Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1956-02-11

1AA< s&bSNs - A~(C4AOAA
Of q committee appointed by I
prepare the first dictionary o.
American hymnology.
But DR.. Ellinwood, a scholar
and cleric who knows how tt
stomp out a revival tune as wei
as the next man. says the Gospe
songs like Brighten the Corner
pose a serious problem to hi:
! committee of scholars.
There are just too many o.
them.
To Be Comprehensive
. AS chief editor of the new
hymn dictionary, DR.. Ellinwooo
wants to make the book a COM
prehenSive reference work. He
is thinking in terms of 1000
pages or more. Included viii be
all the hymns now in use in the
standard hymnals of the various
Christian denominations of the
United States and Canada,
There will be discussion OF
each hymns history. a biography
Of each of the authors and COM
poSers and special essays on for
eign Borrowings. medieval Sc
qaences and other subjects
Variants of the same hymns used
by different denominations will
be given.
Altogether, DR.. Ellinwood ex-
poets TO deal with several thou
sanda hymns.
Special Problem
4 Gospel songs, however, form a
special problem. Some of them
will have to be included in the
new dictionary because they
have found their way into yari-
Gus church hymnals. But there
are thousands OF Others, DR.
Ellinwood says. which are
crariked out by the tin pan
alley" gospel song presses almost
too fast to be recorded.
One member of the committee
Is working out a formula to de-
termine which of the foot
stompers should get into the
book.
The new work. which DR..
Ellinwood hopes TO have pub
llshed- IN FIVE years, will be the
first general survey of American
church hymns ever made. Until
now there have been only hand
books explaining the hymns in a
particular denominations own
hymnal.
Each member OF the committee
has edited such a handbook.
The committee itself is four
years old. 1t first was formed to
help with the American section
of Julian's Dictionary of Hymn
nology." famous English study
OF the last century which now is
being brought up to date by a
group Of British scholars.
Came Here in 1910
DR.. EllinWood is a native of
New Hampshire. He came to
Washington in 1910 to join the
staff of the Library of Congress
in the cataloguing division. Be-
fore that. he was professor Of
musicology at Michigan State
College. His special field is
medieval music.
In l949, he edited the first
Episcopalian hymnal handbook
THE Hymnal Companion" Two
years ago. he published a His
tory of American Church Music. +"
a def1nitive work which has sold
very well ever since.
Since he found himself more
and more the spokesman for the
Episcopal Church on musical
matters, he decided to take or
ders. He tutored with DR.. Theo-
dore Wedel, warden OF the Col.
lege of Preachers, and was
ordained by Bishop Angus Dun
in 194S. He now is assistant min
lister at Washington Cathedral
but still has his fuli-time lob at
the Library of Congress.
He and his wife live at 1874
Van Ness street NV. They have
two sons, one a research assist
ant in aerodynamics at Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology
and the other a freshman at
American University.
The new dictionary may be of
less interest to the average lay
man than his own denomina-
tons handbook, DR.. Ellinwood
says, but it will be an invaluable
aid to every library and to
'clergymen and organists "alert
In service planning" In addition,