Preface
fact of their adaptation is duly acknowledged. On the other hand the committee are glad to be able to restore the true metres of such tunes as ‘Innsbruck’, ‘Weimar’, or ‘Les commandemens’, which have been disfigured into dullness in so many hymnals.
The original rhythms of many of the old psalter tunes have also been restored, especially the long initial on the first syllable, which gives such a broad and dignified effect to these tunes. Attempts to adapt them to the procrustean bed of the nineteenth century hymn tune have merely taken away their character and made them appear dull. For the same reason no attempt has been made to square the irregular times of some tunes. These irregularities are always easy to sing by ear—and this is the way in which a hymn melody should be learnt—so that choirmasters should not let the fear of what may appear to be irregular deter them from using many splendid and essentially congregational melodies.
The following classification shows the chief sources from which the tunes come:—
A. German.—(1) Lutheran chorale tunes 16th and 17th centuries. (2) Tunes from the 16th and 17th century Catholic song books (chiefly Leisentritt's, 1567, and the Andernach Gesangbuch, 1608). (3) Tunes of the 18th century, chiefly by Bach and Freylinghausen. (4) Modern German tunes. (5) German traditional melodies.
B. French and Swiss.—(1) Tunes from the Genevan Psalters of the 16th century. (2) Ecclesiastical melodies from the paroissiens of various French use (chiefly those of Rouen and Angers). (3) French and Swiss traditional melodies.
C. Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch. — Ecclesiastical, traditional, and other melodies from these countries are also included.
D. American.—Among American tunes may be mentioned Lowell Mason's tunes, certain tunes from ‘Sacred Songs and Solos’ and a few ‘Western melodies’ in use in America as hymn tunes.
E. British Isles.—I. Ireland. (1) Irish traditional melodies. (2) Tunes by Irish composers.
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