Glenbuchat Heritage

93 Old Kirk Hymn Cards

Hymn Cards at Glenbuchat Old Kirk

Click for the previous page for the background to this discussion.


Above are pictures of:
Mr Bruce Luffman with the Hymn Card Otto
Copies of Kilmarnock, Palestrina and ‘Otto’ tunes.


In his tour of the Kirk as shown in the previous page, Bruce demonstrated the Hymn Cards which were used to announce the music to which the Precentor would lead the singing.

“In Presbyterian churches that worship in the historical fashion a precentor is a person (man or woman, not necessarily clergy) who leads the singing, often by means of conducting techniques, but sometimes just by singing from amongst the congregation.

Churches that use a repeat-after-me manner of singing called lining out (used primarily when sufficient numbers of psalm books are unavailable, or the congregation insufficiently literate, as was the case in the black church in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird) are usually led by the precentor, much as with other non-instrumental churches.” (Wikipedia)

Bruce demonstrated three Hymn Cards. Below is some background material on them.

From Scottish Church Music by James Love 1891

Kilmarnock:
KILMARNOCK, No. 98 in P. and P., 87 S.P., and 96 U.P.P.,
was composed about 1823, and was widely circulated in MS. before it received a place in Brown's Robertson’s ' Selection of the Best Psalm and Hymn Tunes,' published about 1834. Its origin may be briefly told. Dougall’s attention having been drawn to the peculiarity of the tune " Morven " (built on what is commonly termed the Caledonian scale viz., without the fourth or seventh in the melody), resolved to compose one on the same
principle, " Kilmarnock " being the result. It shared the fate of his other tunes a place among his scraps. " One day R. A. Smith and John Taylor, who was then precentor in the Middle Parish Church at Greenock, paid him a visit. After conversation, Smith said,
* Anything new doing, Mr Dougall? no scraps to divert us?
' Mr Dougall went to a drawer and brought the first few scraps of paper he could lay his hand on. Smith took up one, and hastily humming it over, said ' A very pretty melody; and what do you call it?
' * It's not christened yet,' was the answer;
(but do you observe anything peculiar about it?
' 'I do,' said Smith; it is on the Caledonian scale, the same as " Morven."
'Yes; the same as your tune.' ' No, no; not my tune,' said Smith.
Will you oblige me with a copy of your nameless tune? ' ' With pleasure/
said the composer, and we'll christen it "Kilmarnock" ' ; and thus ended the conference.

Neil Dougell, 1776-1862
Neil’s fa­ther, wheel­wright Neill Dou­gall, was draft­ed in­to the ar­my, and died in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) when his son was only four years old. At age 15, Neil became an apprentice on the ship Britannia. In 1795, while he was loading a gun to fire the se­cond volley of a sa­lute to commemorate Lord Howe’s victory over the French, an explosion blinded him and took his arm. After recovering, he began his musical career. In 1798, he attended a sing­ing class un­der Ro­bert Dun­can, and in the fall of the next year opened his own class, which he ran un­til 1844. He gave an­nu­al con­certs in Green­ock from 1800 [sic, Frost] to 1860.

Palestrina
PALESTRINA, No. 278 (Second Tune) F.C.H., 118 S

Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi da, born about 1524 at Palestrina, a town in the Papal States, from which he derived his name ; died at Rome, February 2, 1594 ; one of the greatest composers of church music that ever lived.

Otto
One source ‘https://electricscotland.com/bible/scottishchurchmu00loveuoft.pdf’ stated in a comment on American Hymns:

MILTON, No. 102 S.P., appears in Dr Mason's ' Hallelujah,' 1854, under
the name of "Kinlock," and is there anonymous. NEWCASTLE, No. 108 S.P., appears in Dr Mason's 'Sabbath Hymn and Tune Book,' 1859, and is there named " Otto."

In ‘Scottish Church Music by James Love 1891’

It states there: OTTO. Composer: H. B. O. thought to refer to H.B. Oliphant


Music as shown above.