From the Restoration period until the end of the 18th century, the spiritual and musical life of the Chapel Royal, in particular, and the Christian community at large, was undergoing low ebb.
It was mainly until the arrival of the Methodists and Evangelicals in the mid-18th century that a sense of renewal among Christians eventuated. This surge of faith in God, which is the heart of Christian worship, was expressed through hymns.
Early Hymns
In the 17th Century, hymns at first did not exist as an expression of worship for everyone, since the public singing of text which was not directly from the Bible was still regarded by many as an "error of Popery."
Instead, they were written for the aristocracy and performed in their private chapels by professional musicians. Some of the most beautiful hymn-tunes from the earlier 17th Century and now common in English hymn-books were created under these circumstances.
Keach and Congregational Hymn Singing
One of the earliest moves towards congregational hymn singing came from Benjamin Keach, a minister of the Particular Baptists. In about 1673, he persuaded the majority of his congregation in Southwark, outside London, to sing a hymn at the end of Communion, remembering the Gospel account of the Last Supper: "And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives…"
The practice caused much controversy and threatened the Particular Baptists with strong differences in opinion. Twenty years later Keach published the decisive The Breach Repaired in God's Worship; or, Singing of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, proved to be an Holy Ordinance of Jesus Christ. In 1697, he published a collection of thirty-seven hymns.
Hymns also began to appear in supplements to collections of psalms, including the "Divine Companion published by Henry Playford in 1701.
Isaac Watts and the Christian Hymns
Today, the word "hymn" is synonymously used with "psalm" and "spiritual song" or "sacred song." In his time, Keath used the term "hymn" to mean as a devotional poem of human composure,' intended for corporate worship. The writer who began the new era of the Christian hymn was Isaac Watts (1674-1748), known as the "Father of English Hymnody" whose hymns are still sung by every Protestant denomination today. Most famous of his hymns are "Joy to the World" and "When I Survey the wondrous Cross."
One of the reasons for the widespread use of Watts' hymns down through the years was his ability to summarize universal Christian experience – sentiments with which all worshippers could identify. He also composed in the standard meters of the psalms that was easily consolidated to any number of familiar tunes.
Watts wrote numerous hymns and psalm paraphrases. However, he stood only at the start of the earliest hymn-writing as explosion of it soon followed. More than 450 different metical psalters and many different hymn-books were published during the 18th century.
Charles Wesley and Later Hymns
With the hymn explosion, continual alteration followed: firstly, the tunes to which the words were matched were constantly changing from one publication to another. Later, both words and tunes were frequently altered from the first time they appeared.
More hymn-writers followed during the 18th century. One of the most prominent was Charles Wesley, younger of the brothers John and Charles Wesley, founders of the Methodist Movement.
Sources:
Wilson-Dickson, Andrew. The Story of Christian Music. Oxford: Lion Publishing, 2003
Milgate, Wesley and D'Arcy Wood. A companion to Together in Song, Australian Hymn book II. Sydney: Australian Hymn book Pty Ltd, 2000
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