Most Included hymns in hymnals - 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950, 2000

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Thu, 12/20/2012 - 12:44 — ronvinson

I am Ron Vinson of the Presbyterian Heritage Center in Montreat, NC. We are preparing a museum exhibit for 2013 on 500 Years of Reformation music - rare psalters and hymnals, etc. Does anyone have (or know how to use Hymnary.org to calculate), the most included hymns (top 25, 50 or 100) in hymnals/psalters at various time periods? Say 1800, 1850, 1900, 1950 and 2000.

I can be reached through forum, via email - vinson@phcmontreat.org or phone 828-669-6556. Thanks.


Comments

Thu, 12/20/2012 - 19:52 — Haruo

Well, someone must know how to do that sort of thing, because such a calculation was obviously used to come up with the (250) "Common Hymns" ("These are the 250 hymns published the most frequently in modern hymnals indexed by Hymnary.org.") aka "Browse Popular Hymns". I don't know what the method is, however; would be interested in finding out! Let's hope one of the stat tech whizzes speaks out!

Wed, 01/02/2013 - 11:21 — dianneshapiro

I think this will work:

You can either click on the Text tab, or on the left hand side select your result type to be "Texts." This will give you a list of texts by first line, sorted alphabetically. You should be able to add the Column "Total Instances". You can click on this column heading to sort the list from highest to lowest. Then to find the various time periods in the "Add a field" box, select "Publication Date" under "Hymnals" for your time period, such as "1600-1800". I'm pretty sure our oldest hymnal is 1640.

Keep in mind that this gives you a count of instances and some hymns may be included more than once in some of the hymnals, such as when there are more than one tune; therefore this is not a total of hymnals that include the hymn. But it should give you a pretty good estimate.

Sun, 01/27/2013 - 22:44 — SheWhoWaits

I don't think this does quite what is wanted. I tried it and what happens is that you get a count of ALL instances of hymns that were published in the designated time period, not just instances that were published in that time period, if you get the difference.

Fri, 02/08/2013 - 10:38 — hplantin

Correct. You need to use the matching instances column, not total instances.

Try this search: http://www.hymnary.org/texts?qu=publicationDate:1801-1850%20in:texts&sort=matchingInstances

Show the matching instances column, and click on it to sort by it. The top hymns in the 1801-1850 time period from the hymnals we have indexed are

277 Come, thou fount of every blessing » 1835
273 When I can read my title clear » 1835
264 There is a land of pure delight » 1806
261 Come, ye that love the Lord » 1835
261 Jesus! and shall it ever be » 1824
247 From all that dwell below the skies » 1806
244 Am I a soldier of the cross » 1835
232 Oh! for a closer walk with God » 1835
231 God moves in a mysterious way » 1832
230 He dies! the friend of sinners dies! » 1806

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