GSC1937 - blank spreadsheet

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 01:37 — Haruo

I'm trying to add data on GSC1937, but when I click "Download hymnal data as spreadsheet" and open the spreadsheet, the Page worksheet is empty even though there is one hymn already entered. I do not understand. Why are the data from the one hymn that is already there not in the Page worksheet? The full text is in the Text worksheet! I'm nonplussed.

Comments

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 03:41 — Haruo

GSC1937 expanded; title question

I went ahead and filled in the Page worksheet to reflect what should already have been there, and then plunged ahead so that now there are 25 hymns listed (though most are still not connected to the database).

Incidentally, it is not clear to me whether the title of this hymnal should be "Great Songs of the Church: Number Two - The New Alphabetical Hymnal" as I have given it, or "The New Alphabetical Hymnal: Great Songs of the Church No. 2.", as its 1957 35th(!) edition, NAHG1957, is titled in the database. There is also a 1935 edition that is simply titled "Great Songs of the Church" (GSoC1935). I can see how the title page of the 1937 edition could be interpreted either way.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 08:56 — dianneshapiro

Title question

The title of a hymnal should come from the title page. The subtitle should follow the title, separated by a colon. Usually the title is the largest, but sometimes it is hard to distinguish what is the title and what is the subtitle. Sometimes I check WorldCat to see how the catalogers interpret it. In this case, catalogers are pretty much agreed that the title of the 1937 edition is "Great Songs of the Church. number two: a treasury of six hundred sacred songs suitable for all services of the church."

The 1957 edition is titled "The New Alphabetical Hymnal: great songs of the church, number two; a treasury of six hundred sacred songs suitable for all services of the church" We would add the edition in parentheses behind the title since we don't have a separate field for editions.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 11:27 — Haruo

GSC1937, 1957, 1935 title etc.

Okay, I've changed the title of the 1937 edition to what you say is the catalogers' consensus. I'd like to see the 1957 edition's title page (and the cover, which I think is a legitimate clue to what the author or publisher intended to be the title (vs. subtitle)). I'd also like to see the GSoC1935 title page, because I have a feeling this may be a situation where "edition" is a fancy word for "reprinting", and where the contents are identical and unretouched.

It's an interesting outlier in a number of ways. The compiler has sort of anticipated the DNAH database by giving his hymns in strict first-line alphabetical order, but he throws a wrench in the works by sharply separating "Gospel Songs" from "Hymns" (and these from "Special Songs" and "Songs for Children"), so that he has actually got four separate alphabetical series. (Oddly, though, he didn't alphabetize his Responsive Readings section!)

Anyhow, GSC1937's contents have reached 50 items now, and climbing steadily.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 12:35 — Haruo

Refrain vs. Chorus - definition

In GSC1937, some songs have a portion designated "Chorus" (or "Cho."), while others have a portion designated "Refrain". Usually, but not always, the former is a section of text that is sung with the same words at the end of each stanza, whereas the latter is a section of text that repeats a line (either the first line or the last line) of the text of each stanza (so the "refrain" varies from stanza to stanza). I have been entering the former type (generally here called "Chorus") in the Refrain First Line field of the spreadsheet/form. My question is whether I should also be entering the first stanza's "Refrain" in that same field, or whether I should leave it be pending the entry of Full Texts or page scans. I don't recall seeing this addressed in the instructions.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 14:58 — Haruo

On a related note - refrain-only instances

GSC1937 contains quite a few instances where a "hymn" consists only of the refrain (or chorus!) of a longer text, the stanzas of which are not included. For example, the instance that got me thinking about this is "Bless Me Now", which turns out to be the refrain (with tune by Robert Lowry) of "Heavenly Father, Bless Me Now" by Alexander Clark. What I wanted to know was whether the tune of the refrain should be counted as a different tune from the tune of the hymn as a whole. After all, such refrains usually (not always!) have incipits quite distinct from the stanzaic portions' incipits. For what it's worth, in this case I'm pretty sure the text of the refrain is Lowry's work, too, though there's no way to tell this from the text authority page except inductively from a survey of the page scans. (An analogous example might be "We're marching to Zion", which is Lowry's work but often tagged as Watts.)

I decided to check how the tune ADESTE FIDELES was treated when only the refrain was used, so I did a text search for "O come let us adore Him" (screenshot) and found that "O come, all ye faithful" shows up in the results with "O come, let us adore Him" both as First Line and as Refrain First Line. So my question in this connection is, should the 570 instances of o_come_all_ye_faithful_joyful_and_triump be sifted and those that are refrain-only be moved to o_come_let_us_adore_him, or should the 11 instances of the latter be merged into the former?

I am still not sure how best to treat "Bless Me Now".

Thu, 01/16/2014 - 12:22 — dianneshapiro

Refrain only instances

If the hymnal has the refrain only from a longer text, then the refrain should have a different text authority. Generally it will not have a different tune authority. However, in some cases refrains were tacked on to familiar hymns and sometimes the same refrain was used for more than one hymn, so if these refrains were sung alone in some hymnals, then they could have their own tune authority.

In the case of "Bless Me Now," since this refrain is only found with the hymn "Heavenly Father, Bless Me Now" when the tune is composed by Lowry, then I would not make a separate tune authority for the refrain.

"O Come Let Us Adore Him" should be a separate text authority from "O Come All Ye Faithful." Often there are other verses after "O Come Let Us Adore Him." I found one instance of "O Come Let Us Adore Him" under the text authority for "O Come All Ye Faithful" and I moved it.

Thu, 01/16/2014 - 11:47 — dianneshapiro

Refrain vs. Chorus

If the words of the Refrain varies from stanza to stanza then I would consider the Refrain to really be part of the hymn and I would not enter what the hymnal calls the Refrain into the Refrain first line field.

Wed, 01/15/2014 - 12:41 — Haruo