I've been practicing sight reading lately from a old Baptist Hymnal (1968). This evening I just discovered that number 165 entitled "Holy Ghost, with Light Divine," has a melody by none other than Louis Moreau Gottschalk. Who'd a thunk it?

Last time I was there (Baptist church) I amused myself by looking through the hymnal index. I found Bach, Beethoven, Brahms. But the most were by Mendelssohn, including a selection from his oratorio Elijah.

Sam

One may also find Arthur Sullivan (of "Gilbert and"), Vaughn Williams, William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Haydn, Mozart, Palestrina, Ignaz Pleyel, Henry Purcell, Martin Shaw, Jean Sibelius.

I do not have the Baptist hymnal, but a Presbyterian one dated 1955--- a very recent date when one considers that many of the tunes are hundreds of years old, and maybe much older than that. Still, I believe it's been superseded by a more recent edition.

Some were knocked out by the bushel by the ecclesiastical equivalent of Tin Pan Alley, but many are very lovely and worthwhile. Still, if it's a matter of simply improving the ability to read at sight (so valuable in a church accompanist), I suppose it hardly matters... though I don't like to spend my practice time on pieces which are meaningless to me, musically. This book has a round 600 numbers, so it offers a lot of latitude.

Gottschalk--- you don't say... no, I would not have expected to find him in a hymnbook, in a church. That's latitude, all right.

Jean Sibelius wrote the music for "Be Still My Soul" in my hymnal. One of my favorites, too.