From the Organist & Choirmaster
On Anglo-Catholic Hymnody
Recently Fr. Peter shared with me a document from 1968 housed in an archival collection containing history of Saint Andrew’s at the Birmingham Public Library, its first paragraph reads as follows:
“Saint Andrew’s Parish Birmingham, is a child of a movement begun in England in the 1830’s - a movement destined to change the entire Anglican Communion. It is known in history as the Oxford Movement, and its purpose was to restore the Anglican Church to its traditions and roots in history, which had slowly eroded over the preceding two centuries…The fullness and the richness of our tradition is expressed through the use of vestments, the architecture of the church itself, music and ritual.”
The rest of the document goes on to explain our diversity and welcoming atmosphere. I believe the short article beautifully describes things we still embrace at the heart of the parish.
It mentions music as one of the central elements of our liturgy and hints to music’s role in the Oxford Movement and beyond. The movement began in the early to mid-19th century when John Keble gathered clergy, scholars, and other reformers (also known as tractarians) together to recover a form of the church that they felt was lost in the English Reformation. They developed Tracts for the Times which were new publications for people to understand Anglicanism and its past. Of course, this is mostly focused on theology and historical reawakening, but music played a crucial role as well, since many composers were directly affected by the liturgical changes given by parliament and the church. These tractarians believed the Henry VII’s newly established Anglican Church depicted medieval liturgies and petitioned for its revival. They also believed that the Oxford church was a branch of the Catholic Church and not an offshoot, so they brought back Roman form into worship. It is important to note that these tractarians believed that they were rewriting their history by making Cranmer and the BCP a roman book, which wasn’t true but reflected frustrations and false authenticity. The Oxford Movement remained a large part of England and with its revival of ancient customs came many things in the emphasis on ceremony. It’s where we see elaborate vestments, incense, ritual, and deep reverence for the sacraments. Members of the Oxford movement discovered ancient texts and translated them into English and sought to introduce them to congregations to be used by not just the choir, but the congregation as well. Congregational hymn singing comes from the Oxford Movement! They rediscovered the Roman Breviary, a roman book of music and prayers for daily offices. At the time congregational hymn singing wasn’t as developed as other denominations in England. Musical associations associated with the Oxford Movement helped to develop this practice. For the beauty of the earth, wrote by Folliot Sanford Pierpont, is an example of original poetry and a text from the Oxford Movement. He wrote this while gazing into the view outside of his city Bath. A major contributor to the poetry of this movement is John Henry Newman, known for several texts like Lead Kindly Light and Praise to the Holiest in the height. The tractarians rediscovery of early texts led to the translation of hundreds of hymns we see in our hymnal now like O come, O come, Emmanuel (Veni, vent, Emmanuel), Now, my tongue, the mystery telling (Pange lingua), and Humbly I adore thee (Adoro devote). Edward Caswall is to thank for this mostly as he completely translated the Roman Breviary into English, though not 100% accurate they are beautiful poems that summarize the particularities of the ancient texts from the early church fathers. He writes:
“They aim at something more than merely exciting the feelings. They have a perpetual reverence to action.”
This makes me think of Maundy Thursday when we transfer the Sacrament to the Altar of Repose and the altar party is performing manual actions while the choir and congregation sings the Pange lingua. It’s beautiful to see these things in our own blue hymnals.
A major hymn-book type resource that springs from this movement is Hymns: Ancient and Modern which takes all the hymns from all periods and denominations. These hymns are rich harmonically intended to be both easy to sing and to evoke the emotions of the texts.
Some hymns in our hymnal that come from this movement are:
Jerusalem the golden
Praise to the Holiest in the height
O come, o come, Emanuel
Good King Wenceslas
All glory laud and honor
Ride on, ride on, in majesty
Good Christian men, rejoice
Of the Father’s love begotten