A HOUSE OF PRAISE
Collected Hymns 1961 - 2001
By Timothy Dudley-Smith. OUP. xvi+562 pages. £20.00
ISBN 0 19 100159 7
If we cannot yet call Bishop Dudley-Smith the cream of the 20th-century hymn writers, it is because he now spans two centuries and sets the 21st off to a richly rewarding start. If 'Tell out, my soul' and 'Lord, for the years' are already classics, later work may yet be equally valued and more be published, even written.
In the 20 years since his first published collection, Lift Every Heart, three slimmer 'supplements' appeared; this book harvests the main output, adds another 50 and, with some hymns discarded or emended, reaches 285 in all. Unlike earlier volumes, it arranges them not alphabetically but under nine themes, one of which comprises 45 metrical psalms or psalm-portions, from Psalm Praise to Praise! Text numbers usefully match page numbers; then come 176 pages of meticulous, often fascinating notes, and ten indexes which include recordings, translations, tunes and metres.
