Hymns, Latin -- History and criticism; Sequences (Liturgy)
Protestant Churches are not limited in their selection of Latin hymns
for translation, making their choices from the entire medieval store.
The revival of Latin hymns in a translated form, which marked the Oxford
Movement in the Anglican Church in the mid-nineteenth century, drew upon
the Sarum Breviary as one native to English soil and therefore
appropriate to the English Church. That these hymns were largely
represented in the Roman Breviary, was well-known but the earlier and
unrevised texts were preferred. In his function as a translator, John
Mason Neale was preeminently a leader in the task of making known to the
adherents of the Church of England their heritage of hymns.
An attempt was made at this time to perpetuate not only the words but
the Gregorian Chant as a suitable musical setting for the vernacular.
Here the innovators were only partly successful and the chant, although
enthusiastically employed at first was gradually abandoned in the
English Church as the sole musical vehicle for the Latin hymn in
translation. Similarly Latin hymns have been taken over into other
modern languages by translators of Protestant as well as Catholic
allegiance.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the influence of Latin hymn
meters continued to be felt in vernacular hymnody. Metrical versions of
the Psalms made by Isaac Watts are often illustrative of old Latin forms
which may also be recognized in his own hymns. This may not have been a
conscious imitation of Latin originals for by this time hymn meters were
ingrained in English poetry, but merely an indirect reflection, for
example, of the Ambrosian model.
More subtle has been the influence in modern times of the most ancient
canons of hymnic expression; objective presentation of scriptural
narrative, doctrinal emphasis and a certain joyful austerity in the
praise of God. During the three and a half centuries which have passed
since the era of the Protestant Reformation, the Christian hymn has
experienced a succession of literary movements, reflecting, for example,
the spirit of the Age of Reason and of the Romantic Era. Contemporary
musical evolution has, in turn, been vitally important to the growth of
the hymn as it has been mated with the melodies of the Genevan Psalter,
the chorales of Bach, the musical novelties of instrumental origin, the
folk song and latterly the native music of regions open to missionary
enterprise.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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