Sarah Josepha Hale

Today is the birthday of Sarah Josepha Hale, born in Newport, New Hampshire in 1788, and one of the most influential women of the nineteenth century. She was a schoolteacher before her marriage, and began to write poetry and essays which were published.

Her husband died in 1822, leaving her with five small children to support. Friends from the Freemason lodge to which he had belonged helped her to start a millinery shop with her sister, and also raised money to publish her first book of poetry, The Genius of Oblivion (1823), though she was credited as “a Lady of New Hampshire.” This was followed a few years later by her novel, Northwood (1827), on the subject of slavery (two decades before Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin).

The novel was praised by a Boston Episcopal minister, John Lauris Blake, who asked Hale to move to Boston and become editor of Ladies' Magazine, which he owned (she preferred the title of “editress”). In 1837 the magazine was bought by Louis Antoine Godey and merged with his own publication, Godey's Lady's Book, with Hale as the editor. Godey's became the highest circulation magazine in the country, and Hale purposefully used the magazine as a means of educating women on various topics. She met all the leading activists for the cause of education, publishing their articles and supporting their efforts.

The establishment of Thanksgiving as a national holiday is also attributed to Sarah Hale. Over nearly forty years she wrote letters to state and federal officials to lobby for a nation-wide observance. She had described the sort of celebration she envisioned in her novel Northwood. Various days of thanksgiving had been declared before, the first in 1777, and some states, such as New York, had adopted their own days. The Protestant Episcopal Church (of which Hale was a member) in 1789 had decreed the first Thursday in November as a day of thanks. Hale wrote editorials in support of the holiday in her magazine, such as this one from 1858, which begins with lines from a hymn of thanks by Anna Laetitia Barbauld. Finally, in 1863, Abraham Lincoln decreed the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in the US.

Hale published more than fifty books in her lifetime, including novels, poetry, and children's literature. Her most well-known poem, Mary had a little lamb, was first published in 1830 in a collection titled Poems for Our Children. It was later set to music by Lowell Mason, a fellow strong advocate of education.

This text by Hale first appeared in Mason's Church Psalmody (1831).
Our Father in heaven, we hallow thy Name;
May thy kingdom holy on earth be the same;
O give to us daily our portion of bread;
It is from thy bounty that all must be fed.

Forgive our transgressions, and teach us to know
That humble compassion which pardons each foe;
Keep us from temptation, from evil and sin,
And thine be the glory, forever! Amen!

Sarah Josepha Hale, 1831
Tune: EXPOSTULATION (11.11.11.11.)
Josiah Hopkins, 1830

A later edition of Church Psalmody suggests the tune FOUNDATION, but that tune had probably not yet been published in 1831. Other tunes that would work (though they are also much better known with other texts) include GORDON and ST. DENIO. However, since there has clearly been no great desire to sing rather than say the Lord's Prayer, this hymn is not particularly well known.

Hale finally retired as the “editress” of Godey's Lady's Book at the age of 89, two years before her death in 1879. The Sarah Josepha Hale Award has been established in her honor, to recognize “a distinguished body of work in the field of literature and letters” by authors and artists with a New England connection.

P.S. The portrait of Hale is by James Reid Lambdin, while the picture below is the work of W.W. Denslow, perhaps best known as the original illustrator of L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900).

John White Chadwick

John White Chadwick, born today in 1840, was a Unitarian theologian and author. He grew up in a seafaring family in Marblehead, Massachusetts working in a dry goods store and also learning the shoemaking trade. Money was raised for his education, and he attended the Bridgewater Normal School and the Phillips Exeter Academy. While at school, he read a sermon by Samuel Longfellow, which he later credited with inspiring him to become a minister. He was admitted to Harvard Divinity School and graduated in 1864, despite not having attended college.

This hymn was written for that graduating class of 1864. The Civil War was still in progress, and it is assumed that this text (particularly the third stanza) was influenced by the conflict. For whatever reason it was not included in the last two Unitarian hymnals of 1964 and 1993 (nor were any of Chadwick's other hymns) but it is in the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 as well as others).

Eternal Ruler of the ceaseless round
Of circling planets singing on their way,
Guide of thy people from the depths profound
Into the glory of the perfect day,
Rule in our hearts, that we may ever be
Guided and strengthened and upheld by thee.

We would be one in hatred of all wrong,
One in our love of all things sweet and fair;
One with the joy that breaketh into song,
One with the grief that trembleth into prayer,
One in the power that makes thy children free
To follow truth, and thus to follow thee.

O clothe us with thy heavenly armor, Lord,
Thy trusty shield, the strength of love divine;
Our inspiration be thy constant Word;
We ask no victories that are not thine;
Give or withhold, let pain or pleasure be,
Enough to know that we are serving thee.

John White Chadwick, 1864; alt.
Tune: SONG 1 (10.10.10.10.10.10.)
Orlando Gibbons, 1623

Following his graduation, Chadwick was ordained into the Unitarian ministry at the Second Unitarian Church of Brooklyn, where Samuel Longfellow had recently been the pastor. He remained there until his death in 1904, becoming widely known outside his small congregation for his many published works, including collections of poetry and sermons, biographies (including those of notable Unitarians Theodore Parker and William Ellery Channing) and reviews and articles in several newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times and Harper's (some of those are available online).

Emily Swan Perkins

Emily Swan Perkins (October 19, 1866 - June 27, 1941) was one the founders of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada (originally the Hymn Society of America) in 1922, and served as its Corresponding Secretary for nearly twenty years. Her letters to friends in England about the Society have been credited with influencing the 1936 formation of the Hymn Society in Great Britain and Ireland.

In her younger years she accompanied various singing groups on the piano, beginning at the Sunday school where her father was superintendent. She retained this interest in church music thoughout her life; after she became known for composing and writing hymns and tunes she was appointed to serve on the Commission on Worship of the Presbyterian Church in the USA.

This hymn appeared in her 1921 collection Stonehurst Hymn Tunes, and later in the Presbyterian Hymnal of 1933.

Thou art, O God, the God of might;
Thy power is never failing;
Thou safely leadest in the fight,
’Gainst every foe prevailing.

Thou art, O God, the God of truth;
Thy Word remains unshaken;
Thy justice and Thy righteousness
Have every stronghold taken.

Thou art, O God, the God of love;
Thy mercy is unending;
Thou guardest us with tender care,
Each day our souls defending.

Emily S. Perkins, 1921
Tune: BURG (8.7.8.7.)

At this summer's Annual Conference of the Hymn Society, Perkins was honored by the establishment of the Emily Swan Perkins Lectureship, which will be an annual presentation during the Conference. The first Perkins Lecture was delivered by theologian Marva Dawn. The Executive Committee of the Society was looking for a way to honor the retiring Executive Director, Carl P. Daw Jr., and he suggested that this lectureship in Perkins's name would be an appropriate way. Daw was presented with a copy of Stonehurst Hymn Tunes at the Conference when the Perkins Lecture was announced, and I have the somewhat offbeat hope that he will write a new text to be sung to one of Perkins's tunes. It would be an appropriate collaboration to link the past and present of the organization.

Mary Louise Bringle, current President of the Society, wrote a biographical sketch of Perkins in this year's Conference booklet (from which some of the information in this entry is taken), which concluded:

Truly, it would be ironic if a person who gave so lavishly of her time, talents, and treasure to the worship life of the church and particularly to the life of this organization were to remain an “unsung” hero.


One Year Ago: Emily Swan Perkins

Saint Luke

On October 18 many churches celebrate Saint Luke the Evangelist. Often accepted as the author of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, he is described in Paul's epistles as a physician from Antioch and a fellow traveler during Paul's missionary journeys. Unlike most of the early saints, he was not martyred and reportedly lived to the age of eighty-four.

Like several other hymns in honor of Luke, this oft-published one evokes the theme of healing and extols his Gospel writings. In addition, hymnwriter William MacLagan reminds us of Luke's stories that do not appear in the other Gospels, such as the Prodigal Son, and the great New Testament songs, Mary's Magnificat and Simeon's Nunc dimittis, which also only come down to us from Luke.

What thanks and praise to thee we owe,
O Source and Sacrifice divine,
For Luke, thy saint, through whom we know
So many a gracious word of thine.

How many a soul with guilt oppressed
Has learned to hear the joyful sound:
The prodigal's own sins confessed,
His father’s love, once lost, now found?

And still the church through all our days
Uplifts the songs that never cease,
The blessèd Mary’s hymn of praise,
The agèd Simeon’s words of peace.

O happy saint! whose sacred page,
So rich in words of truth and love
Pours on the church from age to age
This healing unction from above;

The witness of the Savior's life,
Paul the Apostle's chosen friend
Through weary years of toil and strife,
And still found faithful to the end.

So grant us, Christ, like Luke to live,
Beloved on earth, approved by thee,
Till thou at last the summons give,
And we, with him, thy face shall see.

William Dalrymple MacLagan, 1875; alt.
Tune: ELY (L.M.)
Thomas Turton, 1844

Luke is not only the patron saint of doctors, but also of artists, due to a legend that he once painted a portrait of the Virgin Mary on a piece of cypress wood which was formerly a tabletop in the Nazareth home of the Holy Family. The painting, known as the Black Madonna of Częstochowa, remains on display to this day at a popular shrine in Poland.

P.S. The window above is from my own church here in Connecticut, where, serendipitously enough, this afternoon we will be singing Luke's Magnificat and Nunc dimittis (today, the setting by Felix Mendelssohn from 1847), traditionally part of the service of Choral Evensong which we celebrate several times during the year.

One Year Ago: Saint Luke

Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Unitarian hymnwriter Frederick Lucian Hosmer was born today in 1840. It was during his years at Harvard Divinity School that he met William Channing Gannett, and the two of them remained close friends for the rest of their lives. They worked together on two influential collections, Unity Hymns and Chorals (1880) and The Thought of God In Hymns and Poems (1885) and worked over the years on several updated editions of these books. This collaboration was often compared to that of Samuel Longfellow and Samuel Johnson, lifelong friends who met in seminary and also produced two important hymnbooks for Unitarians and Universalists a generation earlier.

Hosmer's hymns spread to other denominational hymnals, particularly in the early years of the twentieth century after he was praised by John Julian in his monumental Dictionary of Hymnology (1907) and by Percy Dearmer, who used a number of Hosmer's texts in the British Songs of Praise (1925).

One thought I have, my ample creed,
So deep it is and broad,
And equal to my every need—
It is the thought of God.

Each morn unfolds some fresh surprise,
I feast at life’s full board;
And rising in my inner skies
Shines forth the thought of God.

I ask not far before to see,
But take in trust my road;
Life, death, and immortality
Are in my thought of God.

To this their secret strength they owed
The martyr’s path who trod;
The fountains of their patience flowed
From out their thought of God.

Be still the light upon my way,
My pilgrim staff and rod,
My rest by night, my strength by day
O blessèd thought of God.

Frederick L. Hosmer, 1880; alt.
Tune: ROCHESTER (C.M.)
Aaron Williams, 1764

Hosmer successfully pastored Unitarian congregations across the country, and moved to California in 1900, intending to live in retirement. However, he then agreed to serve as the interim minister of the First Unitarian Church of Berkeley, and ended up staying until 1904. During that time he established a strong musical tradition there which is still upheld today. A pipe organ was installed, the organist's salary was competitive, and the choir gained paid section leaders. Following his second retirement he was appointed minister emeritus by the congregation, which paid him a monthly stipend until his death in 1929.


One Year Ago: Frederick Lucian Hosmer

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams, born today in 1872, is probably known by more people for his hymn tunes than for the many other forms of music he wrote. Unlike some of the youthful prodigies we have seen, most of his music was written after the age of thirty, though he had earlier studied with composers such as C.H.H. Parry and Maurice Ravel.

In addition to hymn tunes, his music for voice spanned from art songs and simple church anthems to longer choral works and eventually to four operas. This selection was not originally written as a hymn; it comes from his Five Mystical Songs (1911), which were set to texts of George Herbert, the seventeenth century British priest and poet. The tune of the first stanza of the song is used for all three in this adaptation.

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a way as gives us breath;
Such a truth as ends all strife,
Such a life as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a light as shows a feast,
Such a feast as mends in length,
Such a strength as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a joy as none can move,
Such a love as none can part,
Such a heart as joys in love.

George Herbert, 1633
Tune: THE CALL (7.7.7.7.)
Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1911

As predicted last year, we have seen a number of other Vaughan Williams hymn tunes and there are definitely more to come.

One Year Ago: Ralph Vaughan Williams

One Year Ago: Cecil Frances Alexander

One Year Ago: Healey Willan

P.S. - this is post #300! Never really though about getting so far in a bit less than two years.

Yes, Their Pilgrimage Was Shorter

I don't usually think of the Episcopal Hymnal 1982 as one that customarily omits stanzas of hymns. At least, not more than any other current denominational hymnal does (and usually, somewhat less).

The one that I usually remember as missing (because I find it most annoying -- hey, it's my #2 hymn!) is the second stanza of Love divine, all loves excelling. I suppose it may be left out sometimes because the Wesley brothers themselves left it out of one of their later collections, but I'm not sure of what other reasons might be considered.

This morning, three of the five hymns we sang only had three stanzas. There are, of course, hymns that really only have three, but I knew that each of these three were written with more.

Sing praise to God, who reigns above

Be thou my vision

O Jesus, I have promised

Now, it turns out that two of the five stanzas of that last one are generally left out, but three definitely seems short for the other two.

And, to be fair, the two other hymns were as complete as they usually are:

Praise to the Lord, the Almighty

Hope of the world

I guess it was just more noticable today because those first two are pretty well known across several denominations, and it's too bad that we don't get to sing them as completely as others do.

I want all the verses!

P.S. The title of this entry can be found here (though of course it has nothing to do with shorter hymns).

Henry Alford

Henry Alford (October 7, 1810 - January 12, 1871), Anglican priest and eventually dean of Canterbury Cathedral, published fifty-eight books in his lifetime, including poetry collections, a popular book on English grammar, translations (Homer's Odyssey among them), selected sermons, two hymnals, and the four-volume New Testament in Greek, an influential translation and commentary which is still used today. The New Testament work had occupied him for twenty years, and though he began a similar effort on the Old Testament, poor health toward the end of his life forced him to abandon it.

His interest in hymnody began quite early, while away at school he
began writing hymns, and in 1821 he produced A Collection of Hymns for Sundry Occasions (at age 11!). The final verse of one of them reads as follows:

Just as a schoolboy longing for his home,
Leaps forth for gladness when the hour is come;
So true believers, eager for the skies,
Released by death, on wings of triumph rise.

Today's hymn, on a similar theme, was written only seven years later, while he was at Cambridge, but Alford still thought enough of it to include it in his two later hymnals published in 1844 and 1867.

Forth to the land of promise bound,
Our desert path we tread;
God's fiery pillar for our guide
And Jesus at our head.

E'en now we faintly trace the hills,
And catch their distant blue;
The golden city's gleaming spires
Rise dimly on our view.

Soon, when the desert shall be crossed,
The flood of death past o'er,
Our pilgrim hosts shall safely land
On Canaan's peaceful shore.

There love shall have its perfect work,
And prayer be lost in praise;
And all the people of our God
Their endless anthems raise.

Henry Alford, 1828; alt.
Tune: ST. EDMUND (C.M.)
William Stevenson Hoyte, 1875

In 1866, Alford became the first editor of the new magazine Contemporary Review, which is still published today. In March of that year, he wrote an article which criticized “at considerable length” nine of the most popular hymnals of the day. It was probably no coincidence that he was at the same time preparing a new hymnal himself, The Year of Praise, which was intended to introduce congregational hymn singing to Canterbury Cathedral. It was first used at the cathedral on December 2, 1867, and Alford then wrote to one of his daughters:

Today was the first Sunday of the New Hymn Book in the Old Cathedral, and it sounded very nice. I preached on the subject in the afternoon from Psalm 67:3-5 (Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you).

After Alford's death in 1871, his wife, Frances Oke Alford, edited The Life, Journals, and Letters of Henry Alford D.D., Late Dean of Canterbury. The illustration of his library at Canterbury below is taken from that book.

One Year Ago: Henry Alford

William Batchelder Bradbury

William Batchelder Bradbury (October 6, 1816 - January 7, 1868) was an influential publisher as well as a composer whose tunes are is still sung today.

He was born in Maine, and when his family moved to Boston in 1830 he enrolled in Lowell Mason's Boston Academy of Music, and sang in Mason's choir at the Bowdoin Street Church. In 1840 he moved to New York City, where he was the organist at Baptist churches in Brooklyn and Manhattan. He began a series of singing schools there, modeled on the efforts of Lowell Mason in Boston, and was instrumental in the effort to bring music instruction into the public schools of New York. It was during this work with children that he began composing songs for use in his classes.

Bradbury then traveled to Leipzig for two years, studying composition, piano and organ, and music education. While there he attended the funeral of Felix Mendelssohn. After his return, he continued to teach and compose, while becoming more active in publishing collections of Sunday school songs (many of his own composition) and other works, such as the oratorio Esther the Beautiful Queen (1856). His books were extremely popular; fifty-nine collections were published in his lifetime. The musical style of his earlier Sunday school songs led directly to the gospel song style of the later nineteenth century.

We have already seen a number of his tunes here on the blog (click on the Bradbury tag at the end of the entry to see them). One of the earliest songs most children learn is sung to a Bradbury tune: Jesus loves me, this I know. Today's song first appeared in his collection Devotional Hymn and Tune Book (1864), said to be the only Baptist hymnbook published in this country during the Civil War. It is almost certainly this tune that has kept this song in hymnals up to the present day; the text with a different tune may never have lasted.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain:
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand;
All other ground is sinking sand.

When shadows seem to hide thy face,
I rest on thy unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
Refrain

Thy oath, thy covenant, thy blood,
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
Thou then art all my hope and stay.
Refrain

When thou shalt come with trumpet sound,
Oh. may I then in thee be found;
Clothed in thy righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne.
Refrain

Edward Mote, 1834; alt.
Tune: THE SOLID ROCK (L.M. with refrain)
William B. Bradbury, 1863

Edward Mote's text was originally published with six stanzas, but this is the version generally published over the last hundred years, with several of the couplets rearranged into these four stanzas.

Around the time of this tune's writing, Bradbury encountered a poet named Fanny Crosby and suggested that she might write texts for his collections. One of her first published gospel songs, There's a cry from Macedonia, was a collaboration with Bradbury. Following his death, his publishing company became Biglow & Main, probably the most preeminent gospel song publisher in the world between 1870 and 1910.

Saint Francis of Assisi

Several church calendars mark October 4 as the Feast of Saint Francis. He was born Giovanni di Bernardone in 1182, and named for John the Baptist, though he was generally called Francesco because his mother was French, and his father had been away in France when he was born.

Francis was the founder of the religious order of Franciscans, devoted to lives of poverty and service. As a young man, he had seen a vision of the crucified Christ, which is why he is often depicted in art as carrying a crucifix. He was named the patron saint of animals because of various stories of his preaching to birds and taming a wolf. Many people know Francis today due to the widespread popularity of pet blessings that are now held in many churches.

Francis's great hymn depicting God's creation singing God's praises, the Canticle of the Sun, comes down to us in various forms, but this version is probably the most familiar. The Reverend William Henry Draper translated and adapted the text and joined it to this tune in The Public School Hymn Book (1919). It has since appeared in dozens of hymnals, with various alterations.

All creatures of the earth and sky,
With gladness lift your voices high,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou burning sun with golden beam,
Thou silver moon with softer gleam:
O sing praises, O sing praises,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou rushing wind that art so strong,
Ye clouds that sail in heav'n along,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou rising morn in praise rejoice,
Ye lights of evening, find a voice:
O sing praises, O sing praises,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Thou flowing water, pure and clear,
Make music for thy God to hear,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Thou fire so masterful and bright,
That givest us both warmth and light:
O sing praises, O sing praises,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Dear mother earth, who day by day
Unfoldest blesings on our way,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
The flow'rs and fruits that in thee grow,
Let them thy glory also show:
O sing praises, O sing praises,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

All ye of understanding heart,
Forgiving others, take your part,
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Let all things their Creator bless,
Worshipping God in humbleness:
O sing praises, O sing praises,
Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!

Francis of Assisi, 1225;
paraphrase William H. Draper, 1919; alt.
Tune: LASST UNS ERFREUEN (8.8.4.4.8.8.4.4.4.4.4.)
Geistlische Kirchengesang, 1623

The modern-day popularity of Francis of Assisi as the patron saint of animals and the environment (perhaps helped by the 1972 film Brother Sun, Sister Moon) is challenged a bit in the Oxford Dictionary of Saints (1977).

This resulted in caricatures of a sentimental nature lover or a hippy 'drop out' from society, which omit the real sternness of his character and neglect his all-pervasive love of God and identification with Christ's sufferings, which alone make sense of his life.


One Year Ago: Harriet Auber

Karolina Sandell-Berg

Karolina Wilhelmina Sandell-Berg, sometimes called “the Fanny Crosby of Sweden,” was born on this date in 1832. She is reported to have written about 650 hymns and songs, not matching Crosby in numbers, but probably in popularity in her own country.

Her father, a Lutheran pastor, drowned on a family outing when she was 26, and this tragic story is often cited as her inspiration for writing, but in fact she had written hymns before this happened. Like many women of her time, she preferred to remain nearly anonymous, signing her verses only “L.S.” The name of Lina Sandell would not be known for some time.

Her hymns were popularized in Sweden with the help of composer Oskar Ahnfelt, who wrote the music for them and traveled through the country singing them, accompanying himself on the guitar. Also, the opera star Jenny Lind (who had a nickname of her own, the “Swedish Nightingale”) often sang the Sandell/Ahnfelt hymns in recitals and financed the publication of an edition of the composer's songs (many of which had words by Lina). Sandell was married to C.O. Berg in 1867 and died in 1903.

Thus far it appears to me that her hymns were not translated into English until later in the twentieth century and are thus still under copyright in this country (though you can find some online in other places). Our Canadian commenter AuntE just this week posted on her blog about her first encounter with Lina's most well known hymn (here in the US at least), Children of the heavenly Father, which is sung to Ahnfelt's tune TRYGGARE KAN INGEN VARA (actually, the opening words of the hymn in the original Swedish). I'll keep looking for earlier translations of other Sandell-Berg hymns; it seems likely that at least a few were available earlier.

Saint Michael and All Angels

Today is The Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, also called Michaelmas. Four of the most well-known archangels are pictured above, Michael (second from the left, holding his spear over the dragon), Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel, in a window from the church of St. Michael and All Angels in Hughenden, England. At the lectionary link above you can read about those four as well as the nine established orders, or choirs, of angels, most of which are referenced in today's hymn (see if you can tell which are left out!). John Mason Neale translated this hymn from the original Greek text of Saint Joseph the Hymnographer.

Stars of the morning, so gloriously bright,
Filled with celestial splendor and light,
These that, where night never followeth day,
Raise the "Thrice Holy” song ever and aye.

These are thy ministers, these dost thou own,
God of creation, the nearest thy throne;
These are thy messengers, these dost thou send,
Help of the helpless ones! us to defend.

These keep the guard 'midst Jerusalem's bowers,
Thrones, Principalities, Virtues and Powers,
Where, with the Living Ones, mystical Four,
Cherubim, Seraphim, bow and adore.

“Who like the Lord?” thunders Michael the chief;
Raphael, God's healing pow'r, comforteth grief;
And, as at Nazareth, prophet of peace,
Gabriel, the light of God, bringeth release.

Then, when the earth was first poised in mid space,
Then, when the planets first sped on their race,
Then, when were ended the six days’ employ,
Then all the angel choirs shouted for joy.

Still let them succor us; still let them fight,
God of angelic hosts, battling for right;
Till, where their anthems they ceaselessly pour,
We with the angels may bow and adore.

St. Joseph the Hymnographer, 9th cent.
tr. John Mason Neale, 1862; alt.
Tune: TRISAGION (10.10.10.10.)
Henry T. Smart, 1868

This tune by Henry Smart, written for this text in the 1868 revision of Hymns Ancient and Modern, is named for the Trisagion, the "thrice holy" song referenced in the last line of the first stanza.


One Year Ago: Saint Michael and All Angels

Creation Speaks In Praise

Today we look at another hymn that is generally used at the opening of a service. It comes from Jewish origins, but has appeared (in one form or another) in many Christian hymnals as well over the last century.

Praise to the living God!
All praisèd be the Name,
Which was, and is, and is to be,
And still the same!
The one eternal God,
Ere aught that now appears;
The first, the last: beyond all thought,
God's timeless years!

Formless, all lovely forms
Declare this loveliness;
Holy, no holiness of earth
Can God express.
Lo, God is over all,
Creation speaks in praise,
And everywhere, above, below,
God's will obeys.

God's spirit floweth free,
High surging where it will;
In prophet’s word God spoke of old;
And speaketh still.
Established is God's law,
And changeless it shall stand,
Deep writ upon the human heart,
On sea or land.

Eternal life hath God
Implanted in the soul;
This love shall be our strength and stay,
While ages roll.
Praise to the living God!
All praisèd be the Name,
Which was, and is, and is to be,
And still the same.

Daniel ben Judah, 14th cent.
tr. Newton Mann and Max Landsberg, c. 1885
adapt. William Channing Gannett, 1910; alt.
Tune: LEONI (6.6.8.4.D.)
Synagogue melody; adapt, Meyer Leoni, c. 1770

Daniel ben Judah lived in Rome in the fourteenth century. He was a Jewish liturgical poet and a judge, and wrote the original text of this hymn, called the Yigdal, which summarized the thirteen basic articles of the Jewish faith as established by Maimonides. It was originally sung in alternating verses by the cantor and synagogue congregation.

Around 1770, Thomas Olivers, a follower of John Wesley, heard the Yigdal at the Duke's Place Synagogue in London, sung by the congregation's cantor, Meyer Leoni (or Lyon), and was so impressed that he wrote a hymn, The God of Abraham praise, partially taken from the Yigdal but with several Christian references added, and written for the tune that Leoni sang. Olivers's version has appeared in many hymnals, though generally not including all twelve stanzas.

A century later, Unitarian minister Newton Mann collaborated with his friend, the rabbi Max Landsberg, on a more faithful versified translation of the Yigdal, but it was not in the same meter as Leoni's tune. Some years later, William Channing Gannett adapted the Mann/Landsberg translation into this meter, to be used with this tune. Some hymnals use this version, some the earlier version by Olivers, and some have even used versions including stanzas from both.

Saint Matthew

He sat to watch o’er customs paid,
A man of scorned and hard’ning trade;
Alike the symbol and the tool
Of foreign masters’ hated rule.

But grace within his breast had stirred;
There needed but the timely word;
It came, dear Jesus Christ, from thee,
That blessed summons, “Follow me.”

He rose, responsive to the call,
And left his task, his gains, his all.
O wise exchange! with these to part
And lay up treasure in his heart.

Who keep thy gifts, O bid them claim
The steward’s, not the owner’s name;
Who yield all up for thy dear sake,
Let them of Matthew’s wealth partake.

William Bright, 1889; alt.
Tune: NEW YORK (L.M.)
T. Tertius Noble, 1917

One Year Ago: Saint Matthew

Oliver Holden

Oliver Holden, born today in 1765 in eastern Massachusetts, was involved in many fields in addition to music. He served a year in the military, which provided him with an annual pension. He learned carpentry after his town was burnt by the British in the Revolutionary War, and helped to rebuild it. He also became a real estate broker, later opened a music store and a singing school, and served in the state legislature.

He gave land to a Baptist congregation for them to build a church, and worshipped with them for some years, but eventually left and became the pastor of his own Puritan congregation.

We know him best today as a composer; he authored books of hymn and tunes and songs beginning with American Harmony (1792) and Union Harmony (1793). One tune from the latter book, CORONATION, appears in nearly every American hymnal to the present day with All hail the power of Jesus' name. It's the oldest American tune still in regular use.

Holden wrote several hymn texts as well, and since we have had a larger number of composers lately we should look at one of those.

All who seek the throne of grace,
Find that throne in every place;
When we live a life of prayer,
God is present everywhere.

In our sickness or our health,
In our want or in our wealth,
When we look to God in prayer,
God is present everywhere.

When our earthly comforts fail,
When the foes of life prevail,
Then we look to God in prayer;
God is present everywhere.

Then, my soul, in every care,
Supplicating words prepare;
God will answer every prayer;
God is present everywhere.

Oliver Holden, 1835; alt.
Tune: NEW CALABAR (7.7.7.7.)
John D. Farrer, 19th cent.

In 1789, on the occasion of a visit by George Washington to Boston, Holden wrote the words and music to a celebratory ode which contained the lines

Now in full chorus burst the song
And shout the deeds of Washington.

Horatio W. Parker

Horatio William Parker (September 15, 1863–December 18, 1919) is generally considered the finest American composer of his time, though of course there was a definite preference for European composers back then. From a review of one of his chamber music pieces:

Mr. Horatio W. Parker, as our readers may know, is one of the most competent of that much advertised but little heard class, the American composer -- so competent that he is good enough to travel simply as composer, without any stilts of Americanism.

During his long tenure as music professor and later as dean of the music department at Yale University, he continued to compose much church music, and for many of those years he still commuted to Boston on weekends, serving as the organist at Trinity Church, and later to New York City, at the Collegiate Church of St. Nicholas. He edited a hymnal for use at Yale in which he and his fellow professor Harry Jepson arranged all the tunes for men's voices.

Parker's several hymn tunes mostly appeared in the Episcopal hymnals of 1892 and 1916, but a few made their way into other books. This one was composed specifically for this interesting text by Horatius Bonar that deserves to be better known.

Jesus, Sun and Shield art thou;
Sun and Shield forever:
Never canst thou cease to shine,
Cease to guard us never.
Cheer our steps as on we go,
Come between us and the foe.

Jesus, Love and Life art thou,
Life and Love forever:
Ne’er to quicken shalt thou cease,
Or to love us never.
All of life and love we need
Is in thee, in thee indeed.

Jesus, Peace and Joy art thou,
Joy and Peace forever:
Joy that fades not, changes not,
Peace that leaves us never.
Joy and peace we have in thee,
Now and through eternity.

Jesus, Song and Strength art thou,
Strength and Song forever:
Strength that never can decay,
Song that ceaseth never.
Still to us this strength and song
Through eternal days prolong.

Horatius Bonar, 1861
Tune: SUN AND SHIELD (7.6.7.6.7.7.)
Horatio W. Parker, 1895

One Year Ago: Horatio W. Parker

More Voices Found: Jane Fox Crewdson

This year is the two hundredth anniversary of the birth of poet Jane Fox Crewdson. She was born in Cornwall in October 1809, but the exact date went unrecorded, so I'm marking the date of her death in 1863. Like several other women poets and hymnwriters, she suffered from poor health, and was an invalid for many years. Very little more is known about her, unfortunately. Her poetry was published in at least four collections, and the most popular of these was Aunt Jane's Verses for Children (1851) which is still in print today. Several of her poems were later published as hymns.

It may be that during the Moody and Sankey evangelistic crusade to England in the 1870s that Ira Sankey encountered Crewdson's verse. He wrote tunes for at least two of her texts, including this one.

I’ve found a joy in sorrow, a tender balm for pain,
A beautiful tomorrow of sunshine after rain;
I’ve found a branch of healing near every bitter spring;
A whispered promise stealing o’er every broken string,
A whispered promise stealing o’er every broken string.

I’ve found a glad hosanna for every woe and wail;
A handful of sweet manna when earthly strength may fail;
I’ve found a Rock of Ages when desert wells are dry;
And, after weary stages, I’ve found a solace nigh,
And, after weary stages, I’ve found a solace nigh.

I rest within its coolness, its fountains, and its shade;
With blessing in its fullness, when buds of promise fade;
And o'er this recognition there shines a rainbow light,
A glory and fruition, so near! yet out of sight,
A glory and fruition, so near! yet out of sight.

My Savior, thee possessing, I have the joy, the balm,
The healing and the blessing, the sunshine and the psalm;
The promise for the fearful, the solace for the faint,
The rainbow for the tearful, the glory for the saint!
The rainbow for the tearful, the glory for the saint!

Jane Fox Crewdson, 1864; alt.
Tune: CREWDSON (7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6.7.6.)
Ira D, Sankey, 19th cent.

One Year Ago: Jesus Christ, eternal Savior

Catherine Winkworth

Hymn translator Catherine Winkworth was born today in 1827 in London, and moved to Manchester at a young age, where she spent much of the rest of her life. Her interest in translating German hymns of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries was perhaps sparked by the gift of a book (with the generic title Andachtsbuch, or "devotional book") containing some of these hymns, which she received from Christian Karl Bunsen, a family friend who also happened to be the British ambassador to Germany.

Catherine, assisted by her sister Susanna, published two volumes of hymn translations from German titled Lyra Germanica. The first, in 1855, contained 103 hymns, and the second, in 1858, contained 131. These books contained only the texts. In 1863, with the assistance of musical editors William Sterndale Bennett and Otto Goldschmidt, Catherine published The Chorale Book for England, which paired many of her translations to their original German tunes.

Several of her translations have already appeared here (click on her name in the tags below). This familiar hymn is adapted from one of her best known translations from a hymn by Joachim Neander, published in the Chorale Book with its original German tune arranged by Sterndale Bennett. She retained the original meter which is quite unusual for a hymn in English: two very long lines (14 syllables!) followed by a very short line of four syllables and then finished with two lines relatively normal in length. I don't think there is another tune that would fit it.

Praise be to God, the Almighty, who rules all creation!
O my soul, worship the wellspring of health and salvation!
Join the great throng,
Psaltery, organ, and song;
Sound forth your glad adoration.

Praise be to God, who o'er all things is wondrously reigning,
And as on wings of an eagle, uplifting, sustaining!
Have you not seen
All that is needful has been
Sent by God's gracious ordaining?

Praise be to God, who will prosper your work and defend you;
Surely God's goodness and mercy here daily attend you;
Ponder anew
What the Almighty can do,
Who with great love shall befriend you.

Praise be to God, O forget not God's manifold graces!
Each that has life and breath, one song of gratitude raises;
Let the Amen
Sound from God's people again,
Singing forever God's praises.

Joachim Neander, 1680
tr. Catherine Winkworth, 1863; alt.
Tune: LOBE DEN HERREN (14.14.4.7.8.)
Ander Theil des Erneuerten Gesangbuch, 1665
harm. William Sterndale Bennett, 1864

Winkworth's four-stanza translation (fairly free to begin with, according to contemporaneous sources) has been altered in several different ways by several generations of hymnal editors, but the sense is the same. In the English Hymnal (1906) there were three additional stanzas added which were not from the German original, and perhaps written by Percy Dearmer. This is the best of them, I think (though I probably wouldn't add it in myself):

Praise be to God, who, when tempests their warfare are waging,
Who, when the elements madly around you are raging,
Bids them to cease,
Turning their fury to peace,
Whirlwinds and waters assuaging.


One Year Ago: Catherine Winkworth

Harry Thacker Burleigh

Earlier this summer, the General Conference of the Episcopal Church added several persons to be commemorated on the church calendar, including some additional musicians and hymnwriters, which puts them on our calendar here.

Composer Henry "Harry" Thacker Burleigh is marked today, one day before the anniversary of his death (though some sources erroneously show his death as December 12). Burleigh was born and raised in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he sang in a quartet with his brother and two sisters as a young teen, then in high school he joined the newly established Choir of Men and Boys at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. Paul in Erie. Over the next few years, Burleigh performed as a baritone soloist in several area churches and synagogues, as well as for community organizations.

In 1892 he moved to New York City, having won a scholarship to the National Conservatory of Music, and his first chance to receive formal musical training. He became friendly with the school's director, the composer Antonin Dvorak, and became Dvorak's assistant in 1893, copying out the instrumental parts from the manuscript of the New World Symphony. Some sources credit Burleigh's friendship with Dvorak with the elder composer's use of themes in that symphony which evoke African-American spirituals, though Dvorak apparently never confirmed that assumption.

In 1894, Harry Burleigh became the baritone soloist at St. George's Episcopal Church in New York over the objections of many in the congregation who were not comfortable with an African-American song leader. However, he was to remain in that post for the next fifty-two years, reportedly missing only one Sunday. In 1900 he also became the first black soloist at the NYC synagogue Temple Emanu-El. During these years he also began to compose, but his compositions took second place to his concert career for the next several years.

In 1911 he began working as an editor in the New York office of G. Ricordi and Company, an Italian music publisher. He took more of an interest in composing after this, and also in exploring the tradition of the spiritual. He compiled, arranged, and published Jubilee Songs of the United States (1916) and Old Songs Hymnal (1929) which collected more than a hundred spirituals that had not been published before. His arrangements of spirituals, both for soloists and for chorus are still sung today, such as this one.



Burleigh also composed instrumental music, and was renowned for his art songs. He was a charter member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) and later served on its board of directors.

In the Episcopal Hymnal 1940, his hymn tune McKEE was first published with the John Oxenham text In Christ there is no east or west. McKEE was based on the spiritual I know the angel's done changed my name, and named for the Reverend Elmore McKee, the then-current rector of St. George's. You may have sung it; it was published in several hymnals after that.

Harry Burleigh retired as St. George's baritone soloist in 1946 at the age of eighty, two years before his death. A posthumous tribute in the church's newsletter declared He seemed aware of deeper tones of brotherhood and throbbing harmonies of humanity which others did not hear.

Henry Purcell

Today is the 350th birthday of composer Henry Purcell. He was born in London, not far from Westminster Abbey, where he would be organist for many years and where he was eventually buried. His father was a well-known singer and his younger brother Daniel was also a composer (who completed the music for the “semi-opera” The Indian Queen after Henry's death).

Purcell's musical teachers included composers Pelham Humfrey and John Blow, though his talent and fame would eventually outstrip theirs. His composing career was somewhat bookended by associations with people in the “hymn business” (technically, in Purcell's time, it was really still the “psalm business”). Some of his earlier secular compositions appeared in books published by John Playford, whose most relevant book here is probably The Whole Book of Psalmes (1661), which contained some psalm tunes that were sung for a few hundred years thereafter. Toward the end of his life, Purcell's short opera Dido and Aeneas (1689) was written to a libretto by Nahum Tate, who with Nicholas Brady wrote A New Version of the Psalms of David (1696), the psalter that became the most widely used in English-speaking countries; some of the Tate and Brady psalms are still sung today.

While Purcell did not write four-part hymn tunes as we know them, some of his music was later arranged to be used with hymn texts, such as (perhaps) this one.

In the beginning was the Word:
Amid chaotic night
It gleamed with quick creative pow'r
And there was life and light!

Thy Word, O God, is living yet,
Amid earth's restless strife
New harmony creating still,
And ever higher life.

O Word that broke the stillness first,
Sound on! and never cease,
Till all earth's shadows be made light
And all its discord peace!

Till, wail of woe and clank of chain
And heat of battle stilled,
The world with thy great music's pulse,
O Word of Love! be thrilled.

Till selfish passion, strife, and wrong
Thy summons shall have heard,
And thy creation be complete,
O thou Eternal Word!

Samuel Longfellow, 1864; alt.
Tune: WALSALL (C.M.)
from Henry Purcell, 17th cent. (?)

This tune was first published in 1721 in the elaborately-titled A Choice Collection of Psalm Tunes, Hymns and Anthems, For the Delight and Improvement of All who are Truly Lovers of Divine Musick. The book was compiled by William Anchors, who neglected to identify the composers of any of the pieces. Some later sources then attributed the tune to Purcell, while others continued to identify the tune as “anonymous.” Since it is associated with Henry Purcell in many places, I'll claim it for today.

One Year Ago: Henry Purcell

The Many Names of God

God's many names as expressed in the hymns we sing is one of the ongoing themes here, though I've never made this too explicit. The poetic expressions of hymnwriters through the ages use many different names for God, some found in scripture, some not.

We know the familiar names: Father, Creator, Maker, Son, Redeemer, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, Comforter. Love is a name given to God in many hymns. Modern hymnwriting is especially fond of “new” names for God, but I hope we've seen here that “modern” ideas are often not as modern as we think. Some of the hymns we've seen here already have named God in these other ways:

Wisdom

Shield and Defender

Protecting Power

Breath of Life

Sower

Eternal Loveliness

Grace Divine

and the sometimes controversial (elsewhere, but never here)
Mother

Here's another one, by the Unitarian Seth Curtis Beach, primarily known for his book Daughters of the Puritans (1905) a collection of biographical essays on women writers of New England.

Mysterious Presence, Source of all --
The world without, the soul within,
O Fount of life, hear thou our call,
And pour thy living waters in!

Thou breathest in the rushing wind;
Thy Spirit stirs in leaf and flower;
Nor wilt thou from the willing mind
Withhold thy light and love and power.

Thy hand unseen to accents clear
Awoke the psalmist’s trembling lyre,
And touched the lip of holy seer
With flame from thine own altar fire.

That touch divine, O God, impart;
Still give the prophet’s burning word;
And, vocal in each waiting heart,
Let living psalms of praise be heard.

Seth Curtis Beach, 1866; alt.
Tune: WAREHAM (L.M.)
William Knapp, 1738

Mysterious Presence may not be considered sufficiently orthodox a name for some, but this hymn has not been confined solely to Unitarian Universalist hymnals (the list at that link is actually incomplete; the rest of them are here). We will revisit this theme again, perhaps with more emphasis, but if you think about it, you can probably come up with a few uncommon names from hymns you already know. Please feel free to mention them in the comments section!

Amy Beach

Composer Amy Marcy Cheney Beach was born today in 1867 in New Hampshire. Her musical talent was apparent from an early age; reportedly she sang improvised harmony to her mother's melody line at the age of two, began composing (in some fashion or other) at four, and played her first piano recital at seven.

She composed in many different forms, symphony, opera, chamber music, choral music and songs, and of course a few hymn tunes. Many of her works have been recorded, though there are many more still to be heard by modern audiences.

Last year there were no performances of her choral work available for you to hear on YouTube, but one has finally turned up, her anthem Let this mind be in you (the text taken from Philippians 2:5-11, if you want to follow along). Thanks to the Gallery Choir of St. Peter's Catholic Church, Columbia, SC.




In 1921, Beach first went to stay for a period at the MacDowell Colony in her native New Hampshire, and she returned for many summer stays after that, eventually serving on the board of directors. Even during her final years, when her health rarely allowed her to leave New York, she made an effort to attend the official annual meetings. After her death in 1944, her will granted the ongoing proceeds from royalties on her copyrighted works to the colony.


One Year Ago: Amy Beach

Queen Liliuokalani

Today is the 171st birthday of Queen Liliuokalani, the last royal ruler of Hawaii. She composed more than 165 songs and chants, several during her imprisonment in the Iolani Palace following the overthrow of her government by US interests acting without federal authorization.

In 1898 she published Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, which was a combined history and autobiography. Regarding her music, she wrote:

To compose was as natural to me as to breathe; and this gift of nature, never having been suffered to fall into disuse, remains a source of the greatest consolation...

Her most famous song was Aloha Oe (Farewell to Thee), a song about two lovers parting. The melody of this song (which you can hear online) was later adapted into at least three gospel songs:

Go and Tell (1916)
(arrangement by Clarence Kohlman, words by C. Austin Miles)

He's Coming Soon (1918)
(words and arrangement by Thoro Harris)

He Lives on High (1921)
(words and arrangement by B.B. McKinney)

Liliuokalani's melody is also said to bear a resemblance to two songs by Charles Crozat Converse (Rock Beside the Water) and George Root (There's Music in the Air).

In 1896 she was baptized and confirmed into the Episcopal Church, leaving her native church which she felt had not been supportive during her trial and imprisonment. She also supported other religions, attending a celebration of Buddhists and Shintos in 1901 that helped to bring acceptance of those faiths in Hawaii. The deposed Queen Liliuokalani died on November 11, 1917 following a stroke. In 1997, the Liliuokalani Trust finally published a collection of her musical compositions titled The Queen's Songbook.

There is one surviving member of the Hawaiian royalty, Princess Abigail, and she remains devoted to the legacy of her forebears.


One Year Ago: Queen Liliuokalani