HON 1987 ebook features

These two files, for hymns containing a refrain, have it listed just once after the first verse. The basic version has no word divisions, the slightly larger Word Division version includes optionally displayed hyphenation for word divisions, and additional notations to indicate where there are synaloephas and melismas in the music. This might be helpful for some, and extra clutter for others. If it is clutter to you, use the Basic version.
Basic ebook.
Word Divisions ebook.

Alternatives to the above 2 files that, for hymns containing refrains, repeat the refrain after each verse. This might ease scrolling issues when zooming to large font sizes.
Basic ebook with refrains for each verse.
Word Divisions ebook with refrains for each verse.

Other features

Links to more features may be added here from time to time.

Indexes All sorts of Indexes.
Concordance This is an unabridged concordance, containing every reference to every word including the complete musical phrase containing each reference. To reduce page count, the concordance included in the printed editions has omitted references for words having large numbers of usage, and words considered less important.
Author & Composer names, info, & research links.
List of hymns with same tune.

List of words-only hymns in the printed music editions

10 28 40 45 58 79 96 126 159 168 201 249 390

List of hymns with second tunes

180 O Blessed Lord
308 The Lord’s My Shepherd

Selected hymns from HON 1951 that were omitted or significantly changed in HON 1987.
Old scanned documents from 1987 about the then new edition.
Singing changes from 1951 to 1987 editions
Number cross-reference: HON 1951 → HON 1987 HON 1987 → HON 1951

Help and explanations

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Help for using this ebook

If you like, once you get to one of the above links, you can bookmark it to return directly to it in the future. Some browsers will allow saving it for off-line reading, although if it is converted to another format than HTML (such as PDF), it may not retain all functionality. At present, you must be on-line to access the music images, but if the words file is in the browser cache or saved for off-line reading in HTML format, it should be usable off-line.

Why is there a new printing in 2025?

The original films are no longer available, and printing processes have changed signficantly since 1987 as a result of technological improvements. PDF files are now the standard way to begin the printing process rather than the older techniques of camera-ready copy and/or films. In generating new files, there was opportunity to make fixes and enhancements to the book, and this was done in a very compatible manner, so the earlier printings are by no means obsolete or unusable. N.B. This was originally planned for 2024, but slipped to 2025.

What fixes and enhancements were made in this printing?

Modernization and corrections of music notation

The "Singing changes" sheets distributed with early distribution of HON 1987 stated (among other things): "Pause commas: Pause commas are new to our hymnbook. They indicate a place to break the rhythm of the hymn in order to take a breath." However, few online references to pause commas suggest breaking the rhythm, although some seem to allow it. There is a different symbol, caesura, which seems to better fit the definition attributed in the "Singing changes" handout. Each pause comma has been changed to a caesura in this printing.

Hymns 71 and 220 have a single system refrain in earlier printings, but are very awkward if someone suggests to sing the refrain at the end. They have been changed to make the refrain an integral part of each verse.

In a few places where space is tight, and better used for lyrics than music, some unison notes that have flags have only one stem and flag, pointing away from the lyrics, even though both soprano and alto, or both tenor and bass, should use the same note.

Similarly, a single-stem (and maybe flag) notation is used with two noteheads when space is tight and the notes on a staff line and the adjacent space.

Repeated passages with volta brackets now use "two dot" instead of "four dot" repeat notation, and the repeat numbers now are styled like time signature numbers. The lines of the brackets are also a bit thicker, as in earlier editions some had faded away in the printing process, and had to be manually re-introduced.

Repeated passages with D.C. or D.S. had used incorrect wording in some places, which is corrected in the 2025 printing.

Proper notation for ties is to be close to the notehead, the older printing sometimes had ties somewhat or quite far away from the notehead.

Proper notation for slurs is to be away from the notehead and if on the stem side of the note, nearer to the stem than the notehead, the older printing sometimes had slurs quite close to the notehead.

When a measure or bar is broken at the end of a line, the staff should not be ended with a bar line, unless there is some other musical reason (commonly a change from verse to refrain) which requires some variety of bar line to be placed there. Earlier printing placed a bar line at the end of every staff, even those with broken measures.

Some notes were divided and tied where multiple syllables were placed with a single note. Sometimes this affected only some harmony parts, sometimes all of them.

Some tied notes were combined into a single note of longer duration.

A few hymns had measures with an incorrect number of beats, when returning from the end of the hymn to the anacrusis.

Some hymns had missing verse numbers on one or more systems.

A few extra reminder accidentals were added, either because of inconsistent use in a particular location, or because of large numbers of people singing the melody incorrectly.

Modernize the notation for triplets, changing from a slur with a "3" near the center of the slur, to a bracket with the "3" breaking the line near the center, which is the more modern notation.

Some words-only hymns referenced their music using "To above tune", other referenced their music using "To foregoing tune". These have all been changed to "To preceding tune" in this printing.

Corrections of capitalization, spelling, and word divisions

Earlier printings had the occasional misspelled word in lyrics and credits. Hopefully, all of these have been corrected in this printing. Some words in the lyrics were divided by hyphens in the wrong location. Some lyrics should have had contractions, as two syllables were sung to a single note.

Poetic form requires certain words to be capitalized even in the middle of a sentence, and sometimes this was omitted or done extraneously.

Inconsistent use of the word "O" versus "Oh!" or "Oh,". The former should only be used as an honorific in direct address when the name or title of the person or being addressed immediately follows.

The word "every" was expressed as "ev-’ry" in earlier printings, as some old dictionaries considered it a 3-syllable word, but others considered it a 2-syllable word. All modern dictionaries consider it a 2-syllable word, so it is now expressed as "eve-ry". The word "blessed" can be pronounced as one or two syllables, depending on definition. In the new printing, it is always two syllables, with the one syllable usage being spelled as "blest" (even though that is considered an archaic spelling in some circles). Earlier printings spelled the two syllable version with a grave accent: blessèd as a hint to make it two syllables, but that confused as many people as it helped.

The word "beloved" is always three syllables (unless a contraction is applied). Earlier printings spelled it as belovèd as a hint, except where a contraction should have been used.

Addition of more author, composer, and tune name credits, where known

N.B. The credits are on a line under the hymn number and title, with the author of the lyrics on the left, tune name near the middle, and composer of the music on the right.

The growth of information and search engines on the internet has provided lots of avenues for research on these items, although other avenues were also used when searching the internet was inconclusive. There is still some uncertainty about authors and composers of some of the older hymns in our book, and additional inforamtion would be good to learn, although it would likely only be updated in ebooks and other electronic records kept for the book. If you have such information, please provide sufficient evidence if it is contradictory to what is in this printing, as much research has been done.

Regarding tune names, some tunes have been given quite a few names, other tunes just one or two, and for some, no names have been discovered. This printing tries to include the most original or most common name for a given tune.

Removal of expired copyright notices

Removing these expired notices gave more vertical space on the pages to enhance the readability of the lyrics and music notation.

Removal of "— continued" titles

Removing these "second page titles" gave more vertical space on the pages to enhance the readability of the lyrics and music notation.

Layout enhancements

For historical reasons, the image area on most pages was shorter than on a few pages that were slightly longer. Improved technology makes that unnecessary now, so together with the removal of expired copyright notices and second page titles, it was possible in many cases to give more space between lines of lyrics and to lengthen stems that had been shortened, and slurs and ties that had been crowded.

Index enhancements

Refrain entries are now italicized rather than being presented in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS.

Hymn numbers are on the left, rather than on the right with dot leader tabs.

One entry had been incorrectly ordered in earlier printings.

The metrical index is now in strict numeric order, with S.M., C.M., and L.M. appearing for reference. It is still limited to hymns for which there are others having the same meter, as there was not space in the page budget to make it complete. This is why when you count meter to find a hymn with a particular tune, that it isn't always in the metrical index.