Our New Hymnal Has Arrived

An impressive new hymn book for the King's Community.

The new King’s Bruton Hymnal is a wonderful celebration of King’s Chaplaincy and of King’s music. I am very grateful to George Beverly, our Chaplain, and Ashley Marshfield, our Director of Music, for their painstaking work putting together this impressive new hymn book. It will serve the King’s community for generations and is a fitting way to round off our 500^th celebrations. - Ian Wilmshurst, Headmaster

We are delighted to launch the King’s Bruton Hymnal which has been put together by the Chaplain, Director of Music, staff, pupils and wider King's Bruton community during the School's 500^th Anniversary year. This hymnal is the culmination of eighteen months work between the Chaplaincy, the Music Department and Mercer Design who did the artwork and printing for the hymnal. Pupils and staff contributed to the selection of just under 180 hymns and choral pieces which cover a wide range of styles, seasons and topics. Every effort has been made to ensure all the desired hymns have been included. Alongside hymns, the hymnal contains various prayers and creeds used during our chapel services. Since the School's foundation, pupils have gathered in places such as St Mary's Church and also, more recently the Memorial Hall to sing hymns. It is hoped that this new hymnal will see current and future generations of pupils sing with joy, volume and confidence.

Many people might ask: why get a new hymnal? On a practical level, our old hymn book ‘Mission Praise’ had gone out of print. We considered getting the next version of Mission Praise, but decided to be brave and design our own hymnal. This was because Mission Praise does not contain all the hymns and carols we want to sing. Furthermore, countless pupils will attest to the fact that their Mission Praise soon becomes worn with the binding falling apart. Thus, the choice of a tailor made, robust hymnal with musical scores and the lyrics in it made sense. However, there is a far greater reason to get a new hymnal: the first page of the hymnal reminds us of an eternal truth, recorded in Psalm 95: “Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.” There really is good news to sing about - and thus, it is hoped that our new hymnal will help us all to do that!

Was the process easy and straightforward? Far from it. There have been over twenty drafts of the hymnal, with literally thousands of amendments made throughout the process. Proof reading the music and lyrics has been a gargantuan task, but it has certainly been worth all the hard work. We now have a beautiful hymnal containing all the hymns we want to sing as a school. To coincide with the launch of the new hymnal, in chapel this term, our sermon series is looking at the words of some of our favourite hymns and the glorious biblical truths behind them. It has been great to engage with some of the greatest pieces of music ever written. Deo Juvante!

George Beverly - Chaplain

So often hymns are set in keys that are not congregation friendly and so it has been great to create a hymn book that suits us as a School. The  King’s Bruton Hymnal brings together a selection of hymns both old and new. It will be helpful having the music printed alongside the text, particularly when expanding our hymn repertoire over the coming weeks and months. - Ashley Marshfield, Director of Music

Pupils used their new hymn books on Wednesday (a mufti day) for the first time.

Delighted to announce that at last, the new @KingsBruton Hymnal has arrived! We're really pleased with it & look forward to singing through the hundreds of hymns inside. A great blend of old & new favourites - @KSBMusicDept. Thanks to @MercerDesign for the design. #KSBEasterTerm pic.twitter.com/OOosJ9pxW4

— Chaplain (@KSBChaplain) February 2, 2020