Sounding Childhood Main Menu Part 1: Children's Hymns Part 2: Songs for School and Play Part 3: Animal Welfare (Bands of Mercy) Songs Part 4: Christmas Carols Part 5: Folk Songs Part 6: Patriotic Songs About the Author Works Cited

Part 7: Early 20th-Century Hymns

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About 20th-Century Hymns

This section includes my expanded research on children's hymnody of the early 20th century, both in England and America. 

The twentieth century opened up new emphases and priorities amidst growing commercialism, financial flux, and secularism.  Twentieth-century hymn-editors were often publishing in reaction to their forebears: for example, the 1907 English Hymnal, conceived and overseen by Percy Dearmer with Ralph Vaughan Williams as music director, was meant as a modern update to Hymns Ancient and Modern of 1861.  In America, music also moved into the next generation of American gospel music.  Homer A. Rodeheaver (1890-1925), choirmaster and soloist for Billy Sunday from 1910-1930, was prolific in publishing and recording gospel music, books like Gospel Hymns and Songs for the Church, Sunday School and Evangelistic Services (1913).  

A cultural influence upon children specifically was compulsory education which, when instituted (1880 in the UK, 1900 for most in the US), led to Sunday Schools re-focusing mainly on religious instruction.  It also meant that singing, including religious music instruction, was taught in national schools, and private Christian schools, too. Thus, hymn-book publishing now had several markets.  Indeed, one will notice large sections of hymns in The School Song Book: Unison Songs and Part-Songs for General Singing (Student Edition) of 1916 (Boston) and an entire book, Hymns of Childhood for Primary and Junior Grades as late as 1939 (Princeton, NJ).  Home singing still included hymns as found in The Most Popular Home Songs (NY, 1908).  
        --You can read more on pp. 16-19 of this essay, about to be published: Clapp-Itnyre, Children's 19th and 20th Century Hymns.docx

Important for our purposes, is that:
     1) many hymnbooks were being published for young people in the early 20th century in both England and America, whether for public schools or Sunday Schools.
     2) a lot of beautiful new hymns were being written, but editors still included a LOT of 19th-century favorites! 

Therefore, this page includes THESE 19th- and 20th-century hymn-favorites. They are also given BELOW alphabetically and linked to their own pages (with recordings and more background information):

18-19th Century Hymn Favorites, chronological:
"Amazing Grace" (1779)--English
“Holy, Holy, Holy” (1826)--English
"All Things Bright & Beautiful" (1848)--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
"Morning Has Broken" (1931)--Scottish-English
“This is My Song” (1934)--Finnish
“How Great Thou Art” (1955)--American


About our Choirs:

All hymns below are sung by different iterations of the Community Choristers:
1) The first Spring 2024 choir of the Community choristers learned several hymns: "All Things Bright & Beautiful" & "Morning Has Broken" (repeated sung by the choir)
2) The Community Choristers and I instituted a Hymn Camp in June 2025: 33 children learned and recorded 10 hymns (most heard here). 
3) In 2026, we held a second Hymn Camp with 20 children (capped). We added a few more hymn-favorites, "It is Well with My Soul" and "He Leadeth Me" also expanding to learn "Jesus Loves Me" in American Sign Language and "Amazing Grace" in Cherokee. We sang these at a special concert at a local senior facility. 
At both Hymn Camps, we also learned Patriotic songs; see the Patriotic Song page to hear those. 
In 2025, we 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
The Community Choristers, Hymn-Camps 2025-2026:
Our singers,1st grade through high school:
*=participated in both 2025 and 2026 Hymn Camps! 
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* 

Dr. Alisa Clapp-Itnyre, director 
Dr. Jill Schweitzer, pianist (2025) 
Ms. Lisa Ginn, pianist (2026) 
Vicki Martin, assistant (2025) 
Ron Itnyre, sound engineer
Use the arrows to enjoy pictures from both years of Hymn Camp! Pictures used with students' and parents' permission.

 

This page has paths:

  1. SOUNDING CHILDHOOD by Alisa Clapp-Itnyre Alisa Clapp-Itnyre

Contents of this path:

  1. "All things bright and beautiful"
  2. "Amazing Grace," also in Cherokee
  3. "Be Thou My Vision"
  4. "Blessed Assurance"
  5. "He Leadeth Me"
  6. "Holy, holy, holy"
  7. "How Great Thou Art"
  8. "I love to tell the story"
  9. "It is Well with My Soul"
  10. "Jesus Loves Me"
  11. "Morning has Broken"
  12. "Old Rugged Cross"
  13. "This is My Father's World'
  14. "This is My Song"
  15. "What a Friend We Have In Jesus"

This page references: