Music was everywhere during the Civil War. Tunes could be heard ringing out from parlor pianos, thundering at political rallies, and setting the rhythms of military and domestic life. With literacy still limited, music was an important vehicle for communicating ideas about the war, and it had a lasting impact in the decades that followed. Drawing on an array of published and archival sources, Christian McWhirter analyzes the myriad ways music influenced popular culture in the years surrounding the war and discusses its deep resonance for both whites and blacks, South and North. Though published songs of the time have long been catalogued and appreciated, McWhirter is the first to explore what Americans actually said and did with these pieces. By gauging the popularity of the most prominent songs and examining how Americans used them, McWhirter returns music to its central place in American life during the nation's greatest crisis. The result is a portrait of a war fought to music.

More than twenty-five years ago, when the first edition of Christian Hymns was published, the editors hardly anticipated that all these years later they would be involved in a revision of that volume. It has been the remarkably wide acceptance of that book, not only in the UK but in many other countries of the English-speaking world, that has led to this present publication. As with the original book, we have sought the co-operation of a good number of churches from widely representative backgrounds. This has assisted us in discovering those hymns that have not been greatly used, and also in identifying the sort of compositions that are being sung with acceptance in many of our churches. The result has been the addition of well over 200 new items and the omission of about 190 little-used hymns from the first edition. As with the first edition, and following the principle which determined C.H. Spurgeon's selection of hymns, we have resolutely refused to adopt a sectarian agenda and have considered each hymn on its biblical, spiritual and poetic merit, irrespective of the background of the author. - christianhymns.org.uk.

This book discusses hymns from a historical and geographical perspective with 605 hymn tunes as examples in the text.

This collection offers the first English translation of the oldest known Christian hymnal, a book of hymns which was compiled in Jerusalem during the later 4th or early 5th century. The First Christian Hymnal offers an unmatched resource for understanding the development of early Christian worship and piety, as well as the transmission of Christian doctrine to the unlettered. For too long, this invaluable collection has been almost completely ignored by scholars of early Christianity, having survived only in an Old Georgian translation.