.CANADIAN HYMNOLOGY RESOURCE PAGE
BRUCE HARDING
Hello and welcome to my Web Page. I am a church musician, composer and church music scholar residing in the Vancouver area in British Columbia, Canada. While I have a deep interest in all aspects of the study of hymns, psalms and songs for Christian worship, my own particular area of expertise is in Canadian hymn traditions. My Ph.D. dissertation from the University of Toronto involved a study of the hymn tune repertoire in The United Church of Canada, the denomination in which I work, and its parent denominations, the Methodist, Presbyterian and Congregationalist Churches in Canada before church union in 1925. You can download a copy from the National Library of Canada (warning—large file!). I currently direct A Quired Taste, a chamber choir in the Vancouver area devoted primarily to the performance of early Canadian hymn and psalm tune repertoire. Our first CD recording can be sampled and ordered here.
My wife Cheryl and I are also active as music
leaders within the United Church and other denominations, in
congregational ministry, in workshop and retreat leadership, and
through concerts and other events. We have four recordings available of my own compositions and four songbooks, all
available through our publishing company, Evensong
Worship Resources. I am also a past co-chair
of UCCAM, the United Church of
Canada Association of Musicians, and I served as Managing Editor for More Voices (2007), a project of the
United Church in partnership with Wood Lake Books to produce a
supplement to the current hymn book, Voices
United (1996).
HYMNOLOGY LINKS
The following are links I have found to
useful sites on the web for the study of hymns and related music.
Please let me know of others you find which prove useful.
GENERAL LINKS
Christian Classics Ethereal Library An extensive library of hymn tunes, available in midi, Noteworthy and PDF formats
The Cyber Hymnal A text and tune source for general information and searching
The Hymn Society The home page for the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
The Hymn Tune Index The home page for Nicholas Temperley's important index. The HTI database contains all hymn tunes printed anywhere in the world with English-language texts up to 1820, and their publication history up to that date!
Psalms in Metre An evolving source for texts and midi files of tunes from various important English-language psalters.
GENERAL ASPECTS OF CHURCH MUSIC HISTORY ONLINE
CANADIAN CHURCH MUSIC HISTORY ONLINE
The
Encyclopedia of Music in Canada is accessible online through The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Articles on many aspects of Canadian congregational song history can be
found through the search engine, for example Anglican
Church Music, Gospel
Music, Hymns
and hymn tunes, Mennonites
and Protestant
Church Music.
The Dictionary
of Canadian Biography Online
has biographies of many of Canada's early hymn writers and tune book
compilers such as Henry Alline, Alexander Davidson, Stephen
Humbert, and Joseph Scriven.
Early
Canadiana Online has a number of early hymn collections in
various First Nations languages online plus a few collections by female
authors. Try a subject search for "hymns".
BRITISH CHURCH MUSIC HISTORY ONLINE
Gallery
Music and Psalmody Devoted primarily
to music in British country churches, 1700's and early 1800's
The
Whole Book of Psalmes (1562) A
detailed discussion, with facsimile examples, of the first complete
metrical psalter in English
Parry, W. H. Thirteen
Centuries of English Church Music (London: Hinrichsen, 1946)
Phillips, C. Henry. The Singing
Church: an outline history of the music sung by choir and people
(London: Faber and Faber, 1945)
AMERICAN CHURCH MUSIC HISTORY ONLINE
Fasola and Sacred Harp Sites devoted primarily to shape-note singing
negrospirituals.com A good site for the history of the spiritual genre
Voices Across America - Shape-Note Music Online directory of recordings from many decades and singing traditions, all in mp3!
Earle, Alice Morse. The Sabbath
in Puritan New England An older resource with good descriptions of
congregational singing and books in use in early America
Joncas, Michael. Psalms, Hymns, And
Spiritual Songs: Roman Catholic Liturgical Music In The United States
Since Vatican II
Ruggles, Linda. "The regular
singing controversy: the case against lining out" The Early America Review (Fall,
1997)
ONLINE PRIMARY RESOURCES
The Genevan
Psalter (1562) in English Translation
Thomas Ravenscroft's Whole
Booke of Psalmes (1621)
Preface to The Bay Psalm Book (1640)
The Westminster Directory for the Public Worship of God (1645)
Psalmes of David in Metre (Scottish Psalter, 1650) with commentary
The Psalms and Hymns of Isaac Watts
Southern
Harmony (1847 edition)
John Wesley, A Collection of Hymns, for the Use of the People Called Methodist (1889 edition)
Hymnal of The Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA (1916)
MUSICOLOGY LINKS
These links are to sites in Canada and abroad, with information on many aspects of music, including church music.
Canadian Music Periodicals Index
Gregorian Chant Home Page
Internet Resources for Music Scholars (Harvard University)