HymnWiki talk:Needed

I mentioned HymnWiki.org in an announcement on the website of the Hymn Society in the US & Canada: Two New Websites; I mentioned HymnWiki first, but used the one link allowed to toot the horn of my own "My Wish Hymnal" blog. (The Hymn Society's message boards do not allow live links. I find them horribly user-unfriendly, but the webmaster says it's necessary to cut down on spam...) In any case, this is not a heavily read site, but will probably eventually lead to at least a few interested visitors. --Haruo 00:22, 1 August 2007 (MDT)

Thanks! I've actually communicated with them through email before (they're planning to mention HymnWiki.org in their next newsletter or some such). How did you come across them? Are you a member? I just took a look at your post. Hmm, the LDS-based thing strikes me as a little odd, so I added some clarification in a post of my own. I hope you don't mind. Thanks for all your help! Veramet 13:32, 1 August 2007 (MDT)

Aargh! I meant to say official—not officially—in that Hymn Society post. :) They need an edit feature, or something. Veramet 13:41, 1 August 2007 (MDT)

Yeah, they do. As I said, "horribly user-unfriendly". But their heart's in the right place. I am a member when I can afford to be (it's $65 a year, which is pretty steep, but the magazine is worth it!), at the moment I'm overdue to pay dues. Sorry if I made it sound like HymnWiki was "officially LDS" or something. I didn't mean that, but rather that from a glance at the Main Page or at the Compilations it immediately becomes clear that there is a very strong emphasis (at least in what is on the wiki to date) on LDS materials. Same with the More Good Foundation, the foundation may not be "official" in the way the Mormon Tabernacle Choir is, but when I read a foundation's website and it says "The More Good Foundation helps persons of other faiths find information about the Mormon church on the Internet. Those who want doctrine and official teachings can go straight to The Church. But as church members we believe we can and should share our beliefs online. The Web can be a powerful tool for teaching the truths of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations" I immediately say "Mormon"; it's really hard not to. As for you personally, I don't even know if you're a member of the LDS Church—but I would certainly be very surprised to learn that you were not! I don't mind at all your clarifying as you did at the Hymn Society. I probably should have separated the two topics (HymnWiki.org and "My Wish Hymnal"), but it was a sort of spur-of-the-moment thing and I didn't plan it (or its wording) very carefully. And it's true, the lack of an edit capability there is really unhelpful. --Haruo 00:50, 2 August 2007 (MDT)

Hey, I just found that they don't mind if I just delete the message and post the revised version (I emailed them about adding an edit feature). I kind of think it would be nice if they just used Nabble forums, heh heh—but that's me. Yes, it's true that I'm LDS, and HymnWiki is definitely available to make information available about the church (though that's not what it's for), particularly with hymn history (and I'd like to present that information in a good format, if I can). I do have my own testimony of the church, and I do plan to link to a blog post about how I came to be interested in hymns and my religious background, some time (not in an obtrusive place, though, as I don't want to force it on people; if people are interested, I'm sure they'll look for it beyond the main page). I do admit that HymnWiki can be a potential resource for people to find interest in the church (this isn't where they'd want to go for their information, but it may spark interest), but this isn't intended to be forced upon anyone who uses this site (nor even are the LDS hymns intended to be forced on anyone who uses this site, unless you count when they're featured on the main page: feel free to request a featured hymn and/or compilation any time); it's not even meant to a prevalent/advertised. But, all in all, the focus is on hymns, their use, spiritual uplifting through them, and recording the facts and history about them (though not all of them would be spiritually uplifting to every individual; some of the early hymns had some terms we'd consider derogatory, or even racist, today, but I still plan to record those for historical purposes). Anyway, I didn't mean to sound offended or any such. Sorry about that. I really just wanted them to know it was for all hymns; I should amend a few things on that post. You should know, though, that you and I are the top two users so far. Most of the stuff I have been adding is for LDS hymns because most of the old ones aren't very publicly known elsewhere (even to LDS people). One of my major goals is to make them easily available, and even more useful (right now, it's like they don't exist unless you own the old books, or look through the few scanned copies available—well, I have some text files of some of them, now). As far as arrangements I've done, on the other hand—most of those have been with hymns not common to the LDS community. There are many hymns from other sources I like, and I'm still discovering. I originally grew up with the LDS hymns in the current book. Eventually, I memorized all the titles and page numbers of it, and that turned out to be more valuable than I probably ever would have thought. Later, I was introduced to Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, and When First the Glorious Light of Truth (from the "old" hymnbook), and then I gained a passion for the older hymns and discovering them. What Wondrous Love Is This, Be Thou My Vision, and the tune Repton are some of my favorites (hence the arrangements I've made). Celtic music introduced me for the first two, and my general interest in hymns after that led me to explore other areas (as well as finding out that non-LDS hymns are actually allowed in musical numbers in church, as long as the doctrines are harmonious with those of the church). I'd really like to find some old compilations of Irish hymn-style poetry—tell me if you find some. Anyway, I'm rambling; maybe we should move this to a Nabble forum post. I'm wanting to have discussion posts for discussion on each hymn and use the Wiki discussion for article-only stuff. I don't think most casual users ever look at the discussion on wikis—but they might look at posts on a forum. Veramet 12:26, 2 August 2007 (MDT)

PD hymn books

I see that one of the requests here is to watch ebay for lesser known hymn books. I'd also suggest checking out google books. Search for hymn (and similar queries). If you select 'full view' quite a few old hymn books come up. They are definitely worth looking at. Most you can download as pdf also. Horndude77 22:18, 8 August 2007 (MDT)

Wow. This is extremely nice. I've been so addicted looking through these that I'm only now starting to reply. I found Songs of Zion, 1908 on there (I've been looking to 'buy' that book for a long time: now I don't have to). Endless volumes . . . this is great. Thanks for the information! I'll have to put up something on the article about that. Veramet 17:16, 9 August 2007 (MDT)

I hadn't come across any LDS hymn books so that's a good find. I know there are quite a few non-LDS ones. (Some other good ones [1], [2], etc...) Really there tons. I'm more of an orchestra person so I was looking for old scores, but I was happy to find these.

Suggestions on making the site more useful

Just a little point I've noticed (from over the pond) ... but your mapping between words and tunes seems very strange to me. I came to the site from the lilypond mailing list, and looked at your featured tune - All hail the power of Jesus Name. I've never come across "Coronation" before :-)

So I then looked for one of my favourite tunes - Hyfrydol. I've never met it associated with any of those hymns - Love Divine in particular is always sung to Blaenwern!

Different places, different traditions I know, but I think the separation between words and tunes should be much more pronounced if you want to appeal to a wider audience. I suspect that I'm going to have to strip and rewrite lyrics to pretty much every lilypond file I download because your tradition doesn't match mine (Oh yes, please make lilypond source files include the tune name! :-) (And looking in my hymn books, they all agree with me for words-melody mapping :-)