2019, a hymn whose words were originally found in the poem <em>The brewing of Soma<\/em> by the US quaker John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92) \u2013 to get the \u2018Repton\u2019 tune to work, however, the last line of each verse needs to be repeated. And it\u2019s that last line that provides the real magic of this hymn when, in the final verse, we follow the climax of \u2018earthquake, wind, and fire\u2019 by descending to a hush for the \u2018still, small voice of calm\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>Amazing Grace<\/h3>\n<p>Few hymns tell such a personal story as this one. Its author John Newton (1725-1807) was a former slave trader who had converted to Christianity after surviving a shipwreck off County Donegal and later went on to become a committed abolitionist \u2013 the words \u2018That sav\u2019d a wretch like me!\u2019 could be seen to refer to both his physical escape and his spiritual conversion. Traditionally sung to the tune \u2018New Britain\u2019, a pentatonic (i.e. can be played on just the black notes on a piano) melody originating from American folk music, its immense popularity has spread well beyond the church, and famous recordings have been made of it by the likes of Elvis Presley, soprano Jessye Norman and Johnny Cash.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended<\/h3>\n<p>Even the great Ralph Vaughan Williams didn\u2019t everything right. For some reason, the eminent British composer and hymn editor loathed \u2018St Clement\u2019, Clement Cotteril Scholefield\u2019s gorgeously arching tune for the hymn \u2018The Day Thou Gavest, Lord, is Ended\u2019, whose words were written by the Reverend John Ellerton in 1870. Sorry, Ralph, but millions of us would beg to differ, especially when it is sung so movingly at the funeral or memorial of a loved one \u2013 though specifically an evening hymn, its words naturally lend it to this other purpose. As well as the viewers of the BBC\u2019s <em>Songs of Praise<\/em>, who voted it third in the programme\u2019s poll of favourite hymns in 2005, other fans include Queen Victoria, who included it in her diamond jubilee service in 1897, and Rick Wakeman, who featured the tune on his 1973 album <em>The Six Wives of Henry VIII<\/em>.<\/p><\/body><\/html>\n<hr class=\"no-tts wp-block-separator\"\/>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jeremy Pound Published: Wednesday, 30 March 2022 at 12:00 am As we explore elsewhere on this site, religious hymns have been sung since at least the Ancient Greek era and have been a core part of Christian worship since its earliest centuries. Very occasionally, a hymn\u2019s words and music are written by the same […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":13378,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"5"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time.jpg",2079,1386,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time-1536x1024.jpg",1536,1024,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/03\/best-hymns-of-all-time-2048x1365.jpg",2048,1365,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Jeremy Pound Published: Wednesday, 30 March 2022 at 12:00 am As we explore elsewhere on this site, religious hymns have been sung since at least the Ancient Greek era and have been a core part of Christian worship since its earliest centuries. Very occasionally, a hymn\u2019s words and music are written by the same…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/13377"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}