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A new edition of The English Hymnal was brought out in 1933. It had the invaluable advice and help of Martin Shaw, and was able to introduce some of his fine tunes that were not extant in 1906. In many hymnals the first idea of the musical editors seems to have been to include as many new tunes by the editor himself and his friends as possible. The new book was also to contain a large proportion of plainsong. This task was undertaken by one of the committee, Mr W. J. Birkbeck. His accompaniments were remade to more modern and more sensible ideas by Dr J. H. Arnold. The preparation of the book employed the help of various friends, especially Nicholas Gatty and Gustav Holst, in finding neglected tunes and the true versions of others that had been “disfigured” into dullness in modern hymnals and indebted to Robert Bridges's “Yattendon Hymnal” and George Woodward's “Songs of Syon.”

The music of the English hymnal is divided into two main sections: the plainsong melodies and the comparatively modern music. The modern music only is dealt with here; the plainsong is discussed separately. The music is intended to be essentially congregational in character, and this end has been kept in view both in the choice of tunes and in the manner of setting them out. Fine melody rather than the exploitation of a trained choir has been the criterion of selection: the pitch of each tune has been kept as low as is consistent with the character of the melody. The task of providing congregations with familiar tunes is difficult; for, unfortunately, many of the tunes of the present day that have become familiar and, probably merely from association, popular with congregations, are quite unsuitable to their purpose.

The public drama of the Mass was a classic “ritual of association” that obscured the often tense relationship between Tuscan bishops and chapters. Before an audience of congregants drawn to the mother church, the bishop reenacted Christ’s crucifixion, underscoring his sacramental authority rather than that of a traditional lord and builder. Meanwhile, the canons played the part of his faithful ministers. On three occasions—the feasts of St. Martin and St. Donatus of Arezzo as well as the Dedication of the Church—the clergy sang plainsong proper (or specific) to the day that reinforced its image as an angelic choir and that of the bishop as a divinely inspired celebrant.

This chapter deals with musical life in Santiago cathedral during the 16th to 18th centuries. It considers, among other topics, its organization, structure, financing, and the agency of specific people, such as bishops, prebendaries, chapelmasters, and other musicians. It subsequently explains how this information casts light on more musical issues, such as performing practice, particularly during José de Campderrós’s time. The chapter also studies the repertoire, including plainsong and intonations, Latin polyphony, and Spanish pieces (especially villancicos), showing that the relative scarcity of music sources can be related not only to the restricted budget of the institution (especially until 1700) but also to specific features proper to is musical life. Then, it relates the different kinds of music mentioned before to the liturgical context, explaining both some of its similarities and differences with other cathedrals from the New World. As in the rest of the book, this chapter combines the study of historical documents and music sources.

This chapter describes musical participation in Corpus Christi College. Richard Fox’s apparently modest provision for liturgical music at Corpus is intelligible once the chapel ministers are viewed within their wider collegiate community. The musical capabilities of this mixed community can in turn be mapped onto the genres and repertoires cultivated in Henrician England. Plainsong formed the bedrock of the liturgy: all members of college except the domestic staff were to be proficient in cantus planus, which would have constituted most of what was sung in chapel. Indeed, all members of college should, at least in theory, have been able to participate in the singing of chant. Ultimately, Fox’s economy of means at Corpus arguably represents neither a repudiation of more demonstrative forms of ritual expression, nor an ascetic disavowal of the spiritual worth of church music; instead, it can be read as a serious attempt to engage the whole community as active participants in worship.

Anglican church music, admired throughout the world for its professionalism and rich repertoire of service music, anthems, psalmody, and hymnody, owes its present status to the transformations it witnessed during the nineteenth century. Under the panoply of the two larger issues of ecclesiastical reform and Romanticism, music in the parish church and cathedral was an important subject of debate among its principal protagonists, the clergy, choir, organist, and congregation, and the part it played in the delivery of liturgy across the spectrum of High and Low Church theological practices. This chapter charts how Anglicanism’s unique repository of hymnody, anthems, and service music, possessed enormously potent national characteristics of beauty, order, mystery, and quiet contemplation, on which the twentieth-century Anglican via media of choral worship would capitalize.