The Church of England has a long history of books that shifted the paradigm of Anglican worship. The King James Bible brought biblical text into a rich and imposing vernacular. The Book of Common Prayer standardized the aesthetic of church practice. Most relevantly for a music magazine, one particular volume sent such a shockwave through the Church of England that it was initially banned by the Archbishop of Canterbury, lest it dethrone the shoddy-but-popular “Hymns Ancient and Modern.”
Although many hymnals had already been published before its inception, the austerely named “English Hymnal” was a landmark of the format. In 1906, the influential clerical reformist Percy Dearmer collaborated with then-up-and-coming-and-now-great composer Ralph Vaughan Williams to produce the collection. Their legacy lasted into its 1986 re-edit as the “New English Hymnal,” which retained roughly two-thirds of the numbers in the “English Hymnal”’ while adding a hundred more, albeit under the editorial supervision of none so distinguished.
The editors of the 1906 hymnal had undeniable pedigree. But is everything in this book actually worth singing? Which hymns should be regular fixtures on the wooden board? Which should be forgotten? As a part-time church organist and a full-time strong-opinion-haver, I did the only sensible thing and played through all 606 entries over the course of a particularly unhinged month. Every single one of these hymns might be somebody’s favorite—although in some cases it seems unlikely—so I’ve done my best to say something about each number.
If you are a beginner in the world of church musicianship, this list will serve as an invaluable guide to which hymns will deepen your service and worship, and which can be safely ignored. If you are an experienced director of music, you may have ordered an episcopal drone strike to my location before long.
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