“That in the beginning or at the end of Common Prayers, either at morning or evening, there may be sung a hymn or such like-song…in the best sort of melody or music that may be conveniently devised, having regard that the sense of the hymn may be understood and perceived.”

Of course it was also possible for the priest and parish clerks to sing instead of say parts of the service as written but this Injunction made possible genuinely hearty congregational singing.

The provision of metrical Psalms

Because of this provision there appeared in 1562 a book of metrical psalms, “The Whole Book of Psalms,” whose authors were Thomas Sternhold and John Hopkins. The most popular tune for this collection was the familiar ballad metre of “Chevy Chase.” And the singing of psalms became very popular in Elizabethan England. [There was also The Genevan Psalter which the Puritans favored]

A new version of the Sternhold and Hopkins collection of metrical psalms was produced in 1696 by Nicholas Brady and Nahum Tate. And this version, used in virtually all parishes, was often bound in one volume together with “The Book of Common Prayer” until well into the 19th century. (I have a copy of the BCP of 1662 printed by the Oxford University Press in 1846 and bound in with the BCP is “New Version of the Psalms of David fitted to the Tunes used in churches, by N.Tate and N.Brady.”)

This hymnbook of metrical psalms – which was also used in the USA by the PECUSA – for congregational singing did not replace the use of the Psalter in Morning and Evening Prayer. The metrical psalms as songs were in addition both to the reading or the chanting of the Psalter and (where it occurred) the singing of an anthem by the choir within the two Services.

But, in the 19th century, the metrical psalm gradually gave way to the hymn in the Church of England an Anglican Churches generally. The first edition of “Hymns Ancient and Modern” was in 1861, but before this date there were collections of hymns available from the Methodists and Dissenters in Britain and America, those of Watts and Wesley(s) being the most well known.

The singing of metrical psalms continued, however, in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland and in other Reformed Churches in America. And in some of these groups, it remains the only or virtually the only form of hymn allowed in divine worship.

The arrival of the modern hymn

When the Anglicans dropped the metrical psalm and adopted the hymn, the purpose of the hymn remained basically that of the metrical psalm. It was not a required or necessary part of the services but rather an embellishment as a means for edification of those present, both to prepare them for worship and to send them forth from worship to serve the Lord.

Likewise when hymns entered the celebration of “The Order for Holy Communion”, they were not seen as necessary but rather as useful and helpful for the edification of those present (see for details Percy Dearmer, “The Parsons’ Handbook,” 1913, pages 220-221).

In contrast to the Anglican use of hymns, the use of hymns by those who were called in England the “Dissenters” or the “Nonconformists” (Congregationalists, Baptists etc.) was very different. It is not too much to say that what the structured Liturgy was to the Anglican, the singing of four or five hymns was to the Protestant Dissenter. In the case of the latter this structure prepared for the reading and then the preaching of the Word of God.

In the new millennium

Anglican worship and “Dissenting” worship have changed much since the 19th century.

Because there is no longer a fixed liturgy – at best only a loose structure – in much Anglican worship at this time, the use of hymns and choruses has, if anything, become more important and perhaps nearly necessary (e.g., with many charismatic congregations). Regrettably, however, both the content and musical quality of much of the new hymnody used in 2001 leaves much to be desired (that is, if it be that the aim is excellence in offering to the Lord our song).

In much of the worship of those who are the successors of the Dissenters, music and singing seem to be essential but they vary from “traditional” to “contemporary” and as in the 19th century they provide the context for the sermon. The major differences between the new Dissent and the old are (a) the less reverential and much more casual attitude today; (b) the heavy emphasis today on the emotional and psychotherapeutical and the empirical compared with the primary emphasis upon the mind, and then the mind in the heart of yesterday; (c) the shortening today of the amount of Scripture read publicly in comparison with yesterday; and (d) the awareness today of the TV audience which causes the introducing of slick ways of advertising and presentation.

If we are to sing a new Song unto the LORD let it be our best song and with our best music and for His glory,

The Revd Dr Peter Toon
August 16 ,2001