In an interview with his local NPR station, Dale Adelmann, Canon for Music at St Philip’s Cathedral in Atlanta discusses the lectionary, congregational hymns, choral anthems, and the way in which the rhythm of church musical planning follows and points up the liturgical church year.
His discussion of the 1982 Hymnal particularly caught my ear:
Our current hymnal was done in 1982. It is actually a pretty remarkable collection of Christian texts; in fact, after the Bible itself, the hymnal is the richest collection of Christian texts that we have at our disposal. We have texts in here that are from the 3rd century. We have texts in here that are by Thomas Aquinas and, you know many of the great fathers of the church and we have one text in here from a Nobel Prize winner, and by modern poets.
Would you agree with his assessment of our current hymnal?
The interview includes samples of hymns, anthems, and organ improvisations from the Cathedral of St Philip.
From the interview page, an improvisation on Praise to the Lord by St. Philip’s assistant organist and choirmaster Patrick Scott. Hear more samples at the interview page.
Photo: St Philip’s choir, The Cathedral of St Philip via NPR, wabe.org. Hear the whole interview and more music here.