Bringing back the old hymns?

[ontosecondary]

I'm part of a music team in a large state primary. We do Singup which is good but does feature a fair number of songs about apostrophes and sentiments such as "it's you, it's me, it's us that makes community".

We are not church school and I'm an atheist.

I feel that, in this day and age, we ought to be able to re-introduce some of the old hymns on the grounds that they are (i) great music and (ii) have lyrics that hint at life not always being rosy

I'm thinking of suggesting it to my colleagues. Ironically they are Christians and so it would need to come from me so as not to seem like a church-school-by-the-back-door thing.

Hymns I remember and miss include:
He who would valliant be
When a Knight won his spurs
All Things Bright and Beautiful
Give me joy in my heart keep me singing (etc)

Hymns I remember and would not foist on the innocent include:
There is a Green Hill Far Away
and anything else that's massively into the whole crucifixion details....

anyway, I wondered what people thought, and if you could nominate some hymns you wish you still heard. It's odd that we keep the Christmas Carols but not the rest of the year hymns.

cheers.

Sorry, that was rude.

I shall report myself and go to bed whilst we're all still singing.

Ah, good old cauliflowers fluffy, it is a great favourite. Think I've played it every September and October since it was composed!

Broad beans sleeping in their blankety bed Thea

I used to love hymns at primary school. We didn't have hymn books so had to learn the words off by heart. Up thread someone mentioned Daisies are our silver - I'd completely forgotten about that one but remembered all the verses straight away. For shining sapphires we've the speedwell blue! It was lovely. We sung the magic penny too, and do you remember 'Jesus bids us shine'. I'm an atheist now but have nothing but fond memories for these hymns.

DS' (Catholic) primary school still has hymn practice once a week - after half term they switch to Christmas Carols. They are usually the more modern hymns though. However, we have a very traditional priest so we sing very traditional hymns at church.

Soul of My Saviour
Oh Bread of Heaven
Morning Has Broken
Make Me a Channel of Your Peace

I remember singing Lord of All Hopefulness at school and have chosen it for my (hopefully long distant) funeral.

I had Panis Angelicus and Immaculate Mary at my wedding.

I love church music and really enjoy singing and I think it comes from school hymn singing.

Slightly embarrassed to admit that I'm sitting in bed on my own singing 'Autumn Days' - happy memories! Also want to bring back 'One more step along the world I go' - we sang that on my last day at my primary school - am feeling all nostalgic & slightly emotional now!

The golden cockerel crows in the morning, wake up children welcome the day!

They're all coming flooding back now!

One more step along the world I go (almost had that at our wedding but thought it might be a bit cheesy!)
When God made the garden of creation
Water of life
Man for all the people (I absolutely LOVED this one!)
When I needed a neighbour

MindReader was that from singing In the Bleak Midwinter? One of my favourite bloody depressing Christmas carols!

Yes, they do the praying thing. ds happily believes in god, so closes his eyes very tightly (sweet). dd doesn't, so she doesn't say the word 'god' and we have had lots of conversations about what that word can mean to us as atheists.

Whether you believe or not though, you cant beat a good hymn.

Yes, this is something I feel my DCs are missing out on.

Kum By Yah
Morning has Broken
Amazing Grace
Sing, Hosanna
Lord of all Hopefulness
Guide me oh thou Great Redeemer
He's got the whole world in his hands.

I tried finding a compilation on Amazon a few years ago without much luck, I'll be having a look at that Worship Workshop link, thanks.

You've made me have a bit of a moment with He Who Would Valiant Be. I had to learn it off by heart when I was about 8 or 9 - my father would go over the lines with me during the long drive to school, and ended up knowing it all well before I did, much to his exasperation. When he died, I chose it as a hymn at his funeral.

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind was a favourite of mine at school - I still mutter "forgive our foolish ways" to myself when necessary.

We had the words to the hymns printed on a huge flip chart thing. I can still see it know - it must have been 6' tall and dogeared. Between that and singing in the church choir for ten years I can still belt out most of the old favourites without a hymn book.

I didnt take that as rude at all secondary

I remember the golden cockerel one - didn't realise it until now, must have been using up valuable memory in my brain. I just sang that first line through whilst reading it and carried on singing the whole verse. Must have been 25-30 years since I last sang it. How is that even possible? I can't even remember that my kids have swimming lessons every Tuesday at the moment!

yes, we had the flipcharts too!

My girls go to a CofE school so they often come home singing songs I forgot I knew. They start singing something like Autumn Days and I join in with them. DD2 will often start singing a school hymn and then stop to ask me if I sang it back in the olden days when I was a little girl

We didn't have a flip chart. Every single one of my primary schools had the words on an overhead projector. A special one child was chosen each day to be the 'acetate monitor' (that wasn't the job title, I made that up) and they had to move the words up gradually as the hymn went on. Children who were newbies to the job tended to do so rather erratically, often leading to the school losing the words halfway through the song as the acetate went sliding off the OHP. Ahhhh, happy days.

Here's my list!

At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow
O praise ye the Lord
God is working his purpose out
Praise my soul the king of heaven
Glorious things of thee are spoken
Thy hand O God has guided (school hymn!)
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord

I could go on for ages . . . . there's nothing like a good belt to a soaring organ accompaniment!

ah yes, it is real!

www.uksbd.co.uk/autumn-days-lyrics/

CofE school

At the name of Jesus!! Oh that takes me back. Our secondary school music teacher used to practically take off playing the intro on the big grand in the hall. I have a suspicion he didn't really like the tune, or perhaps used it to get rid of the general tension of teaching. But I can hear it now 'puM PUM PUM PUM AT THE NAME OF JESUS [PUM PUM] EVERY KNEE shall BOW PUM PUM PUM AND THEIR TONGUES CONFESS HIM KING OF GLO-REEEE NOW PUM PUM PUM and so on ad infinitum.

It's a conundrum. I love singing and miss hymns. But Onward Christian Soldiers rather encapsulates the problem.

'why have they made up these stupid English words to Adeste Fideles'?! I loved singing latin at school (not a church school but we did learn latin)

When I was in primary we had the books with the words in.

By the time I started teaching we had overhead projectors and yes, 2 children used to sit beside it in charge of the overheads.

And now we have all the words on the computer and 2 children sit there and click the buttons to display the words or to start the tracks playing if we are singing something using a cd.

But most of the songs have stayed the same.

Eternal father strong to save (we didn't sing that one nearly enough)

I absolutely love Abide With Me but as a child I only sang it in church on Remembrance Sunday. There were still ladies in the choir who cried during that him because of family bereavements in WWI.

At the name of Jesus, we used to absolutely belt that one out. Happy days!

We didn't sing Abide with Me, but I do love it (am a football fan, it is really stirring hearing it before the cup final).

Lynette - there's something important about singing the songs your mother sang I think....

This line has brought a tear to my eye.

My West Indian family are absolute buggers for a huge hearty hymn.

All the ones on this thread make me miss my mum, always immaculately turned out, always singing the descant, always knowing the obscure verses.

I really really love singing hymns and on the back of this thread have you tubed some old favourites until
"Though back into storyland giants have fled,
And the knights are no more and the dragons are dead"
Which reduced me to gulping sobs.

Gorgeous thread!