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Rating: 
Summary: Lift every voice!
Review: Most visitors and regular attenders of Episcopal services will find themselves juggling two books through the service -- the Book of Common Prayer, the standard bearer for Anglican liturgy and identity, and this book, the authorised Hymnal, last revised in 1982. Many denominations revise hymnals in each generation -- this one has served the church well in the past two decades, and is likely to serve for at least another decade, perhaps two. The previous Hymnal, produced in 1940, was greatly revised in the present volume; the classic English hymnal Hymns Ancient and Modern also plays a significant part in this hymnal.
There are two primary sections to the hymnal -- service music (denoted by S--- numbers), and regular hymns. There are 288 pieces in the service music section (S1 - S288); these include Glorias, Te Deums, Fraction anthems, canticles, psalm tones, chant pieces, and more for all the major liturgies -- morning prayer, evening prayer, eucharistic services, and more. There are compositions by major composers past and present (Schubert, Willan, Sowerby, Rutter, etc.), as well as pieces of various chants (plainchant, Ambrosian, etc.)
The hymns, 720 of them, are arranged first for the Daily Office use (1-46), hymns appropriate to seasons in the Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Holy Week, Ascension, Pentecost, Saints days and other occasions -- hymn 47-293), hymns for particular liturgies (baptism, eucharist, confirmation, ordination, etc.) and then a long section of general hymns (362-634). These hymns are arranged by broad theological topic -- The Trinity, Praise to God, Jesus Christ, Church, Mission, etc. The hymn section concludes with rounds and canons and some general national songs.
The collection of hymns is remarkable. There are hymns based upon scripture and psalms directly. There are hymns that come from the earliest centuries of the church, the medieval time, the Reformation, and all through the Anglican period proper. There is a generous collection of old standards and modern compositions, between Catholic standard-bearers and Evangelical and Protestant hymns. While some songs give only the melody line, this is in fact a rare thing; most include full-music scores, many even with a descant.
The book is well indexed, with lists according to composer/arranger/source, author/translator, tune names, and first lines/titles. Also, the construction of the hymnal is fairly remarkable. There are nearly a thousand pages here, but the book is not a thick volume; the pages, on the other hand, are not the obnoxious onion-skin, but rather substantial pages that stand up to years of use by many hands, as a hymnal will be used.
This hymnal is a remarkable treasure of hymns old and new, updated for modern times. It is the case that no hymnal satisfies all, even within particular denominations, and people grow remarkably attached to the hymnals with which they grew up; even with this being the case, this hymnal has achieved wide acceptance and admiration within and outside of the Episcopal church, and remains one of the major hymnals available of any denomination.
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