In 1928 the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church appointed a commission to revise the hymnal and psalter which had been in use since 1905. The commission included thirty-six members from the Methodist Episcopal Church: bishops William F. Anderson, Edwin Holt Hughes, Frederick D. Leete, H. Lester Smith, and Titus Lowe; ministers Henry Hitt Crane, Joseph M. M. Gray, Earl E. Harper, John W. Langdale, and Oscar Thomas Olson; and laymen Karl P. Harrington, James R. Houghton, Howard Wilder Lyman, Robert G. McCutchan, and Albert Riemenschneider.
In 1930, the commission united with groups from the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Methodist Protestant Church to form the Joint Commission on the Revision of the Hymnal and the Psalter.
The Methodist Episcopal Church, South appointed the following: bishops Warren A. Candler, John M. Moore, Urban V. W. Darlington, Sam R. Hay, and A. Frank Smith; ministers Nolan B. Harmon, Jr., Ivan Lee Holt, D. N. Hotchkiss, Fitzgerald S. Parker, and Wilbur Fisk Tillett; laymen Walter Kirkland Greene, J. Abner Sage, Guy E. Snavely, Henry N. Snyder, and Charles C. Washburn.
The Methodist Protestant Church appointed ministers John C. Broomfield (President), Hugh Latimer Elderdice, Harlan Luther Feeman, Charles Edward Forlines, J. W. Hawley, and Eugene C. Makosky.
Robert Guy McCutchan was elected editor of the Joint Commission, and John W. Langdale was elected editor of the Editorial Committee. Thousands of hymns were examined, some from previous editions and some that were new. The tunes of twenty-six hymns which had been questioned were replaced by new tunes or adaptations under McCutchan’s leadership. Care was taken to continue to associate words and music that had grown familiar by long continued use.
Attention was given to the selection and arrangement of the most helpful responsive readings which were published for trial use in 1932. Thus, there is a 1932 date in the hymnal copyright notice. The Joint Commission constantly held in mind the perpetuation of the Wesley tradition, the varied desires of the church, the different ages of church members, the continued value of evangelism, and the emphasis upon applying the Gospel to everyday life.
The revised hymnal contained 210 new hymns, 206 new tunes, and 163 hymns from other hymnals. Two hundred hymns were removed. Hymns by Charles Wesley were reduced from 121 to 54 and those of John Wesley from 50 to 17. However, Wesley hymns continued to be the foundation of the hymnal. In 1939, the hymnal became the authorized hymnal of The Methodist Church, formed that year from the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1780; The Methodist Protestant Church, 1828; and The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1844.
Carlton R. Young, the creator and donor of the collection, served as the editor of the 1966 Methodist Church and 1989 United Methodist Church hymnal revisions. Young directed graduate studies in church music at the Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University from 1964 to 1975.
Sources:
"Carlton R. Young," Carlton R. Young Collection of 1935
"Joint Hymnal Collection" article, Carlton R. Young Collection of 1935
"Religion: Hymns for 8,000,000."
The Carlton R. Young Collection of 1935
The collection has been arranged into seven series:
In processing, photographs and oversize materials were removed from their original folders and made into separate series. Otherwise, the collection remains in original order. The first four series were named after the box labels that Carlton R. Young created.
The first three series retain their original folder designations. Series four was less organized than the first three series. Most items were not in folders, and the few folders present often lacked useful labels.
Carlton R. Young papers, Bridwell Library, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
The collection is open for research use. Patrons must sign the Acknowledgement of Legal Responsibility and Privacy Rights form before using this collection.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained from the Director of the Bridwell Library.
It is the responsibility of the user to obtain copyright authorization.
This collection is indexed under the following terms in the Southern Methodist University Libraries' online catalog. Researchers desiring related materials may search the catalog using these terms.
[Identification of item], Carlton R. Young Collection of 1935
Gift of Carlton R. Young, 1964.
The contents of the collection were produced by Robert Guy McCutchan, hymnal editor, and John W. Langdale, Book Editor of the Methodist Episcopal Church, during their service on the 1935
This collection was arranged and described in 2010 by Allison Osborn.
Lara Corazalla, 2011.
The first series, Research on Hymn Sources, consists of twenty-four folders of Robert G. McCutchan’s research for his book,
The second series, Hymnal Revision 1935, reflects the work and decision-making that went into revising the
The third series is comprised of six folders containing tunes submitted to the
Series 4, Committee Records, contains sixteen folders of correspondence, minutes, voting forms, hymns, and booklets from several of the commission’s committees. These materials reflect the arduous process the commission went through in selecting which hymns to include in the hymnal.
The sixth series includes biographical information, correspondence, and collection descriptions supplied by Carlton R. Young in 2010.
Series seven contains oversize tunes, articles, hymns, and correspondence that were removed from their original folders.