[MusicTlk] FYI: Good Resource for Hymns

[Chris Nusbaum]

Hello Fellow Musicians:

 

You may remember that I posted to this list some time ago asking for a good
online resource for finding Christian hymnals and/or the songs contained in
them. I said in that post that I had been using hymnary.org with much
success, but had then learned that there is a limit to the number of songs
one can look at before having to pay an annual subscription. Since some of
you indicated in your replies that you were facing the same challenge and
looking for a similar resource, I thought I would follow up with a note
about a Web site I later discovered, thanks in large part to our very own
Linda Mentink. That resource is the CyberHymnal, which can be found at
www.hymntime.com <http://www.hymntime.com> .

 

This CyberHymnal claims to have over 100,000 songs in its database, ranging
from the most traditional hymns to gospel spirituals to some contemporary
Christian music which has been added to recent hymnal publications. So far,
I have been able to find the full text and musical information for all the
hymns I have looked for on this site. The best way I have found to look for
a song is by clicking the "Search" link from the homepage. There are other
links which provide alphabetical or numerical listings based on title,
composer, key signature, etc, but typing the title into the search box seems
to be the quickest way to find a song. Please note, however, that you have
to make sure that the "search this site" button is checked; otherwise, it
will search the entire Internet, which will likely result in something you
don't want. CyberHymnal also offers scores for most hymns in XML format for
those who want to import them into Lime for translation into Braille music,
as well as Midi format for those who want to use a composing program like
Noteworthy or Finale (they suggest Noteworthy). The only downside I have
found with it is that it doesn't have entire hymnals published on it like
Hymnary does. So, if you only know the hymn number from your church's
hymnal, you will have to find out the song title in order to look it up on
CyberHymnal. Also, sometimes the words of hymns vary based on demonination
and hymnal, so the text you get from CyberHymnal may be slightly different
from the one published in the book from which the sighted singers are
reading. However, CyberHymnal has been overall very useful to me when
singing in my church's choir. I hope this helps those of you who were
looking for an online hymn resource.

 

Enjoy,

 

Chris

 

Chris Nusbaum, President

Maryland Association of Blind Students

Secretary, Virginia Association of Blind Students

Phone: (443) 547-2409

Email: cnusbaumnfb at gmail.com

Twitter: @Chrisn98 and @MDABS_NFB

 

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