Before the contemporary mode of worship the world including Nigeria has adopted today the most prominent and most enjoyed form of church singing was the “HYMNS”. Although it is still relevant in most churches except the “Protestant churches” it seemed to have lost some of its glory. The word hymn was gotten from the Greek word “Hymnos” meaning “a song of praise”. History has shown that the fist kind of Christian music were Hymns so I’ll tell you some fun facts about hymns
Did you know that;
1. The Hymnodist (Hymn writer) of most of the hymns you sing where Priests, Bishops and even Sunday school teachers not just musicians, organists and music experts.
2. The first set of Hymns were restricted to Psalms
3. Most hymns are poem or poem like that is why they have a particular rhyming pattern synonymous with poems
4. Some hymns has two Hymnodist (Hymn writers) i.e the writer of the lyrics and the writer of the tune(rhythm)
5. Every stanza of a hymn has the same number of syllables on every line (i.e the 1st line of the 1st stanza has the same number of syllables as the 1st line of the 2nd stanza; this is what is called “Metre/Meter” in classical music and that is the reason why the tune always works for all stanza. Although this has an exception in some hymns and those hymns have what is called “Irregular Metre” and some others also have what is referred to as “Peculiar metre”.
6. Some of the oldest hymns are dated around BC
7. The longest hymn in the Anglican communion has about 28 stanzas
8. Before any hymn is accepted as a hymn to be sung by a congregation or put in any hymn book it must have at least one bible reference, curled directly from the Bible or paraphrased from the Bible that is why when you look at the top of some hymns especially those in a hymn book you’ll find bible passages.
9. Some hymns are arranged and/or rearranged in different hymn books and sometimes stanzas are removed and/or added that is why some hymn books have different stanza from others; despite this, the first and last stanza of most hymns are retained exactly the same across Hymn books
10. The “chorus” in hymns are not called “chorus” but “Refrain” i.e to say hymns don’t have choruses and because of this some people call hymns with choruses or refrain “Gospel songs” as opposed to hymns
11. There are hymns dedicated to children and they are called “Children Supplement” and that is where you’ll find hymns like “All things bright and beautiful”
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