Vintage Wednesday: Antique Hymnals

Hubby and I were visiting my parents over the July 4th weekend. While we were there, my father pulled out a video made of my grandparents in the late 80s. My grandmother told the story of how they met. My grandfather had taken a blind date to a community sing. My grandmother had gone with another gentleman. Apparently, they got to the sing and realized their partners couldn't sing, so they switched partners ending up with each other because they were both singers. He walked her home and that was the beginning of somewhere around 70 years of singing.

I guess you could say we're a musical family. Family gatherings often involve a piano and some kind of singing... and sometimes dancing if we get too excited. I remember many nights falling asleep to my father picking out hymns on the piano. My brother started playing music by ear when he was just old enough to reach the piano keys. And I amaze my husband when I break out into songs from my grandparents' and great-grandparents' generations.

That could be the reason I get such a thrill from finding new, old music. By that I mean music that was popular long before I was born - sometimes before my grandparents were born. I especially love when I find old hymnals.

Daddy used to talk about shape note singing in churches he attended as a child. Much of the singing they did was a capella (without instruments, voices only) as the shapes of the notes guided their voices. Many of the older hymnals I have are printed with these odd-shaped notes.

I was delighted recently to see a Smithsonian article with a picture of the hymnal of Harriet Tubman. Her hymnal looks quite a bit like one of the hymnals in my collection. It reminded me that even though these hymnals are dear to me, I have many of them. I wonder as I look at my collection, how dear these might have been to their first owners - and how many hours were spent singing the notes, pondering the words and meditating on the meanings of songs in these precious books.