Changes in the Methodist Hymnody during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

At first the singing was either unaccompanied, led by a choir of Charity Children, with the Parish Clerk as precentor; or accompanied by an instrumental band. Tunes were florid, with much faulty verbal accentuation. Taste reached its nadir 1770-1840. Style became superficial, boisterous, with repeats and fugal imitations; the melody and harmony were crude, deriving from nineteenth century Italian opera. There was slavish adoration and adaptation of the great classical composers. In the mid-nineteenth century, through the influence of the Oxford Movement, there were surpliced choirs; prose chants were sung and there were tentative attempts at part-songs. Tunes were like part-songs. There was also a better type of more sophisticated composer who produced good melody and sober harmony. Religious music in America was far behind that of England, much of it being crude and vulgar; catchy gospel-songs were prevalent. Unskilled composers wrote revivalist tunes with choruses. Later a more contrapuntal style was adopted, with broad melody (often in vocal unison with free harmony), a wide gamut and free rhythm. At the turn of the century, the Yattendon Hymnal pointed towards the English Hymnal. Songs of Syon was austrre. The Oxford Hymn Book Included many tunes by S.S.Wesley.