This thesis treats Daniel Read's music analytically to establish style characteristics. Read's fuging tunes are examined for metric placement and structural occurrence of dissonance, and dissonance as text painting. Read's comments on dissonance are extracted from his tunebook introductions. A historical chapter includes the English origins of the fuging tune and its American heyday. The creative life of Daniel Read is discussed. This thesis contributes to knowledge of Read's role in the development of the New England Psalmody idiom. Specifically, this work illustrates the importance of understanding and analyzing Read's use of dissonance as a style determinant, showing that Read's dissonance treatment is an immediate and central characteristic of his compositional practice.

A study of the carol form immediately leads into the field of the hymn; each is a form of praise or worship. The hymn is as instinctive as life itself, and as universal as the air man breathes. Hymns to the sun god, to the many Babylonian deities, to the Great Spirit of the American Indian - these are found, along with others in all ancient literature.

The purpose of this study is to make the Protestant church workers more efficient in their use of music in religious work by giving them a clear conception of the kind of music to be used and by suggesting detailed plans and methods by which desirable results may be secured in the use of church music. Ideal standards have their place, but here it is proposed to be matter-of-fact, practical and concrete, and to secure immediate results with the average church member and choir singer as the final criterion in every phase of the work. The purpose is not to emphasize high ideals but to instruct and inspire all those who have leadership in the service of church music, that they may be able here to provide the greatest religious helpfulness that the use of music can bring the souls to whom they minister.

This work examines the construction of suffering in the hymns of Charles Wesley, co-founder of the Methodist movement. Wesley wrote thousands of hymns, many of which focus on the experience of overwhelming pain. As eighteenth-century men and women sang or read Wesley's hymns, they were encouraged to adopt a distinctive approach to suffering, one which drew on long-standing elen1ents within Christian tradition as well as new patterns in eighteenth-century English culture. Identifying the construction of suffering in the hymns illuminates the culture of early Methodism and its complex relationship to its eighteenth century English context. / My analysis places the hymns within the broader ‘narrative culture’ of early Methodism, which encouraged individuals to interpret their lives and experiences within a story of great spiritual significance. The hymns engaged men and women with a spiritual drama of conviction, conversion, sanctification and heavenly reward. I argue that suffering was central to Wesley's depiction of this drama. I examine his construction of the suffering of Christ, the suffering of Christians and of Christian responses to the suffering of others, den10nstrating that each of these had an important place in his depiction of the normative Christian experience. Those who read or sang the hymns were exhorted to embrace and endure suffering as an experience that offered opportunities for intill1acy with, and imitation of, Christ. / Recognising Wesley's construction of suffering does not explain exactly how Methodist men and Women responded to affliction, but it does illuminate their responses. I explore the implications of Wesley's construction of suffering for early Methodist understandings of the self, spirituality, charity and gender, as well as specific kinds of pain such as childbirth and bereavement. These understandings contributed to a Methodist identity that was both related to, and distinct from, the eighteenth-century English culture in which the hymns were written.

Originally presented as the author's thesis, Göttingen, 1954. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 427-445) and index.

Not available / text

Although Isaac Watts wrote hymns in the early eighteenth century, some of his hymns, such as “Joy to the World,” “Alas! And Did My Savior Bleed?,” and “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,” survive today as well-known hymns. However, little has been written about the rhetorical effects of his hymns. This thesis demonstrates that, like any other literary work, Watts’ hymns can be analyzed rhetorically. This thesis analyzes Watts’ hymns with the aid of Louis Montrose’s New Historicism, showing how Watts’ hymns were impacted by the English culture in which he lived and how they impacted the religious culture to which he belonged and preached: the Dissenters. Watts’ hymns were not the only texts that had an impact on the Dissenters. The psalters were considered by many (Calvin, in particular) to be the only acceptable songs for use in worship. Watts responded to this belief with his hymns, showing that God could be praised in other reverent ways. Watts hymns were successful for many reasons, including their easy-to-understand language, their vivid images, and their ability to focus on the heart of man. Watts used his hymns to help Dissenters keep away from error, particularly the new religion of Deism and the sin of pride. Looking through the lens of New Historicism, Watts’ hymns are rhetorical texts, impacting the culture of Dissenters and responding to the larger English culture. Watts possessed great skill as a writer, poet, and preacher, and this thesis shows how his hymns had a thorough impact on the Dissenters’ culture.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 225-229). / xv, 229 leaves, bound col. ill., music, facsimilies 29 cm

This work examines the construction of suffering in the hymns of Charles Wesley, co-founder of the Methodist movement. Wesley wrote thousands of hymns, many of which focus on the experience of overwhelming pain. As eighteenth-century men and women sang or read Wesley's hymns, they were encouraged to adopt a distinctive approach to suffering, one which drew on long-standing elen1ents within Christian tradition as well as new patterns in eighteenth-century English culture. Identifying the construction of suffering in the hymns illuminates the culture of early Methodism and its complex relationship to its eighteenth century English context. / My analysis places the hymns within the broader ‘narrative culture’ of early Methodism, which encouraged individuals to interpret their lives and experiences within a story of great spiritual significance. The hymns engaged men and women with a spiritual drama of conviction, conversion, sanctification and heavenly reward. I argue that suffering was central to Wesley's depiction of this drama. I examine his construction of the suffering of Christ, the suffering of Christians and of Christian responses to the suffering of others, den10nstrating that each of these had an important place in his depiction of the normative Christian experience. Those who read or sang the hymns were exhorted to embrace and endure suffering as an experience that offered opportunities for intill1acy with, and imitation of, Christ. / Recognising Wesley's construction of suffering does not explain exactly how Methodist men and Women responded to affliction, but it does illuminate their responses. I explore the implications of Wesley's construction of suffering for early Methodist understandings of the self, spirituality, charity and gender, as well as specific kinds of pain such as childbirth and bereavement. These understandings contributed to a Methodist identity that was both related to, and distinct from, the eighteenth-century English culture in which the hymns were written.

Zugl.: Neuendettelsau, Augustana-Hochsch., Diss., 2006.