Hymnology Resources Online

One of the real blessings of the Internet era is the immediate availability of resources that once were accessible only in a very few libraries and archives. I hope the resources listed on these pages will be useful and interesting.

General Web Sites
General Hymnology Works
Specific Regions, Religious Bodies, Persons, and Hymnals
Practical Church Music
Doctrinal Issues in Church Music

Caveat #1. Most of these resources are old. Since copyright law is currently in such a mess, many digitization projects only handle materials published prior to 1923 (automatically in public domain in the United States). Just because it's old doesn't mean it isn't good, and sometimes an older work provides more detail, for example, about a hymn that was considered more significant in its time than it is today. But time marches on, and in a subject that is actively studied, new discoveries may rewrite the history books.

Caveat #2. I do not vouch for the opinions expressed in these works, and some of them I completely disagree with. (J. B. Briney, anyone?) But it is wise to examine a controversy from the other person's point of view as well as my own, and I find sometimes that a markedly different point of view on a familiar topic helps me sharpen my own thinking on the subject.