Yes. Under "Add a field" select "Year written" under "Person." This should show the date written (which is usually the first publication date) if a hymnal included this information.
You're right, these are strange results, not what a user would expect. The first in the list ("From depths of woe") can be attributed to its nature as a translation, because the earliest date is its German birth, and the last is a composite translation. The text authority erroneously gave the date of Massie's translation as 1990, so I fixed it (1854). The others in the list include a long string of English hymns. Notice how there are four hymns by Fanny Crosby that give the Year Written as her entire life span.
Comments
Date of first publication
Yes. Under "Add a field" select "Year written" under "Person." This should show the date written (which is usually the first publication date) if a hymnal included this information.
Thanks but...
When I do this for 1892, the year I am most interested in, and select result type texts (or instances, same problem) the output is a long list of hymns showing dates ranging from 1523 to 1990.
Oh, wait, I see...
The results I want are at the tail end of the fourth page of results!
Mixed results
You're right, these are strange results, not what a user would expect. The first in the list ("From depths of woe") can be attributed to its nature as a translation, because the earliest date is its German birth, and the last is a composite translation. The text authority erroneously gave the date of Massie's translation as 1990, so I fixed it (1854). The others in the list include a long string of English hymns. Notice how there are four hymns by Fanny Crosby that give the Year Written as her entire life span.