U of Ideas of General Interest ó June 1998 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Melissa Mitchell, Arts Editor
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MUSIC HISTORY Four-volume index traces origins of thousands of hymns
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ó And you thought ìO Come All Ye Faithfulî was a Christmas song.
In fact, says University of Illinois musicologist Nicholas Temperley, the original text of the tune ñ written about 1745 by an English Catholic exiled to France for opposing King George ñ refers to politics.
ThatÃs just one of the surprises Temperley uncovered during an unprecedented 16-year project that yielded a comprehensive database documenting ìtens of thousands of hymn tunes spanning three centuries.î Results of the research, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the U. of I. Research Board, have just been published in a four-volume book, ìThe Hymn Tune Index: A Census of English-Language Hymn Tunes in Printed Sources From 1535 to 1820î (Oxford University Press).
With research assistance from Charles G. Manns and Joseph Herl, Temperley traced the origins of more than 150,000 hymns, derived from more than 2,000 printed sources. About 70 percent of the tunes are British; the remainder, American.
ìMany are actually the same tunes, with different texts,î said Temperley, who also found that ìthe same name has often been assigned to unrelated tunes, while the same tune may have appeared under many names.î To sort it all out and do an accurate accounting, each tune was assigned a numerical code based on the diatonic (do, re, mi ...) scale.
The index is designed for use not only by musicologists and historians, but by collectors, clergy and church musicians as well. ìThere also is quite a lot of curiosity from people who go to church and sing the tunes ñ they want to know where they came from,î Temperley said. In fact, he notes in the book, ìCuriosity about the origins of particular texts and tunes, and lives of authors and composers can be found as far back as the 19th century, and has given rise to a growing body of scholarly information.î The most widely available printed source of background material has been the hymnal ìcompanion.î
ìAlthough companion writers have gradually accumulated much good information about most popular tunes, it is rarely complete, or entirely accurate, because of the lack of a general survey, bibliography or index,î Temperley noted.
The musicologist traces his own interest in creating the ultimate source for information on early English-language hymns to the personal satisfaction he derives ìout of setting things in order.î
ìWhen I was working on my book, ëThe Music of the English Parish Churchà [1979], I found that the whole area of hymns and hymn tunes was chaotic. One day, it occurred to me that it just might be within my powers to sort it out, with the help of computers.î
Although the index is currently available only in book form, Temperley said graduate student Chad Peiper is building an interface that eventually will allow World Wide Web access. Meanwhile, more information is available at http://hti.music.uiuc.edu.
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