The Stories of Hymns
  • Ted
    Posts: 202
    Has anyone read Fr George Rutler's new book that just came out last month, The Stories of Hymns and published by EWTN ? If so, any comments? Is this an updated version of his Brightest and Best?
    Here is its preface:

    http://www.catholiceducation.org/en/culture/music/the-stories-of-hymns.html

  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,368
    Many thanks for this. The preface alone is worth the price of the book. Unfortunately, the ease, fluency, and grace with which a near pure intelligence has made its case against all the chic sham of so much of contemporary liturgical thought would likely waft right over the clouded heads of those who need most to comprehend it.
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 685
    I just finished reading the book myself. I think Fr. Rutler and I would get along. He covers many Christian hymns mostly those he grew up with as a choir boy but his short histories, no more than a page long, offer a wonderful insight into the original verses and tunes. He is point on in my opinion or as he would say, his prejudices, regarding the course of music in the church. There is a set of DVD available as well although I found the book more interesting.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,500
    Tony Esolen has a new book out on the same subject.

    I like Brightest and Best, except sometimes it kinda devolves into anecdotes that I can't relate to.
  • latria
    Posts: 5
    to answer the original question, The Story of Hymns is the same book as Brightest and Best. The newer EWTN edition has a larger font and a glued binding. The older Ignatius edition has a smaller font and the typical Ignatius sewn softcover binding. Unfortunately I did find a typo in the newer EWTN version—"cloth" where it should say "doth"—seems to be an OCR error.
  • CGM
    Posts: 683
    There's a review of both Fr. Rutler's and Dr. Esolen's books at CCWatershed here.
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