Saint Michael and All Angels

The (unfortunately) fading feast of Michaelmas is still celebrated in some places, and of course we have hymns for the occasion. Today's text is one translation of the Latin office hymn Tibi, Christe, splendor Patris, which was written by Benedictine scholar and theologian Rabanus Maurus (c.780-856), who later became Archbishop of Mainz. He is also known for his "mathematic and geometric" poetry, built around the Cross, which can be seen here.

Life and strength of all thy servants,
Brightness of our Maker’s light;
We with angels, earth with heaven,
In thy praise our songs unite.

Thousand thousand guardian seraphs
In thine angel army stand;
Flames the victor cross before them,
Grasped in Michael’s dauntless hand.

Angel-ruler, Christ, we pray thee,
Bid them aid us in our strife,
Grant protection from all evil,
Till we reach the land of life.

Our Creator, God immortal,
Jesus Christ, for us who died,
With the Comforter, the Spirit,
Evermore be glorified!

Rabanus Maurus, 9th cent.
tr. Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1889; alt.
Tune: MERTON (8.7.8.7.)
William H. Monk, 1850



Nine Years Ago: Around the throne of God

Eight Years Ago: Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright

Seven Years Ago: They are evermore around us

Five Years Ago: O Captain of God's host

Three Years Ago: High on a hill of dazzling light

Full of Mercy, Truth, and Grace (Day Ten)

Is thy heart athirst to know
That the God of heav’n and earth
Deigns to dwell with us below,
Yea, hath stoop’d to mortal birth?
Search the Word with ceaseless care
Till thou find this treasure there.

With the sages from afar
Journey on o’er sea and land,
Till thou see the Morning Star
O’er thy heart unchanging stand,
Then shalt thou behold his face
Full of mercy, truth, and grace.

Jesus, let me seek for nought
But that thou shouldst dwell in me
Let this only fill my thought,
How I may grow more like thee,
Through this earthly care and strife,
To the calm eternal life.

With the wise who know thee right,
Though the world accounts them fools,
I will praise thee day and night;
I will order by thy rules
All my life, that it may be
Filled with praise and love of thee.

Laurentius Laurenti, 1700;
tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1863; alt.
Tune: SHERBORNE (7.7.7.7.7.7.)
William H. Monk, 1861

Six Years Ago: We three kings

One Year Ago: I think of that star of long ago

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott (November 29, 1832 - March 6, 1888), novelist, activist, and poet, is still famous enough today to be the subject of today's Google Doodle. 

She was born in Pennsylvania but the family moved to Massachusetts when she was two years old. Her father, Bronson Alcott, was a prominent intellectual of his day, associated with the Transcendentalist movement, but he was not particularly successful at supporting his family, and Louisa began writing to supplement the family income. Her first poem, Sunlight, was published in 1852, and her first book, Flower Fables, three years later.

Her earliest novels were published under a pseudonym because they were not written on "ladylike" subjects, and it was many years before her authorship was revealed. However, they had been financially successful, which was her goal.

Alcott supported several social causes such as abolition, womens' suffrage, and temperance. She knew several of the reformers of the time, including William Lloyd Garrison, Lucy Stone, and Theodore Parker. In 1875 she attended the Women's Congress in Syracuse, NY. She might have written more about these subjects, but following the great success of Little Women (1868) and its successor novels for children, she decided to continue writing what was most lucrative for her (and her family).

Alcott has been quoted in various places as saying that she only wrote one hymn, A little kingdom I possess, which first appeared in a songbook titled The Sunny Side (1875) and later in Alcott's novel Under the Lilacs. However, this quote is taken from a letter she wrote to Eva Munson Smith in 1883 when she gave permission for that text to be included in Smith's monumental Woman in Sacred Song (which was not actually published until 1888). One of the editors of The Sunny Side, Charles Wendte, later published another songbook titled The Carol (1886), in which today's hymn for children appeared. Alcott's name is prominently trumpeted on the book's title page and introduction, and this text appears to have been written at Wendte's request (also, its copyright date is the same as the book's). So, clearly, she did write more than one (and a few of her other poems were matched to tunes by later hymnal editors).

What shall little children bring
As a grateful offering
For the ever-watchful care
That surrounds us everywhere?

Gathered in this happy fold,
Safe from wintry want and cold,
Fed by hands that never tire;
Warmed at Love's unfailing fire.

Sheltered by protecting arms
From the great world's sins and harms,
While a Patience, wise and sweet,
Guides our little wand'ring feet.

Jesus! dearest name of all,
Bless your children great and small;
Faith and hope in God we bring,
These shall be our offering.

Louisa May Alcott, 1886; alt.
Tune: INNOCENTS (7.7.7.7.)
The Parish Choir, 1850;
harm. William Henry Monk, 1861

The postage stamp above was issued in 1940, representing Alcott as one of ten authors in the Famous Americans series of stamps.



Eight Years Ago: John Haynes Holmes

Six Years Ago: Louisa May Alcott

The Feast of All Souls

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Author of life, where’er they be,
Safe in thine own eternity,
Our loved are living unto thee:
Alleluia!

All souls are thine, and here or there
They rest within thy sheltering care;
One providence alike they share:
Alleluia!

Thy Word is true, thy ways are just;
Above the requiem, "Dust to dust,"
Shall rise our psalm of grateful trust:
Alleluia!

O happy they in God who rest,
No more by fear and doubt oppressed,
Living or dying, they are blest:
Alleluia!

Frederick Lucian Hosmer, 1888; alt.
Tune: VICTORY (8.8.8. with Alleluia)
Giovanni da Palestrina, 1591
adapt. William H. Monk, 1861



Five Years Ago: The Feast of All Souls

Emma L. Ashford

I have written about Emma Ashford before on this date (see links below), but unfortunately have not unearthed anything new about her since.  However, in recent months a few people who are also interested in her work have visited the blog and left comments. (I now get many more readers who are searching for a particular writer or composer than those who are looking for the new material.)  One of those commenters has recorded several performances of Ashford's organ compositions and posted them on YouTube.

This is known as Emma Ashford's voluntary on Abide with me (a favorite of many), though of course it's really based on the tune EVENTIDE by composer William H. Monk rather than the text.  Chris S. performs it on a reed organ.



I have been having computer problems for a while now which have mostly curtailed posting but I hope to be back soon.


Four Years Ago: Emma L. Ashford

Two Years Ago: Emma L. Ashford 

The Feast of Pentecost

O God, the Holy Ghost,
In this accepted hour,
As on the day of Pentecost,
Descend in all thy power.

Like mighty rushing wind
Upon the waves beneath,
Move with one impulse every mind;
One soul, one feeling breathe.

The young, the old inspire
With wisdom from above;
And give us hearts and tongues of fire,
To pray, and praise, and love.

Spirit of light, explore
And chase our gloom away,
With luster shining more and more
Unto the perfect day.

Spirit of truth, be thou
In life and death, our guide;
O Spirit of adoption, come!
May we be sanctified!

James Montgomery, 1819; alt.
Tune: PETERBOROUGH (S.M.)
William H. Monk, 1868



Four Years Ago: Joy! because the circling year

Three Years Ago: O prophet souls of all the years

Two Years Ago: Above the starry spheres

One Year Ago: Hail thee, festival day!

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

All the Earth Shall Be Made New

In hundreds of churches all over the world, some version of this hymn was sung this morning, but probably not this particular one. Many more sang at least this tune, but with a different (perhaps related) text.

Jesus Christ is ris'n today, Alleluia!

Our triumphant holy day, Alleluia!

Who did once upon the cross, Alleluia!

Suffer to redeem our loss. Alleluia!

Haste, ye seekers from your fright, Alleluia!

Take to Galilee your flight, Alleluia!

To the sad disciples say, Alleluia!

Jesus Christ is ris'n today. Alleluia!

Lo, the earth awakes again, Alleluia!

From the winter's bond and pain, Alleluia!

Bring we leaf and flower and spray, Alleluia!

To adorn this happy day. Alleluia!

Once again the Word comes true, Alleluia!

All the earth shall be made new, Alleluia!

Now the long, cold days are o'er, Alleluia!

Life and gladness are before, Alleluia!

Jesus Christ is ris'n today! Alleluia!

Christ our Light, our Life, our Way, Alleluia!

Who, by dying conquered death. Alleluia!

Ever sing our love and faith! Alleluia!

Text: Composite

Tune: EASTER HYMN (7.7.7.7. with Alleluias)

Lyra Davidica, 1708; arr. William H. Monk, 19th cent.

As I said, there are, and have been many different versions of this text in English over the last three centuries (it originally derives from a Latin text, perhaps from the fourteenth century). The last stanza here comes from a nine-stanza version published in 1800. The third and fourth stanzas are actually taken from a text by the Unitarian Samuel Longfellow. I can't prove this, but it seems possible that it was written so that Unitarians could get to sing this popular tune also (though it may have only been matched to this tune later).

The second stanza no longer appears in many hymnals, but it actually comes from Lyra Davidica (1708 - full title: Lyra Davidica, or a Collection of Divine Songs and Hymns, partly new composed, partly translated from the High German and Latin Hymns; and set to easy and pleasant tunes), the book where three stanzas of the old Latin text were first translated into English. That version reads:

Jesus Christ is risen today, Halle-Halle-lujah.

Our triumphant Holyday

Who so lately on the Cross

Suffer'd to redeem our loss.

Haste, ye females from your fright

Take to Galilee your flight

To the sad Disciples say

Jesus Christ is risen today.

In our Paschal joy and feast

Let the Lord of life be blest

Let the Holy Trine be prais'd

And thankful hearts to Heaven be rais'd.

The third stanza of this version seems unlikely to be revived; particularly the reference to the "Holy Trine" which does not appear to be a usual shortening of "Trinity," but perhaps an alteration to make it fit the meter of the text.

There is a similar hymn by Charles Wesley which is sometimes sung to this tune: Christ the Lord is risen today, which you might have sung today instead (particularly if you're a Methodist). Many hymnals have even combined stanzas from Wesley and the original.

The tune known now as EASTER HYMN, as first printed in Lyra Davidica is not what we sing today. There it was described as "a little freer air than the grand movement of the Psalm tunes." A later arrangement, closer to what we know, appeared in The Compleat Psalmodist (1749), and this version was later harmonized by William H. Monk. In at least one nineteenth century hymnbook, the tune was matched with a very different text by Charles Wesley: Hark, how all the welkin rings, which we know today by a rather different first line. Christmas might feel a bit different today if that had caught on.

P.S. The art above, The Resurrection of Christ and Women at the Tomb is a fresco by Fra Angelico, from the Convent of San Marco in Florence.

Three Years Ago: Christ is risen! Alleluia!

Two Years Ago: The strife is o'er, the battle done

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

One Fold, One Faith, One Hope Restore

Today's hymn of unity, one of this year's ordinary time themes, was adapted from a longer poem by the Quaker activist John Greenleaf Whittier, which was written for a somewhat different purpose.

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thy grace impart! in time to be
Shall one great temple rise to thee
Thy Church our broad humanity.
Alleluia!

Sweet flow'rs of love its walls shall climb,
Soft bells of peace shall ring its chime
Its days shall all be holy time
Alleluia!

A sweeter song shall then be heard,
The music of the world's accord
Proclaiming Christ, the living Word!
Alleluia!

That song shall swell from shore to shore,
One fold, one faith, one hope restore
The seamless robe that Jesus wore.
Alleluia!

Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

John Greenleaf Whittier, 1864; adapt.
Tune: VICTORY (8.8.8. with Alleluias)
Giovanni da Palestrina, 1591
adapt. William H. Monk, 1861

This four-stanza text may have been first adapted for congregational singing in the Unitarian New Hymn and Tune Book (1914) but the Whittier poem dates back to the Civil War. It was written for the dedication of "Thomas Starr King's house of worship," which was the second church building of the First Unitarian Church of San Francisco (pictured here), which was at 133 Geary Street (now the site of the Neiman-Marcus department store).

Thomas Starr King was a prominent Unitarian minister and respected orator of his day, who came to California in 1860 and used his political influence to ensure that California remained part of the Union in the months leading up to the Civil War. In addition, he helped organize the West Coast division of the United States Sanitary Commission (predecessor to the Red Cross) and raised a great deal of money for that organization. Whittier's original theme of unity in his fifteen-stanza poem for Starr King was more about the divisions of the war and its causes, as seen in these two stanzas:

But through the war-cloud, pray to thee

For union, but a union free,

With peace that comes of purity!

That thou wilt bare thy arm to save,

And, smiting through this Red Sea wave,

Make broad a pathway for the slave!

The familiar tune used for this hymn was arranged by William H. Monk from a choral piece by Palestrina, and is most often sung at Easter, with The strife is o'er, the battle done.

Two Years Ago: Amy Beach

One Year Ago: Amy Beach

Maltbie D. Babcock

Presbyterian minister Maltbie Davenport Babcock was born today in 1858. He began his career in 1882 and served congregations in Lockport, NY, Baltimore, and New York City.

Though he became widely known for his preaching and his ministry in his thirteen years in Baltimore, (which led to a promotion of sorts when he was later called to a Manhattan congregation) he did not publish his sermons, or write a book, as many of his popular contemporaries did.

After his death in 1901 at the relatively young age of 42, his wife, Katherine Tallman Babcock, was apparently asked by many of his admirers to publish some of his writings. She collected what she could gather into a book called Thoughts for Every-Day Living. His sermons had always been delivered from notes rather than full manuscripts, so those were unavailable, but many people had taken their own notes of memorable quotes from his sermons, and some were included in the book along with magazine pieces he had written and some personal correspondence.

At the end of her foreword, she writes "The verses, which were written in moments of recreation, are added..." I can't quite tell if this is somewhat apologetic on her part, thinking perhaps that his poetry was of less value. At any rate, within a few years, several of the verses were set to music and published in many hymnals. Some of Babcock's resulting hymns, I believe, are known to many more people today than anything else once collected in Thoughts for Every-Day Living.

This particular text has not been widely sung; according to the Hymnary site, it has only appeared in two hymnals that they have catalogued. I think it deserves to be better known.

God's boundless Love! As arching sky
Above us when we wake and sleep,
Above us when we smile and weep,
Above us when we live and die.

God's tireless Love! Beside the cot
Of her sick child the mother sleeps.
Our heavenly Father ever keeps
Unweary watch -- and slumbers not.

God's changeless Love! The wand'ring one
Forsakes, forgets, dishonors; yet,
Repenting, going home, is met
With no reproach -- "Welcome, my son!"

God's mighty Love! On Calvary's height,
Suff'ring to save us from our sin,
To bring God's wide dominion in,
And fill our lives with joy and light.

God's endless Love! What will it be
When earthly shadows flee away,
For all eternity's bright day
Th'unfolding of that Love to see!

Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901; alt.
Tune: WINCHESTER NEW (L.M.)
Musikalisches Handbuch, 1690;
harm. William H. Monk, 1847

This little hymn with a large theme seems to walk us all the way through the Bible from beginning to end with different aspects of the love of God. I think the opening stanza suggests the vastness of Creation, followed by the Old Testament God, the guardian of God's people who "slumbers not, nor sleeps" (Psalm 121). Next we get Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, then the Passion, then conclude with a description of the life to come.

I tried literally dozens of different tunes for this one, but sometimes in the end it's best to stick with something familiar.

One Year Ago: Maltbie D. Babcock

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

William Henry Monk

Composer William Henry Monk, born today in 1823 in Brompton, is actually one of the most influential people in the development of hymn tunes as we know them today.

At age 18 he was first employed as a church organist, and served at a few different locations until 1852, when he began playing at St. Matthias Church in Stoke Newington, where he established a daily choral service with only a volunteer choir, and remained there until his death in 1889. He also taught music at various times at Bedford College, the National Training School for Music, The School for the Indigent Blind, and was a professor of music at Kings College.

Monk was intrigued by the Oxford Movement and especially the particular music requirements of high church liturgy. With some friends, he established a musical journal, The Parish Choir, and served as its editor for a time. Though the magazine only lasted three years, it was very influential in Anglo-Catholic circles, and probably led to Monk's employment as the first music editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern, which would eventually sell more than sixty million copies.

In that position, Monk was, in a sense, continuing the work of William Henry Havergal and Henry J. Gauntlett, who in addition to composing their own tunes, often arranged and harmonized tunes from earlier composers into the sort of four-part arrangements we still use today. Monk's own tunes were popular in his time (less so today) but his arrangements of such tunes as ELLACOMBE, ST. MAGNUS, VICTORY, and DIX are still widely known and sung. Remember also that Hymns A&M was one of the earliest hymnals to print the texts and tunes together, which would eventually become the standard.

Monk remained with the Hymns A&M organization, at least in a consulting capacity, until his death, through the editions of 1861, 1868, 1875, and 1889 (his notes on that last edition were completed the day before he died). He also was the music editor of the following collections:

The Holy Year (by Christopher Wordsworth)

The Congregational Psalmist

Psalter, Hymnal, and Anthem Book of the Scottish Church

Book of Common Prayer, with Plainsong and Appropriate Music

This tune of Monk's, originally written for the text Soldiers of Christ, arise, is one that has survived (sometimes called ENERGY). In many Lutheran churches (and probably elsewhere) the first two stanzas were sung each week at the offering. I can still hear my great-grandmother singing this exuberantly.

We give thee but thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All that we have is thine alone,
A trust, O God, from thee.

May we thy bounties thus
As stewards true receive,
And gladly, as thou blessest us,
To thee our first-fruits give.

To comfort and to bless,
To find a balm for woe,
To tend those lost in loneliness
Is angels’ work below.

The captive to release,
To God the lost to bring,
To teach the way of life and peace—
It is a Christ-like thing.

And we believe thy Word,
That strong our faith may be;
Whate’er we do for thine, O Lord,
We do it unto thee.

William Walsham How, 1864; alt.
Tune ST. ETHELWALD (S.M.)
William H. Monk, 1861

We have talked more than once about the hymn that is matched with Monk's most enduring tune: EVENTIDE. As he recalled the origin of the tune years later, it was realized at an 1861 committee meeting shortly before Hymns Ancient and Modern was going to the printer that they had no tune for Abide with me (writer Henry Francis Lyte's own tune was deemed unacceptable). Monk went out and wrote EVENTIDE in ten minutes. His wife, however, remembered it differently, telling the editor of The Music of the Methodist Hymn Book (1935) that he wrote it as they watched a beautiful sunset together. Perhaps she thought it was a better tale for posterity.

Glad Tidings of Great Joy

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.

“Fear not!” it said, for mighty dread
Had seized their troubled mind;
“Glad tidings of great joy I bring
To you and humankind.

“To you, in Bethl'hem town, this day
Is born of David’s line
A Savior, who is Christ the Word,
And this shall be the sign:

The heavenly babe you there shall find
To human view displayed,
All meanly wrapped in swathing bands,
And in a manger laid.”

Thus spake the seraph and forthwith
Appeared a shining throng
Of angels praising God, who thus
Addressed their joyful song:

“All glory be to God on high,
And to the earth be peace;
Good will henceforth from heav’n to earth
Begin and never cease!”

Nahum Tate, 1700; alt.
Tune: WINCHESTER OLD (C.M.)
The Whole Book of Psalmes, 1592
arr. William H. Monk, 1861

This was the first Christmas hymn authorized to be sung in the Church of England. Prior to the eighteenth century, only psalm paraphrases were used in worship. Nahum Tate and Nicholas Brady had published their New Version of the Book of Psalms in 1696, and in 1700 they issued a supplement, which included sixteen texts not based on the Psalms. This hymn is a paraphrase from the well-known nativity story in Luke 2:8-14. You may also know it from the first part of Handel's Messiah, from the soprano recitative There were shepherds abiding in the fields through the chorus Glory to God. (this sequence of text also opens the Christmas Oratorio of Camille Saint-Saëns). I think it may even be in A Charlie Brown Christmas.

Tate's hymn has remained in many hymnals since that time, though it may no longer be so near the top of the Christmas music list. It has been sung to several different tunes, including CHRISTMAS, arranged from a different Handel oratorio (you have to repeat the last line of each stanza), and this early American (and now unknown) tune.


One Year Ago: The World In Solemn Stillness Lay

Horatius Bonar

Today is the 201st birthday of Horatius Bonar, the most well-known of Scottish hymnwriters. He was born in Edinburgh, where he lived much of his life and died in 1889. Though he was ordained in the state Church of Scotland 1n 1838, five years later he left with a number of other pastors who formed the Free Church of Scotland, a new denomination.

He wrote and published articles in church journals, books of theology, and approximately 600 hymns. Ironically, for many years the Free Church of Scotland only authorized the singing of psalm paraphrases in worship, so other churches sang his hymns long before he and his own congregation.

Like Cecil Frances Alexander in Ireland, he began writing hymns for children to explain theology in a simple way, but not expecting them to be used in formal services. His own hymns were published in several volumes, and he also compiled The Bible Hymn-Book (1845) from many writers. He also was a great admirer of the gospel songs used by Dwight Moody and Ira Sankey in their evangelical crusade meetings, and wrote some for their use.

Some of his hymns are still known and sung in different denominations, and have been presented here. This particular one, first published in his collection Hymns of Faith and Hope (1866) is not widely known, but I think deserves to be. The tune I've chosen may be one I've dismissed on occasion, but it suits these joyful words.

Fill thou my life, O Living God,
In every part with praise,
That my whole being may proclaim
Thy being and thy ways.
Not for the joy of praise alone,
Nor e’en the praising heart
I ask, but for a life made up
Of praise in every part!

Praise in the common words I speak,
Life’s common looks and tones,
In fellowship in hearth and home
With my belovèd ones;
Not in the temple crowd alone
Where holy voices chime,
But in the silent paths of earth,
The quiet rooms of time.

Fill every part of me with praise;
Let all my being speak
Of thee and of thy love, O God,
Poor though I be, and weak.
So shalt thou, God, from me, e’en me,
Receive the glory due;
And so shall I begin on earth
The song forever new.

So shall each fear, each fret, each care
Be turned into a song,
And every winding of the way
The echo shall prolong;
So shall no part of day or night
From sacredness be free;
But all my life, in every step
Be harmony with thee.

Horatius Bonar, 1866, alt.
Tune: ELLACOMBE (C.M.D.)
Württemberg Gesangbuch, 1774;
adapt. William H. Monk, 1868

Much later in life, Bonar changed his opinion on singing hymns in church and allowed some of his texts to be sung by his congregation. This was still a controversial decision; two elders of his church reportedly walked out when they were sung, and he was also sharply criticized in The Signal, a Free Church journal.

Bonar's wife, Jane Lundie Bonar, also wrote some hymns, but only one of them (Fade, fade, each earthly joy) was much known and sung.

The Victor Palm Branch Waving

Holy Week begins today with Palm Sunday, as we commemorate Jesus' triumphant entrance into Jerusalem, only days before everything would change.

There are many different traditions in various Christian denominations, but a procession of some kind with palm branches is often included, and many churches encourage their youngest members to participate. This hymn first appeared in a collection of poems primarily for children, Sunshine and Shadow (1873) by Jennette Threlfall, but it has entered many hymnals for general use (often with a combination of the second and third verses, with some lines left out).

Hosanna, loud hosanna,
The little children sang;
Through pillared court and temple
The lovely anthem rang --
To Jesus, who had blessed them
Close folded to his breast,
The children sang their praises,
The simplest and the best.

From Olivet they followed
'Mid an exultant crowd,
The victor palm branch waving,
And chanting clear and loud.
Bright angels joined the chorus
Beyond the cloudless sky,
"Hosanna in the highest!
Glory to God on high!"

Fair leaves of silvery olive
They strewed upon the ground,
While Salem's circling mountains
Sent back the joyful sound.
The Savior of the nations
Rode on in lowly state,
Nor scorned that little children
Should on his bidding wait.

“Hosanna in the highest!”
That ancient song we sing,
For thou art our Redeemer,
To thee our thanks we bring.
O may we ever praise thee
With heart and life and voice,
And in thy blissful presence
Eternally rejoice!

Jennette Threlfall, 1872; alt.
Tune: ELLACOMBE (C.M.D.)
Württemberg Gesangbuch, 1774;
adapt. William H. Monk, 1868

ELLACOMBE is one of those tunes everyone seems to know and that congregations sing well. I've managed to hold off from using it for more than a year because it's not a favorite of mine (three of its four lines are practically identical), but I can't deny that it works.

One Year Ago: Palm Sunday

Christopher Wordsworth

Hymnwriter Christopher Wordsworth (October 30, 1807 - March 20, 1885) was a priest and bishop in the Church of England, well known for the depth of his scholarship, and better known for his other writings than for his numerous hymns. He was a nephew of the Romantic poet William Wordsworth.

Christopher Wordsworth was for eighteen years the vicar of the parish of Stanford-in-the-Vale-cum-Goosey, while also serving as a Canon and later Archdeacon of Westminster Abbey. In 1869 he was appointed Bishop of Lincoln.

His early works were classical history, but he also published a major history of the church and his own editions of the New and Old Testaments. He was his uncle's literary executor, and wrote a biography of him.

In 1862 he published The Holy Year, a collection of 127 of his hymns appropriate for the various Sundays and feast days of the church year. The hymns are strongly based in the scriptures and in complex theological concepts. Many of them are ten or more verses long. It may be for these reasons that only a few of them are still sung today. We saw one of those a few weeks ago. This one also appears in some hymnals, but I have restored two verses (the third and fourth) that are usually omitted.

O day of rest and gladness,
O day of joy and light,
O balm of care and sadness,
Most beautiful, most bright:
On thee, the high and lowly,
Through ages joined in tune,
Sing holy, holy, holy,
To the great God Triune.

On thee, at the creation,
The light first had its birth;
On thee, for our salvation,
Christ rose from depths of earth;
And then, on thee, victorious,
The Spirit sent from heaven,
And thus on thee, most glorious,
A triple light was given.

Thou art a port, protected
From storms that round us rise;
A garden, intersected
With streams of paradise;
Thou art a cooling fountain
In life’s dry, dreary sand;
From thee, like Pisgah’s mountain,
We view our promised land.

Thou art a holy ladder,
Where angels go and come;
Each Sunday finds us gladder,
Nearer to heaven, our home;
A day of sweet reflection,
Thou art a day of love,
A day of resurrection
From earth to things above.

Today on every nation
The heavenly manna falls;
To holy convocation
The silver trumpet calls,
Where God's great light is glowing
With pure and radiant beams,
And living water flowing
In soul refreshing streams.

New graces ever gaining
From this our day of rest,
We reach the rest remaining
To spirits of the blessed.
And still we bring our praises,
Our promised respite won;
The church its voice upraises
To God, blessed Three in One.

Christopher Wordsworth, 1862; alt.
Tune: SUNDAY (7.6.7.6.D.)
William H. Monk, 1862

The prolific hymn tune composer William H. Monk was the musical editor for The Holy Year and also wrote this tune for this hymn. Apparently it is called WORDSWORTH in some later hymnals, but I have given back its original name.

The composers of most of the tunes in The Holy Year are named, but three are only identified by initials. Two of the tunes are credited to "S.H.W." and I don't think it's just a coincidence that those are the initials of Wordsworth's wife, Susanna Hartley Wordsworth. This suggests that the other two composers identified by initials, "A.F." and "E.F." may also have been women, and I'm going to do some further research to see what can be determined (I already have a suspicion as to the identity of "E.F.").