Robert Cottrill published the following on his Wordwise Hymns blog as the ‘Top Hymns Of 1899’.
I think I know 26 of the 32 hymns listed here and about 20 of them would be songs that we’d use at mgpc.
These sorts of lists cause me to wonder how many of today’s top 30 songs will still be know in popular use in 100 years time.
How many of these do you know? What new song/s do you think will stand the test of time?
Louis Fitzgerald Benson (1855-1930) was a pastor, music historian and author. In 1899 he compiled a list of the hymns that appeared most often in 107 hymn books published in the late nineteenth century. The hymnals came from several denominations, in both North America and Great Britain. The list says nothing about the quality of the hymns, but it does suggest they were known and used by many. Each of the 32 songs below appeared in at least 86 out of 107 hymnals. They are listed from the most frequently published down to the least.
1. Rock of Ages (106)
2. When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (104)
3. Jesus, Lover of My Soul (104)
4. All Praise to Thee, My God, This Night (103)
5. Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken (103)
6. Sun of My Soul (103)
7. Awake, My Soul, and with the Sun (101)
8. Hark! the Herald Angels Sing (101)
9. Abide with Me (101)
10. Jerusalem, My Happy Home (101)
11. How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds (101)
12. Nearer, My God, to Thee (100)
13. From Greenland’s Icy Mountains (100)
14. O God, Our Help in Ages Past (100)
15. Jerusalem the Golden (99)
16. Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending (94)
17. Jesus Shall Reign (94)
18. Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken (93)
19. Hark! the Glad Sound, the Saviour Comes (92)
20. Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs (92)
21. All Hail the Pow’r of Jesus’ Name (92)
22. Hail to the Lord’s Anointed (91)
23. O Worship the King (91)
24. Christ the Lord is Ris’n Today (90)
25. Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah (90)
26. Just as I Am, Without One Plea (90)
27. God Moves in a Mysterious Way (90)
28. Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee (89)
29. Children of the Heavenly King (87)
30. There is a Land of Pure Delight (87)
31. Thou Whose Almighty Word (86)
32. Brief Life Is Here Our Portion (86)
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You raise a good question regarding how many contemporary songs will still be known and used a century from now. My guess is not so many. We seem to have bought into a kind of cult of newness. A song is used a few times and discarded in favour of something else. It reminds me of the Athenian philosophers who “spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing” (Acts 17:21).
Well, yes and no, Robert. (and thanks again for your blog and particularly the post I copied)
I think the contemporary practice by which most new songs are written by those whose work is to write new songs does contribute to the pressure to create new material, that’s their living.
My opinion is that musicians get bored pretty easily playing the same thing the same way and prefer new material.
I’m not a musician, but I love learning new songs to sing. That’s one of the reasons I read your blog.
If I’ve never heard of one of the hymns you recommend then it’s as ‘new’ to me as something written last week.
I’ve got books of hymn lyrics by Watts, Newton & Cowper and others on my shelves.
The sheer volume of the number of songs that were written by these and Charles Wesley, Francis VanAlstyne and others suggests to me that we see less output from modern writers than we do of the prolific hymnwriters of old.
What protects these older prolific writers from the same observation that you’ve made about newer ones?
Was Charles Wesley obsessed with some new thing or did he have such an overwhelming experience of God’s grace that tens of thousands of words could not fully express or exhaust his praise for God? If that is true for Wesley, can’t it be true for modern composers?
I don’t think Wesley would have been much concious of whether we’d be singing ‘And Can It Be’ in 2010. If he had he may have published much less.
I think the question for me is: ‘Will the content of modern lyrics and music travel beyond here and now?’
The transition from ‘folk’ and ‘high’ music forms to ‘pop’ music is going to hinder modern songs transferring to later generations.
That’s why musically ‘In Christ Alone’ will last while the Hillsongs catalogue won’t.
The fact that contemporary lyrics completely depend on the pop music they were written with will also affect their longevity. These songs sound dated pretty quick and there won’t be any alternate tunes for them.
Shout to the Lord is pretty ordinary poetry on its own. In Christ Alone is good poetry.
Do you have any more thoughts?
I don’t agree with the definition that whites have for the way a hymn is written due to the hymns that were written by blacks. Our racism is even seen in the recognition of hymns written by blacks. C.P. Jones wrote over 1,000 hymns and most denominations sung his songs. Why was not some of them mention in this list?
Jerome, though I’m not familiar with the composer you mention all this list does is indicate which hymns have been published in the most number of hymn books.
It’s not an indicator of quality.
Though many of these hymns are very, very good.
Thanks for giving me another name to look up, though.