Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hoiem, Elizabeth Massa

Titel

British Hymn Books for Children, 1800–1900: Re-Tuning the History of Childhood by Alisa Clapp-Itnyre (review)

Ist Teil von

• Children's Literature, 2021, Vol.49 (1), p.241-246

Ort / Verlag

Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press

Erscheinungsjahr

2021

Quelle

Literature Online (LION eBooks)

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• The modern experience of reading hymns and musical notes from an individual church hymnal, for example, first became common practice during the Victorian period, as Protestant churches gradually embraced congregational singing, instead of having the clerk read out lines, leading to a surge in music education in schools. [...]children could find Evangelical hymns with fiery warnings next to sentimental songs about angels. [...]a mix expediently split the difference between Watts's and Wesley's approaches—that is, hymnals contained some songs with simple text and others with elevated text. [...]while hymns originally composed for children could migrate into anthologies for adults (and the reverse), this tended to happen with particular subject matter, in response to changing views of childhood. "Ultimately, it could be conceded," she concludes, "that hymn-book editors cared less about the illustrated child than the singing child" (179). Since images capture a frozen moment in time, they are oddly discordant in a book that supports oral performance.