A quality hardback with 53 recently-composed hymn tunes. The majority have been tried in the Metropolitan Tabernacle services, before being adopted into regular worship. Acceptance (or otherwise) by the large, multi-national congregation (rather than an editorial committee) has steered the project.
As Dr Peter Masters comments in his foreword, ‘In my view, these compositions ideally carry the sentiments of strong traditional-genre hymns, and all possess their own distinctive and memorable theme melody. I do not think that there is any other composer of traditional hymn music over the centuries who has contributed so many uniquely original melodies to our corpus of hymn tunes. May this selection be a benefit and blessing to churches worldwide that love reverent worship.’
Extract from the Preface:
The compositions in this little book are part of a campaign to promote traditional hymnody. The publication in 1991 of the Psalms & Hymns of Reformed Worship words-edition created a pressing need for more hymn tunes. Though a search of hymnbooks from all round the world yielded a crop of ‘lost’ melodies, there were still not enough.
The hymn-tune ‘marriage’ has been the basis of this project; fine hymns can be (and have been) rendered dull by an ill-suited tune. The musical style of these compositions is deliberately traditional in order to match the weighty, sometimes majestic, sentiments of the hymns, and to distance itself from the contemporary ‘worship’ of today.
These tunes are not just a matter of personal taste. The majority have been tried in the Tabernacle services, before being adopted into our regular worship. Acceptance (or otherwise) by the large, multi-national congregation (rather than an editorial committee) has driven the project. Where several hymns share a tune, the hymn most commonly sung is set here with the music.
