General Notes on the Hymnal

A hymn is a song expressing either reverence or basic beliefs.

A Christian hymn expresses either reverence to God or Christian beliefs.

Christian reverence is, of course, directed "to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb".

Hymns merely expressing reverence, without alluding to any belief, have little value. The hymns of "the Charismatic Movement" tend towards this extreme, and this hymnal contains none of them. "Let all be for edification. ... Sing with the spirit, and sing with the mind also."

I have chosen these for the clarity with with they express such beliefs and the style with which they decorate that expression.

No doubt the quality of associated tunes has also played a part in my choices, but it is the words I am concerned with here, and some may prefer other tunes, so it seems not worthwhile providing music here, or even listing my preferred tunes.

In presenting the hymns I follow the following conventions.

* I often combine pairs of lines into single lines.

This is so that an entire hymn can be on screen at the same time.

* I often add punctuation.

This is to highlight the sense.

* I omit accents.

For instance, unaccented beloved has three syllables. If it it to be sung bisyllably I show it as belov'd.

* I drop upper case initials, except proper names.

For instance, in "our god and king" "god" is a common noun (as is "king") but in "God our saviour" "God" is a proper name.

* Parenthesised words at the start of a line precede the first beat.

* A row of dots at the end of a line indicates repetition of a refrain given in full at its first occurrence.

* Words in square brackets (usually a refrain-recurrence) can be omitted without damaging the coherence of the whole.

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