[Magdalen] Hymnals and Perspective.

[Jim Guthrie]

>I think you are right about 1940 because I used it back in Chicago at the
>Yepiscopalsky tserkvi which I served. Never a problem seeing the music (of
>course I >was 20 years younger; but when I went for an eye test before moving
>to Atlanta the eye doctor told me to go get some readers. I had presecription
>glasses >since age 14, but I could actually see better at 51 than 14. Go
>figure.

I studied the difference, and came to the conclusion that the paper used in H40
makes the type look darker, especially as the paper darkened with age. The
bright white paper of H82 tends to reflect light, which tends to obscure the
music and text, slightly for most people (a slight but similar phenomena as
walking from sunlight into a darkened room, but your eyes don’t really get used
to the light reflecting off the white portions of the paper).

For a better "view" -- see the difference between H40 as printed in the 1946-48 
period (when nearly all were actually printed, despite the GC date on the 
spine -- you'll see the copyright in some hymns is printed at 1943, so you know 
it wasn;'t in the pews during WWII)  and the 1958 version done on bright white 
paper. You'll have as much trouble reading the latter as H82.

Cheers,
Jim