My point is that many old folks speak a bit pompously about the superiority of the "old Hymns like "Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" and "Be Thou My Vision" and "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" etc...
In order to save bandwidth and time, I've only quoted Luke2427's post #3 of March 3, 2013.
While I make no claim to be a musicologist, I found it interesting (to me at least) to come across some information regarding the three hymns that Luke2427 cited in his post.
I'd venture to say that, when most folks say that a certain hymn is an "
O - L - D" hymn, they probably conjure up the notion that whatever hymn they're talking about is at least 400-500 years old.
However, most of these so-called "Oldies-But 'Goodies'" are probably no older than 130 or so YO.
"Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise" [based on I Timothy 1:17] First appeared as a hymn in 1867, and in its present form in 1905 (147 & 109 years ago respectively).
While the
Irish lyrics to "Be Thou My Vision" have been traced back to the 700's A.D., its
English lyrics first appeared in 1905 (109 years ago). It only appeared as a
hymn in 1927 (87 years ago).
Of the three hymns that he specifically cited in his post, only "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" [based on Psalm 46] could really be classified as "an old hymn" since it dates [in German] back to 1529, and [in English] in 1539]. However, the version you'll find in most American hymnals is an 1852 [162 years ago] adaptation of the original English version.
All three of these hymns have been adapted into other musical genres ranging from "Contemporary" back to "Classical."
Perhaps the best-known classical adaptation of these three hymns was made by Felix Mendelssohn in his Symphony #5 in D major, Op. 107. The bulk of this work's fourth movement is his orchestral arrangement of "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God."
As for the rest of what Luke2427 wrote in his post (#3), I pretty much agree with him.