This collection highlights some of the many rare and important hymnals in the Baylor hymnal collection. From the early printings of metrical Psalms following the Reformation to early gospel and Sunday School music, each hymnal included in the collection is an essential piece of congregational song history.

Starting from the Reformation, this collection tells the story of congregational song through the movements of the past four hundred years. The selections highlight the broad history and depth of congregational song while not centering on one tradition or time. The collection includes a wide array of denominations and traditions. Known creators include Thomas Sternhold & John Hopkins, William Billings, Isaac Watts, John & Charles Wesley, John Newton & William Cowper, Lowell Mason, W. H. Monk, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and James D. Vaughan.

Research Questions
Compare two hymnals for their composition (how they are put together). Do subject headings change? Are there various indices to find specific hymns? Is there a preface or music learning to open the hymnal? What do these differences demonstrate about each source?

Using two unrelated hymnals (across time, space, or denominations), do a comparison of the musical content in each. Are some time signatures favored over others? Does one use more choruses than the other? Are there preferred poetic meters in one collection over another? What conclusions can be drawn from the trends found?

Compare various page formats across the portal collection. What advantages are there to the hymnals with only text? What about those with a single line of text with the music and other text at the bottom? How about the “modern” hymnal with all verses between the staves?

Choose a single theme and find examples of it in each of the hymnals here. Do some exemplify the theme with multiple hymns on the subject while others have only a few? What does this say about the theology of certain hymnals or creators?

Explore the impact of older creators and hymns on more recent collections. How were the texts changed? Were some texts or creators included in multiple hymnals, creating a long-lasting impact around a certain idea?

Activity: Hymnal Compendium
Students can create a historically informed, hymnal supplement with a focus on relevant and less-centralized topics in church music. Each student will select a topic (e.g., creation care, race relations, religion and science, women in ministry, etc.) and find a set number of hymns relevant to that topic. The hymns will come from various periods in congregational song such as pre-Reformation, 16th-17th century, 18th-19th century, 20th century, and contemporary worship music. If including more writing, each hymn can be accompanied by a short annotation, including the history of the hymn, its use in today’s church, and how it reflects the period.

Activity: Digital vs. Physical Comparison
Have students choose a single source from the portal. Using the information from the digital item, have them locate the item in the library catalog and then make an appointment to view the item by going to HERE. After the appointment, students can compare the physical representation with the physical item:

• Is it different physically from digitally?
• What did you learn about the item by looking at the original?
• Now focus on one particular hymn. Where does it appear within the collection or book?
• Is its placement significant in some way?
• What does the rest of the material in the book tell you about the image?

Activity: Committee Defense
Begin by having students read one of the articles listed in Chris Ángel’s “Hymns in Periodic Literature,” David Toledo’s “Celebrating Grace Hymnal: Five Years Later,” or Robert Buckley Farlee’s “Songs Formed by Cultures, Cultures Formed by Songs” to gain insight into how a hymnal is constructed through the committee. After discussing the challenges that a committee faces when compiling and publishing a new hymnal, assign each student one hymnal to defend. After some brief research into the theology and music of those who compiled the hymnal, the student should find examples that typify what the committee was trying to do, along with some additional areas where the hymnal falls short. It is important to keep in mind that each hymnal is a product of its time and committee, not a resource created today.

Hymnary
Database of hymns searchable by title, tune, meter, key, scripture, and more. In partnership with The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, it also houses the Dictionary of North American Hymnology.

Princeton Theology Digital Hymnal Collection
Consists of approximately 12,000 volumes on virtually every aspect of hymnology, except for musical scores and anthems. Includes early editions of the metrical psalms; historical hymnbooks of all major Protestant denominations; evangelistic, revival and gospel hymnbooks; hymns for the Sunday School and children; and religious poetry.

Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church
Contains over 6,000 A-Z entries and offers unrivaled coverage of all aspects of this vast and often complex subject, from theology; churches and denominations; patristic scholarship; and the bible; to the church calendar and its organization; popes; archbishops; saints; and mystics.

Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology
An essential reference resource for scholars of global hymnody, with information on the hymns of many countries and languages, and a strong emphasis on the historical as well as the contemporary.

Oxford Music Online
The most comprehensive reference work for music in English, with continually updated content. Searches Grove Music Online initially; on search results pages, provides links to more results from The Oxford Dictionary of Music and The Oxford Companion to Music.

Choral Public Domain Library
Hosts a large collection of music scores and other supporting files (such as midi or other sound files) which can be freely downloaded and used. Most of the scores on CPDL are modern editions based on older works in the public domain, but some scores are newly composed and offered for download by the composer.