The Curious Case of the Enigmatic Hymn Tune Name and 7 Things You Might Not Know About It
RILEY. KINGSFOLD. ORA LABORA. OASIS. CWM RHONDDA. VILLE DU HARVE. CANONBURY. DRONFIELD. TRURO. WELLESLEY. MARTYRDOM.
Ok, before you think I’m babbling some kind of nonsense, let me tell you that the words above do have something in common, as irrelevant and different as they seem. That is they are names of hymn tunes. And in the SDA Hymnal, they usually exist in the uppermost right corner of the page.
I never really cared much about tune names until I was ten. I was going through some music pieces in an old dusty box I found in someone’s music room, when I saw a short piece which had a curious title called Fantasia on AURELIA. Used to piano piece titles with Op., No., Hob., or BWV and other emotionless letters, this title alone got me curious.
So off I went to the piano, and “sight-played”. As I was playing, I got this feeling of familiarity. Like I have played it before. Or heard it somewhere. Then suddenly, the words came to me…
“….Live out thy life within me, O Jesus King of Kings.” Pretty amazing how the brain works. Anyway…
At first I thought, why does this piece sound like the hymn? But I kept playing, and just never thought about it much. A few days later, as I was leafing through the hymnal to choose a closing song for family worship, my eyes happen to glance at the top right corner of the page and saw the now familiar word, “AURELIA”. But the hymn title was completely unfamiliar.
The unfamiliar hymn was SDAH 348 (The Church Has One Foundation). I played the hymn and it totally sounded like SDAH 316 (Live Out Thy Life Within Me), so I turned the page and discovered that both hymns have the same word on the same section of the page which was, “AURELIA”.
At that moment, I felt like I had unlocked a most wonderful mystery…the mystery that hymn tunes have names, and are not limited to one hymn alone. In fact it can be used for other hymns, as long as the words felt right, rhythmically speaking. At 10, that was a pretty big revelation to me.
I never looked at a hymn the same way again.
At that time, Google was not invented yet, and internet was a rare commodity in my neck of the woods, so I just always wondered whether those words meant anything aside from giving a tune a name.
Today, oh my, thank God for all the information we can access at the click of our fingertips. Wondering doesn’t have to take years, but seconds.
So I made a list of 7 things about hymn tunes that took me quite awhile to know…
1. No one really knew who to blame about this business of naming the hymn tunes.
What we know is that it just started appearing in printed hymnals wayyy back in 1592. As the title of this song book reveals, it is the psalms set to the common tunes of the day.
The preceding hymnals after that followed the trend of “name the tune”. One thing is obvious tho, who ever did it must be an Englishman. Because of reason no. 2
2. Hymn tunes started budding in English-speaking countries, and were based from English churches, towns, villages and streets.
Here’s some of the more famous ones, to name a few…
WINCHESTER OLD (SDAH 139) – North of Southampton, east of Salisbury, west of Horsham, and south of Newbury.
ST. ANNE (SDAH 103) – Composer William Croft was an organist at the church of St. Anne, Soho in London.
ST. MAGNUS (SDAH 19, 199) – Named after the church of St. Magnus the Martyr located in the Lower Thames Street near the old London Bridge, England.
DUKE STREET (SDAH 82, 227) – Composer John Hatton lived, died and was buried in Duke Street, in St. Helens UK
BEDFORD (SDAH 35) – Composer William Wheale was born in Bedford and later on became the organist for St. Paul Church in Bedford, England
WAREHAM (SDAH 174, 226) – Composer William Knapp was born in Wareham, Dorset (England)
3. More people got the hang of it and started naming the tunes after major cities and countries
Although the actual hymn had no connection whatsoever with the country itself, the tunes are named as such because the tune have either become the country’s nation anthem, or the composer happened to be in that country, or thinking of that country when they were composing the tune.
5. Many hymn tunes are borrowed from many other sources
Sources being classical works, old hymnals, psalters, Gregorian chants, secular tunes, folk songs and melodies, and carols, many of which the composer’s name are hard to trace.
6. Most people don’t really care about it
Yeah it’s one of those meh topics, where people roll their eyes and say, “Whatever. Just let me sing.” 🙂 (Yes, it took me years to realize that as well.)
7. Whether people care or not, it has very important practical purposes.
For musicians, it supplies a more specific point of reference when talking about hymns. It also serves as an organization tool for many hymnals. In fact, many of the old SDA hymnals were laid out in such a way wherein hymn tunes are the main titles in the page, and the hymns that fit that tune are provided below.
Most importantly, it provides a shade of history, a point of view, and an interesting angle to the hymn’s or hymn tune’s story.
Any hymn tune that has boggled your mind with curiosity? Write it in the comment section below.
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