Is there anyone who can explain to me what the symbols mean here?

Question

I have an old hymnal that has no musical accompaniment. The hymns are not named just put into categories like "worship and praise" or "the Bible" or "The church". Above each hymn there are a set of letters or numbers. Sometimes the letters: L.M., C.M., S.M., CPM or the numbers -11's and 10's- or- 11's- or- 8's 7's and 4's-, '7's and 6's-. Can anyone tell me what these letters and numbers mean? Are they used to determine the tempo of the song or the melody or both?

Answer 1

check the preface or intro to the book. they always explain things like that.

Answer 2

In simple terms, meter refers to the rhythmic and syllabic structure of a piece of poetry, which is essentially what a hymn is. Meter markings on hymn tunes indicate the number of syllables in each line of the hymn. For instance:

A hymn with the meter 76 76 has seven syllables in the first line, six in the second, seven in the third, and six in the fourth. A hymn with the meter of 10 10 10 10 has four lines, each with ten syllables. The letter D at the end of a meter notation means "double." For instance, a hymn with the meter 87 87 D has eight syllables in the first line, seven in the second, eight in the third, seven in the fourth, then the pattern repeats itself for the fifth through eighth lines.

Some meters are used so frequently they have acquired names of their own:

86 86 is known as Common Meter (abbreviated CM)

66 86 is known as Short Meter (abbreviated SM)

88 88 is known as Long Meter (abbreviated LM)

Again, when the letter D follows any of these, the pattern is repeated.

Answer 3

I have a hymnal that has a metrical index to the hymns. S.M. is short meter, C.M. is common meter, L.M. is long meter. There are numbers listed too, like 6.6.6.4.8.8.4. but I don't have any ideawhat any of that is, unless it has to do with what buttons (or whatever they're called) to push on the organ to set the tone of the song. I'm not really musical myself, so that's all I can give you.

Answer 4

I think the numbers are meter. They tell how many syllables are in the poem the hymn is based on. This is useful if you want to write more verses, or sing the words of one song to the tune of another.

LM may stand for "Long Meter"
http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/Long+Meter+(hymnology)

CM would then be "Common Meter"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballad_meter

I don' think any of it has much to do with tempo or melody.