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Part 7: Early 20th-Century Hymns

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In 2024, I expanded my research on children's hymnody into the early 20th century, both in England and America.  Discovering that many favorites we have today came from this era, I was eager to share some with children.  So, using my now-permanent choir, the Community Choristers, I held a Hymn Camp in June 2025.  33 children learned and recorded the 10 hymns you see here. Note that some are coming from the 19th century, as so many beloved hymns are from that era! Here is our list and you will (soon) have links to hear each of them as recorded by this choir; these pages will give more information about the hymns' writers and composers, too. For now, note how many (English-speaking) countries contributed these!
In 2026, we held a second Hymn Camp with 20 children (capped). We added a few more hymn-favorites, also expanding to learn "Jesus Loves Me" in American Sign Language and "Amazing Grace" in Cherokee.

All recordings ARE FORTHCOMING and were done so with parental permission. The concert itself for which we performed all of them, however, is linked below.

19th Century Hymn Favorites:
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (1826)--English
“What a Friend We Have in Jesus” (1855)--Canadian
“Jesus Loves Me” (1862)--American
"He Leadeth Me" (1862)--American
“I Love to Tell the Story” (1868)--English
“Blessed Assurance” (1873)--American
“It is Well with My Soul” (1873)--American

Early 20th Century Favorites:
“This is My Father’s World” (1901)--American   
“Be Thou My Vision” (1912)--Irish
“The Old Rugged Cross” (1913)--American
“This is My Song” (1934)--Finnish
“How Great Thou Art” (1955)--American

We then held an "Evensong" (an evening song of hymns and religious music, of the English tradition, or Vesper Service) at Central United Methodist Church on Wednesday, June 25th, 2025, to present all the above songs plus patriotic hymns. The PROGRAM is to the right and the recording, also recorded with parental permission, can be found at Central's FB page

COMMUNITY CHORISTERS: our singers, 1st grade through high school:
Arlow & Wren Angarita
Andrei Aureu
*Vivian Beckerich
Allister Bergfield
*Kennedy Carpenter
Sophia Carter
Freya Duty
*Maddie Edwards
Cadence & Kylee Haynes
*Ambrose Imhoff
*Frankie & Winnie Kendall
Alice, Eleanor, & Charlotte Kostiuk
*Hannah Mooney
Liam, Madeleine, Finian, Kilian, *Jane, & *Leisl McNay
AiLynn McKinney
*Grace Parshall
*Sophie, Greta, Sam, Lily, & Hope Royer
Norah Staifer
Arianna Stevenson
Josiah & Jessie Weesner
Tommy & Elliot Wells
*Stella West
     *participated in both 2025 and 2026 Hymn Camps!

Dr. Alisa Clapp-Itnyre, director
Dr. Jill Schweitzer, pianist (2025)
Ms. Lisa Ginn, pianist (2026)
Vicki Martin, assistant (2025)
Ron Itnyre, sound engineer

Enjoy these pictures from our two-day camp to learn! Pictures also used with parental permission. Use the arrows to see the whole slide-show:

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