Arbitrary Song Categories for hymnal comparison revisited

Anthony,

This is an interesting approach. I like the pie-chart idea for a quick overview of a hymnal's balance.

Just a few clarifying questions:

1) What do you mean by "Standard Repertoire?" Would those be selections familiar to your particular congregation? Would they be something distinct from either a "hymn" or "gospel song?"
2) What time period defines a contemporary song?
3) Does "editorial preference" mean how many John Peterson songs are in GHOF, Garlock/Hamilton songs in Majesty, etc.?

Since labels are sometimes tricky (one man's "hymn" can be another man's "gospel song") one category system I often think in is:
A) Texts that are addressed to God
B) Texts that are addressed to others about God
C) Texts that are addressed to others about my Christian experience

Obviously not every song in a hymnal will fit neatly into one of those category, but many do. Don't know if that applies to your current project at all, but for what it's worth...

Thanks for the post. I'll be interested to hear others' input and the final results.

Grace and peace,
Eric

OK. I just re-read my post and I fear it comes across as rather snarky. I really don't mean to rain on your hymnological party. Read below with lots of smilies.

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But since you're kind of arbitrarily assigning categories, won't you only "prove" what you already know to be true? At best your results will be only anecdotal. Seems to me that your only other choice is to narrowly define each category so that you arrive at an objective conclusion.

Oh. What if you set aside any songs you thought were "murky" and only used those that were clearly one category? Again: Hmmmm.

WARNING: If you take your job seriously, you will drive yourself buggy trying to categorize the hymnal. My wife sighs every semester I teach Hymnology because she knows it means endless hours of second guessing myself as to which hymns are taught in which sequence. And I have an even narrower objective than you do. I'm just trying to teach chronologically.

Perhaps that's why Paul didn't try to define "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs"? He recognized that there are general categories, but to try to pigeon hole every song is impossible.

Did you realize that your example of "When I Survey" fits into at least three categories?

Dave

Anthony, not particularly related to categorizing songs, but there may be an easier less objective? way of doing it. But it may take a bit longer to develop and some resources. I would purchase a domain and install mediawiki on it. Then 'upload' all the songs and let others categorize them.(Web 2. This would allow you to get many responses (as long as many people do it) for you to wade through. Perhaps you may think a song is a gospel while the vast majority think it is something different. (no point you categorizing something that the majority of the people disagree with)

Not to mention, this sort of thing is a lot easier to access and share with others. As well as pulling up all songs in a category etc etc.

The tune of "When I Survey" is from plain chant, so it could go in "Latin." You listed Watts in "Traditional Hymns" and "When I Survey" in "Standard Rep."

FWIW, this is one thing I love about my "job." Each hymn can be approached from so many different directions. Using just "When I Survey", here are some ways I have approached it:

1. History of Watts (personal life, introduction of English hymnody, etc.)
2. Scriptural allusion
3. Specific application to the passion week
4. Introduction to Medieval music (specifically how the music of the church attempted to avoid secularism)
5. Devotional material--defining words, unraveling hymnic syntax, etc.
6. Introduction to part singing
7. Introduction to basic music theory (specifically rhythmic notation)
8. I use the melody to introduce healthy singing that is "on the breath"

OK. Back on topic. Again, I'm not trying to be a pain. But what will you learn from a bird's eye view that you don't already know? Soul-Stirring has more gospel songs than the Trinity Hymnal, as well as an editorial preference toward Dr. Rice's songs. We already know that denominational hymnals will reflect their history. PCA hymnal will have more psalmody, Methodist more Wesley, Lutheran more German Choral tunes, Catholic more Latin tradition, etc. And every editor will reflect his own preferences. Unless he is deliberately producing a historical record hymnal (Routley's Rejoice in the Lord, for instance). But I suppose even that choice is an editorial preference to include "unknown" songs over yet-another in an already represented category.

Yet, I also understand that any narrowing of categories subverts your purpose. So if you chose to categorize hymns, say, by only the date of the text (or date of the tune, or whatever), you would be limiting your scope. Hmmmmm.

Dave

I see. "Chorus" when wedded with the tune for "The Water is Wide"? Or folk song?

Now there's objective information that could be useful. And also, "How do the percentages of editorial preferences in MH compare with other hymnals?" Although even that is tricky. Mrs. Pinkston obviously had an editorial preference to Horatius Bonar in her hymnal. But he's probably going to be listed under "Traditional" because he's dead?

Well, not EVERY hymnal. [smiley] But any one that I am interested in. But then I know that I'm a hymn geek. When Stockton's hymnal came out I couldn't stop myself from spending two hours looking at every page.

I guess the truth is anybody who would waste bandwidth quibbling with you over categories of hymns is gonig to already have strong opinions about hymnals. And folks who would be surprised by the statistical information won't fuss about where you put "As the Deer", right?

Me, too! I'm technologically challenged, so it will be a while before I catch on!

Dave