Hinos Gêmeos - Hymn Pairs in English & Portuguese

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Sun, 05/22/2022 - 17:37 — Guilhermedico

Based upon the excellent databases on Hymnary.org for the United Methodist Hymnal (UMH) and Hinário Para o Culto Cristão (HCC), and on my own research involving hundreds of hours listening to hymns on YouTube and doing Google searches, I created a database of “gêmeos”, literally “twins”, i.e., melodies of hymns in the UMH whose tunes I paired with identical tunes from HCC and other Brazilian hymnals, including Cantor Cristão and Hinário Adventista, among others.

I have uploaded the database to a Google sheet, which may be found HERE: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Fm-mSntjo_pek0TEfbEJ75fff_mj_OWEeC2aQk3s_Fc/edit?usp=sharing. The database consists of two sheets, the main sheet, “Gêmeos”, which contains the paired hymns and the secondary sheet, “Outros”, which consists of “outtake” hymns, mainly from the UMH and HCC, that I have not been able to pair (yet).

Subsequently, from the hymn pairs in the database, I created a YouTube video playlist of these matching melodies, which I called “HINOS GÊMEOS”, i.e., “Twin Hymns”. The playlist is located HERE: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlx779zNlUsuKjFqL9HN3584tO1D5cqnZ. Wherever possible, I tried to include in the “HINOS GÊMEOS” playlist only hymns that display subtitles, i.e., lyrics (letras or cifras em português). My goal is to make it easier for language learners of both English and Portuguese to understand the lyrics and, I trust, to be able to sing along!

At this writing, the only Brazilian hymnal that is fully indexed on Hymnary.org is the HCC. My hope is that, going forward, additional popular hymnals from Brazil will be indexed, which will facilitate finding new Brazilian “twins” for melodies from the UMH. In the meantime, kindly let me know of other Brazilian hymn melodies that match those of hymns in the UMH, along with links to hymn melodies on YouTube that also illustrate the lyrics of both paired hymns in their respective languages.


Comments

Sun, 05/22/2022 - 23:22 — Haruo

Thanks for sharing the link.

Mon, 05/23/2022 - 17:32 — Guilhermedico

@Haruo: Não há de que! = You're welcome!  And OBRIGADO = Thank YOU -- for your comment! 

Sun, 05/22/2022 - 23:22 — Haruo

Thanks for sharing the link.

Fri, 06/03/2022 - 14:50 — kgarvie

It looks great, thanks for sharing! Some of the hymns in the outros section are the same as the ones in the gêmeos section though, is that correct? I might have misunderstood the two sections.

Thu, 06/09/2022 - 11:19 — Guilhermedico

Muito obrigado for the kudos @kgarvie! You are very observant to have noticed the apparent duplication of hymn titles, lyrics, and/or tunes on the Outros (= “Others”) page of my HINOS GÊMEOS worksheet. Some reasons for this duplication are as follows.

  • Because Hinário Para O Culto Cristão (HCC) is the only Portuguese language hymnal in current wide use that is indexed on hymnary.org, I started my worksheet comparing the melodies in that hymnal to those in the United Methodist Hymnal (UMH), also indexed in the hymnary.org database. However, I was unable to find certain HCC hymns on YouTube to include in my HINOS GÊMEOS playlist. So, I had to use videos derived from other Brazilian hymnals with the same melodies. In those cases, I left the HCC hymn on the Outros page, and I may utilize it in the future if I come across a better YouTube video.
  • Authors of hymn lyrics often repurposed popular hymn melodies by attaching them to new words. The opposite happened as well: the same beloved hymn lyrics were sometimes used with different tunes. I wanted to keep the “Gêmeos” (= “Twins”) theme in the HINOS GÊMEOS playlist as well as on the Gêmeos page of the worksheet, with an English language hymn alternating with a Portuguese language one. So, in most cases, I left the “Triplets” and “Quadruplets” on the Outros page. The occasional exception was when I was able to find well-known tunes that formed the basis for English and Portuguese hymns with two different sets of lyrics. An example of this is the hymn tune known as ST. GERTRUDE. This melody forms the basis for UMH 575, Onward Christian Soldiers and UMH 555, Forward Through the Ages. ST. GERTRUDE is also the melody used in Hinário Adventista 344, Ó Cristãos Avante and in HCC 340, Salvador Bendito.

On my hymnary.org wish list is that they will add more Portuguese language hymnals that are widely used in Brazil to their superb database. These include but are not limited to Cantor Cristão, Hinário Luterano, and Hinário Adventista do Sétimo Dia. This will facilitate the process of discovering additional HINOS GÊMEOS with matching melodies.

Um abraço fraterno para todos,

Guilhermedico

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