Rating: 
Summary: Awesome Collection of Songs
Review: I received this book from my sister as a Mother's Day gift. I attend a predominately white church and I would always call her for the music or words to a song I remembered singing. This book covers the old and the new and brings back many, many great memories. If you love music, I suggest every home will enjoy this book. Once you start looking at it you can't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Awesome Collection of Songs
Review: I received this book from my sister as a Mother's Day gift. I attend a predominately white church and I would always call her for the music or words to a song I remembered singing. This book covers the old and the new and brings back many, many great memories. If you love music, I suggest every home will enjoy this book. Once you start looking at it you can't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of favorites
Review: I was raised in the Baptist church, though it has been many years since I've been in one. But looking through this hymnal, on page after page I found one or another old favorite tune leaping into my head. Regardless of your denomination, you are sure to find many songs worth singing here.One note -- while the book includes plenty of spirituals and gospel songs, these are outnumbered by what I would consider "standard" hymns and revival songs which are not specifically associated with African-American churches. I think this is a good thing, since it emphasizes how much musical heritage all English-speaking Protestants share.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent resource for all congregations
Review: I'm grateful to be hearing many of the hymns in this excellent collection for the first time through the singing of a former member (and soloist) of Thomas A. Dorsey's Chicago choir, now retired near his boyhood home in the Arkansas Delta.
A wonderful example of the historical and the traditional rendered in brilliant contemporary fashion. The arrangements are generally excellent. I'd love to find an accompianist's edition.
Rating:
Summary: 10 Stars!
Review: I'm rating this book as a historian and African American Studies resources specialist rather than as someone using it in worship. With that in mind, let me say I have yet to "stump" this hymnal. No matter what song comes to my mind, there it is in the index. Citations regarding authorship & copyright are thorough, the introductory essays informative, and the "Index of Composers, Authors and Sources" invaluable. The only other book which even compares is Songs of Zion, first published by the United Methodist Church in 1981. It has half as many songs though it does include a few not found here...what a vast musical tradition this is! This is a book that belongs in every library, and on the bookshelf of anybody with an interest in African American sacred music traditions.
Rating:
Summary: 10 Stars!
Review: I'm rating this book as a historian and African American Studies resources specialist rather than as someone using it in worship. With that in mind, let me say I have yet to "stump" this hymnal. No matter what song comes to my mind, there it is in the index. Citations regarding authorship & copyright are thorough, the introductory essays informative, and the "Index of Composers, Authors and Sources" invaluable. The only other book which even compares is Songs of Zion, first published by the United Methodist Church in 1981. It has half as many songs though it does include a few not found here...what a vast musical tradition this is! This is a book that belongs in every library, and on the bookshelf of anybody with an interest in African American sacred music traditions.
Rating:
Summary: A great hymnal for ALL people
Review: Initially I was looking for that ONE hymnal that just contained as many of my favorite songs as possible. I was looking for only one book since I did not intend to buy a whole bookshelf of them. I have to admit that the title first confused me. I was afraid that I would end up with a whole book of wonderful songs I didnt know. Wrong on all accounts! This is a great hymnal book for ALL people who love and treasure these precious hymns. Thank God for the people who had the gift of putting together this wonderful hymnal.
Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best
Review: Let me add my heartfelt appreciation to this magnificent hymnary. If I were stranded on a desert island and could take along with my Bible only one volume of hymns that included praise, worship and liturgy, it would most certainly be this. Yes, most of the liturgy is aimed at African-American congregations, and perhaps the male segment at that. But is there not a universality evenso? The gospel-hymn element is beautifully scored, elegant and full, and (as one would expect) in terms of content its most distinguishing feature versus the more white-oriented denominational hymnals. Nonetheless, gospel songs emerge even more triumphant in the context of a cover-to-cover comprehensive hymnal that all can enjoy. The HERITAGE reader/purchaser/worshiper will encounter a fully fleshed-out representation of the Anglo-American strain, as good as any I've seen in the old Broadman-Cokesbury-Hope lineage; also something of what would today be generically be lumped as "Catholic" (perhaps better be said "contemporary"); then again up-to-date modern compositions, including songs and responses just not to be encountered elsewhere (sometimes specifically commissioned for the book). HERITAGE paid homage to, but was in no way in thrall to, the "hardshell" or Calvinist aspect of, black American worship traditions. Am I abashed or what! I had thought I already put away most of my preconceptions of what a "black hymnal" ought to be from exposure from such earlier excellent works such as GIA's "Lead Me, Guide Me." But HERITAGE isn't just a ground-breaker, it's an EARTH-SHAKER. It's a sad reflection on Mainline Protestantism that none of our denominations has had the ba-- excuse me, the guts, to have produced anything like the mass of music and meaning that is HERITAGE. Six Stars. Bless it. Buy It! What part of "all can enjoy" is misleading? smalling_60626@yahoo.com
Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best
Review: Let me add my heartfelt appreciation to this magnificent hymnary. If I were stranded on a desert island and could take along with my Bible only one volume of hymns that included praise, worship and liturgy, it would most certainly be this. Yes, most of the liturgy is aimed at African-American congregations, and perhaps the male segment at that. But is there not a universality evenso? The gospel-hymn element is beautifully scored, elegant and full, and (as one would expect) in terms of content its most distinguishing feature versus the more white-oriented denominational hymnals. Nonetheless, gospel songs emerge even more triumphant in the context of a cover-to-cover comprehensive hymnal that all can enjoy. The HERITAGE reader/purchaser/worshiper will encounter a fully fleshed-out representation of the Anglo-American strain, as good as any I've seen in the old Broadman-Cokesbury-Hope lineage; also something of what would today be generically be lumped as "Catholic" (perhaps better be said "contemporary"); then again up-to-date modern compositions, including songs and responses just not to be encountered elsewhere (sometimes specifically commissioned for the book). HERITAGE paid homage to, but was in no way in thrall to, the "hardshell" or Calvinist aspect of, black American worship traditions. Am I abashed or what! I had thought I already put away most of my preconceptions of what a "black hymnal" ought to be from exposure from such earlier excellent works such as GIA's "Lead Me, Guide Me." But HERITAGE isn't just a ground-breaker, it's an EARTH-SHAKER. It's a sad reflection on Mainline Protestantism that none of our denominations has had the ba-- excuse me, the guts, to have produced anything like the mass of music and meaning that is HERITAGE. Six Stars. Bless it. Buy It! What part of "all can enjoy" is misleading? smalling_60626@yahoo.com
Rating:
Summary: KUDOS: African American Heritage Hymnal
Review: The AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE HYMNAL is, by far, the most comprehensive collection of music in celebration of the African American church tradition! ...An absolute must-buy for every church musician, director and choir member. KUDOS to NOLAN WILLIAMS, JR. (Music Editor), DELORES CARPENTER(General Editor) and the entire AAHH editorial staff!
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