I was first aware of Maddy Prior as a youngster when Steeleye Span would occasionally breach the British charts. Later on a friend of mine saw them in concert and was thrown an artificial flower by the aforesaid Maddy. People offered him ridiculous amounts for it which he later wished he had taken. Anyway a few years later and I'm in Alan Davey's car and he is playing on the tape deck a wonderful set of hymns sung in an approximation of the 18th century Methodists. On enquiry I got hold of the details and was able to track it down somewhere on cassette. I'm not sure if I ever got it on CD. I now have it on the old iTunes (along with some few similar albums) and still enjoy although that initial impact has become a little muted. The album is By Maddy and the Carnival Band and the title refers to something John Wesley once urged on his followers.
The technical term for this is gallery songs or West Gallery music. This is sacred music (often metrical psalms but hymns and anthems too) sung and played in English parish churches and nonconformist chapels c 1700 to 1850 until church organs took over. The term comes from the wooden galleries constructed at the west end of churches during the 18th century upon which the choir would perform. Victorians did not like these Georgian galleries, and most were removed in the 19th century.
The best known precedent for this is apparently The Waterson's "Sound, Sound Your Instruments of Joy" (1977). This album has 16 items that were all known to me before. Indeed, these were my favourite hymns as a nonconformist teenager. As pants the hart (N Tate) and Watts's Rejoice ye shining worlds and Lord in the morning are pretty much psalms and O worship the king a more developed psalm. Monkland is an instrumental most often used to Milton's version of Psalm 136 (played here with the music to the 19th century hymn All things bright). Nearly half the hymns are by the gifted Charles Wesley (O Thou who camest from above, Lo He comes with clouds descending, O for a thousand tongues to sing, Light of the World, Away with our sorrow and care, Christ the Lord is ris'n today and And can it be?). There is also Thomas Oliver's wonderfully Jewish God of Abraham praise. As for the Baptists, there is Bunyan's Who would true valour and How firm a foundation which they attribute to Richard Keen. Also, All hail the power by Perronet and Rippon.
The album makes few pretensions to authenticity or spirituality but it is a very enjoyable album well worth a listen.
