HYMNODY: PART 2: HYMN "TUNE NAMES"

By Tim Claubaugh

Again, as in last week’s article, you may want to click here for a printable version of this article and take it to church with you so that you can reference it with the hymn examples listed in this article.

In this article, we will be looking at just traditional hymns, because traditional hymns are the hymns that use Tune Names.

Every traditional hymn has a “Tune Name” with it. In the hymnal that we use at St. Mary (“Gather Comprehensive”), these hymn “Tune Names” can be found at the end of every traditional hymn in capital letters. For example, on # 528, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You,” if one looks at the end of the hymn under the last staff, one will see “Tune: HYMN TO JOY…” So “Hymn of Joy” is the tune name to this famous tune that Ludwig Van Beethoven wrote.

Other examples are: # 524 “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” (Tune: GROSSER GOTT); # 540 “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (Tune: PICARDY); # 407 “Hail Our Savior’s Glorious Body” (Tune: PANGE LINGUA); # 635 “The King of Love My Shepherd is” (Tune: ST COLUMBIA). There are many, many other examples throughout our hymnal.

So, how did these “tune names” come about?

Some hymns received their tune names because of the first line of the hymn in it’s original language. Such hymns as # 524 “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name” (Tune: GROSSER GOTT) where the first 2 words in the original German hymn are “Grosser Gott” (Great God). Or in the case of # 407 “Hail Our Savior’s Glorious Body” (Tune: PANGE LINGUA), the first words in that original Latin hymn are “Pange Lingua” (Sing, My tongue, [the Savior’s glory]).

Other times, the hymns may have received their tune names because of some special meaning in the hymn such as # 528, “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You,” (Tune: HYMN TO JOY) where the overall meaning of the hymn is “Joy.”

Some hymns have saints names attached to them such as # 635 “The King of Love My Shepherd is” (Tune: ST COLUMBIA); # 614 “O God, Our Help in Ages Past” (Tune: ST. ANNE); # 888 “Tantum Ergo” (Tune: ST. THOMAS). It is not known why certain hymns have saints names as their tune names other than perhaps the composer of the hymn had a particular devotion to that saint, or perhaps the composer was organist or choir director at a church with that saint’s name.

Hymns may have other special “places” attached to them such as # 646 “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say” (Tune: KINGSFOLD); # 790 “Immaculate Mary” (Tune: LOURDES HYMN); # 746 “This is the Day When Light was First Created” (Tune: NORTHBROOK).

Still other hymns may have absolutely no reasons why they have certain tune names assigned to them. Hymns such as # 540 “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” (Tune: PICARDY); # 343 “Joy to the World” (Tune: ANTIOCH); # 320, “The King Shall Come When Morning Dawns” (Tune: MORNING SONG); # 727 How Good it is (Tune: DOVE OF PEACE).

A complete “Index of Tunes” can be found at # 904 in the back of our hymnal.

How are these “Tune Names” helpful?

Well, to the average church-goer, it may be no big deal. But to the church musician, they are VERY valuable! For instance, if the congregation is singing as the opening song # 524 “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name (Tune: GROSSER GOTT), the organist can look for GROSSER GOTT in the many volumes of music that they may have (or if they are really organized, they can look in their personal “catalog” of their organ music) and pull up several possible prelude pieces that they could play based on the hymn tune GROSSER GOTT.

So why doesn’t the organist look in their organ music collection under “Holy God, We Praise Thy Name?”

There are Many, Many hymns written with completely different text, but use the same hymn tune. For instance in our hymnal, the hymn # 528 “Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You” (Tune: HYMN TO JOY) can also use that exact same hymn tune to # 442 “Sing with All the Saints in Glory” (an Easter season hymn) and # 714”God Whose Purpose is to Kindle” (a social concerns hymn). Another example would be # 888 “Tantum Ergo” (Tune: ST THOMAS), a Eucharistic adoration / benediction hymn can be sung to # 662 “Christ is Made the Sure Foundation” (a hymn about church), or # 719 “For the Healing of the Nations” (a hymn about social concerns).

So by using the Hymn Tune name, rather than the Hymn Title, the organist has a much better chance of finding an organ piece based on that hymn tune because they can use the tune name (ST THOMAS) to find the hymn tune rather than the title of the hymn ("Tantum Ergo," "Christ is Made the Sure Foundation," or "For the Healing of the Nations."

The next article in this series will be on "Meter."