*All the hymnals* I have at home, from quite a number of different editors in France and
the French part of Switzerland, follow the rule of using stems up for soprano and tenor
and down for alto and bass.
Le 11.07.26 à 10:08, Gabriel Ellsworth a écrit :
On Sat, 11 Jul 2026, David Wright wrote:
> I have no idea what the difference is between American hymn books and
> English ones, wasn't aware of those two styles...
I'm not home with my books, but quite at random google turned up
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ALm2PEOUL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
from Hymns Ancient & Modern, where stem directions distinguish the
parts that share each staff, even where they might happen to cross.
The Episcopal Hymnal 1982 is the only American example I know of that
follows that style.
OTOH, most US hymn books in my small collection are set like
https://hymnary.org/page/fetch/CH1995/232/low/233
from the Chalice Hymnal, constantly switching between the (default)
chords, and divided parts only where necessitated.
Some links in case these are helpful:
* The Hymnal 1982: according to the use of the Episcopal Church
<https://hymnary.org/hymnal/EH1982>(David mentioned this one already)
* The Hymnal of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of
America 1940
<https://hymnary.org/hymnal/HPEC1940>(this is the immediate predecessor to
the 1982)
Both of those use different stem directions within the same staff to indicate different
voices. See, for example, https://hymnary.org/hymn/HPEC1940/page/60
<https://hymnary.org/hymn/HPEC1940/page/60>.
I don’t know whether this is relevant for your current project, Jogchum, but for what
it’s worth, in the United States, the Hymnals 1940 and 1982 are widely considered to be
two of the best hymnals ever published domestically.
--
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