John Darwall

Composer and Anglican priest John Darwall was baptized on this date in 1732. For most of the last three hundred years his birthdate was unknown, but more recently both the online Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology and Glory to God: A Companion (2016) by Carl P. Daw list the date as December 27, 1731.

Dr. Daw goes on to say that Darwall was "a talented amateur musician, (who) did much to revive congregational singing at the parish where he served longest, working particularly to encourage the singing of the psalms at a less dreary tempo than had become customary." 

Though he wrote tunes to accompany all of the paraphrased psalms in the New Version by Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady, we only sing one of those tunes today, the one which was written for Psalm 148.  However, this tune is sung across most denominations and to many different texts (three others thus far on the blog, and the fourth today).  

Break, day of God, O break,
The night has lingered long;
Our hearts with courage wake,
To strive against all wrong:
O Lamb of God, whose love is light,
Shine on my soul, and all is bright.

Break, day of God, O break!
The earth with strife is worn;
The hills with thunder shake,
Hearts of the people mourn;
Break, day of God, sweet day of peace,
And bid the shout of warriors cease!

Break, day of God, O break,
Like to the days above!
Let justice now awake,
And faith, and hope, and love:
For lo! we see the brightening sky;
The golden morn is drawing nigh.

Henry Burton, 1900; alt.
Tune: DARWALL (6.6.6.6.8.8.)
John Darwall, 1770

The first lines of each of Darwall's tunes can be seen at this site, though unfortunately not the whole tunes.


Seven Years Ago: John Darwall

Eight Years Ago: John Darwall

A Hush of Expectation

In some traditions we are still in the liturgical season of Epiphany, which will run until the Sunday before Lent -- March 2 this year (when we hear the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus).  It's a long season in 2014; often we have already passed Ash Wednesday by this time.

There are still hymns that can be used for the season without singing about the three kings and the star over Bethlehem, even though some worship planners are out of ideas.  Light is a recurring Epiphany theme, as well as the spreading of the awareness of Jesus.  Today the light comes from the dawn of the coming day of God, which seems appropriate for Epiphany, and also for other times of the year as well.

I encountered this text in an interesting collection I recently found, Social Hymns of Brotherhood and Aspiration (1914), though I suspect it was not first published there.

There’s a light upon the mountains,
As we greet the coming morn;
When our eyes shall see the beauty
And the splendors of the dawn;
Weary was our heart with waiting,
And the night-watch seemed so long,
But the jubilee is breaking
And we hail it with a song.

There’s a hush of expectation
And a quiet in the air
And the breath of God is moving
In the fervent breath of prayer;
Then we hear a distant music
And it comes with fuller swell;
’Tis the triumph-song of Jesus,
Promised One, Immanuel!

Christ is breaking down the barriers,
He is casting up the way;
He is calling for his angels
To build up the gates of day:
But his angels here are human,
Not the shining hosts above;
For the drumbeats of this legion
Are the heartbeats of our love.

Henry Burton, 1910; alt.
Tune: TON-Y-BOTEL (8.7.8.7.D.)
Thomas J. Williams, 1890