Hymn Tune Index

An extraordinary resource for organists, church musicians, and librarians. Cataloging over 33,000 melodies sung by congregations world-wide, it provides the source of each and lists related materials.

This unique reference is the first systematic guide to the history of the English-language hymn tune, as represented in printed sources from the earliest (Coverdale's Goostly Psalmes) to 1820. Using a simple numerical code to represent the first two lines of each melody, the book allows the reader to look up any of nearly 20,000 British and American hymn tunes without advance knowledge of the composer, name, or text. Each entry provides an array of information on the tune's first printing, composer, the texts to which it was sung, and its later history. The work contains a historical introduction; a theoretical introduction; chronological and geographical lists of sources; indexes of tunes by name, composer, text, and metre; and tables of concordances with early German and French tunes.

Identifies hymns and tunes (including some church-adopted folkmusic) by author, first line, tune name and composer.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.