0:00:03 > 0:00:06"No-one can be called friendless who has God
0:00:06 > 0:00:08"and the companionship of good books,"
0:00:08 > 0:00:11said the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
0:00:11 > 0:00:13And if you delve into the covers
0:00:13 > 0:00:16of just some of the thousands of books here at Leeds Central Library,
0:00:16 > 0:00:19you'll find they're companions which tell stories
0:00:19 > 0:00:23of every human experience, emotion and aspiration.
0:00:25 > 0:00:28The whole of life is on those shelves.
0:00:28 > 0:00:31But if I had to choose just one book
0:00:31 > 0:00:32in which I can find all of that,
0:00:32 > 0:00:36plus plenty of good questions along with some even better answers,
0:00:36 > 0:00:38then the one I would choose is this,
0:00:38 > 0:00:40a hymn book.
0:00:44 > 0:00:47This week, hymnologist Gordon Giles,
0:00:47 > 0:00:50his parishioners at St Mary Magdalene in Enfield
0:00:50 > 0:00:53and congregations from all over the country
0:00:53 > 0:00:55with a selection of traditional hymns
0:00:55 > 0:00:57we can turn to whatever the reason.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11For me, it's the reasons why hymn words were written
0:01:11 > 0:01:13that's most fascinating.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16For example, take this special collection here at Leeds Library
0:01:16 > 0:01:20of Jewish books, many of them on Hebrew psalms.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25Without the Psalms, we probably wouldn't have any hymns.
0:01:25 > 0:01:29The Psalms have been described as the hymn book of the Jewish Bible.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33And the Israelites, before and during exile, sang Psalms.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36And, of course, the Psalms reflected every emotion
0:01:36 > 0:01:41that they could possibly have, from terror, to joy, to excitement.
0:01:41 > 0:01:44BLUES MUSIC
0:01:44 > 0:01:46In Babylon, as exiles,
0:01:46 > 0:01:49they sang, "How can we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?"
0:01:49 > 0:01:52So, we have the complete range of emotions in the Psalms
0:01:52 > 0:01:55and some of these Psalms are a bit like the blues, really.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58You know, wanting to express their great disappointment
0:01:58 > 0:02:01and sadness about, you know, what was going on to them.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05MUSIC
0:02:05 > 0:02:0717th-century hymn-writer Nahum Tate
0:02:07 > 0:02:10certainly had a lot of ups and downs in his life
0:02:10 > 0:02:12because he went from being Poet Laureate
0:02:12 > 0:02:14to dying in a debtor's refuge.
0:02:17 > 0:02:21He found great inspiration in those ancient Psalms.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24Like Psalm 34 on which he based our opening hymn,
0:02:24 > 0:02:27sung for us now by the congregation of Coventry Cathedral.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48I've been writing articles and books on hymns for a few years now.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50With the Bible Reading Fellowship,
0:04:50 > 0:04:53with the Royal School of Church Music and with the Hymn Society, as well.
0:04:53 > 0:04:56Because I love hymns and they just fascinate me
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and I love singing hymns and I love writing about them
0:04:58 > 0:05:02and learning about them because they contain so much information,
0:05:02 > 0:05:06so much theology, so much prayer and so much love in hymns.
0:05:07 > 0:05:11People often say that St Augustine wrote that,
0:05:11 > 0:05:13anyone who sings, prays twice.
0:05:13 > 0:05:17It's debatable whether St Augustine actually said that
0:05:17 > 0:05:20but nevertheless, it's a great line and it's true.
0:05:20 > 0:05:22So to sing, is to pray twice.
0:05:22 > 0:05:25But it occurred to me in some of the work I've been doing over the years
0:05:25 > 0:05:28that a prayer written after a hymn
0:05:28 > 0:05:32kind of makes it that you are praying thrice, three times.
0:05:32 > 0:05:34You have praying, you have singing
0:05:34 > 0:05:36and then you have praying after singing.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43Our next hymn is sung by a West Yorkshire congregation,
0:05:43 > 0:05:48gathered together for praise and prayer at Halifax Minster.
0:07:21 > 0:07:26Well, the words of that him were written by a young American woman,
0:07:26 > 0:07:29Love Maria Willis, who joined the ranks of many women,
0:07:29 > 0:07:31writing hymns on both sides of the Atlantic
0:07:31 > 0:07:33around the time of Queen Victoria's reign.
0:07:33 > 0:07:35MUSIC
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Another woman hymn-writer who we might think of
0:07:37 > 0:07:41was Catherine Winkworth, who you may not have heard of,
0:07:41 > 0:07:44but she was responsible for translating many of the German hymns
0:07:44 > 0:07:45that we now sing and love.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Now Thank We All Our God, for example.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52Cecil Frances Alexander, who was known as Fanny,
0:07:52 > 0:07:54she was a great hymn-writer of the 19th-century,
0:07:54 > 0:07:58and wrote a set of hymns for children based on the creed,
0:07:58 > 0:08:00of which, some hymns we still sing.
0:08:00 > 0:08:02There Is A Green Hill Far Away
0:08:02 > 0:08:05was based on the part of the creed about the crucifixion.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07All Things Bright And Beautiful,
0:08:07 > 0:08:11which we know and love still, was about creation.
0:08:11 > 0:08:14Once In Royal David's City was about the birth of Christ
0:08:14 > 0:08:16and these hymns are still very much with us.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18They were written for children so that they might learn
0:08:18 > 0:08:21the stories of the Bible and the tenets of the faith.
0:08:24 > 0:08:27Charlotte Elliott, who wrote Just As I Am,
0:08:27 > 0:08:29was an invalid for much of her life.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32When Charlotte was ill, she met a man called Louis Mallan,
0:08:32 > 0:08:36and when she was having a crisis with her faith, as she was being ill,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39she asked him, "How, how can I come to God?"
0:08:39 > 0:08:41He said, "Just come to God as you are."
0:08:41 > 0:08:43And she remembered that phrase
0:08:43 > 0:08:46and built it into this very famous hymn, a much-loved him,
0:08:46 > 0:08:49which I think we can all sing from the heart,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52"Just, Jesus, I come to you as I am."
0:08:52 > 0:08:54And that's how, of course, Christ calls us.
0:08:54 > 0:08:57He doesn't call us to be anything else other than who we really are.
0:08:59 > 0:09:02Charlotte's brother, who was a vicar,
0:09:02 > 0:09:05later acknowledged that this one hymn she wrote
0:09:05 > 0:09:09touched more hearts than he had in a lifetime of ministry.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13This version of Just As I Am,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16set to the simple folk tune, Saffron Walden,
0:09:16 > 0:09:20featured in our School Choir of the Year competition in 2011.
0:09:20 > 0:09:22And it's sung by the High School of Glasgow,
0:09:22 > 0:09:26which this year went on to win Senior Choir of the Year.
0:12:18 > 0:12:23So it seems that hymns can be a kind of spiritual first-aid kit
0:12:23 > 0:12:25for when we're feeling at our lowest.
0:12:25 > 0:12:28But, in fact, the very definition of the word "hymn"
0:12:28 > 0:12:31is "song of praise".
0:12:31 > 0:12:33MUSIC
0:12:33 > 0:12:37I like hymns that rises up, not suppresses it.
0:12:37 > 0:12:42Good music, good hymns, good words and good singing.
0:12:42 > 0:12:43A good tune.
0:12:43 > 0:12:48Something that is easy to follow, everybody can join in.
0:12:48 > 0:12:52Singing is a very communal act.
0:12:52 > 0:12:55And when the whole church is singing together,
0:12:55 > 0:12:59it moves you from a very personal space
0:12:59 > 0:13:02into the body of Christ, a common place.
0:13:02 > 0:13:06We sing together familiar hymns, we say together familiar words
0:13:06 > 0:13:08and then those words remain with us
0:13:08 > 0:13:11and those tunes remain with us throughout the week
0:13:11 > 0:13:14as a great encouragement and as a great inspiration.
0:13:14 > 0:13:17It just uplifts you so greatly.
0:13:17 > 0:13:19And then you go home
0:13:19 > 0:13:22and remember those people that you were singing it with.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24Singing with other people.
0:13:24 > 0:13:28That's part of the pleasure to me, is doing it with other people.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32And singing in parts and feeling the harmony.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34When the congregation is singing it,
0:13:34 > 0:13:37you can feel the spirit coming down to you
0:13:37 > 0:13:40to pull you up, to inspire you.
0:13:43 > 0:13:45There are few hymns more stirring than
0:13:45 > 0:13:47Praise, My Soul, The King Of Heaven.
0:13:47 > 0:13:48And it's sung now
0:13:48 > 0:13:51by the congregation of St Anne's Roman Catholic Cathedral
0:13:51 > 0:13:54just next door to the library here in Leeds.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54MUSIC
0:15:54 > 0:15:58Anger is considered to be one of the seven deadly sins.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02And its links to war, crime and all forms of oppression
0:16:02 > 0:16:04are only too obvious.
0:16:04 > 0:16:06MUSIC
0:16:06 > 0:16:09Back in the 17th century, it was William Congreve,
0:16:09 > 0:16:12who was a playwright born not so far from this city of Leeds,
0:16:12 > 0:16:15who coined the famous phrase,
0:16:15 > 0:16:19"Music has charms to soothe the savage breast."
0:16:19 > 0:16:21MUSIC
0:16:21 > 0:16:23And that was never more true
0:16:23 > 0:16:28than when one of the most emotive of all Christian music traditions,
0:16:28 > 0:16:29the spiritual,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33was born out of the violence and cruelty of the slave trade.
0:16:33 > 0:16:40MUSIC
0:16:40 > 0:16:41Slave Christianity,
0:16:41 > 0:16:45and the spirituals which were born within slave Christianity,
0:16:45 > 0:16:46are really protest songs.
0:16:46 > 0:16:51They're songs by slaves attempting to resist the tyranny of slavery
0:16:51 > 0:16:54and calling on God to deliver them.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57So we shouldn't just interpret them as nice music.
0:16:57 > 0:17:01They go beyond nice music. They are songs of resistance.
0:17:01 > 0:17:02And that's how we should sing them
0:17:02 > 0:17:04And that's how we should celebrate them.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06MUSIC
0:17:06 > 0:17:08It was very important to them
0:17:08 > 0:17:11that they held onto stories that gave them a sense of hope.
0:17:11 > 0:17:13And we know from the spirituals
0:17:13 > 0:17:17that songs about Moses and God's deliverance of the Hebrew people,
0:17:17 > 0:17:20songs about Joshua, the battle of Jericho,
0:17:20 > 0:17:25these images of God as a warrior defeating oppressive regimes
0:17:25 > 0:17:27were songs they could hold onto
0:17:27 > 0:17:29because they gave them a sense of hope.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32MUSIC
0:17:36 > 0:17:39And from the spirituals inspired by that desperate struggle
0:17:39 > 0:17:43came, in turn, the uplifting and vibrant traditions
0:17:43 > 0:17:44of jazz and swing.
0:17:48 > 0:17:55# When Israel was in Egypt's land
0:17:55 > 0:18:01# Let my people go
0:18:01 > 0:18:05# Oppressed so hard
0:18:05 > 0:18:09# They could not stand
0:18:09 > 0:18:15# Let my people go
0:18:16 > 0:18:20# Go down
0:18:20 > 0:18:22# Moses
0:18:22 > 0:18:29# Way down in Egypt's land
0:18:29 > 0:18:35# Tell old Pharaoh
0:18:35 > 0:18:42# To let my people go
0:18:49 > 0:18:52# The Lord told Moses what to do
0:18:52 > 0:18:55# Let my people go
0:18:55 > 0:18:58# Bring the oppressed children through
0:18:58 > 0:19:01# Let my people go
0:19:01 > 0:19:04# Go down Moses
0:19:04 > 0:19:08# Way down in Egypt's land
0:19:08 > 0:19:10# Tell old Pharaoh
0:19:10 > 0:19:13# To let my people go
0:19:17 > 0:19:19# As Israel stood by the water side
0:19:19 > 0:19:22# Let my people go
0:19:22 > 0:19:25# At God's command it did divide
0:19:25 > 0:19:28# Let my people go
0:19:28 > 0:19:31# Go down, Moses
0:19:31 > 0:19:34# Way down in Egypt's land
0:19:34 > 0:19:36# Tell old Pharaoh
0:19:36 > 0:19:39# To let my people go
0:19:46 > 0:19:48# When they reach the other shore
0:19:48 > 0:19:50# Let my people go
0:19:50 > 0:19:54# They sang a song of triumph o'er
0:19:54 > 0:19:56# Let my people go
0:19:56 > 0:19:59# Go down, Moses
0:19:59 > 0:20:02# Way down in Egypt's land
0:20:02 > 0:20:05# Tell old Pharaoh
0:20:05 > 0:20:07# To let my people go
0:20:07 > 0:20:10# Let my people go
0:20:10 > 0:20:12# Let my people go
0:20:12 > 0:20:15# Let
0:20:15 > 0:20:18# My people
0:20:18 > 0:20:26# Go! #
0:20:35 > 0:20:39It is a powerful combination when modern-day human challenges
0:20:39 > 0:20:43and experience are expressed in raw, down-to-earth language
0:20:43 > 0:20:48and then paired with a beautiful traditional folk melody.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52One of our most prolific hymn-writers, John Bell,
0:20:52 > 0:20:55is a master at capturing our emotions in this way,
0:20:55 > 0:20:59like the pain, the guilt, the need for forgiveness
0:20:59 > 0:21:02that often follows awful tragedy.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06That's something the congregation at the cathedral
0:21:06 > 0:21:11in the Scottish city of Dunblane understand all too well.
0:23:50 > 0:23:55That melody, Ye Banks And Braes, is named after a song
0:23:55 > 0:23:59written by Scotland's national poet, Robert Burns.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01He's one of the greats of literature
0:24:01 > 0:24:05immortalised here in the library's ornate tiled hall.
0:24:05 > 0:24:10Robbie Burns lived hard and died young, aged only 37.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16Well, of course, it is only natural to fear illness and death,
0:24:16 > 0:24:21which is what singer Russell Watson had to do in his late 30s
0:24:21 > 0:24:23at the height of his career.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26# When I am down
0:24:26 > 0:24:32# And oh my soul so weary
0:24:32 > 0:24:35# When troubles come
0:24:35 > 0:24:39# And my heart burdened be...#
0:24:41 > 0:24:43It started with a vocal problem.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47I had polyps on my vocal chords.
0:24:47 > 0:24:49And at the time, career threatening, which,
0:24:51 > 0:24:53probably was bad enough at that point.
0:24:53 > 0:24:55But it was only a year or so later
0:24:55 > 0:25:00that that was kind of superseded by, erm, a brain tumour.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06I kind of had the operation, thought it was a success,
0:25:06 > 0:25:10only to find out 12, 18 months later that the tumour hadn't gone.
0:25:10 > 0:25:13But it had come back bigger and stronger than before.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17People often say, "Do you believe in God?"
0:25:17 > 0:25:22Well, I must believe in God because, at that particular point,
0:25:22 > 0:25:27I remember actually saying to God, "OK, I've had enough.
0:25:28 > 0:25:30"Come and get me."
0:25:31 > 0:25:34I think it's made me a more focused person.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37I think it's made me a more appreciative human being
0:25:37 > 0:25:39of who and what is around me.
0:25:39 > 0:25:44I don't generally now take things for granted.
0:25:44 > 0:25:45And I'm still doing what I love.
0:25:45 > 0:25:47I'm still performing and I'm still singing
0:25:47 > 0:25:49and thank God for that.
0:25:52 > 0:25:56Abide With Me is one of the most moving examples
0:25:56 > 0:25:59of a Christian facing his own mortality.
0:25:59 > 0:26:02Henry Francis Lyte penned these words shortly before he died
0:26:02 > 0:26:06and composer William Monk wrote Eventide,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08the tune ever associated with these words
0:26:08 > 0:26:11in memory of his three-year-old daughter.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37May Christ, our God, abide with us
0:29:37 > 0:29:40that we may rest happy and blessed
0:29:40 > 0:29:44by the assurance of his loving kindness towards us,
0:29:44 > 0:29:48that he may point us to the skies, where he dwells in glory forever.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50And the blessing of God Almighty,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
0:29:53 > 0:29:56be among you and remain with you always.
0:29:56 > 0:29:58Amen.
0:30:01 > 0:30:07The writer of our last him, Fanny Crosby, was profoundly blind
0:30:07 > 0:30:11and yet she was still able to write about 8,000 hymn texts.
0:30:11 > 0:30:13Sometimes, two or three a day
0:30:13 > 0:30:17and always expressing her sense of reassurance and trust in God.
0:30:19 > 0:30:21So, as we take our leave of Yorkshire
0:30:21 > 0:30:24with a final hymn from Halifax Minster,
0:30:24 > 0:30:27we are assured that whatever challenges we face,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31nothing should stop us singing his praise.
0:32:55 > 0:32:59Later this year, we plan to announce the UK's top ten hymns.
0:32:59 > 0:33:03But to find out what they are, we need you to cast your vote.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06Go to the Songs Of Praise website,
0:33:06 > 0:33:11look at the list of 100 familiar hymns and choose your favourite.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13It's as easy as that.
0:33:13 > 0:33:15And the ten most popular will be revealed
0:33:15 > 0:33:20and sung by 5,000 people at the Big Sing in the Royal Albert Hall.
0:33:22 > 0:33:24Next week, I'll be introducing
0:33:24 > 0:33:27a selection of hymns for all occasions.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Not just baptisms, weddings and funerals
0:33:30 > 0:33:32but national events and celebrations, too.
0:33:50 > 0:33:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd