High church
Songs of Praise is a 1925 hymnal compiled by Percy Dearmer, Martin Shaw and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The popular "English Hymnal" of 1906 was considered too 'High church' by many people, and a new book on broader lines was indicated. It was initially to be called "Songs of the Spirit" but in the end the title was changed to "Songs of Praise", from the hymn by J. Montgomery, "Songs of Praise the angels sang". Musically, it deliberately omitted several Victorian hymn tunes and substituted "modal" tunes by Shaw and Gustav Holst and descants by Vaughan Williams and by Martin Shaw's brother Geoffrey Shaw.