HYMNS FROM PUB TUNES A MYTH

A music adviser for the United Methodist Church has set out to prove that it is just myth that John and Charles Wesley based several of their hymns on "tavern songs." According to The Washington Times, Dean McIntyre says it is just not true. McIntyre says it is a widespread misconception that the Wesleys used drinking songs for some of the most enduring hymns of the church. He says that by looking at their hymnals, their hymns, and reading their journals and correspondence, there is not an example of a Wesley text being sung to a bar tune. Neither is there any evidence of either of the Wesleys commending that practice to be done by others, he says. McIntyre - the son of a pastor, and a composer with a doctorate in music - says the myth probably arose over the generations by a misunderstanding of the term "bar tune" or "bar form," which refers to the number of lines repeated in a song.