Dear Brother Lone Pilgrim, first I want you to know that Tyndale is telling tall tales - I don't claim to be an expert! But I have studied a little about the musical history of Baptists, and am also a Sacred Harp singer, so I am familiar with some things about tunes. I am assuming that your question is how do you know which tunes to use with the hymns in the Lloyd's, Goble's, Beebe's and other words-only hymn books. Is that right? First, though you could go to different areas and someone might argue that there is only ONE tune that is to be used for a particular song, if you visit among Primitive Baptists (that use words-only hymn books) you will find variation from area to area as to which tune is used. Sometimes even the same church may use more than one tune for a particular hymn. Someone in a Texas church might say, "Let's use the south Georgia tune," or something like that. Anyway, the technical answer is that any hymn of a particular meter may be sung to any tune of that same meter. For example, "Amazing Grace" is Common Meter - 4 lines of poetry, first 8 syllables, then 6 syllables, then 8, then 6. Although those words are almost wedded to the common tune most of us know for it, that hymn may be sung to "Arlington," "Pisgah," or any of a thousand other tunes that have that meter. And so on with any hymn and tune, unless the meter is completely irregular. Of course, one should try to match the rhytmn, mood, and character of the hymns and tunes, as well as the meter. But you would probably like to know which tunes are used by Primitive Baptists. Only a few ways that I can think of - visit a PB church that sings from Lloyd's or Goble's or get a tape of some of this singing at a PB church. I have written in my Lloyd's and Goble's the names of a few of the tunes to which certain hymns are sung. Many times I don't know the name of the tune that is used. But I will list some of these for you when I return home. If you have some source that lists the tunes, then you can look them up and know a little of how they would sound. Very few will sound exactly like they are written, because most have been passed on in the churches by oral rather than written tradition. Other media, such as the Sacred Harp, Christian Harmony, Southern Harmony, have preserved these old songs in written tradition.
Another resource - click this link:
http://www.mcsr.olemiss.edu/~mudws/resource/chap01.html, then go near the bottom of the page and look for a book called the
Plain Circle Tune Book. It is actually more oriented to the Mennonites tunes, but it will give you a resource to a number of tune names and how the tunes are written. The way they are written and the way they are sung are not always the same, though.
Finally - the crossreferencing. The only crossreferencing with which I am familiar is that of the Durand-Lester Hymn & Tune Book and that of the Goble's. Durand-Lester gives in parentheses the hymn's number in the Beebe Hymn Book. Goble gives in parentheses the hymn's number in Thompson's, Beebe's, and Lloyd's. Be sure to check Bro. Jeff's website also:
http://members.aol.com/jweaver303/hymn/hymnal.htm
