I have just received the new full music edition of Hymns Old and New and am delighted that most of what was wrong with the previous editions has been corrected. Although I shall be looking at it in detail there are  major  improvements. There is a separate melody version, it is well bound and lies flat on the music desk. It has many more hymns   (858 in total including additions from other sources including Common Praise, the English Hymnal and Taize.

When the book arrived, I thought I had been sent the wrong book as the package was smaller than I was expecting. As soon as opened the book, it was indeed the full music edition.

They have put far more hymns into a thinner book as it puts both words and music together on on the same page wherever possible, as in Hymns A & M. there are more modern hymns as well as more traditional ones. there are also more worship songs giving a more balanced selection. each hymn has both the author and composer at the top of the page rather than at the bottom as previously.

I was delighted to see that the unison accompaniments were so much better with the harmony fitting the original chord structure so that guitars could play along with the keyboard. I note that many of them are as the original ones from Mission Praise.

Another bonus for me was the inclusion of more plainsong such as Vexilla Regis and Adoro te devote. Another excellent idea in the index of tunes that a single line of the melody appears on each entry. The book includes many unfamiliar hymns to well known tunes as in Common Praise.

I am still not sure whether the excessive alterations to some of the traditional ymns work, as they stand out like a sore thumb and often cause amusement. ”God rest ye merry gentlefolk” brought a smile to my face. I am however glad however to see that the original words have been restored in “Once in royal David’s city” even though two of the verses have been left out.

The back of the book contains all the essentials for choosing hymns with an index of uses, biblical references and a  liturgical index.

Here is the original article:-

“When writing a review like this it is interesting to reflect on how one's opinions alter with experience!
St Alban's had used Hymns A&M revised for some 25 years and the books, although usable, were getting a bit tatty. We therefore decided that we would replace them. An opportunity therefore arose to get something more in line with current usage (other than our Youth services where we do not like to restrict our choice) thus avoiding the need for specially printed hymn sheets. We found the selection of a new book quite daunting - we needed a book with a wide cross section of traditional and modern hymns and were at first unable to find anything remotely meeting our criteria - until Hymns Old and New came along. I seemed to meet our needs exactly. One thing did make us hesitate and that was the lack of a melody only edition for the younger choriste

rs (all 24 0f them!). We also liked to have available some for the more musical members of the congregation. However, the advantages seemed to outweigh the disadvantages, so we went ahead with the purchase.
The good points about the book were:

A comprehensive selection of hymns, one of the best I have come across (except as pointed out below)

 Convenient alphabetical order

 Some excellent  new 4 part harmonisations.

This all seemed to good to be true! However over the course of time many serious shortcomings revealed themselves. They can be summarised as follows:-

. No melody only edition (I admit that we already knew this before our purchase) (and regretted it ever since!)

HYMNS O&N INDEX

. The binding on the full music edition is flimsy - many of our books are beginning to fall apart (my organ edition already has).
  There are  alterations to some of the hymns which are both irritating and cause difficulty to partially sighted members of the congregation. I find it quite incredible that an editor can waste so much time scouring each hymn and eliminating every mention of  men or soldiers.  Obviously inclusive language must be introduced, but (as in Common Praise where alterations have been sensitively done and is in most cases barely noticeable)


6. There are some  dire accompaniments for the unison hymns (as well as some good ones by such composers as Noel Rawsthorne) -
 Whilst on the subject, why not have a little bit of variety in some of the unison hymns with some optional harmonies?(There are some wonderful new four part harmonies written in this book)  

It seems to me that the hymns/songs with simple chord structures should have these as the basis for the harmony (as Christopher tambling has done with great success in “ Moses you’re the man” )

I do hope that some (if not all) of the problems can be sorted out in future editions. I speak as the organist of a church with a large choir and as an organist at the crematorium (which also uses this book).

At the crematorium, some of the hymns missing (owing to political correctness) have had to be pasted in the back of the  book. These include popular hymns such as 'I vow to thee my country', 'Onward Christian soldiers' ,'Now the day is over' and the proper version of 'Once in Royal David's City'!  'Onward Christian Soldiers' is a pretty dire hymn but most people who are not necessarily churchgoers like it. It is not for us to decide whether they are allowed to sing it or not.  (see Times online for their view of this)

the idea behind bringing out a book with a selection of popular hymns was a good one. It is unfortunate that a book such as this fails in so many other respects.I look forward to some more offerings from Kevin Mayhew, and from what I have seen in newer publications the outlook seems promising. But PLEASE can we have a book that lasts! Churches are usually short of cash and cannot afford to line the coffers of publishers

We have now introduced Common Praise as a more sensible alternative for the choral services

PS. Since writing this article, most of our  Hymns Old and New books have fallen apart after only 4 years of use. “