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Views from the Choir Loft

PDF Download • “Woodward Hymnal” (1913) … Outrageously Rare!

Jeff Ostrowski · March 2, 2016

717 Songs of Syon Hymnal ESTERDAY I began a 5-part series hoping to convince readers to give $5.00 per month. You can access PART 1 by scrolling to the bottom; today is PART 2. At Watershed, we love to scan & upload rare hymnals. As usual, the following hymnal has never been available online—until today!

    * *  PDF Download • “WOODWARD HYMNAL” (613 pages)

There is confusion about this hymnal’s name. The official version is: “Songs of Syon: A Collection of Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Canticles.” But Theodore Marier also published a hymnal called “Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Canticles.” To avoid confusion, some refer to this book simply as the WOODWARD HYMNAL.

GEORGE RATCLIFFE WOODWARD (d. 1934) was an Anglican priest who (I’m told) was a disciple of J. M. Neale. However, the vast majority of hymns in this book are English translations of Roman Catholic texts—from Latin, Greek, and other languages. Some are metrical, others are plainsong. Many are quite interesting. For example, consider how the 2nd verse of the AVE MARIS STELLA is rendered into English, wonderfully conveying the meaning of the original Latin:

715 Woodward


Fr. Matthew Britt (1872-1955)—a Roman Catholic benedictine priest—says this about Woodward:

WOODWARD, REV. GEORGE RATCLIFF, M.A. (b. 1848), was educated at Harrow, and at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. He is the editor of the excellent hymnal, Songs of Syon, to which he contributed many translations from the Latin, Greek, and German. His translations from the Latin do not include any of the Breviary hymns. He is also the author of the widely known Cowley Carol Book.

Fr. Britt was quite impressed with an original translation Woodward made for the AVE MARIS STELLA. Incidentally, here’s what Fr. Britt says about the translators contained in his monumental work on hymns:

RELIGIOUS AFFILIATIONS OF TRANSLATORS :

It is interesting to record here the religious affiliations of the translators whose hymns find a place in this volume. It will be observed from the biographies given above that among the Catholic translators fully one-half are converts. Among those classed as Anglicans the writer believes that all are of the High Church party.

CATHOLICS : Aylward, Bagshawe, Bute, Campbell, Caswall, Donahoe, Dryden, Faber, Garesche, Hall, Henry, Hunter-Blair, Husenbeth, Leeson, McDougall, MacCarthy, Newman, Oakeley, O’Hagan, Oxenham, Paul, Potter, Wallace, Walworth, and Wingfield. The translations in the Primers are all by Catholics.

ANGLICANS: Ball, Blacker, Blew, Chadwick, Chambers, Copeland, Courthope, Dearmer, Ellerton, Hort, Housman, Irons, Julian, Lacey, Littledale, Neale, Palmer, Riley, and Woodward. [The religious affiliation of Doran is not definitely known to the writer; he was probably an Anglican. Scott was nominally a Presbyterian with a leaning toward the Episcopal Church.]

This article is part of a series:

PART 1 • Simple SATB Kyrie by Guerrero

PART 2 • 1913 Woodward Hymnal … Outrageously Rare!

PART 3 • Rehearsal videos for Lenten Hymn

PART 4 • New Westminster Hymnal … For the first time ever!

PART 5 • Rehearsal Videos for Forty-Three (43) Pieces

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

The effectiveness of liturgy does not lie in experimenting with rites and altering them over and over, nor in a continuous reductionism, but solely in entering more deeply into the word of God and the mystery being celebrated. It is the presence of these two that authenticates the Church’s rites, not what some priest decides, indulging his own preferences.

— Liturgicae Instaurationes (1970)

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