Disputatio Categoriae:Hymni

This category as it stands is a mess: technically in music, Ave Maris Stella is a hymn, but most of the other items listed here aren't (or they're conceptually so different they belong in a different category). I suggest splitting this category into at least four separate categories: hymni (hymns, of which thousands exist), carmina publica (national anthems, only a few hundred max), Christmas carols (e.g., O abies), and student songs (e.g., Gaudeamus igitur). Related categories might include Lieder (e.g., Schubert's Winterreise), operatic arias, folksongs (potentially a monstrously huge & various category), rock-and-roll songs (again huge), and so on. IacobusAmor 02:16, 18 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)

Nisi fallor, anthems are generally called hymns in the Romance languages. --iustinus --05:06, 18 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)

They could come into play here under the third or fourth definition in Webster's Collegiate:

• a song of praise to God.
• a metrical composition adapted for singing in a religious service.
• a song of praise or joy.
• something resembling a hymn: PAEAN.

But surely including national anthems & students' drinking songs vitiates the concept of "hymn" almost into meaninglessness. Wouldn't readers benefit from having separate categories, especially one for national anthems? IacobusAmor 13:17, 18 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)

Perhaps hymni Christiani and hymni nationales? I don't know what to call Gaudeamus Igitur, but hymnus doesn't seem quite right for that either. Heh, perhaps we want a cantica potatoria category too, as there are a hell of a lot of those written in Latin ;) --Iustinus 16:47, 18 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)

Support creating subcategories, at least for hymni Christiani (with a sub-subcategory for Christmas songs, perhaps called hymni Natales?) and for hymni nationales.<==sententia scripta a UV 23:54, 18 Ianuarii 2007

The problem is that not all cantica natalicia are hymni. Those that are should probably be listed both under "Christmas Carols" and "Christian Hymns." --Iustinus 01:02, 19 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)

But where do we put the Homeric hymns and the Vedic hymns? They seem to share with Christian hymns the quality of being a "song of praise to God"—or to gods, or godlike or near-godlike entities (e.g., the Blessed Virgin Mary, addressed as the "star of the sea" in Ave, Maris Stella). IacobusAmor 01:00, 19 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)

Iacobe, obviously those should get their own subcategories. THe question is: should they be subcategories of Hymni or should there be an intermediate category, such as hymni religiosi? HOnestly, I would vote for the former, for the sake of simplicity rather than accuracy. --Iustinus 01:02, 19 Ianuarii 2007 (UTC)