by Timothy Dudley-Smith
Oxford University Press £20 (0-19-100159-7); Church Times Bookshop £18
THIS is the splendid harvest of 40 years, beginning with "Tell out, my soul,
the greatness of the Lord", written in May 1961. Amazingly, the author’s note
to this hymn says that it was written as a poem, because "at that time I
believed that hymn-writing was closed to me because I lack all musical ability."
Now one could almost create a whole hymn-book from the 285 hymns printed here.
This is a definitive edition of Timothy Dudley-Smith’s work to date, with
notes detailing for each hymn the date and circumstances of its composition,
the books in which it has appeared, and the tunes used for it. There are useful
minor alterations to earlier texts, as the craftsman refines them or corrects
errors — as in "Child of the stable’s secret birth", where "to" is restored in
the line "nails shall strike to the wood beneath".
Notable sections include hymns for the Christian year, no fewer than 40 of
them being for Christmas; metrical versions of the Psalms; hymns for baptism;
and hymns on Christian experience and discipleship. They often have arresting
first lines, but what is really impressive is the sheer consistency of the
verses that follow.
Dudley-Smith never lets us down. There are no weak lines, no approximate
rhymes, no distortions of syntax, no fumbled metres. Some hymns may be less
memorable than others, but there are no bad hymns here. One is reminded of John
Wesley, writing about his and his brother’s work: "In these hymns there is no
doggerel; no botches; nothing put in to patch up the rhyme; no feeble
expletives . . . nothing turgid or bombast . . . no cant expressions, no words
without meaning."
Wesley claimed for their hymns "the purity, strength, and the elegance of
the English language . . . and at the same time, the utmost simplicity and
plainness, suited to every capacity". Dudley-Smith’s language is the same:
correct, plain, flexible.
He never strains after modernity. In these hymns we do not find our Lord
lifting manhole covers in the street or climbing telegraph poles. We find the
gospel, straight: the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. That is all, and that is everything: "We
believe in God the Father"; "Affirm anew the threefold Name".
These hymns dignify the form itself. They have an artistic integrity without
which the singing of the gospel becomes second-rate. Mediocre or uninspired or
badly written hymns erode our loyalty and belief. Whenever we have to sing one
of them, our minds register a flicker of disappointment, and the flame burns
dimmer for a moment.
These hymns restore our faith, not only in the gospel, but also in the
action of singing that gospel together, with heart, and soul, and voice.
J. R. Watson is Emeritus Professor of English, University of Durham.
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