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

With Fruit From Life's Glad Tree

In Advent we sing of the coming reign of God -- of justice and mercy and healing -- just as often as we sing about the imminent birth of a baby.

John Johns (1801-1847) was either a Presbyterian (as he was minister to that church in Crediton for sixteen years) or a Unitarian; sources differ.  In 1836 he was appointed Minister to the Poor in Liverpool. While tending to the needs of his people he contracted a fever and died, afterward being long remembered for his life of service. Today's hymn, written during his Liverpool years, clearly rose from his experience there. It first appeared in the Unitarian book A Collection of Hymns for Public and Private Worship (1837) by Dr. John R. Beard, along with thirty-four other texts by Johns.

Come, commonwealth of God!
Sweet reign of light and love!
Shed peace and hope and joy abroad,
And wisdom, from above.

Over our spirits first
Extend thy healing reign;
Then come and quench our urgent thirst
That ne'er shall pain again.

Soon may we all be blest
With fruit from life’s glad tree;
And in its shade like kindred rest,
All of one family.

John Johns, 1837; alt.
Tune: POTSDAM (S.M.)
Johann Sebastian Bach, 1742;
adapt. John Goss (?), 1854

The tune POTSDAM, which in the twentieth century seems to have appeared primarily in Lutheran hymnals, is attributed to J. S. Bach because the melody is derived from the second E Major fugue (BWV 878) from his The Well-Tempered Clavier (though it may be difficult to excavate).  It first appeared as a four-part hymn tune in The Church Psalter and Hymn Book (1854) along with other tunes taken from Bach. The book's preface claims that it was musical editor John Goss who "rigidly revised and, whenever necessary, corrected and rearranged" the older melodies, though I have not seen Goss credited anywhere else for this tune.

More Hymns for the Second Sunday of Advent:

Eight (Liturgical) Years Ago: Hark! the glad sound

Seven (Liturgical) Years Ago: Hail to you, God's Anointed

Six (Liturgical) Years Ago: Watcher, tell us of the night

Four (Liturgical) Years Ago: O come, O come, Emmanuel

Leading Into Life

God will send the angels to the earth anew,
Bringing joyful tidings, songs the whole world through;
They who first, at Christmas, thronged the heavenly way,
Then, beside the tomb-door, sat on Easter Day.

Refrain
Angels sing his triumph, as you sang his birth,
"Jesus Christ is risen!. Peace, goodwill on earth."

In the lonesome desert, where the Lord was tried,
There the faithful angels gathered at his side;
And when in the garden, grief and pain and care
Bowed him down with anguish, they were with him there.
Refrain

Yet the Christ they honor is the same Christ still,
Who, in joy and sorrow, did his Father's will;
And the tomb deserted shines just like the sky,
Since he passed out from it into victory.
Refrain

God has still these angels, helping, with the Word,
All God’s faithful children, like their faithful Lord;
Soothing them in sorrow, shielding them in strife,
Opening wide the tomb-doors, leading into life.
Refrain

Phillips Brooks, 1877; alt.
Tune: ARMAGEDDON (6.5.6.5.D. with refrain)
Luise Reichardt, 19th cent.; adapt. John Goss, 1871 

The Feast of the Epiphany

Twelve days after Christmas we come again to the Feast of the Epiphany, marked by the familiar story of three royal visitors to the infant Jesus (Matthew 2:1-12).  

Many churches probably celebrated this occasion yesterday but there will be some service today in various places.

Lo! the pilgrim magi
Leave their royal halls,
And with eager footsteps
Speed to Bethlehem's walls;
As they onward journey,
Faith, which firmly rests,
Built on hope unswerving,
Triumphs in their breasts.

Refrain: 
Praise to the Creator,
Fount of Life alone;
who unto the nations,
made Christ's glory known.

O what joy and gladness
Filled each heart, from far
When, to guide their footsteps,
Shone that radiant star;
O'er that home so holy,
Pouring down its ray,
Where the cradled infant
With his mother lay.
Refrain

Costly pomp and splendor
Earthly kings array;
Christ, a mightier Monarch,
Hath a nobler sway;
Straw may be his pallet,
Mean his garb may be,
Yet with power transcendent
He all hearts can free.
Refrain

At his crib they worship,
Kneeling on the floor,
And their God there present,
In that babe adore;
To our God and Savior
We, as seekers true,
Give our hearts o'erflowing,
Give our tribute due.
Refrain

Charles Coffin, 1736;
tr, John David Chambers, 1857; alt.
Tune: ARMAGEDDON (6.5.6.5.D. with refrain)
Luise Richardt, 19th cent.;
adapt. John Goss, 1871 

The Roman Catholic Charles Coffin wrote his hymns in Latin, most for the Paris Breviary (1736).  We saw a much more familiar Epiphany hymn by Coffin a few years ago.

Luise Reichardt (1779-1826), born in Berlin, was the daughter of two composers, Juliane Reichardt and Johann Friedrich Reichardt.  One of her grandfathers had been concert master in the court of Frederick the Great.  Her earliest published songs appeared in 1800 in a collection of her father's work.  This particular melody was adapted into a hymn tune by John Goss, and has been used most often with the text Who is on the Lord's side.




Five Years Ago: Saw you never, in the twilight

Four Years Ago:  Earth has many a noble city

Three Years Ago: What star is this, with beams so bright

Two Years Ago: As with gladness those of old

One Year Ago:  O thou, who by a star didst guide

Saint John the Evangelist

Today is the feast day of Saint John the Evangelist, one of the twelve disciples (perhaps the "beloved disciple")  and author of three Epistles and one Gospel.  Throughout much of Christian history he was also believed to be the author of the Book of Revelation during his exile to the Greek island of Patmos.. Though this is now believed by some scholars to be unlikely, it is the subject of  today's hymn by the seventeenth-century French priest Nicolas le Tourneaux.

An exile for the faith, 
Of his incarnate Lord,

With eagle gaze beyond the stars

The loved disciple soared.

There the new City, bathed

In clear celestial light,

The home of bliss his sprit saw,

The land that hath no night.

There heard through highest heav'n

The Alleluia sound,

The great Amen that ever rolls

Th'eternal throne around.

O grant us, Christ, with John

Into these courts to gaze,

To see the rainbow 'round thy throne

And hear those songs of praise.

Nicolas le Tourneaux, 1686

tr. Edward Caswall, 1849; alt.

Tune: ADVENT (S.M.)

John Goss, 1872 

Today is also the birthday of composer John Goss (December 27, 1800 - May 10, 1880), an eminent English church musician of the Victorian age who trained several other composers of the following generations.   


Four Years Ago: Saint John the Evangelist

Four Years Ago: Sir John Goss

Three Years Ago: Saint John the Evangelist

 

The Confession of Saint Peter

In many liturgical churches, January 18 marks the Confession of Saint Peter, which commemorates the apostle's declaration of the Godhood of Jesus, as told in Matthew 16:13-20. This is apparently the first time that the followers of Jesus realized exactly who they had been following.

Today's hymn is by the Anglican hymnwriter (and eventually Bishop) William Walsham How, and first appeared in Church Hymns (1871), a hymnal produced by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (still in existence today). How was also the chair of the committee that compiled this hymnal.


“Thou art the Christ, O Lord,
The Son of God most high!”
For ever be adored
That name in earth and sky,
In which, though mortal strength may fail,
The saints of God at last prevail!

Oh,great was Peter blest
With blessedness unpriced,
Who, taught of God, confessed
The Godhead in the Christ!
For of thy Church, Lord, thou didst own
Thy saint a true foundation stone.

Thrice was he put to shame,
Thrice did the dauntless fall;
But, oh, that look that came
From out the judgment hall!
It pierced and broke his fearful heart,
And foiled the Tempter’s sifting art.

Thrice fallen, thrice restored!
The bitter lesson learnt,
That heart for thee, O Lord,
With triple ardor burnt.
The cross he took he laid not down,
Until he grasped the martyr’s crown.

Oh, bright triumphant faith!
Oh, courage void of fears!
Oh, love most strong in death!
Oh, penitential tears!
May all these keep us lest we fall,
And make us go where thou shalt call.

William Walsham How, 1871; alt.

Tune: BEVAN (6.6.6.6.8.8.)
John Goss, 1853

There are not many hymns written specifically for this day, but the theme certainly suggests several general hymns which could be sung.

William Croft

Composer William Croft was baptized on this date in 1678 (his birthdate went unrecorded) in Warwickshire. Like John Goss of a few days ago, he was a boy chorister at the Chapel Royal and continued on after his voice broke, studying composition with John Blow and later assuming Blow's organist position at Westminster Abbey in 1708, as Goss did from Thomas Attwood.

Many of Croft's choral compositions were published in a collection called Musica Sacra (1724), including a Burial Service that is still used at state funerals in Great Britain, most recently for Princess Diana in 1997 and the Queen Mother in 2002.

Croft's hymn tunes were used widely and have appeared in most hymnals up to the present day. His most popular remains ST. ANNE, particularly after it became inextricably linked with Isaac Watts' text O God our help in ages past. Here on the blog we have also heard his ST. MATTHEW. Modern scholarship now doubts whether Croft wrote all of the tunes attributed to him, including this familiar one, but I think his name will remain linked with them.

O worship our God, all glorious above,
And publish abroad God's power and God's love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.

O tell of God's might, O sing of God's grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
Whose chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is whose path on the wings of the storm.

The earth with its store of wonders untold,
Almighty, thy power hath founded of old;
Hath 'stablished it fast by a changeless decree,
And round it hath cast, like a mantle, the sea.

Thy bountiful care, what tongue can recite?
It breathes in the air, it shines in the light;
It streams from the hills, it descends to the plain,
And sweetly distills in the dew and the rain.

Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In thee do we trust, nor find thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.

Robert Grant, 1833; alt.
Tune: HANOVER (10.10.11.11.)
William Croft, 1708

Unlike many English hymnwriters, who either come from the clergy or from clerical families, Sir Robert Grant was a lawyer and politician who was for a time the governor of Bombay. After his death, twelve of his verses were collected by his brother, published as Sacred Poems, and including this, his most familiar hymn, a paraphrase of Psalm 104. There is a sixth verse, often left out of modern hymnals (and generally altered even when printed).

O measureless might! Ineffable love!
While angels delight to hymn thee above,
Thy humbler creation, though feeble their lays,
With true adoration shall lisp to thy praise.

Sir John Goss

John Goss was almost certainly named for St. John, on whose feast day the little Goss was born in 1800. His father, Joseph, was a church organist and the son eventually followed in this line.

Young John became a chorister at the Chapel Royal in 1811, and later studied music with composer and organist Thomas Attwood. He succeeded Attwood as the organist at St. Paul's Cathedral in 1838 and remained in that position for more than thirty years. He was also a Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music (a young Arthur Sullivan was one of his students), and was eventually knighted by Queen Victoria in 1872.

During these years he composed mostly church music (anthems, chants, and hymn tunes), though he also produced incidental music for a play, The Sergeant's Wife (sometimes described as an opera, but probably not), and some orchestral music.

His most familiar hymn tune is LAUDA ANIMA, generally sung with Praise, my soul, the King of heaven. My own favorite Goss tune was always ARMAGEDDON, though in recent years I've learned that he only provided the standard arrangement of this tune that was actually written by German composer C. Luise Reichardt. Previously on the blog we have heard Goss's BEVAN. Today we continue in the Christmas spirit with an almost-forgotten song that first appeared with a tune by Goss in Christmas Carols New and Old (1871), collected by John Stainer.

See, amid the winter's snow,
Born for us on earth below,
See the tender Lamb appears,
Promised from eternal years.

Refrain
Hail, thou ever-blessed morn!
Hail, redemption's happy dawn!
Sing through all Jerusalem,
Christ is born in Bethlehem!

Lo, within a manger lies
One who built the starry skies;
One, who throned in height sublime
Sits amid the cherubim.
Refrain

Say, ye holy shepherds, say
What your joyful news today;
Wherefore have ye left your sheep
On the lonely mountain steep?
Refrain

"As we watched at dead of night,
Lo, we saw a wondrous light;
Angels singing peace on earth
Told us of the Savior's birth."
Refrain

Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,
By thy face so meek and mild,
Teach us to resemble thee,
In thy sweet humility!
Refrain

Edward Caswall, 1858; alt.
Tune: HUMILITY (7.7.7.7. with refrain)
John Goss, 1871

I say "almost-forgotten" but it's probably someone's favorite somewhere. There are actually dozens, possibly hundreds, of really forgotten Christmas hymns, carols, and songs in the hymnals of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We like the standards.

John Newton

Thanks to one megahit hymn, John Newton, born on July 24, 1725, is perhaps the most well-known hymn writer of the eighteenth century in modern times (even more so than Watts and Wesley, who wrote a greater number of hymns that are still in current use). Recent years have seen books, documentaries, and even a feature film recounting the story of Newton, slave ship captain turned Anglican priest, and his Amazing grace.

Newton's conversion to Christianity occurred on May 10, 1748, a date which he marked each following year, but he did not abandon the slave trade for some years after that, though eventually he came to renounce and condemn it. While Amazing grace is assumed to refer to his reformation, he wrote another hymn which seems to come even more directly from his past. It begins:

In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopped my wild career.

After settling into his new life in the clergy, Newton and his friend and neighbor William Cowper wrote hymns as part of their regular Bible study. These were collected in a volume called Olney Hymns, published in 1779. Many of them (mostly unknown today) recount stories from scripture, such as this one about Hannah and her prayers for a son, from 1 Samuel 1:4-20.

When Hannah, pressed with grief,
Poured forth her soul in prayer;
She quickly found relief,
And left her burden there:
Like her, in every trying case,
Let us approach the throne of grace.

When she began to pray,
Her heart was pained and sad;
But ere she went away,
Was comforted and glad:
In trouble, what a resting place,
Have they who know the throne of grace!

Eli her case mistook,
How was her spirit moved
By his unkind rebuke?
But God her cause approved.
All swelling sorrows sink apace,
When we approach the throne of grace.

She was not filled with wine,
As Eli rashly thought;
But with a faith divine,
And found the help she sought:
Fresh strength they gain to run their race,
Who come before the throne of grace.

Thousands before have tried,
And found the promise true;
Not one been yet denied,
Then why should I or you?
Let us by faith their footsteps trace,
And hasten to the throne of grace.

John Newton, c. 1779; alt.
Tune: BEVAN (H.M.)
John Goss, 1853

No doubt we'll be seeing more of John Newton's hymns. Amazing grace has been covered exhaustively elsewhere, but there are many other interesting ones to explore.

P.S. This hymn is written in the unique Hallelujah Meter (6.6.6.6.8.8.), not often differentiated in modern hymnal indexes. The most well-known tune in H.M. is DARWALL, originally written in 1770 for a paraphrase of Psalm 148. I don't go on much about meter (really just a summary of the syllables in each line of each verse of a particular hymn), though I think it's kind of interesting. You can read more about hymn meters if you're so inclined.



***UPDATE***  This hymn with words and music together is now posted to be shared on Facebook.  Go to "Conjubilant W. Song" and click on "Photos" then "Albums" -- it's in the Downloadable Hymns album.