Hymns in the News

Even here you cannot escape the Royal Wedding Mania that has infected much of the world for the last few weeks. Today the music that will be sung and played during tomorrow's service at Westminster Abbey was announced to the media.

However, the broader and more long-range importance of the wedding music chosen by Kate and Wills will be understood by church musicians everywhere, because brides will want some of the same selections for their own ceremonies this summer and for years to come. The Prince of Denmark's March by Jeremiah Clarke became the fashionable processional after its appearance at the 1981 wedding of Charles and Diana. Somehow I do not see I was glad, an anthem by C.H.H. Parry, and tomorrow's processional, becoming equally popular (how many weddings today have a choir?), but the Fantasia on 'Greensleeves' of Ralph Vaughan Williams might be heard more often.

(That said, I will be singing in a wedding this Saturday, but the musical couple are two section leaders of our church choir, and the groom has composed the music for the Anglican chant to which we will sing the psalm. But I doubt they would have chosen I was glad for their processional, either, even if they had known about this.)

So tomorrow's hymns, like the rest of the music, will be British.

Guide me, O thou great Redeemer is assumed to be a tribute to Diana, at whose funeral it was sung.

Love divine, all loves excelling will be sung to BLAENWERN, as it often is in the UK and rarely is in the US.

Jerusalem (And did those feet in ancient times), also composed by Parry, is one of those songs that the British consider a hymn, but not everyone else does. (The corresponding "hymn" at Charles and Diana's wedding was I vow to thee, my country).

You could dismiss the hymn selections as no more than interesting trivia (like the fact that the other hymn in the 1981 royal wedding was Christ is made the sure foundation) but remember that they will be heard tomorrow by millions of people around the world. Some may even be singing along.

Sir John Stainer

Composer John Stainer was born in London on this day 170 years ago. His father was a schoolmaster and good amateur musician and the young Stainer learned the piano and organ at a young age (there were reportedly five pianos in the house as well as a chamber organ).

He became a boy chorister at age eight at St. Paul's Cathedral and a few years later was playing the organ there on occasion. When Stainer was a teen, Frederick Gore Ouseley heard him play and invited him to be the organist at the music school Ouseley had established at Tenbury. During those years Stainer also attained a Bachelor of Music degree from Oxford University.

After receiving two more advanced music degrees (one for his oratorio Gideon in 1865) he returned to St. Paul's in the position of organist. He became renowned for improving musical standards at the cathedral during his tenure there. Stainer was also a government inspector of music training and visited elementary school training colleges, interviewing the students and evaluating the programs. He was knighted in 1888 for his many contributions to English music.

His compositions include forty-two anthems, four oratorios (including The Crucifixion, still performed today), service music for the Anglican church, organ works and vocal madrigals. His hymn tunes run to several dozen, at least (though not many are still sung), and he also edited The Church Hymnary for the Church of Scotland. Another book by Stainer still studied today is The Music of the Bible (1879), which looks like it might deserve more exploration.

This short morning hymn, set to one of Stainer's tunes, is by an English Methodist writer and may have first appeared in this country in Hymns of the Spirit (1864), the Unitarian hymnal compiled by Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson. It was retained in other Unitarian hymn collections into the twentieth century.

The light pours down from heaven
And enters where it may;
The hearts of all earth's children
Are cheered with each bright ray
So let the soul's true sunshine
Be spread o'er earth as free,
And fill our waiting spriits
As waters fill the sea.

Then let each human spirit
Enjoy the radiance bright;
The Truth which comes from heaven
Shall spread like heav'n's own light;
Till earth becomes God's temple,
And every human heart
Shall join in one great service,
Each happy in our part.

Joseph Gostock, 1849; alt.
Tune: JERUSALEM (7.6.7.6.D.)
John Stainer, 19th cent.

Two Years Ago: Sir John Stainer

P.S. I don't usually play this game, but if a movie was ever to be made of Stainer's life (ha!) I think he should be played by actor Dennis Franz (formerly Detective Sipowicz from NYPD Blue).

Carl P. Daw, Jr.

Today is the birthday of Carl Pickens Daw, Jr., one of my favorite contemporary hymnwriters. Born in Louisville, KY in 1944, he taught for eight years at the College of William and Mary in Virginia before entering seminary. Following his ordination in the Episcopal Church he served congregations in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut.

While serving as an advisor to the Text Committee for the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 he began to write hymns of his own, some of which appeared in the final volume. He also wrote an essay on The Spirituality of Anglican Hymnody in the Hymnal 1982 Companion. He has served as Secretary and Chair of the Episcopal Standing Commission on Church Music. Since 1996 he has been the Executive Director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada, serving as a sort of ambassador for hymnody who frequently lectures on the subject around the world. He will be retiring this coming fall from that position.

I would guess that most hymnals published in the last twenty years include at least some of his hymns. Recently here on the blog I referred to O day of peace that dimly shines, sung to C.H.H. Parry's tune JERUSALEM. Another popular hymn, Like the murmur of the dove's song, has also been sung by several denominations. If you go to the "hymnody" section of the website of Hope Publishing and search on Daw's name you can see many of his other hymn texts (first you'll have to click on an agreement not to reproduce them, then find his name in the drop-down menu).

His texts are contemporary without being trendy, generally inclusive and welcoming, but grounded in scriptural reference. Hope Publishing has brought out four collections of his hymns, any of which would be worth your attention:

A Year of Grace: Hymns for the Church Year (1990)
To Sing God's Praise (1992)
New Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs (1996)
Gathered for Worship (2006)

For more of his ideas on hymns and hymnody you can read his Thoughts About Choosing Hymns for Worship online, as well as an interview of sorts: Hymn Writing is Alive and Well.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Daw!

Charles Hubert Hastings Parry

Today is the birthday of English composer Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (C.H.H., as his music was generally attributed, and apparently Hubert to his friends). Born in 1848, his interest in music was cultivated was first cultivated during his years at Oxford. However, he studied outside the college curriculum, with composer George Elvey, organist at St. George's Chapel. His first compositions were for Elvey's choir.

From Oxford, where he officially studied law and modern history, he became an insurance underwriter for Lloyds of London. He continued to study music on the side, and finally in 1880 his first major compositions appeared, a piano concerto and choral scenes from Shelley's Prometheus Unbound. He contributed articles to the original Grove Dictionary of Music, and in 1884 became in instructor at the Royal College of Music. Later, he returned to Oxford as a professor of music, succeeding John Stainer.

Parry composed in many forms, including symphonies and concertos, but much of his music was vocal (art songs) and choral (oratorios, anthems, oratorios, and hymns). His most well-known work is probably the song Jerusalem, originally written to the words of a poem by William Blake for a womens' suffrage event and later sometimes used as a hymn, particularly in England. The familiar tune has also been used for other words, such as the modern hymn text by Carl P. Daw, O day of peace, that dimly shines.

Among Parry's other hymn tunes, this one is a favorite of mine, used here with a paraphrase of Psalm 149.

Sing praise unto God; proclaim a new song,
Amid all the saints God's praises prolong;
A song to your Maker and Ruler now raise,
All children of Zion, rejoice and give praise!

With timbrel and harp and joyful acclaim,
With gladness and mirth, we praise your great Name,
For here in your people great pleasure you seek,
With robes of salvation you cover the meek.

In glory exult, ye saints of the Lord;
With songs in the night, high praises accord;
Go forth in God's service, be strong in God's might,
To conquer oppression and stand for the right.

For this is God's Word: The saints shall not fail,
But over the earth their power shall prevail;
All kingdoms and nations shall yield to their sway.
To God give the glory! Sing praises for aye!

The Psalter, 1912; alt.
Tune: LAUDATE DOMINUM
C.H.H. Parry, 1894