And Comfort Still

Psalm 23 will be read today in many churches, and probably sung as well.  Here at the blog, as I always say, we have not yet run out of hymns derived from those well-loved verses.

You are my Shepherd, you know all my needs,

And I am blest;

By quiet streams, in pastures green, you lead

And make me rest.

My soul you save, and for your own Name’s sake

You guide my feet the paths of right to take.

Though in death’s vale and shadow be my way

I fear no ill,

For you are near, your rod and staff my stay

And comfort still.

My table you have spread before my foes,

My head you will anoint, my cup o’erflows.

The goodness and the mercy that have e'er

Upon me shone

Shall surely follow me through all the way

Till life is done;

And ever my Creator's house shall be

My dwelling place through all eternity.

The Psalter, 1912; alt.

Tune: SANDON (10.4.10.4.10.10)

Charles H. Purday, 1857

Nine (Liturgical) Years Ago: My Shepherd, you supply my need

Eight (Liturgical) Years Ago: Since God is my Shepherd

Seven (Liturgical) Years Ago: Thou art my Shepherd

Six (Liturgical) Years Ago: I shall not want: in deserts wild

Five (Liturgical) Years Ago: Beside the still waters

Four (Liturgical) Years Ago: My Shepherd, you will hold me

Even more paraphrases and adaptations can be found by clicking the "Psalm 23" tag at the very bottom of this post.

T. Tertius Noble

Thomas Tertius Noble, born today in 1867, in Bath, England, would eventually come to be known as the dean of American organists later in life. He showed an early interest in music, and once begged to be removed from a boarding school that did not have a music program. At age 12 he was appointed to be the organist of All Saints Parish in Colchester, where the rector had provided him with some musical instruction. Many years later, in an address at the General Theological Seminary in New York, he described the conditions there:

I was almost 13, I could not play the organ very well.  It was an awful, old organ.  It had four stops, and its mechanism rattled so loudly you could hardly hear the music.  For three years I worked there.  I got up at 6:30 summer and winter, and I was in the church practicing by 7:00. (...) Learning on this organ was difficult, but very good for me.

In 1889 he graduated from the Royal College of Music in London, where his teachers had included Charles Villiers Stanford (for composition) and John Frederick Bridge (for harmony). He was then hired there as a teacher himself, and then in 1892 he was appointed organist at Ely Cathedral. Six years later, he started at York Minster, where he remained for the next thirteen years, until he was recruited to be organist-choirmaster at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in New York in 1913.

A fair amount about his time in New York has been covered here already (links below). Since unfortunately I have used up the internet sound files of his hymn tunes (only four available at the moment),  you can hear one of his settings of the Magnificat from YouTube.



Roman Catholic readers may understand why a Magnificat is always appropriate in May, but Anglicans and Episcopalians like them year-round.



Nine Years Ago: T. Tertius Noble

Eight Years Ago: T. Tertius Noble

Saint Philip and Saint James

This anonymous text for today's double feast was first published in A Book of Church Hymns (1865), which was generally known as Bosworth's Church Hymns, and shortly thereafter in The Year of Praise (1867) which was compiled by Henry Alford for Canterbury Cathedral. Like Alford, I've left out the final rather generic doxological stanza of the original.

O Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth,
The Life -- the Crown of all
Who here on earth confess your Name;
O hear us when we call!

We bring to mind with grateful joy
Your servants, who of old
Withstood the trials of the world
And now your face behold;

Who sought on earth the joys of prayer,
And that communion knew
Which saints and angels share above
With those who seek it too.

Vouchsafe us, Lord, we pray, that now
To us it may be giv'n,
Like them to live and die in you,
And with you, rise to heav'n.

Anonymous, 1865; alt.
Tune: GERONTIUS (C.M.)
John Bacchus Dykes, 1868



Eight Years Ago: Saint Philip and Saint James

Seven Years Ago: Joseph Addison

Five Years Ago: Saint Philip and Saint James

One Year Ago: Saint Philip and Saint James