Rest, Noble Martyr!

On this day in 1865, President Abraham Lincoln was buried in Springfield, Illinois, 19 days after he died on the morning of April 19. It was the culmination of a grand commemoration of the murdered leader that began with the informal procession of mourning that accompanied his body from the boardinghouse (across from Ford's Theater) where he died, back to the White House. Hundreds followed along the streets of Washington on that day, and in the weeks to come thousands would come to see the funeral train that traveled from the capital to Springfield, and to pay homage as they filed past the body that lay in state in several cities along the route.

There were many musical tributes along the way, including some original works.  On this last day 150 years ago, the ceremonies around the interment included the hymn Children of the heavenly King (perhaps not including all those stanzas listed at the Cyber Hymnal), an anthem with words set to the Dead March from Handel's oratorio Saul, and a chorus from Mendelssohn's oratorio St. Paul. George Root composed another funeral anthem: Farewell, Father and Friend.  The final hymn sung was also an original text written for the occasion by the Reverend Dr. Phineas D. Gurley, pastor of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington, where the Lincolns worshipped.

Rest, noble Martyr! rest in peace;
Rest with the true and brave,
Who, like thee, fell in Freedom's cause,
The nation's life to save.

Thy name shall live while time endures
And men shall say of thee,
"He saved his country from its foes,
And bade the slave be free."

These deeds shall be thy monument,
Better than brass or stone;
They leave thy name in glory's light,
Unrivaled and alone.

This consecrated spot shall be
To Freedom ever dear;
And Freedom's sons of every race

Shall weep and worship here.

O God! before whom we, in tears,
Our fallen Chief deplore;
Grant that the cause for which he died
May live forevermore.

Phineas D. Gurley, 1865

Tune: DUNDEE (C.M.)

Scottish Psalter, 1615

The hymn was concluded with a generic doxology stanza, presumably in the same meter. I have yet to find any reference to the specific tune that was sung, even in a recent doctoral thesis entitled The Mystic Chords of Memory: Musical Memorials for Abraham Lincoln. The information may exist in a contemporaneous newspaper account, but history often records only the titles of hymns sung at historic occasions without telling us the tune.  The text was certainly published in newpapers at the time and so the hymn may have been sung in other places

Dr. Gurley was not, apparently, a close friend of Abraham Lincoln, but he was the President's pastor, and had assisted at the funeral of the Lincolns' son Willie in 1862. He was among the people at the President's bedside when he died, he conducted the White House funeral on April 19th, and accompanied Lincoln's casket along the funeral train route to take part in the Springfield ceremonies, including the final benediction after his hymn was sung.  Some time after the end of the initial mourning period he publicly admitted that he thought it unfortunate that Lincoln had gone to the theater on Good Friday to see a comedy.

One Year Ago: Not (yet?) a Liturgical Observance

Sweet Will Be the Flower

Continuing a look at the psalter tunes that originally set the style for hymn tunes as we know them today, we come to the Scottish Psalter. The version of 1650 is the best-known today, and was used most often by various churches, but there were earlier ones as well. Today's familiar tune comes from the 1615 version, published in Edinburgh by Andro Hart, a printer and bookseller. The tune we know as DUNDEE was one of twelve tunes included in Common Meter (C,M,. or 8.6.8.6. - four-line stanzas beginning with a line of eight syllables) which were not specifically assigned to a particular psalm. Since many, if not most, of the psalm paraphrases were also written in Common Meter, they could be sung to FRENCH TUNE, as DUNDEE was originally called (though no French origin has yet been traced). The tunes in Hart's psalter were melody-only.

In 1621 The Whole Booke of Psalmes, based on the earlier psalm paraphrases of Sternhold and Hopkins, was published by composer Thomas Ravenscroft, which included FRENCH TUNE, now arranged in four-part harmony and called DUNDY TUNE, and matched with a paraphrase of Psalm 36. (You can see the original page from Ravenscroft's psalter here; scroll down for a version of Psalm 36 we would not likely sing today; the familiar melody is found in the tenor part). Ravenscroft re-named the tune in honor of the city of Dundee, which was known at that time as the Scottish Geneva because of its importance in the Reformation in Scotland. However, the name FRENCH TUNE persisted in many hymn and psalm collections well into the nineteenth century, while others came to call it DUNDEE. The Companion to the Baptist Hymnal (1976) calls it "a sturdy tune that should not be sung at too rapid a tempo."

Under whichever name this tune has been sung consistently for nearly four hundred years to a wide variety of texts. In addition to many many psalms, one hymn we have already seen here, and this text by William Cowper is also frequently sung to it.

God moves in a mysterious way,
Great wonders to perform;
And, planting footsteps in the sea,
God rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
God treasures up all bright designs
And works one sovereign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.

Judge not our God by feeble sense,
Trust only for God's grace;
Behind a frowning providence
God hides a smiling face.

God's purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.

Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan God's work in vain;
God is the one interpreter,
And God will make it plain.

William Cowper, 1774; alt.
Tune: DUNDEE (C.M.)
Scottish Psalter, 1615

In 1635, Andro Hart, who first published this tune, published another psalter which matched each paraphrase to a particular tune, and the tunes in this book were in four-part harmony. A tune very similar to DUNDEE, called CAITHNESS (named for a county in Scotland), first appeared in this book, and they sometimes get confused, though they only share the first five notes. But I have stood next to people who started singing a hymn to DUNDEE and ended up singing it to CAITHNESS. I'm sure none of my readers would ever do that.

One Year Ago: Sarah Josepha Hale

Maundy Thursday

Today's hymn recalls the Last Supper, on the night we now observe as Maundy Thursday. It appeared in several nineteenth-century hymnals, but is less known today.

"Remember me," the Savior said

On that forsaken night,

When from his side the nearest fled,

And death was close in sight.

Through all the following ages' track

The world remembers yet;

With love and worship gazes back,

And never can forget.

But who of us has seen his face,

Or heard the words he said?

And none can now his look retrace

In breaking of the bread.

We hear the Word along our way;

We see the Light above;

Remember when we strive and pray,

Remember when we love.

Nathaniel Langdon Frothingham, 1855; alt.

Tune: DUNDEE (C.M.)

Scottish Psalter, 1615

Nathaniel Frothingham (1793 - 1870) was a Unitarian minister, ordained in 1815 when he assumed the pulpit at the First Congregational Church of Boston, where he remained for the next thirty-five years.

DUNDEE is another familiar tune, one of twelve common meter tunes in the Scottish Psalter published by Andro Hart in 1615 (where it was called FRENCH TUNE). It was first used with several psalm paraphrases and over the years many other texts have been sung to it (including some we would think of as mismatches today, such as O God, our help in ages past).

One Year Ago: Maundy Thursday