302 - They Did Not Build in Vain

Tune: Little Cornard

OMG, this is one of the most egregious examples of a bad match of tune and text.  The text on its own is fine, and the tune is absolutely superb.  But hymn tunes have a rhyme scheme that is intrinsic to the music.  In this case, the shape of the melody fits perfectly with a rhyme scheme of AABBCC.  The text here seems to be ABCADD, sort of.  The lack of strong internal text rhymes to match the strong internal musical cadences make this text a seriously crappy fit.

In former hymnals, this tune was associated with the wonderful Advent text "Hills of the North, Rejoice".  Too bad that text was left out of Common Praise.