Hymns: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1948/1950)

1948 LDS Hymnbook

1950 LDS Hymnbook

In 1948, a new hymnbook that replaced both the Latter-day Saint Hymns (1927) and the Deseret Sunday School Songs was published under the title Hymns: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served as the official hymnbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1948 to 1985. The 1948 edition included 387 hymns.

Background and Development

With the deaths of Evan Stephens and George Careless in the early 1930s, the pioneer-era musicians that had dominated LDS hymnody had passed away, leaving the torch to a new generation of LDS musicians. Whereas the previous generation had heavily emphasized homespun music and were often heavily influenced by operatic composers like Arthur Sullivan, the new generation largely turned to more classical Protestant sources for inspiration. The music committee even specifically noted that many of the finest and favorite hymns in the Mormon tradition were adopted from Protestant sources rather than Mormon ones and suggested that they seek out more hymns from the Protestant tradition. They were also influenced by the research and writings of Sterling Wheelwright, who felt that LDS hymnals were losing their relevance through focusing on upbeat but trivial hymns rather than intimate and meditative ones. Overall, they sought to publish a hymnbook with a "better standard of musical expression" than previous LDS hymnals. Still, Church leaders weren't entirely trusting of leaving Mormon musicians to their own devices to select hymns and they created an executive committee of four apostles to oversee their work.

The music committee, now proceeding with direct apostolic oversight, sponsored an ongoing hymn contest for Mormons and set about collecting Protestant hymns. The latter were often slightly edited to conform to LDS theology. Frank I. Kooyman provided several of the new Mormon hymn texts that the committee favored, such as “Thy Spirit, Lord, Has Stirred Our Souls” and “When in the Wondrous Realms Above.” New musical compositions were encouraged to be dignified, singable, and similar to older styles of hymns (particularly the Johann Sebastian Bach chorales), perhaps best exemplified by Temple Square organist Alexander Schreiner’s neo-Bachian settings for hymns. The world-renowned classical composer Leroy Robertson also submitted music that was deemed suitable for many of the texts that were accepted by the committee. It was acknowledged, however, that the general membership of the Church might prefer the lighter hymns the committee was seeking to eliminate over the “better standard of musical expression” they were pushing for. Thus, committee head Tracy Y. Cannon suggested that the transition be performed gradually.

Publication

The resulting hymnbook dropped many of the Evan Stephens hymns that were prominent in previous hymnbooks and incorporated less hymns by committee members than the previous hymnbook had. Leroy Robertson had twelve, Alexander Schreiner eleven, and Tracy Cannon only had five. Protestant hymns formed approximately half of the 387 hymns selected for inclusion.

1950 Edition

Despite the involvement of apostles, some Church leaders questioned the hymns chosen by the committee after publication, and members tended to complain about the size and poor binding of the book. Due to this lackluster response, the music committee yielded and revised the hymnbook, releasing a modified second edition in 1950. This second edition dropped some of the well-respected Protestant hymns in favor of some popular hymns included in previous LDS hymnbooks that they had deleted. This change, in turn set precedent for the waning control of the music committee and their ability to push for what they deemed to be properly ascetic over lighter popular music in the Church's hymnbooks.

The differences between the 1948 and 1950 editions were as follows:

1948 Hymns	No.	1950 Hymns	No.
Angels from the Realms of Glory	5	As swiftly my days go out on the wing	5
Cease, ye fond parents, cease to weep	9	In hymns of praise	9
Come, O thou King of kings	19	Come along, come along	19
Come, labor on	20	Come, O thou King of kings	20
From all that dwell below the skies	38	Each cooing dove	38
Father of light	39	The First Noel	39
Good Christian men, rejoice	52	From all that dwell below the skies	52
Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning	57	Guide us, O Thou great Jehovah	57
Hark! The evening hymn is stealing	58	Have I done any good in the world today	58
I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day	72	There is a land whose sunny vales	72
I Need Thee Every Hour	78	Beautiful Zion, built above	78
Mid pleasures and palaces	107	For our devotions, Father	107
Mine eyes have seen the glory	109	Precious Savior, dear Redeemer	109
Lead me into life eternal	110	Choose the right	110
O Lord responsive to thy call	138	O my Father, thou that dwellest	138
There is beauty all around	170	Dearest children, God is near you	170
I wander through the stilly night	171	Now to heaven our prayer	171
We Gather Together	182	Hail to the brightness of Zion's glad morning	182
Though in the outward Church below	183	Awake! O ye people, the Savior is coming	183
Rejoice, ye pure in heart	185	Mid pleasures and palaces	185
Sometime we'll understand	267	Not now, but in the coming years	267
Proud? yes, of our home	278	Rest, rest for the weary soul	278
Sometime, somewhere	286	Unanswered yet? the prayer	286
Thou dost not weep, to weep alone	294	I wander through the stilly night	294
Ye simple souls who stray	298	The Lord imparted from above	298
Sometime we'll understand	334	Not now, but in the coming years	334
Rock of Ages	338	Come, lay his books and papers by	338
Who are these arrayed in white	343	Reverently and meekly now	343

In 1960, two more hymns were added to the hymnal:

FIRST LINE	HYMN NUMBER
Who's On the Lord's Side?	388
This Earth Was Once a Garden Place	389

See also

• List of English-language hymnals by denomination
• Category:Latter Day Saint hymnals
• Hymns in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

External links

• Michael F. Moody, "Latter-day Saint Hymbooks, Then and Now", Ensign, September 1985
• 1948 Hymns at SingPraises.net
• 1950 Hymns at SingPraises.net