John Goss (Day Three)

English composer and church musician John Goss was born today in 1800, in Hampshire.  His father was an organist and John would have a long career in the same profession.  As a child, he went to live with an uncle in London who was "an alto singer of distinction" and he became a chorister in the Chapel Royal, where he sang under John Stafford Smith (best known as the composer of The Anacreontic Song, the tune of which would later cross the ocean to be matched with The Star Spangled Banner).  After his voice changed, he began to study composition with Thomas Attwood, organist at St. Paul's Cathedral. He also sang tenor briefly with the opera chorus at Covent Garden.

His first organist position began in 1821 at the Stockwell Chapel. In December 1824 he was appointed to be the first organist at St. Luke's in Chelsea after winning a competition.  While there he published Parochial Psalmody (1826), a four-volume collection of tunes for the psalm paraphrases and hymns used in most Anglican churches of the day.

His mentor Thomas Attwood died in 1838, and Goss became organist at St. Paul's, where he would stay until retiring in 1872.  He also had a long tenure (47 years) as Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music.  In 1841 he published Chants Ancient and Modern, which contained 257 chant settings for the Psalms (and makes you wonder if the title inspired the committee which brought out a certain hymnal in the next decade).  He collaborated with James Turle, organist at Westminster Abbey, on the three-volume Cathedral Services Ancient and Modern (1846), and was the musical editor for the Church Psalter and Hymn Book (1856). All of these books were influential in the development of church music in England in the middle of the nineteeth century.

Goss's own compositions were primarily for the church, encompassing chants, anthems, services, and, of course, hymn tunes. In 1856 he was appointed composer at the Chapel Royal where his musical career had started. He was knighted in 1872 following his composition of a Te Deum and the anthem The Lord is my strength for the occasion of a service of thanksgiving at St. Paul's for the restored health of the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII).

As we are in the middle of another Twelve Days of Christmas here, we have today a tune usually credited to Goss and a text by William Walsham How (which strays a bit beyond Christmas, admittedly). ARTHUR'S SEAT by Goss seems to have first appeared in the American collection Hymns and Songs of Praise for Public Worship (1874). The musical editors of this book were John Knowles Paine and Uzziah C. Burnap, and in a later hymnal, the tune is credited to Goss and to Burnap as arranger. Where this melody appears in the works of Goss has not yet been identified, though the tune appears in many hymnals, up to the present, with Goss listed as composer.

Behold a little child, laid in a manger bed;
The wintry blasts blow wild around his infant head;
But who is this so lowly laid?
’Tis Christ by whom the worlds were made.

Alas! in what poor state the Child of God is seen;
Why did our God so great choose out a home so mean?
That we may learn from pride to flee,
And follow Christ's humility.

Where Joseph plies his trade, there Jesus labors, too;
The hands that all things made an earthly craft pursue,
That weary souls in him may rest,
And faithful toil through Christ be blessed.

Christ, once thyself a boy, our lifelong guard and guide;
Be thou its light and joy, and still with us abide,
That thy dear love, so great and free,
May draw us evermore to thee.

William Walsham How, 1872; alt.
Tune: ARTHUR'S SEAT (6.6.8.6.8.10.)
John Goss, 19th cent;
arr. Uzziah C. Burnap, 1874

Arthur's Seat is actually a mountain in Edinburgh, but no one knows why this tune was named for it.

John Goss died on May 10, 1880 and was buried at St. Paul's. Most of his compositions, like those of his Victorian contemporaries, have not survived well, except for a few anthems, chants, and hymn tunes.  He is described in the (Episcopal) Hymnal 1940 Companion as "no exceptional genius, but a sincere and skillful craftsman, writing solidly and well for the voice." Trevor Beeson's book In Tuneful Accord (2008), a study of Anglican church musicians and composers, admits that "It is possible, however, that some good parish church choirs view his work more favourably."




Eight Years Ago: John Goss


(Also) Eight Years Ago: Saint John the Evangelist

Seven Years Ago: Saint John the Evangelist

(Also) Seven Years Ago: Shepherds rejoice! life up your eyes

Four Years Ago: Saint John the Evangelist (and a tune by Goss)

One Year Ago: Above all the roar of the cities

(Also) One Year Ago: Saint John the Evangelist

Catherine Winkworth.

Catherine Winkworth, born today in 1829 in London, remains one of the most prolific and most well-known translators of German hymns into English. Though contemporary hymnal editors (Lutheran and others) are always looking for modern translations, Winkworth's are still prominently included.

We have covered much of her biographical information in previous years, and included many of her translations at other times of the year (click on the tag below), but a few items caught my attention this year in reading about her again.

Catherine and her sister Susanna were mostly educated at home, but they also studied with the Reverend William Gaskell, the Unitarian minister of the Cross Street Chapel in Manchester. Gaskell and his wife, Elizabeth, the popular novelist (whose books are still read and adapted for television today) were family friends of the Winkworths.  Catherine was also acquainted with other literary women of her day, including Charlotte Bronte and Harriet Martineau.

Catherine's first book of translated German hymn texts, the first volume of Lyra Germanica, was published in August of 1855. Within weeks of its appearance, Catherine began receiving requests from hymnbook editors for permission to include her translations in the collections they were preparing. The book had fortuitously arrived during a period of great change in congregational singing; the long resistance to hymns in the worship of the Church of England was coming to a close and there was great demand for new hymns. Six of Winkworth's translations appeared in the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1860), which probably spread them even faster and farther, and before long she was included in the hymnals of many denominations in the English-speaking world.  Closer to our own time, she is mostly known in Lutheran hymnals, though some of her hymns still cross denominational lines.

Today's hymn is from the second volume of Lyra Germanica (1858).

All depends on our possessing
God’s abundant grace and blessing,
Though all earthly wealth depart.
They who trust with faith unshaken
In their God are not forsaken
And will keep a dauntless heart.

God, who to this day has fed me
And to many joys has led me
Is and ever shall be mine.
God who did so gently school me,
God who still doth guide and rule me,
Will remain my Help divine.

When with sorrow I am stricken,
Hope anew my heart will quicken,
All my longing shall be stilled.
To God's lovingkindness tender
Soul and body I surrender;
For on God alone I build.

Well God knows what best to grant me;
All the longing hopes that haunt me,
Joy and sorrow have their day.
I shall doubt God's wisdom never—
As God wills, so be it ever—
Freely I commit my way.

As on earth my days are lengthened,
God my weary soul has strengthened;
All my trust in God I place.
Earthly wealth is not abiding,
Like a stream away is gliding;
Safe I anchor in God's grace.

Anonymous, from Nurnburg Gesang-Buch, 1676;

tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1858; alt.
Tune: ALLES IST AN GOTTES SEGEN (8.8.7.8.8.7.)
Johann Löhner, 1691; adapt. Johann B. König, 1737

Catherine died of heart trouble in France in 1878. She had traveled to Europe to help care for her invalid nephew Frank Shaen.  After her death, her sister Susanna (who was a noted translator of German prose) began to write a memorial volume drawn from family correspondence, but she died in 1884 before completing the work. Years later, their niece Margaret Shaen took up the project and finished it, and it was finally published in 1908, Memorials of Two Sisters: Susanna and Catherine Winkworth.



Eight Years Ago: Catherine Winkworth

Seven Years Ago: Catherine Winkworth

One Year Ago: Catherine Winkworth

Sir Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley

Born into Great Britain's upper classes on this day in 1825, composer Frederick Arthur Gore Ouseley grew up the son of the ambassador to Russia and godson to the Dukes of Wellington and York. His musical talents were obvious from an early age, and he wrote an opera (L'isola disabitata or, The Uninhabited Island) when he was eight years old.

His lifelong interest in Anglican church music was sometimes seen by his social peers as odd, but he persisted, founding the College of Saint Michael and All Angels in 1856. This was a choir school which gained a sterling reputation for excellence, and the library, started with Ouseley's own collection was renowned well into the twentieth century. When the school closed in 1985, the books were transferred to the Bodleian Library at Oxford.

Ouseley's anthems and hymn tunes are not well known these days, though they turn up now and then. Today's tune was first published in the influential Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861.

Where is your God, my soul?
Is God within your heart,
Or ruler of a distant realm
In which we have no part?

Where is your God, my soul?
Only in stars and sun?
Or have the holy words of truth
God's light in every one?

Where is your God, my soul?
Confined to Scripture’s page?
Or does the Spirit check and guide
The spirit of each age?

O Ruler of the sky,
Come rule within my heart;
O great Adorner of the world,
Your light of life impart.

In you have I my help,
As all my forebears had;
I’ll trust you when I’m sorrowful,
And serve you when I'm glad.

Thomas Toke Lynch, 1855; alt.
Tune: ABERYSTWYTH (Ouseley),(S.M.)
Frederick A. Gore Ouseley, 1861

This text by Thomas Toke Lynch (recently discussed here) is another hymn from The Rivulet, his controversial collection. You can see how some of its ideas were not exactly in line with much of the theology of his day (particularly the third stanza).  "Adorner of the world" is a name of God that I have not encountered before.



Eight Years Ago: Joseph Barnby

Seven Years Ago: Frederick A. Gore Ouseley

Six Years Ago: Joseph Barnby

Four Years Ago: Frederick A. Gore Ouseley

Three Years Ago: Joseph Barnby

Another Birthday Today: Katharine Lee Bates

Thomas Turton

Bishop Thomas Turton (February 5, 1780 - January 7, 1864) was born in the town of Hatfield, in South Yorkshire, the son of Thomas and Ann Turton.

He graduated from St. Catherine's College (part of the University of Cambridge) in 1805, and treturned there to teach, eventually serving as Professor of Mathematics (1822-1826) and of Divinity (1827-1842). In 1834 he published a pamphlet opposing the admission of non-Anglicans for univerity degrees.  During his teaching career, he also served in various clerical capacities following his ordination in the Church of England in 1813, which led to his inclusion in The Extraordinary Black Book (1832) by John Wade, a catalog of corruption and abuse in church and state. After leaving St. Catherine's, he became Dean of Westminster Abbey for three years, and in 1845 he was made Bishop of Ely.

He was also a composer of some church music, and two hymn tunes (including today's) were included in Hymns Ancient and Modern.

O thou, in all thy might so far,
In all thy love so near,
Betond the range of sun and star,
And yet beside us here.

What heart can comprehend thy Name,
Or searching, find thee out,
Who art within, a quick'ning Flame,
A Presence 'round about.

Yet though we know thee but in part,
We ask not, God, for more,
Enough for us to know thou art,
To love thee, and adore.

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1876; alt.
Tune: ST. ETHELDREDA (C.M.)
Thomas Turton, 1860

This tune was named for Saint Etheldreda, the patron saint of the Diocese of Ely, while Turton's other tune in Hymns Ancient and Modern was called ELY.

Turton was in poor health during much of his term as Bishop and died in 1864, leaving much of his estate to charity.  He was buried next to his friend Dr. Thomas Musgrave, Archbishop of York.

This text, by Frederick Lucian Hosmer, written while he was pastor of the Unitarian congregation in Quincy, Illinois, is described in Hymn Lore (1932) by Calvin Laufer as suggestive of Psalm 139.



Five Years Ago: Joy is like the rain

Four Years Ago: Roger Williams

Teach Us In Her Ways to Go

For the second Sunday in Advent we come to a familiar hymn which is a favorite of many, and has spread to most denominations in one form or another.

The O Antiphons are a collection of Latin texts which were sung in the Roman Catholic Church during Advent, one each night from December 17 to 23.  Theie date of origin is unclear, but apparently was no later than the eighth century.  These antiphons contain many different Scripture references which can be seen at the link above.  A later Latin hymn (1710) of only five stanzas was apparently the conduit which led to the English version by John Mason Neale in his Hymnal Noted (1854), which began "Draw nigh, draw nigh Emmanuel."  Neale's version was not a strict translatuon, and gave more attention to the part of each stanza which is a petition.  When the hymn was later published in Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), the familiar first line was now in place.

The tune was arranged by Thomas Helmore, the musical editor of the Hymnal Noted, and attributed to an old plainsong melody.  However, for many years no original version was known, and there was speculation that Helmore might have composed the melody himself. Finally, in the 1960s, the original melody (though not set to any text related to the O Antiphons) was discovered in a fifteenth-century manuscript belonging to a French convent.

O come, O come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.

Refrain
Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, thou Wisdom from on high,
Who orderest all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
And teach us in her ways to go.
Refrain

O come, thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from every tyranny;
From depths of hell thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.
Refrain

O come, thou Dayspring, come and cheer
Our spirits by thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Refrain

O come, thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Refrain

O come, O come, great Lord of might,
Who to thy tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times once gave the law
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Refrain

O come, thou Root of Jesse’s tree,
An ensign of thy people be;
Before thee rulers silent fall;
All peoples on thy mercy call.
Refrain

O come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of humankind;
Bid thou our sad divisions cease,
And be thyself our Source of peace 
Refrain

Latin, tr. composite
Tune: VENI EMMANUEL (L.M. with refrain)
plainsong, Mode I,
adapt. Thomas Helmore, 1854

As this hymn spread across different denominations, there were many alterations in the text (including abridgements) and tune.  Prominent theologian Henry Sloane Coffin made his own revisions in 1916, including this version of the final stanza:  

O come, Desire of nations, bind
All peoples in one heart and mind;
Bid envy, strife, and quarrels cease,
And fill the world with heaven's peace.

Coffin's alterations were later described by H. Augustine Smith in his Lyric Religion (1931) as "more acceptable than Neale's in their greater freedom and spiritual kinship with the modern church."  Nearly a century later, hymnal editors continue to strive for that modern relevance in this and many other texts.

Samuel Webbe

The birthdate of composer Samuel Webbe is unknown, and the date of his death is apparently also uncertain, but several sources do list it as May 15.  He had a son by the same name who was also a composer, but not of any hymn tunes that survived to the present day.

The tunes of Webbe that we do know mostly appeared first in his Essay on the Church Plain Chant (1782), and thus were not harmonized as we know them.  Webbe was a Roman Catholic in England, writing for their liturgy and not for the Church of England.  

Today we have what is probably Webbe's best known tune, MELCOMBE, the melody of which came from that first book, and is still included in modern hymnals.  The tune gained popularity in a relatively short period of time; it next appeared in a 1791 collection called Sacred Harmony (where it received its name).  Webbe then included it in his later Collection of Motets (1792) with a rudimentary harmonixation.  Ir probably arrived in America through the efforts of Lowell Mason; it appeared in early as 1828 in one of his collections, where it was called NAZARETH.

Like so many other familiar text and tune combinations, this one comes from the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), where music editor William H. Monk harmonized the tune as we now know it.  In addition to today's well-known text by John Keble, that hymnal also matched MELCOMBE to Lord, speak to me that I may speak by Frances Ridley Havergal, but that pairing did not prove popular.

New every morning is the love
Our wakening and uprising prove;
Through sleep and darkness safely brought,
Restored to life and power and thought.

New mercies, each returning day,
Hover around us while we pray;
New perils past, new sins forgiven,
New thoughts of God, new hopes of heaven.

If, on our daily course, our mind
Be set to hallow all we find,
New treasures still, of countless price,
God will provide for sacrifice.

The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish all we ought to ask;
Old friends, old scenes, will lovelier be,
As more of heav'n in each we see.

Only, O God, in thy dear love,
Fit us for perfect rest above,
And help us, this and every day,
To live more nearly as we pray.

John Keble. 1827; alt.
Tune: MELCOMBE (L.M.)
Samuel Webbe, 1782
harm. Willliam H. Monk, 1861

This text is from John Keble's The Christian Year (1828), part of a sixteen-stanza poem entitled Morning. Of course, some modern hymnals cut it even further to four stanzas.  In The Christian Year, this poem was preceded by a quote from Lamentations 3:22-23: "God's compassions fail not. They are new every morning," which may also remind you of a more recent hymn, Great is thy faithfulness.

I've already admitted that MELCOMBE is not a favorite of mine but someone must like it if it continues to appear in hymnals today. Archibald Jacob, in Songs of Praise Discussed (1933), calls it "an extremely well-balanced tune, of great dignity," which just shows what I know.

Three Years Ago: Samuel Webbe

Two Years Ago: Austin C. Lovelace

The Feast of the Epiphany

January 6 is the "official" date for the Feast of the Epiphany, though your church may celebrate it on Sunday. In some parts of the world, it is better known as Three Kings Day, but by any name it marks the visit to the infant Jesus by people of distant countries (whether they were indeed kings, or magi, or whatever), as opposed to the nearby shepherds. It signifies the eventual importance of this baby who was to be known around the world, not just in Bethlehem or Galilee.

This hymn was written by William Chatterton Dix, whose work we have seen before, and appeared in his first collection, Hymns of Love and Joy (1861). Reportedly he wrote it on the feast day, January 6, 1856.

As with gladness those of old

Did the guiding star behold;

As with joy they hailed its light,

Leading onward, beaming bright;

So, most gracious Lord, may we

Evermore be led to thee.

As with joyful steps they sped

To that lowly manger-bed;

There to bend the knee before

Christ, whom heaven and earth adore;

So may we with willing feet

Ever seek the mercy seat.

As they offered gifts most rare

At that manger rude and bare;

So may we with holy joy,

Pure and free from sin's alloy,

All our costliest treasures bring,

Christ! to thee, our heavenly King.

Holy Jesus! every day

Keep us in the narrow way;

And, when earthly things are past,

Bring our ransomed souls at last

Where they need no star to guide,

Where no clouds thy glory hide.

In that heavenly country bright,

Need they no created light;

Thou its light, its joy, its crown,

Thou its sun which goes not down;

There for ever may we sing

Alleluias echoing.

William Chatterton Dix, 1856; alt.

Tune: DIX (7.7.7.7.7.7.)

Conrad Kocher, 1838; adapt. William H. Monk, 1861

This well-known tune was altered slightly from its German original form by William Henry Monk, editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), where it was first matched to this text. It was probably also Monk who named the tune for this text's author.

P.S. You may have thought that after three years (beginnning a fourth later this month) that we have run out of familiar hymns, but as you can see we're not done yet.

Three Years Ago: Saw you never, in the twilight

Two Years Ago: Earth has many a noble city

One Year Ago: What star is this, with beams so bright

P.S. You may have thought that after three years (beginnning a fourth later this month) that we have run out of familiar hymns, but as you can see we're not done yet.

Three Years Ago: Saw you never, in the twiligh

Two Years Ago: Earth has many a noble city

One Year Ago: What star is this, with beams so bright

Charles H. Steggall

British composer Charles Steggall (June 3, 1826 - June 7, 1905) was born in London, where he was to remain the rest of his life. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music under William Sterndale Bennett, and later became the chief professor of the organ there from 1851 to 1903. It's claimed that he taught more organists than anyone else in England in the second half of the nineteenth century.

His own career as an organist spanned several London churches, particularly Lincoln's Inn Chapel, where he served from 1864 until his death. He began writing hymn tunes and worked as musical editor on two early collections: Church Psalmody (1849) and Hymns for the Church of England (1865).

In 1889, after the death of William H. Monk, Steggall succeeded him as musical editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern. Unfortunately, the next published edition, in 1904, was not popular, considered to be too severe in its changes.

Unlike many of his Victorian age counterparts in church music, who wrote at least one or two tunes that we still sing today, Steggall's tunes (a few of which you can hear at the Cyber Hymnal site) have not survived well. I liked this one, which was written fairly late in his career and apparently was first published in this country in the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1933 matched with O holy city, seen of John.

Beyond, beyond the boundless sea,
Above the dome of sky.
Farther than thought itself can flee
Thy dwelling is on high;
Yet dear the blissful thought to me
That thou, my God, art nigh!

We hear thy voice when thunders roll,
Through the wide fields of air;
The waves obey thy firm control,
Yet still thou art not there;
Where shall I find thee present, God.
Who yet is everywhere?

O, not in circling depth or height,
But in the conscious breast,
Present to faith, yet veiled to sight,
There doth thy Spirit rest;
O come, thou Presence infinite,
And make thy people blest!

Josiah Conder, 1824; alt.
Tune: MORWELLHAM (8.6.8.6.8.6.)
Charles H. Steggall, 1890

One Year Ago: Brian Wren

John Bacchus Dykes

John Bacchus Dykes, born today in 1823, was for many years the most popular of the English Victorian hymn tune composers, and still today most hymnals include his tunes.

His musical career began first, at the age of ten when he began playing the organ at the church where his grandfather was the vicar, but following his graduation from Cambridge University (where he co-founded the Cambridge University Musical Society) he was ordained in the Church of England in 1847. He was precentor at Durham Cathedral for several years before leading the parish of St. Oswald's in Durham.

Though he was influenced by the Oxford Movement, he was blocked by his bishop from instituting any practices in his own parishes that might be seen as "high church." His requests for assisting clergy were denied until he promised three things: that incense would not be used during worship, that no clergy would wear colored stoles, and that the celebrant of the Eucharist would not face away from the people. He appealed his case to the Queen's Bench, but was not successful.

Several of his hymn tunes appeared in the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) and after that were in great demand in the big business of Victorian hymnal publishing. He supplied tunes for nearly every editor who requested them, regardless of denomination. In response to one American hymnal editor, J. Ireland Tucker (whose work was very influential in spreading Dykes's music to this country), regarding terms, he wrote:

I have never been accustomed to write for money, although I have frequently had an honorarium sent to me for work done. (...) Bur when a man has a large parish, and a family growing up, and is not overburdened with the world's goods, and finds considerable difficulty in making both ends meet, I suppose there is nothing objectionable in resorting to any legitimate means which God's good Providence may throw in his way for enabling him to pay his just and lawful debts. and obtain a little help for those who are dependent on him.

You will recognize many of his tunes, and most of his familiar tunes have already been seen here. This one is less familiar, but suits this German text by Wolfgang Dessler (translated by John Wesley).

Into thy gracious hands I fall,

And with the arms of faith embrace;

Loving Redeemer, hear my call,

O raise me, heal me, by thy grace!

Still let thy wisdom be my guide,

Nor take thy light from me away,

Still with me let thy grace abide,

That I from thee may never stray:

Let thy word richly in me dwell;

Thy peace and love my portion be;

My joy to endure and do thy will,

Till perfect I am found in thee.

From faith to faith, from grace to grace,

So in thy strength shall I go on,

Till heaven and earth flee from thy face,

And glory end what grace begun.

Wolfgang C. Dessler, 1692;

tr. John Wesley, 1739; alt.

Tune: CALM (L.M.)

John Bacchus Dykes, 19th cent.

Two Years Ago: John Bacchus Dykes

Saint Simon and Saint Jude

When thou, O Christ, didst send the Twelve,
Thy work of grace to do,
Conjoined in holy bands of love
They went forth, two and two.

Today, O Lord, before us here
Two blest Apostles stand,
Forever in thy realm above
United hand in hand.

Jude bids us in our holy faith
With zeal to seek the right,
And zeal shines brightly in the name,
Simon the Canaanite.

So send thou down into our hearts
Thy Spirit from above,
And give us ever-fervent zeal
Tempered with holy love.

And may we with these servants then
In heav'nly glory be!
For fellowship in holy love
Is unity in thee.

Christopher Wordsworth, 1862; alt,
Tune: WINCHESTER OLD (C.M.)
The Whole Book of Psalmes, 1592
arr. William H. Monk, 1861

Bishop, scholar, hymnwriter and hymnal editor Christopher Wordsworth (whose birthday is coming up this Saturday) wrote this text for the day and included it in his collection The Holy Year (1862). WINCHESTER OLD is another psalter tune that has been sung with many texts over the last four hundred years, though the version most used today was harmonized by William Henry Monk, as you can probably guess by now, for Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) .


Two Years Ago: Saint Simon and Saint Jude

One Year Ago: Saint Simon and Saint Jude

Sir Joseph Barnby

Composer and conductor Joseph Barnby (pictured here at work, on a Victorian postcard) was born today in 1838. His father was an organist, which led to his early training on that instrument. Young Joseph also sang in the cathedral choir at York Minster beginning at age seven.

in 1854 he went to study at the Royal College of Music, and two years later was one of nineteen applicants for the first Mendelssohn Scholarship in England. Unfortunately, he came in second to Arthur Sullivan. After graduation, he held organist and music director positions as well as teaching positions at Eton College and the Guildhall School of Music.

In 1867 he began as the conductor of a group that became known as "Barnby's Choir." In 1872 that group combined with another choir started by Charles Gounod and became the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, which still sings today. Barnby conducted the first English performances of several important works, including the Stabat Mater of Dvorak (1883) and Wagner's last opera Parsifal (1884), and earlier, the first English church performance of Bach's St. Matthew Passion at Westminster Abbey in 1871.

As noted here before, Barnby wrote several anthems and other sacred choral works (his oratorio Rebekah is now downloadable at the Sibley Music Library site) and 246 hymn tunes. collected in one volume after his death in 1896 (and mostly unknown today). The 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship is perhaps the most recent hymnal to contain as many as six of his tunes (someone on that committee must have liked Barnby!); these days, if a hymnal has any of his tunes at all, this is the most likely one.

When morning gilds the skies
My heart awaking cries:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
When evening shadows fall,
Then rings my curfew call,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

When mirth for music longs,
This is my song of songs:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
God's holy house of prayer
Has none that can compare
With: Jesus Christ be praised!

No lovelier antiphon
In all high heav’n is known
Than, Jesus Christ be praised!
There to the eternal Word
The eternal psalm is heard:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

All ye of humankind,
In this your concord find,
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Let all the earth around
Ring joyous with the sound,
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Sing, suns and stars of space,
Sing, ye that see God's face,
Sing, Jesus Christ be praised!
God’s whole creation o’er,
For aye and evermore
Shall Jesus Christ be praised!

Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1828;
tr. Robert Bridges, 1899; alt.
Tune: LAUDES DOMINI (6.6.6.6.6.6.)
Joseph Barnby, 1868

This quintessential "summer hymn" is sung in many different churches across denominations, though they may be singing different translations. The text, published in German in fourteen stanzas (by one account) is now thought to be older than 1828, though I'm not sure it has been specifically traced to any earlier hymnbook. Edward Caswall translated it for his collection The Masque of Mary (1858) and this version later made its way into Hymns Ancient and Modern, where Barnby's tune, written specifically for Caswall's text, appeared in the first Supplement of 1868.

Caswall's last stanza may be the most familiar to many:

Be this, while life is mine,
My canticle divine:
May Jesus Christ be praised!
Sing this th'eternal song
Through all the ages long:
May Jesus Christ be praised!

Today's version, however, is a translation by Robert Bridges (later the poet laureate of England)which appeared in his Yattendon Hymnal (1899), and in several other hymnals since. Some hymnals even combine stanzas from both translations, which works of course because both are written in the same meter and thus can be sung to the same tune. Unfortunately, none of the major online hymn sites have sufficiently separated the two versions so that you can easily see Caswall's whole translation and Bridges' whole translation.


Two Years Ago: Sir Joseph Barnby

One Year Ago: Sir Frederick A. Gore Ouseley

John Newton

Hymnwriting giant John Newton was born today in 1725 in London. From a very early age his mother taught him from the Bible, but she died when he was seven. His sea captain father was not at all a religious man, and young John joined his father at sea after only two years of formal schooling. This would lead to his infamous six-year career as captain of a slave ship before his well-documented conversion experiences.

Years later, as an Anglican minister in the parish of Olney, he produced his influential Olney Hymns (1779) with his friend and collaborator William Cowper. Newton wrote most of the 348 texts included in the collection (280 to Cowper's 68). Hymn singing was still not widespread in the Church of England; like the hymns of Philip Doddridge, Newton's were often written to illustrate a particular sermon he was delivering. For some reason, this was apparently considered more acceptable. But they were definitely written for public worship, "for the use of plain people," according to Newton's preface to Olney Hymns, and not as mere poetic reflections.

Today's hymn is perhaps his second most familiar, though miles behind his first (and some might argue that his Glorious things of thee are spoken should be second). The scripture verse that appears with this text in Olney Hymns is Song of Solomon 1:3, your anointing oils are fragrant, your name is perfume poured out, and from there Newton derived his first line, going on to add several other names from both the Old and New Testaments:

How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
In every person's ear!
It soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds,
And drives away our fear.

It makes the wounded spirit whole,
And calms the troubled breast;
’Tis manna to the hungry soul,
And to the weary, rest.

Dear name! the Rock on which I build,
My Shield and Hiding Place,
My never failing Treasury, filled
With boundless stores of grace!

Jesus! my Shepherd, Guardian, Friend,
My Everflowing Spring,
My Love, my Life, my Way, my End,
Accept the praise I bring.

John Newton, 1779; alt.
Tune: ST. PETER (C.M.)
Alexander R. Reinagle, 1836

Alexander Reinagle's popular tune ST. PETER was first matched with Newton's text in the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861) and like so many other combinations from that book, has become the most often-used.

The window below is from Newton's Olney parish, the Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, and depicts both Newton (on the left) and Cowper.

Two Years Ago: John Newton

One Year Ago: John Newton

Sir Henry Williams Baker

The full title of Sir Henry Williams Baker (May 27, 1821 - February 12, 1877) was actually Third Baronet Baker, of Dunstable House, in Richmond, Surrey. Some sources say he was born in the county of Surrey, some say in London. A few years after his 1844 ordination in the Church of England he became the vicar of Monkland Priory church in Herefordshire, a county not particularly near the seat of his baronetcy, which seems not to have been a problem. He remained in the Herefordshire position until his death.

In addition to being a vicar and a baronet, of course, he was the prime mover behind the immensely successful and influential Hymns Ancient and Modern, first published in 1861, as discussed last year. This hymn by Baker, short and to the point, first appeared in that initial edition.

O praise our God today,
God's constant mercy bless,
Whose love has helped us on our way,
And granted us success.

God's arm the strength imparts
Our daily toil to bear;
God's grace alone inspires our hearts
Each other’s load to share.

O happiest work below,
Mirror of joy above,
To sweeten many a cup of woe
By deeds of holy love!

God, may it be our choice
This blessèd rule to keep,
“Rejoice with them that do rejoice,
And weep with them that weep.”

Henry Williams Baker, 1861; alt.
Tune: FRANCONIA (S.M.)
Johann B. Konig, 1738
harm. William Henry Havergal, 1847

One Year Ago: Sir Henry Williams Baker

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

In some traditions, the word Alleluia is not spoken during worship in Lent, making its return on Easter Sunday more significant. Easter hymns are therefore full of Alleluias, making up for lost time, so to speak (or sing). This one begins and ends with a triple Alleluia (actually, four in a row at the end).

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

The strife is o'er, the battle done,
The victory of life is won;
The song of triumph has begun.
Alleluia!

The powers of death have done their worst,
But Christ their legions hath dispersed:
Let shouts of holy joy outburst.
Alleluia!

The three sad days are quickly sped,
Christ rises glorious from the dead:
All glory to our risen Head!
Alleluia!

Christ closed the yawning gates of hell,
The bars from heaven's high portals fell;
Let hymns of praise his triumphs tell!
Alleluia!

Christ! by the stripes which wounded thee,
From death's dread sting thy servants free,
That we may live and sing to thee.
Alleluia!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Latin, 17th cent.
tr. Francis Pott, 1859; alt.
Tune: VICTORY (8.8.8. with Alleluias)
Giovanni da Palestrina, 1591
adapt. William H. Monk, 1861

This hymn which will be sung in many places today comes to us from a Latin Jesuit hymn printed in Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum (1695), though some sources claim it dates back as far as the twelfth century. The first Latin stanza was:

Finita jam sunt praelia,

Est parta jam victoria;

Gaudeamus et canamus,

Alleluia!

John Mason Neale translated this text for one of his collections as:

Finished is the battle now;

The crown is on the Victor's brow!

Hence with sadness, sing with gladness,

Alleluia!

and though he may have followed the rhythm and rhyme scheme better, I think everyone agrees that Francis Pott came up with the better verse in this case.

William H. Monk, in his capacity as musical editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), derived this tune for this text from a section of a longer choral work by Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina, probably the finest Italian composer of the sixteenth century. From the final Gloria Patri section of Palestrina's Magnificat tertii toni Monk took the first and second lines here, repeated the first line, and added the Alleluias. In some hymnals the triple Alleluia is used as a refrain, repeated after each stanza, but his intention was to use those only at the beginning and end. Maybe he thought that it was possible to sing too many Alleluias.

P.S. The Resurrection window above is from the Church of St. James the Lesser in the English village of Dorney, near Eton.

One Year Ago: Rising Up From Grief and Tears