Sing With Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Hymnology

by Harry Eskew

This book is designed to assist worship leaders in obtaining a greater appreciation of hymns, including the heritage of the church song. It is an excellent text for college and seminary classes in hymnology and related areas.

Genres: Music, Christian, Nonfiction

Hardcover

First published April 1, 1980

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

While incredibly informative, at this point this book is rather dated. I much more enjoyed the historical discussions around the hymns as opposed to the author's discussion of modern uses (since the modern uses of the time period the book was written are rather outdated.) Nevertheless, there is a lot of really good information in here that would benefit anyone that is involved in music leadership in the church .

[Anne (In Search of Wonder) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good overview of basic hymnology, and very readable. The history chapters got a little bogged down for me, tracing all the styles of hymnody and their development in different tracks, but I'm not sure there's a better way to organize that information. I struggled with history class in school - even though I love history- for the same reason. I need a visual timeline!

[Luke Brodine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dense with information, the book is approachable yet less than satisfying. I longed for some uniting thread throughout the text, but all that results is a great list of hymn texts and tunes that I'll have to go back and look up when I have time. Despite those issues, the book is a good beginning text for getting the broad scope of the breadth of hymnology. Many other texts would be ideal for specific studies, while the aim of the authors it would seem is to be a overview for the starter. They succeed in this, but it makes me want to read something more substantial on a specific topic or writer.

[Richard Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated since music trends change so rapidly in our culture. However, there are many useful things in this book from the history of congregational singing, to how to use music to teach and minister in a wide variety of settings. Hymn in this book means any song intended to be sung congregationally; so, it includes choruses and other types of music that aren't generally regarded as hymns by the average person.