Episode 54. O Little Town: A short history of hymns and their place names
SYNOPSIS
Although now taken for granted, the modern practice of singing hymns in British churches during the Liturgical Calendar and the Christmas Cycle took many centuries to develop. Perhaps the Anglican Church retains more traces of earlier practices than non-conformist or free churches because of its continued use of metrical or responsorial psalms. The use of psalms dates from the first Elizabethan period when only the word of God (and definitely not the words of man) were deemed appropriate to sing in church.
With the help of Mark Browse, an expert on hymn tunes, the episode explores the emerging pattern of hymn singing in the mid-19th century. It was then that subjective human experience in worship began to be acceptable, its natural expression being the hymn. Soon tunes began to outnumber lyrics, creating the separation of words and music that is now taken for granted. The old habit, adopted from psalm-singing, of naming many tunes after places was taken over into the classification of hymns.
This episode looks at several popular hymn tunes in detail, Repton (‘Dear Lord and Father of Mankind’), Down Ampney (‘Come Down, O Love Divine’) and Thaxted (‘I Vow To Thee My Country’), demonstrating how arbitrary the linking of words and music could be. It moves on to look at three folk tunes that came into Anglican hymnody when collected in the first decade of the 20th century across the Surrey/Sussex border: Monks Gate (‘He Who Would Valiant Be’), Kingsfold (‘I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say’) and Forest Green (‘O Little Town of Bethlehem’).
GUESTS
Choral composer and author, Mark Browse is the choirmaster at the ancient Anglican church, St Margaret’s in the picturesque village of Warnham, West Sussex. Warnham is close to the Surrey/Sussex border only a few miles south of Dorking, where the great composer and folk song collector, Ralph Vaughan Williams lived for decades. Mark’s book, O Little Town: Hymn-tunes and the places that inspired them was published in 2016 and is available on Lulu.com.
Further information about Mark’s life as a composer can be found at
https://www.markbrowse.net/
Simon’s interview with Mark Browse was recorded at his home in Warnham on 10 November 2024.