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Welcome! This web site is the home of the Open Hymnal Project to create a free, public domain, downloadable database of Christian hymns, spiritual songs, and prelude/postlude music. I am doing my best to create a final product that is "Hymnal-quality", and could feasibly be used as the basis for a printed church hymnal. This music is to be distributed as complete scores (words and music), using all accompaniment parts, in formats that are easily accessible on most computer OS's and which can be freely modified by anyone.

"Freely you received, so freely give." - Matthew 10:8 (WEB)

14 July 2010 Minor fix to find some hymns that had somehow gotten lost in the html

06 July 2010 Minor fix to improve rendering on Chrome

02 July 2010 Added the hymn The Lord's Prayer (new) written by Brian Penney from Heart and Voice. Thanks!

01 Jul 2010 Added three hymns Breathe on Me, Breath of God, He Was Not Willing, and Salvation Unto Us Has Come.

17 Jun 2010 Added two hymns O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus and I Know Whom I Have Believed.

07 Jun 2010 Added three hymns A Great and Mighty Wonder, Come, Your Heart and Voices Raising, and Lo, How A Rose E'er Blooming.

21 Apr 2010 Added the hymn Now Rest Beneath Night's Shadow.

16 Apr 2010 Added the hymn Awake My Soul, An Offering Bring written by Brian Penney from Heart and Voice. Thanks!

14 Apr 2010 Added the hymn My Jesus, As Thou Wilt.

13 Apr 2010 Added two hymns As With Gladness Men of Old, and Jesus, In Thy Dying Woes.

16 Mar 2010 Added two hymns At The Lamb's High Feast, and Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing.

08 Feb 2010 Added the hymn It Is Well With My Soul.

04 Feb 2010 Added the hymn The Old Rugged Cross.

29 Jan 2010 Added the hymn Far, Far Away On Judea's Plains. Interesting side note, this was the oldest standing hymn request, dating back to December 2006. It was tough to find a documentably public domain arrangement.

14 Jan 2010 Added the hymn And Can It Be.

12 Jan 2010 Finished update of the MIDI files to include introductions. The Choral pieces were excluded, as was the Doxology ("Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow") because it wouldn't fit their typical usage. Mp3's are being generated and uploaded.

04 Jan 2010 Starting somewhere in 2008, I began including a little introduction to each MIDI file. This makes it easier to sing along with. This means that the MIDI files were inconsistent: old ones had no intro, while new ones did. I've started updating them all to include introductions. All hymns starting with A-N are complete and uploaded, the rest are on the way. Also, a few hymns were still a bit squished on a single page. I couldn't fix this for the 2009.12 edition without adding quite a number of hymns (it would throw off the pagination). I've fixed them and they'll be easier to read for 2010.

A large number of requests have been coming in, and I've been starting work on a number of them as new hymns for 2010.

25 Dec 2009 Merry Christmas!

22 Dec 2009 Final pass on the topical index is complete; and the finalized full-hymnal pdf is uploaded. Updated online topical index. Included the recent layout fixes in the Advent/Christmas and Lent/Easter editions as well as zipfiles for ABC and GIF files. Also update the SWORD module.

21 Dec 2009 Made a number of fixes to layouts or fixed typos in scores. I've updated both the individual pdf/gif/abc files as well as the full-hymnal pdf. Getting close to final 2009 website updates.

18 Dec 2009 Completed the first pass on the topical index, and updated the full-hymnal pdf. Now I have to proofread the hymnal before updating the topical index on the website and the SWORD module. I've also started to make a few small improvements at the website.

14 Dec 2009 Fixed some layout errors in pdf files. Updated both Christmas Edition and full-hymnal pdf. Topical index is about 2/3 done.

09 Dec 2009 The update to the topical index is halfway done; the results are in the full-hymnal pdf.

04 Dec 2009 The full-hymnal pdf 2009.12 edition is now available as an alpha release. The topical index is simply the 2008.12 edition's index. It is being updated currently. Also updated the Lent/Easter Edition.

02 Dec 2009 The 2009.12 edition is now available as Abc and Midi files.

01 Dec 2009 A number of hymns have been tweaked in their typesetting; and the 2009.12 edition is now available as Gif files.

24 Nov 2009 Added the hymn "Author of All Life", by me.

23 Nov 2009 Added the hymn "Come Down, O Love Divine"

20 Nov 2009 Added two new hymns: "In His Temple Now Behold Him", "Rejoice, My Heart, Be Glad and Sing". Also added "In His Temple Now Behold Him" and "Magnificat" to the Christmas Edition. Two more hymns will be added this year, then the huge task of updating the topical index will be undertaken.

18 Nov 2009 Added a new hymn "Magnificat", written by Brian Penney from Heart and Voice. Thanks!

17 Nov 2009 Corrected arrangement for "Abide With Me". Thanks to August Elletson for the report! Also looked through the site error logs to find website link errors to three hymns. I can't emphasize enough ... I want to fix bugs if you see them! Send them along!
Also, The Christmas Edition for 2009 is now available!

16 Nov 2009 Added three new hymns "God that Madest Earth and Heaven", "Lord Thee I Love With All My Heart", and "Open Now Thy Gates of Beauty". Planning for the cleaned-up, fully indexed, nicely paginated, end-of-the-year revision is now underway. It looks like maybe four more hymns will be added this year.

08 Oct 2009 Added a new hymn "O Be Glad All Nations on Earth", written by Brian Penney over at Heart and Voice (see Links Page).

07 Oct 2009 Added the hymn "Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor"

06 Oct 2009 Added a new hymn "The Cloud Received Christ From Their Sight", written by yours truly.

04 Sep 2009 Added a link to Heart and Voice .. worth checking out

16 Aug 2009 Finished with the Luther hymns, adding two where he has only passing connection with the English version. "O Trinity Most Blessed Light", and "The Star Proclaims the King is Here", both are worth adding of their own value. Also added "To Shepherds As They Watched By Night" which Luther wrote.

10 Aug 2009 Added the enormous Te Deum ... "Lord God, Thy Praise We Sing". This will end up in the Choral section of the hymnal; it's intended to be sung responsively between a choir and the congregation.

20 Jul 2009 Nearing the end of the Luther hymns with four more ... "If God Had Not Been on Our Side" (2 tunes), "In These Our Days So Perilous", "Isaiah, Mighty Seer, In Days of Old", and "Our Father Thou in Heaven Above".

24 Jun 2009 Five more Luther hymns ... "God the Father Be Our Stay", "In Peace and Joy I Now Depart", "We All Believe in One True God", "We Now Implore God the Holy Ghost", and "Wilt Thou, O Man, Live Happily".

04 Jun 2009 Four more Luther hymns ... "Happy the Man Who Feareth God" (2 tunes), "May God Bestow on Us His Grace", "O Lord We Praise Thee", and "Though in the Midst of Life We Be". This gets me half-way through the Luther hymns.

03 Jun 2009 Tune sources/composers, etc. for the Luther hymns were updated based on additional research.

22 May 2009 Another batch of Luther hymns. Today 5 hymns are added: "Come, God Creator, Holy Ghost", "Come Holy Spirit, Lord Our God", "Jesus Christ, Our Blessed Savior" (2 tunes), "Jesus Christ Who Came to Save", and "That Men a godly Life Might Live"

03 May 2009 Work continues on the Luther hymns, and I'm learning as I go. Some of Luther's hymns aren't really made for congregational use, so not all of them are likely to end up in the Open Hymnal. An example is "By Help of God I Fain Would Tell", which is more of a history lesson than a true hymn. Nonetheless, three more are added today, "All Praise to Jesus' Hallowed Name", "Now Praise We Christ, the Holy One" (translated by Luther), and "Out of the Deep I Cry to Thee" (2 tunes)

22 Apr 2009 A collaboration has begun between the Open Hymnal Project and module developers for the SWORD Project. A task has been underway to gather all of Martin Luther's works in the public domain (the module called "LuthersWorks" is hosted at ftp.xiphos.org). The Open Hymnal Project will be contributing all of Luther's hymns (he wrote 36) using the melodies that were in use during Luther's lifetime. The first three hymns are added here today (they'll be added into the SWORD module later), "Dear Christians, One and All Rejoice" (2 tunes), "Look Down, O Lord, From Heaven Behold" (2 tunes), and "The Mouth of Fools Doth God Confess". To check out the SWORD project, I suggest Xiphos as a great frontend. Check out Xiphos.org!

24 Mar 2009 Added hymn "My Song Shall Be of Jesus" with a new tune, written by Kenneth Paxton. It includes two versions of the piece; one for simple congregational/home use, and one for use with a choir. Thanks, Ken!

12 Mar 2009 Added hymn "Now The Light Has Gone Away". Final arrangements are being made to release the Hymn "My Song Shall Be of Jesus" with a new tune. Maybe all arrangements will be worked out in a week or two.

The Open Hymnal's servers will have a changeover this weekend; approx. 11pm EDT Sat March 14th. Some hiccups might occur.

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