Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Three centuries of Methodist hymnody: An historical overview of the development of the American Methodist Hymnal with special attention to hymnody in the 1780, 1878, and 1989 hymnals
Abstract
This study deals with the history of hymnals and hymnody of the (United) Methodist Church in the United States, covering three centuries of hymnals either directly compiled by John Wesley or officially sanctioned by the Methodist Church. A total of twenty-seven hymnals and nine hymnal companions are represented in this history including those either published in the United States or those that had a direct influence on the hymnal now utilized by the American United Methodist Church. Three Methodist hymnals serve as a focal point, representing a summary of Methodist hymnody for each of the past three centuries: 1780--A Collection of Hymns for the Use of The People Called Methodists; 1878--Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church With Tunes, and 1989--The United Methodist Hymnal. Texts and tunes, their authors and composers, and their country of origin are systematically explored. Primary attention is given to the development of musical taste and preference as seen in tunes that are included in the three hymnals. Chapter One centers on the history of all the hymnals and companions; Chapters Two, Three, and Four relate to Methodist hymnody in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, represented by a primary hymnal in each century. Chapter Five summarizes the evolution in the use of tunes and texts. The accompanying appendices relate historical background of authors and composers as well as stylistic commentary on the tunes; they include texts in the 1737 Charleston Collection of Psalms and Hymns, as well as tunes and texts in the 1742 Foundery Collection, the 1780 Sacred Harmony (primary tune source for the 1786 Collection texts), the 1878 Hymnal of the Methodist Episcopal Church With Tunes, and the 1989 United Methodist Hymnal.
Subject Area
Music|Religious history
Recommended Citation
Volland, Linda Lu, "Three centuries of Methodist hymnody: An historical overview of the development of the American Methodist Hymnal with special attention to hymnody in the 1780, 1878, and 1989 hymnals" (1995). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9604442.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9604442