The ''Yattendon Hymnal'' was a small but influential

hymnal A hymnal or hymnary is a collection of hymns, usually in the form of a book, called a hymnbook (or hymn book). Hymnals are used in congregational singing. A hymnal may contain only hymn texts (normal for most hymnals for most centuries of Chr ...

compiled by

Robert Bridges Robert Seymour Bridges (23 October 1844 – 21 April 1930) was an English poet who was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930. A doctor by training, he achieved literary fame only late in life. His poems reflect a deep Christian faith, and he is ...

and H. Ellis Wooldridge for the local

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

parish church at

Yattendon Yattendon is a small village and civil parish northeast of Newbury in the county of Berkshire. The M4 motorway passes through the fields of the village which lie south and below the elevations of its cluster. The village is privately owned ...

, Berkshire, England. Totalling 100 items, it first appeared in four separate parts from 1894, culminating in a single, combined version in 1899. That same year Bridges also published the accompanying ''A practical discourse on some principles of hymn-singing''. While Bridges was primarily a poet (he would later become

Poet Laureate A poet laureate (plural: poets laureate) is a poet officially appointed by a government or conferring institution, typically expected to compose poems for special events and occasions. Albertino Mussato of Padua and Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch ...

from 1913) he was also alert to the musical settings of texts, including hymns and was associated with musicians such as

John Stainer Sir John Stainer (6 June 1840 – 31 March 1901) was an English composer and organist whose music, though seldom performed today (with the exception of ''The Crucifixion'', still heard at Passiontide in some churches of the Anglican Communi ...

Charles Villiers Stanford Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (30 September 1852 – 29 March 1924) was an Anglo-Irish composer, music teacher, and conductor of the late Romantic era. Born to a well-off and highly musical family in Dublin, Stanford was educated at the ...

Hubert Parry Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, 1st Baronet (27 February 18487 October 1918) was an English composer, teacher and historian of music. Born in Richmond Hill in Bournemouth, Parry's first major works appeared in 1880. As a composer he is be ...

Frank Bridge Frank Bridge (26 February 187910 January 1941) was an English composer, violist and conductor. Life Bridge was born in Brighton, the ninth child of William Henry Bridge (1845-1928), a violin teacher and variety theatre conductor, formerly a m ...

and

Gustav Holst Gustav Theodore Holst (born Gustavus Theodore von Holst; 21 September 1874 – 25 May 1934) was an English composer, arranger and teacher. Best known for his orchestral suite ''The Planets'', he composed many other works across a range ...

. From 1885 to 1894 he made himself responsible for the music of the village church. He had become deeply dissatisfied with the state of English hymnody in the late Victorian period: The hymnal's primary intended use would have been for unaccompanied singing at the choir stall or lectern, and its design, perhaps deliberately, hindered its use at the organ console, or even by the congregation. The music is the primary ground of selection. Thirteen tunes are

plainsong Plainsong or plainchant (calque from the French ''plain-chant''; la, cantus planus) is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text ...

, sixteen psalm tunes from Geneva, seven tunes by Tallis, eight by Gibbons, eight other psalm tunes from the sixteenth century, and ten from the seventeenth, eleven German chorales, nine tunes by

Clarke Clarke is a surname which means "clerk". The surname is of English and Irish origin and comes from the Latin . Variants include Clerk and Clark. Clarke is also uncommonly chosen as a given name. Irish surname origin Clarke is a popular surname i ...

, and four by

Croft Croft may refer to: Occupations * Croft (land), a small area of land, often with a crofter's dwelling * Crofting, small-scale food production * Bleachfield, an open space used for the bleaching of fabric, also called a croft Locations In the Uni ...

. There are three miscellaneous eighteenth-century tunes and one early Italian one. There was little from the Victorian tune writers; rather he included seven tunes by co-editor Wooldridge. Forty-eight of the hymn texts are substantially by Bridges as translator. Several, such as ''

All My Hope on God is Founded "All My Hope on God is Founded" is a well-known hymn, originally German, which was translated into English in 1899 and which established itself in the latter part of the twentieth century. History Words The original words "Meine Hoffnung stehet ...

'' and '' O sacred Head, sore wounded'' remain in current use. The hymnal would subsequently influence Ralph Vaughan Williams as editor of the major ''

English Hymnal ''The English Hymnal'' is a hymn book which was published in 1906 for the Church of England by Oxford University Press. It was edited by the clergyman and writer Percy Dearmer and the composer and music historian Ralph Vaughan Williams, and wa ...

'' of 1906.

References

External links

Index of the Yattendon Hymnal
1899 books 1899 in Christianity 1899 in music Anglican hymnals British church music English Christian hymns Anglican liturgical books {{Music-publication-stub

See also

References

External links