GIA Worship IV Index of Hymn Tunes
Vatican II Hymnal Index of Hymn Tunes
St. Michael Hymnal Index of Hymn Tunes
Adoremus Hymnal Index of Hymn Tunes
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As we've discussed in the past on this forum, a HYMN consists of both TEXT and MELODY. It is very common for hymn texts to be "married" to multiple melodies — an example would be "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus," which is frequently sung to either CROSS OF JESUS or STUTTGART. (more) Folks in England seem (perhaps) more aware of this, as they don't even bother putting texts under the tunes in their hymnbooks. The reason is because they tend to "mix and match" hymn texts and tunes constantly (which can be very nice, when done with care). That being said, I've always found it a little deceptive when a hymnal has 600-700 hymns . . . yet a minuscule amount of hymn TUNES. I like as many good, solid, sturdy, traditional tunes as possible. I don't like seeing 3, 4, or 5 texts for each hymn tune. Others will disagree.
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I recently looked at the HYMN TUNE INDEX for GIA's Worship IV. I would have expected that Worship IV would have 2-3 times as many traditional hymn tunes as the Vatican II Hymnal.
Well, I guess that shows what I know!
It turns out that the V2H actually has more traditional hymn tunes than Worship IV. From what I can tell, ADOREMUS and ST. MICHAEL's do not compare unfavorably to Worship IV in this regard.
Vatican II Hymnal Index of Hymn Tunes
St. Michael Hymnal Index of Hymn Tunes
Adoremus Hymnal Index of Hymn Tunes
---
As we've discussed in the past on this forum, a HYMN consists of both TEXT and MELODY. It is very common for hymn texts to be "married" to multiple melodies — an example would be "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus," which is frequently sung to either CROSS OF JESUS or STUTTGART. (more) Folks in England seem (perhaps) more aware of this, as they don't even bother putting texts under the tunes in their hymnbooks. The reason is because they tend to "mix and match" hymn texts and tunes constantly (which can be very nice, when done with care). That being said, I've always found it a little deceptive when a hymnal has 600-700 hymns . . . yet a minuscule amount of hymn TUNES. I like as many good, solid, sturdy, traditional tunes as possible. I don't like seeing 3, 4, or 5 texts for each hymn tune. Others will disagree.
---
I recently looked at the HYMN TUNE INDEX for GIA's Worship IV. I would have expected that Worship IV would have 2-3 times as many traditional hymn tunes as the Vatican II Hymnal.
Well, I guess that shows what I know!
It turns out that the V2H actually has more traditional hymn tunes than Worship IV. From what I can tell, ADOREMUS and ST. MICHAEL's do not compare unfavorably to Worship IV in this regard.