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Ach bleib bei uns, Herr Jesu Christ. Nikolaus Selnecker* (1530/1532 –1592).
The first stanza of this evening hymn ('Abide with us, Lord Jesus Christ') appeared in a Nürnberg hymn book, Geistliche Psalmen, Hymnen Lieder und Gebett (1611). It is a translation of a verse from a Latin hymn by Philipp Melanchthon*, beginning 'Vespera jam venit'. The remainder of the hymn is by Selnecker. Stanza 2 is the second of two additional stanzas found in the Nürnberg 1611 book (see Wackernagel, Das Deutsche...
Ad regias Agni dapes. Latin, Roman Breviary, 1632.
This is the 1632 Roman Breviary version of an anonymous Ambrosian hymn, 'Ad cenam Agni providi'*. For the two texts, see Daniel, Thesaurus Hymnologicus I. 88.
A&M, from the First Edition onwards, included a translation of 'Ad regias Agni dapes' by Robert Campbell*, from his Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850), beginning 'At the Lamb's...
THEBESIUS, Adam. b. Seifersdorf, near Liegnitz, Silesia (Rosochata, Poland), 6 December 1596; d. Liegnitz, 12 December 1652. The son and grandson of Lutheran pastors, he was educated at Liegnitz and the University of Wittenberg (MA 1617), where he studied theology. He became pastor at Mondschütz (Mojęcice) in the principality of Wohlau (Wolów) (1619-27), pastor at Wohlau itself (1627-39), and finally pastor of the Oberstadtkirche, the principal church at Liegnitz (Legnica).
Thebesius is known...
See 'Glory to thee my God, this night'*
Alle Menschen müssen sterben. Johann Georg Albinus* (1624-1679). This celebrated hymn (no longer in EG) was written for the funeral of a Leipzig merchant, Paul von Henssberg, 1 June 1652, and then became well known. It is said to have been a favourite hymn of Philipp Jakob Spener*. It was translated by Catherine Winkworth* in The Chorale Book for England (1863) as 'Hark! a voice saith, All are mortal'. She omitted verse 5, 'Da die Patriarchen wohnen' ('there the Patriarchs dwell'), which was...
GRYPHIUS, Andreas. b. Glogau, Silesia (now Glogów, Poland), 2 October 1616; d. Glogau, 16 July 1664. He was the son of a Protestant priest (the family Latinised the name Greif to Gryphius, a common practice). He had a difficult childhood: he lost his father in 1621 and his mother in 1628, and his school education was interrupted by the disturbances of the wars of religion. He was educated at the Evangelisches Gymnasium at Glogau, the Gymnasium at Fraustadt, and the Akademisches Gymnasium at...
See 'Johannes Scheffler'*
ANNA SOPHIA, Countess of Hesse-Darmstadt. b. Marburg, 17 Dec 1638; d. Quedlinburg, 13 Dec 1683. She was the daughter of the Landgrave (Count) Georg II. She chose a convent life, and in 1657 was elected Pröpstin (lady provost) of the aristocratic Fürsten-Töchter Stift (the prince's daughter's foundation), a Lutheran institute at Quedlinburg. She was elected Abbess in 1680. She wrote Der Treue Seelen-Freund Christus Jesus mit nachdenklichen Sinn-Gemählden, anmuthigen Lehr-Gedichten und neuen...
BOURIGNON, Antoinette. b. Lille, France, 13 January 1616; d. Franeker, the Netherlands, 30 October 1680. She early demonstrated an enthusiasm for religion: she refused the husband chosen for her by her father and devoted her life to a mystical and spiritual life. She had a vision that she was chosen to restore the church to a primitive Christianity, and she was engaged for much of her life in controversy with established religion. She later lived in Ghent and in Amsterdam, where her voluminous...
As pants the hart for cooling streams. Nahum Tate* (1652-1715) and Nicholas Brady* (1659-1726). This is Psalm 42 in A New Version of the Psalms of David by Tate and Brady [New Version*] (1696, 1698). It had 11 stanzas, corresponding to the 11 verses of the psalm. Most books abbreviate the original to produce a text of fewer stanzas: almost all hymnbooks begin with stanzas 1 and 2 ('As pants the hart' and 'For Thee, my God, the living God') and end with stanza 11 ('Why restless, why cast down,...
Auf, auf, ihr Reichgenossen. Johann Rist* (1607-1667).
First published in Rist's Sabbahtische Seelenlust (Lüneburg, 1651). The book is arranged with hymns for the Sundays of the Christian year, and this one is set for the first Sunday in Advent ('Arise, arise...'). It had twelve 8-line stanzas, with the title 'Uber das Evangelium am Ersten Advents Sontage/ Welches beschrieben wird vom heiligen Evangelisten Mattheuss / in seinem Evangelien Buche am 21 Kappitel: Da Sie nun nahe bei Jerusalem...
Auf, auf, mein Herz, mit Freuden nimm wahr. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
This joyful Easter hymn was first published in Johann Crüger*'s Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648), with the title 'Auferstehungs-Gesang' ('Resurrection Hymn'). It had nine 8-line stanzas. The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) and EG 112 both print an eight-stanza text, translated by John Kelly*, omitting stanza 3:
GerhardtJohn Kelly, 1867
Der Held steht auf dem Grabe Und sieht sich munter um, Der Feind liegt und legt abe Gift,...
Auf, ihr Christen, Christi Glieder. Justus Falckner* (1672-ca. 1723).
First published in August Hermann Francke (I)*'s Geistreiches Gesang Buch (1697) and then in Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen*'s Geist-reiches Gesang-Buch, den Kern alter und neuer Lieder (Halle, 1704). It was entitled 'Encouragement to Conflict in the Spiritual Warfare'. It was translated by Emma Frances Bevan* as 'Rise, ye children of Salvation' in Songs of Eternal Life (1858), where it was entitled 'Song of the Soldier'....
FRANCKE, August Hermann (I). b. Lübeck, 22 March 1663; d. Halle, 8 June 1727. He was educated at the Universities of Erfurt, Kiel, and Leipzig, graduating from Leipzig in 1685. Two years later, at Lüneberg, he had a religious experience which caused him to call Lüneberg his spiritual birthplace, and which turned him towards Pietism. He became a disciple of the founder of Pietism, P.J. Spener*, who had instituted meetings for prayer, Bible study and devotion. Francke was more combative than...
Awake, my soul, and with the sun. Thomas Ken* (1637-1711).
Ken's three hymns for morning, evening and midnight were included as an appendix to the 1695 edition of A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College, having previously circulated in pamphlet form. The date and place of writing are uncertain. The 1674 edition of the Manual of Prayers contains the direction to the boys 'be sure to sing the Morning and Evening Hymn in your chamber devoutly'. It is possible that...
BALASIOS. b. ca. first quarter 17th century; d. before 1700. The priest Balasios, who held the posts of protasekretes (1672) and nomophylax (1680) of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, came from a Peloponnesian family. He studied Byzantine music with Germanos of Neai Patrai*. Balasios was active during the second half of the 17th century: the earliest mention is in the manuscript Panteleimon 1008 (dated before 1660), where he calls himself domestikos. His version of the...
GESIUS, Bartholomäus. b. Müncheberg, near Frankfurt-an-der-Oder, 1551/52; d. Frankfurt an der Oder, 1613. His name is spelt in several ways (see MGG entry below). He studied theology at Frankfurt-am-Main from 1575. He broke his studies by working as a cantor in Müncheberg (documentary evidence survives from 1582), and then returned to university, where his presence is recorded in 1585. He became a domestic tutor to a nobleman in Muskau and Sprottau before 1588. He moved to be cantor at the...
The Bay Psalm Book (BPB), or—to use its actual title—The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre ([Boston], 1640), is one of the most famous books ever printed in what is now the United States. Its press run was only 1700 copies. The dozen or so that still survive are almost beyond price today. Their value rests chiefly on the BPB's standing as the first book written and printed in English-speaking North America, and as a symbol of the country's beginnings. Much research...
Befiehl du deine Wege. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
First published in Johann Crüger* and Christoph Runge*, D.M. Luthers und andere vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) (the 'Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch') in twelve 8-line stanzas. It was entitled 'Der 37 Psalm (Vers 5)'.
It is based on that verse ('Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him'; cf. 'Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille'*). But this hymn is a remarkable acrostic on the verse as...
Behold the great Creator makes. Thomas Pestel* (1586-1667).
First published in Pestel's Sermons and Devotions, Old and New (1659), where it forms verses from 'A Psalm for Christmass day morning'. This begins:
Fairest of morning Lights appear, Thou blest and gaudy day,On whom was born our Saviour dear, Make haste and come away.
The hymn begins at verse 5 of this poem, and in its usual form continues to the end (verse 9). It was included in EH, set to the 15th-century tune THIS ENDRIS NYGHT,...
Behold the sun that seemed but now. George Wither* (1588-1667).
First published in Haleluiah, or Britan's second Remembrancer (1641), in the section 'Hymns Occasionall'. Wither hoped, as his prefatory note stated, that a meditation at sunset on the lines of this hymn 'may perhaps expel unprofitable musings, and arm against the terrors of approaching darkness': hence its theme of the decline or sunset of physical life, and the hope of spiritual life:
Behold the sun that seemed but now Enthronèd...
Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee. John Austin* (1613-1669).
First published in Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (Paris, 1668) in seven 4-line stanzas, where it was the first hymn in 'The Office for Sunday', appointed for Matins on Sunday. John Wesley* used stanzas 1-6 in his first hymnbook, A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charlestown, 1737), omitting the final stanza. Austin's original text was:
Behold we come, dear Lord, to Thee, And bow before Thy throne;We come to...
PICTET, Bénédict. b. Geneva, 19 May 1655; d.10 January?/9 June? 1724. Pictet was the son of André Pictet and Barbe Turrettini. He was a Calvinist theologian who revised the Psalter, and who was a pioneer in writing hymns in French-speaking Reformed circles. He was educated by his maternal uncle and godfather, the professor of theology François Turrettini (1623-87), an influential figure in the Reformed Church of Geneva and a defender of the strictest Calvinism. At the age of 14, he entered the...
JONSON, Benjamin (Ben). b. (probably) London, June 1573; d. London, August 1637. His father died shortly after he was born, but his mother married a prosperous bricklayer, a trade to which Jonson himself was apprenticed. However, he had also been educated at Westminster School under William Camden, and was well trained in Latin and Greek and Hebrew. He fought in the campaign in the Netherlands (1591-92), before becoming an actor in a travelling company, and beginning to write his early plays,...
KEACH, Benjamin. b. Stoke Hammond, near Leighton Buzzard, Buckinghamshire, 29 February 1640; d. London, 18 July 1704. He was apprenticed to a tailor. His early reading and experience inclined him towards Calvinism and adult baptism, and by 1658 he was preaching and ministering to a Baptist congregation at Winslow, Buckinghamshire. In 1664 he published The Child's Instructor, a book which contained not only the basic educational information (reading, writing, arithmetic) but also material...
Brich an, du schönes Morgenlicht. Johann Rist* (1607-1667).
This Christmas or Epiphany hymn is in three stanzas in EG. It was first published in Johann Risten himlischer Lieder ('Das Erste Zehn', or First Part, Lüneburg, 1641), where it formed part of a longer hymn of twelve 8-line stanzas, 'Ermuntre dich mein schwacher Geist' ('Courage, my weak spirit'). It was entitled 'Lob-Gesang. Von der frewdenreichen Geburt und Menschwerdung unsers… Seylandes Jesu Christi' ('Song of praise, for the birth,...
Christ, who knows all his sheep. Richard Baxter* (1615-1691).
This is from Baxter's poem, 'The Exit', dated 'Decemb. 19.1682' and printed in Additions to the Poetical Fragments of Richard Baxter (1683). It begins 'My Soul go boldly forth,/ Forsake this Sinful Earth', and the theme throughout is the contrast between the joys of heaven and the pain and sorrow of earth. Verse 11, for example reads:
O Blessed Company,
Where all in Harmony,
Jehovah's Praises Sing,
Still without ceasing:
And all...
Christe, qui sedes Olympo. Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil* (1630-1697).
First published in the Cluniac Breviary of 1686, and then in Santeuil's Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689), for the Feast of St Michael and all angels, 'XXIX Septembris'. In 1689 the first lines were:
Christe, summi Rex Olympi,Par Deo Patri DeusQuem tremiscunt intuendoSanctiores Spiritus:
It had seven stanzas. It was translated by William Palmer* in his Short Poems and Hymns (1845) as 'Christ, in highest heaven enthronèd'*, a first...
RICHTER, Christian Friedrich. b. Sorau, Brandenburg, 5 October 1676; d. Halle, 5 October 1711. The son of a high-ranking civil servant, Richter studied both medicine and theology at the University of Halle. He impressed August Hermann Franke*, who made him inspector of schools and then medical officer of all the educational institutions in Halle. He was a chemist, who researched into materia medica. His hymns were much influenced by the Pietist atmosphere in Halle. In JJ two are annotated...
KNORR VON ROSENROTH, Christian. b. Alt-Raudten, Silesia (Stara Rudna, Poland), 15 July 1636; d. Großalbershof, near Sulzbach, Bavaria, 4 May 1689. The son of the pastor of Alt-Raudten, he was educated at the Latin School in Fraustadt, and later at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder and Stettin. After studying at the Universities of Leipzig and Wittenberg, where he did a dissertation on Roman coins, he travelled through the Netherlands, France, and England. Through meetings with an impoverished Armenian...
RUNGE, Christoph. b. Berlin, 10 September 1610; d. Berlin, 1681. He was the son of a book publisher; he followed his father's profession. He printed the first of Paul Gerhardt*s hymns in Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648); he then edited D.M. Luthers und anderer vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653), of which Johann Crüger* was the music editor. This is the book referred to in JJ as 'the Crüger-Runge G.B.'. The 'D.M.' stands for Doktor Martin.
It...
CHRYSAPHES the Younger b. 1620/25?; d. ca. 1682?. Little is known for certain about the life of Chrysaphes the Younger, who helped Byzantine music to flourish under Ottoman rule. Born in Constantinople, he is mentioned as protopsaltes of the Cathedral of Hagia Sophia in April 1655 and he seems to have worked there until at least 1665: in manuscript Patriarchal Library Hierosol. 4 (dated 1655) Chrysaphes is mentioned by name and described as protopsaltes; in the manuscript Patmos 930 (dated...
SANTEUIL, Claude de. b. 3 February 1628; d. 29 September 1684. Born into a prosperous Parisian family, he became a secular ecclesiastic at the Seminary of St Magloire, Paris, taking the name 'Santolius Maglorianus'. He was invited by Cardinal Péréfixe and Archbishop Harlay to revise the Paris Breviary, which appeared in 1680, containing some of his hymns and those of his younger brother, Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil*. He is best known for the hymn 'Prome vocem, mens, canoram', translated by John...
Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire. John Cosin* (1595-1672).
This is probably the best known of the many English translations of the medieval Latin hymn 'Veni creator spiritus'*. It was first printed in Cosin's A Collection of Private Devotions in the Practice of the Ancient Church (1627), where it was assigned to the Third Hour, at which the Holy Ghost was traditionally thought to have descended at Pentecost. It may have been written for the coronation of King Charles I in 1625, at which...
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life. George Herbert* (1593-1633).
From Herbert's collection The Temple (Cambridge, 1633), published just after his death, this poem was first used as a hymn in the Oxford Hymn Book (1908), and then in SofP. Herbert's original title for the piece was 'The Call' and, in a neat inversion of the traditional idea that God calls us, Herbert makes this call a personal plea for God, through Jesus, to heal and enrich his life.
The poem takes as its starting point Jesus'...
MATHER, Cotton. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 February 1663; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 February 1728. Mather, one of the leading Puritan ministers of the American colonies, was instrumental in introducing the hymns of Isaac Watts* to North America. He was born into one of the prominent Puritan families of Colonial America. His father, Increase Mather (1639-1723), was minister of the prestigious Old North Church in Boston, and president of Harvard College (now Harvard University) from 1692...
Creator Spirit, by whose aid. Latin, translated by John Dryden* (1631-1700).
Dryden's translation of the Latin hymn 'Veni creator spiritus'* appeared first in one of a series of poetical collections published by a bookseller in London, Jacob Tonson, entitled Examen Poeticum: Being the Third Part of Miscellany Poems (1693). It consisted of 39 lines, arranged in irregular verses from four to nine lines in length. It was used, with some alteration, by John Wesley* in his first British hymnbook, A...
GÜNTHER, Cyriakus. b. Goldbach, near Gotha, 15 January 1650; d. Gotha, 7 October 1704. Günther was educated at Goldbach and at Gotha. He studied at the University of Jena, after which he was appointed 'Conrektor' at Eisfeld, Thuringia; he returned to Gotha in 1679 as 'Collega tertius' (third-form master) at the Gymnasium, remaining in that post until his death.
At his death he left a notebook containing over thirty hymns. His son, Friedrich Philipp Günther, verger of St George's Church at...
SUDERMANN, Daniel. b. Liège (Luik), the Netherlands (now Belgium), 24 February 1550; d. Strasbourg, ca. 1631. He was the son of a painter and engraver. For much of his life he lived and worked in Strasbourg. In 1587 he was vicar of the Bruderhof, the chapter house of the cathedral. With Adam Reissner he published translations from the Latin hymns of Prudentius*, Tägliche Gesangbuch…Prudentius vor tausend Jahren, auss dem Latein verteütscht (Strasbourg, 1596). The majority of Sudermann's large...
VETTER, Daniel. b. Breslau, date unknown, mid-17th century; d. ca 1730. He was organist of St Nicholas' Church, Leipzig, and published Musicalische Kirch- und Haus Ergötzlichkeit (Part 1, 1709, Part 2, 1713). In this book he is thought to be the composer of four tunes, although he claimed one only. In Part 2 is the tune known in British books as DAS WALT' GOTT VATER, because it was set a hymn beginning 'Das walt' Gott Vater und Gott Sohn'. It has been pressed into service in different ways: it...
DENICKE, David. b. Zittau, Oberlausitz, Saxony, 31 January 1603; d. Hannover, 1 April 1680. Denicke was educated at the Gymnasium at Zittau, and at the Universities of Wittenberg and Jena, where he studied philosophy and law. He taught law at Königsberg as a 'Privatdozent', before making several journeys between 1624 and 1628 to observe the laws and customs in Holland, England and France. He was then employed as tutor to the sons of the Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg at Herzberg. In 1639 he...
CORNER, David Gregor. b. Hirschberg, Silesia (now Jelenia Góra, Poland), ca. 1587; d. Vienna, Austria, 9 January 1648. Corner studied at the Universities of Prague and Graz, and later became a Doctor of Theology at the University of Vienna. He became a Catholic priest in 1614, and served at Rötz before entering the monastery at Gottweig as a novice in 1628. In 1636 he became abbot of the monastery, but his period of office lasted only a short time because he was nominated as Rektor of the...
Die ganze Welt, Herr Jesu Christ. Friedrich Spee von Langenfeld* (1591-1635).
Probably written at Mainz in 1622, this is believed to have been published in a now-lost collection of Außerlesene Catholische Geistliche Kirchengesäng (1623), and is found in Catholische Kirchen Gesäng (Cologne, 1625), where it had the title 'Frewd der gantzen Welt' ('peace of the whole world'). It is an Easter hymn (EG 110, Gotteslob 219), which links the joy of the resurrection to the coming of spring, with the...
Die güldne Sonne voll Freud und Wonne. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
This vigorous morning hymn was first published in Johann Georg Ebeling*'s Pauli Gerhardti Geistliche Andachten (1666-67). It had twelve 10-line stanzas, all of which are found in EG. It is remarkable for its short lines and insistent rhyming. These suit the topic of the sun rising, full of joy and bliss; although the hymn, while celebrating God as creator of morning and evening, also recognises the transience of human life,...
Drop, drop, slow tears. Phineas Fletcher* (1582-1650).
From Fletcher's Piscatorie Eclogs and other Poeticall Miscellanies (1633), where it is a short six-line poem entitled 'An Hymne', written in ten-syllabled lines, thus:
Drop, drop, slow tears, and bathe those beauteous feet...
In hymnals these were normally divided into lines of six and four syllables to make a total of twelve lines, divided into three stanzas:
Drop, drop, slow tears, And bathe those beauteous feet,Which brought from...
Du Friedefürst, Herr Jesu Christ. Jakob Ebert* (1549-1614).
This hymn is found in EG in three stanzas in the 'Schöpfung, Frieden, Gerechtigkeit' section (EG 422). As the first line, 'Thou Prince of Peace, Lord Jesus Christ' suggests, it belongs in the 'Frieden' ('peace') part of this section. It is found in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied III. 413, with the title 'Um Frieden zu bitten' ('To plead for peace'), one of only two hymns by Ebert in DDK. It was printed in Geistliche deutsche...
Du großer Schmerzensmann. Adam Thebesius* (1596-1652). This is a Passion-tide hymn ('Thou great man of sorrows') published in Passionale Melicum, Das ist: Außerlesene Geist- und Trostreiche Betrachtungen deß allerschmertzlichsten Leydens und Todes unsers Einigen Heylandes und Erlösers Jesu Christi ('Exceptional spiritual and comfort-full considerations of the all-sorrowful sufferings and death of our only Saviour and Redeemer Jesus Christ'), edited by Martin Janus (Görlitz, 1663). This hymn was...
Du meine Seele, singe. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676). This paraphrase of Psalm 146, 'Praise the Lord, O my soul', was first published in Johann Crüger* and Christoph Runge*, D.M. Luthers und andere vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) (the 'Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch') in ten 8-line stanzas. It is found in EG in the 'Psalmen und Lobgesänge' section (EG 302), in an eight-stanza text, omitting stanzas 2 and 3:
GermanEditor's free translation
2....
Du Morgenstern, du Licht vom Licht. Johann Gottfried Herder* (1744-1803), altered by Richard Adelbert Lipsius (1830-1892).
Herder's hymn began 'Du aller Sterne Schöpfer, Licht'. It dates from before 1800, and is found in his Gesammelte Werke ('Collected Works'), ed. Bernhard Suphan, XXIX. 632), entitled 'Christus'. It first appeared, altered as above, in a hymn in a book designed to reform hymnody for the church in Saxony, Entwurf eines Gesangbuches für die Evangelische Landeskirche im...
PRYS, Edmwnd. b. Llanrwst, Denbighshire, 1542/3; d. Maentwrog, Merioneth, 1623. He received his early education in the Grammar School of the Diocese of St Asaph. He went as a student to St John's College, Cambridge in 1565 (BA 1568, MA 1571). He was ordained deacon in 1567 and priest in 1568. He became a Fellow of St John's College in 1570, College Preacher in 1574, College chaplain in 1575, and University preacher in the same year. He was appointed to parishes in North Wales, a number of which...
Ein Lämmlein geht und trägt die Schuld. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
Originally 'Ein Lammeln...', this was published in Johann Crüger's Praxis Pietatis Melica (1648), in ten 10-line stanzas. It is a most beautiful meditation on the Passion of Christ, based on John 1: 29 ('Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world') and on Isaiah 53: 1-7. It is a hymn which narrates the events of the Passion and gives thanks for Christ as 'der große Freund/ und Heiland meiner Seelen' ('great...
Episcopal Church Hymnody, USA
The Introduction is by Raymond F. Glover. The historical survey is by Robin Knowles Wallace.
Introduction
Among the vast number of persons who came as settlers beginning in 1607 to what is now known as the United States of America were many who brought with them a pattern of worship consistent with the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer, the singing of metrical Psalms from the 'Old Version'* of Thomas Sternhold* and John Hopkins*, perhaps a few hymns of human...
HOMBURG, Ernst Christoph. b. Mihla, near Eisenach, 1 March 1607; d. Naumburg, June 1681 (buried 27 June). The son of a pastor, Homburg studied law at Wittenberg (ca. 1632). After his 'Wanderjahre' in the Netherlands, Hamburg, Dresden and Jena, he became a lawyer in Naumburg in 1642. His career was disrupted by ill-health: he suffered from depression and from domestic problems, seeking refuge in writing. He was admired by his contemporaries for his secular work, including Schimpff- und...
Es ist ein' Ros entsprungen. German, probably 15th century
The editors of The New Oxford Book of Carols, to whom this entry is much indebted, place this folk carol as originating in the diocese of Trier in the 15th or early 16th century. They note that it appears in many forms: as a folk carol it was a simple text, subject to many accretions. In its extended form it was what they describe as 'a catch-all narrative of the Annunciation, Conception, Visitation, Birth, shepherds, and magi' (p....
Es kommt ein Schiff, geladen. Daniel Sudermann* (1550-ca. 1631), from an older Marienlied.
This hymn is found in Etliche Hohe geistliche Gesänge, Sampt anderen Geistreichen getichten (Strasbourg, 1626), but originated in a Marienlied ('song to the Virgin Mary') of the 14th century, perhaps by John Tauler*, though possibly earlier (see 'Marian hymns'*). It is given under Tauler in Wackernagel, Das Deutsche Kirchenlied II. p. 303, on the basis of its heading in the 1626 book: 'Ein vraltes Gesang,...
FILOTHEI the Hieromonk. b. Wallachia, ca. 1640; d. ca. 1720. A Romanian interpreter, translator and author of Byzantine hymns and liturgical texts, Filothei studied Byzantine music with priest Teodosie from the Metropolitan Church of Wallachia. He spent a few years in the monasteries on Mount Athos, improving his knowledge of Byzantine music and the Greek and Medieval Slavonic languages. He returned to Wallachia before 1700 and is known as a hieromonk (a monk who has also been ordained as a...
Fortem virili pectore. Silvio Antoniano* (1540-1603), translated by various hands.
This was from the revision of the Roman Breviary, commissioned by Pope Clement VIII, and published in Venice in 1603, the year of Antoniano's death. It was included by John Henry Newman* in Hymni Ecclesiae (1838), for the many virtuous women, who were neither virgins nor martyrs ('Commune Sanctae Martyris Tantum, et nec Virginis nec Martyris') as a hymn for Vespers. It was translated by Edward Caswall* and...
QUARLES, Francis. b. Romford, Essex, 1592 (baptized 8 May); d. London (?), 8 September 1644. He retained a strong connection with the county of his birth throughout his life. He was educated at a school 'in the countrey' (probably meaning the county) and then at Christ's College, Cambridge. After graduating in 1609, he studied at Lincoln's Inn, though he never practised law. He was secretary to Archbishop James Ussher of Armagh (ca. 1626-ca. 1630), returning to London and then to Roxwell, Essex...
ROUS, Francis. b. 1580/81; d. 7 December 1659. Born the son of a Cornish nobleman, Sir Anthony Rous, he was a child prodigy, educated at Broadgates Hall (later Pembroke College), Oxford (BA 1597), and at the age of 16 writing a Spenserian poem, Thule, or, Virtue's History (published 1598). He matured into a serious man of affairs and politician, with a strong sympathy for the Puritan cause. He served as a Member of Parliament from 1626 to 1629, returning in 1640 after the period in which...
FUNCKE, Friedrich. b. Nossen (between Dresden and Chemnitz), 1642 (baptized 27 March); d. Römstedt, near Lüneburg, 20 October 1699. He was educated at Freiberg and Dresden, where he studied music. He was appointed Kantor at Perleberg, in the north of Brandenburg, and Stadt Kantor at Lüneburg (1664). He became pastor of Römstedt in 1694. During his time at Lüneburg he revised the Lüneberger Gesangbuch (see 'Hannoversches Gesangbuch'*) in an edition of 1686. It included 43 of his tunes, and seven...
SPEE von Langenfeld, Friedrich. b. Kaiserswerth, near Düsseldorf, 25 February 1591; d. Trier, 7 August, 1635. He was educated at the Jesuit gymnasium at Cologne, and entered the Jesuit novitiate in 1610, first at Trier and at Fulda, and then as a student of philosophy at Würzburg, finally studying at Speyer and Mainz. He entered the Jesuit priesthood in 1622, and was sent as Professor of Philosophy to Paderborn (1623-26). After a period as a missionary priest, during which he survived an...
Fröhlich soll mein Herze springen. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676). This beautiful Christmas hymn, 'Joyfully should my heart be springing', was first published in Johann Crüger* and Christoph Runge*, D.M. Luthers und andere vornehmen geistreichen und gelehrten Männer geistliche Lieder und Psalmen (Berlin, 1653) (the 'Crüger-Runge Gesangbuch'), with a melody by Crüger. It had 15 verses. Twelve are printed in EG (EG 36), with the original tune, omitting verses 4, 5 and 13:
GerhardtJohn Kelly,...
Frühmorgens, da die Sonn aufgeht. Johann Heermann* (1585-1647).
First published in Heermann's Devoti Music Cordis (Leipzig and Breslau, 1630). It had nineteen 4-line stanzas, and was entitled 'Ostergesang, wie Christus auferstanden, und was wir dannenher für Lehr und Trost haben' ('Easter Hymn. How that Christ has arisen, and what we thence derive for instruction and consolation'). It is found in the Ostern (Easter) section of EG (111) in 15 verses, omitting stanzas 11 ('Der HERR den Tod zu...
Gelobet sei der Herr, mein Gott, mein Licht, mein Leben. Johann Olearius* (1611-1684). From Olearius's Christliche Bet-Schule (Leipizig, 1665), entitled 'Die Ermunterung auß dem Evangelio zur danckbaren Betrachtung dieses hohen Geheimnisses' ('Encouragement from the Gospel to thankful meditation on this high mystery'). The 'high mystery' is the doctrine of the Holy Trinity: the hymn is founded on the Epistle for Trinity Sunday (Revelation 4: 1-11). It had five 8-line verses, all of which are in...
NEUMARK, Georg. b. Langensalza,Thuringia,16 Mar 1621; d. Weimar, 8 July 1681. His father Michael worked as a clothmaker. His mother Martha was a daughter of the well-known princely official Salomon Plathner. In 1624 the family moved to the free imperial city of Mühlhausen (Thuringia), where Neumark received his early education. From 1632 to 1636 he attended the Hennebergisches Gymnasium in Schleusingen, presumably followed by the Latin School in Osterode (Harz) from 1636 to 1640. In 1641 he...
HERBERT, George. b. Montgomery, 3 April 1593; d. Bemerton, near Salisbury, 1 March 1633. Born of a noble family at Montgomery Castle, he was one of seven sons and three daughters. He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1613, MA and Fellow of the College, 1616). In 1618 he was appointed Reader in Rhetoric at Cambridge and was Public Orator to the University, 1620-28. He represented Montgomery in parliament in 1624 and 1625, and appeared to be on the threshold of...
WITHER, George. b. Bentworth, Hampshire, (probably) 11 June 1588; d. London, 2 May 1667. He briefly attended Magdalen College, Oxford (ca. 1604-05), but owing to his father's money difficulties left without taking a degree. He entered the Middle Temple in 1615. He was imprisoned in the Marshalsea for his satirical publication Abuses Stript, and Whipt (1613), and again for his poem 'Wither's motto' (1621). At the outbreak of the Civil War in 1642 he raised a troop of horse for Parliament (his...
GERMANOS of Neai Patrai. b. Tyrnavo/Thessalia, ca.1625; d. ca. 1685. Germanos was born in and studied Byzantine music in Constantinople with Georgios Rhaidestinos and Chrysaphes the Younger*, although in many sources he is mentioned as a contemporary of the latter. In ca. 1665 he was appointed metropolitan of Neai Patrai (today Ypati in the district of Phthiotida) by patriarch Dionysios III. In 1683 he seems to have resigned from this post and gone to live in Wallachia.
There are five known...
Gib dich zufrieden und sei stille. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676).
First published in Johann Georg Ebeling*'s Pauli Gerhardti Geistliche Andachten (1666-67), in fifteen 9-line stanzas, all of which are found in EG in the 'Angst und Vertrauen' ('anxiety and trust') section (EG 371). It was entitled 'Der 37 Psalm (Vers 7)', and the hymn's theme is from Psalm 37: 7, 'Rest in the Lord'. Every stanza ends 'Gib dich zufrieden!' ('be contented!'): the reader or singer is reminded that God hears the sighs...
Glory to thee my God, this night. Thomas Ken* (1637-1711).
This evening hymn shares its origins with the morning hymn, 'Awake, my soul, and with the sun'*, and its early history is described under that heading. Like the morning hymn, it exists in a pamphlet, A Morning and Evening Hymn, Formerly made by a Reverend Bishop of 1692, as follows:
All Praise to thee, my God, this Night;
For all the blessings of the Light.
Keep me, O keep me, King of Kings
Under thine own Almighty...
Gott des Himmels und der Erden. Heinrich Albert* (1604-1651).
This celebrated and beautiful hymn ('God of heaven and earth') is found in the 'Morgen' section of EG in the full seven stanzas, dated 1642 (EG 445). The German text will be found alongside the fine translation by Catherine Winkworth*, 'God who madest earth and heaven'*. Winkworth noted that it was 'not infrequently played at early morning in some of the quiet little German country towns or baths' (p. 184). Both JJ and the Handbook...
Gott Lob, der Sonntag kommt herbei. Johann Olearius* (1611-1684).
From the collection by Olearius, Geistliche Singe-Kunst Und ordentlich verfassetes vollständiges Gesang-Buch (Leipzig, 1671). As the first line makes clear, it is a hymn for Sunday, found in the 'Eingang und Ausgang' section of EG in four verses (EG 162). 'Praise God, Sunday has come, the day on which God made light, and brought us life by rising from the dead; so human beings may rejoice.' Every verse ends 'Halleluja'.
JRW
Gott sei Dank durch alle Welt. Heinrich Held* (1620-1659).
First published in Neu-erfundene Geistliche Wasserquelle (Frankfurt/Oder, 1658) edited by Johannes Niedling (1602-1668), with the title 'Von der Zukunfft Christi'. According to JJ, p. 507, it also appeared in an edition of Johann Crüger*'s Praxis Pietatis Melica dated 1659. It had nine 4-line stanzas, shortened to four (1-4) in the 'Advent' section of EG. The remaining stanzas (5-9) were as follows:
The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941Catherine...
ARNOLD, Gottfried. b. Annaberg, Saxony, 5 Sept 1666; d. Perleberg, Brandenburg, 30 May 1714. He was educated at the Gymnasium at Gera followed by the University of Wittenberg (1685-89). He became a private tutor to a family at Dresden, where he was much influenced by the sermons of Philipp Jakob Spener*, then Senior Court Preacher (until 1690). On Spener's recommendation Arnold obtained another tutor's post at Quedlinburg (1693-97); while at Quedlinburg he published Die erste Liebe, das ist,...
Hail glorious angels, heirs of light. John Austin* (1613-1669).
First published in Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (Paris, 1668), in the section 'Office of the Saints', where it was prescribed in 'Lauds for Saints'. It is a selection from a hymn of eleven 4-line stanzas, beginning with two not used in modern books:
Wake all my hopes, lift up your eys, And crown your heads with mirth· See how they shine beyond the skys, Who once dwelt on our earth.
Peace busy thoughts,...
PJETURSSON, Hallgrim (PÉTURSSON, Hallgrímur). b. Hólar, Iceland, 1614; d. 1674. His father was a bell-ringer at the cathedral. He worked in Copenhagen as a blacksmith, until Brynjolf Sveinsson, who later became Bishop of Iceland, asked him to instruct some returned captives in the Christian faith. He fell in love with one of them, Gudred, living in poverty with her in Iceland although her husband was still living. He married Gudred on the death of her husband, and was subsequently pardoned by...
Hannoversches Gesangbuch (1646 onwards). The 'Hannoversches Gesangbuch' is the name given to the book published in various editions at Hannover and other north German cities, with its first title as New Ordentlich Gesang-Buch Sampt Einer nothwendingen Vorrede und Erinnerung Von dessen nützlichem Gebrauch (Hannover, 1646). Further editions appeared in Braunschweig (1648, 1652, 1653), Lüneburg (1657, 1659, 1660, 1662) and Göttingen (1676). The two major editions after 1646 were:
Das...
HASSLER, Hans (Johann) Leo. b. Nürnberg, 1564 (baptized 26 October); d. Frankfurt-am-Main, 8 June 1612. He was born into a family that was both musical (his father and two brothers were musicians) and prosperous. Like his younger contemporary Heinrich Schütz* he completed his musical education with a visit to Italy. In 1584 he went to Venice, where he came into contact with the Gabrielis, Zarlino, and Merulo. This visit was important in the development of his musical idiom, which combined...
Hark, my soul, how everything. John Austin* (1613-1669).
From Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (1668), where it is the hymn for Lauds on Monday, with the first line as 'every Thing'. It found its way, via George Hickes's Reformed Devotions, into John Wesley*'s first hymn book, the Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charlestown, 1737), where Wesley altered the metre from 7.7.7.7. to 8.8.8.8., probably for the sake of a tune, thus:
Hark, my dull Soul, how every Thing
Strives to adore...
He that is down needs fear no fall. John Bunyan* (1628-1688).
This song is from Part II of The Pilgrim's Progress (1684). It is sung by the shepherd boy in the Valley of Humiliation, 'the best and most fruitful piece of ground in all those parts'. He sings to the pilgrims from his own experience. Mr Greatheart, the guide of the pilgrims, draws attention to the shepherd boy's contentment in a simple life:
Then said their guide, do you hear him? I will dare to say, that this boy lives a merrier...
He wants not friends that hath thy love. Richard Baxter* (1615-1691).
The hymn as it stands in most books, with the first line as above, is a selection of verses from Baxter's poem 'The Resolution', dated 3 December 1663, with a note, 'Psal. 119. 96. Written when I was Silenced and cast out, &c.'. The 'Silenced and cast out' refers to the exclusion under the Act of Uniformity on St Bartholomew's Day 1662 of those incumbents who were not prepared to adhere strictly to the Book of Common...
SCHÜTZ, Heinrich. b. Gera, Saxony, 1585 (baptized 9 October); d. 6 November 1672. Schütz was the most important German composer of the 17th century, with an unprecedented contemporary international reputation. Born at Gera, he grew up in Weissenfels where his musical gifts were noticed in 1598 by Landgrave Moritz of Hessen-Kassel, who stayed overnight in the inn run by Schütz's father Christoph. The Landgrave subsequently arranged for the young Schütz to become a choirboy in his court capelle...
SCHENK (or SCHENCK), Heinrich Theobald. b. Heidelbach, Hesse, April 1656; d. Giessen, April 1727 (buried 15 April). He was educated at the University of Giessen. He taught at his old school, the Pädagogium at Giessen (1677-89) and was appointed town preacher at the Stadtkirche (town church) in 1689.
Heinrich Schenk is known as the author of 'Wer sind die vor Gottes Throne?', a hymn based on Revelation 7: 13-17. It is Schenk's only known hymn. It had twenty stanzas, and was first published in a...
AINSWORTH, Henry. b. Swanton Morley (north west of Norwich), Norfolk, 1569 (baptized 15 January 1570); d. 1622. He was educated at Swanton Morley and at St John's College, Cambridge, moving to Gonville and Caius College, where he excelled at Hebrew but left in 1591 without taking a degree. He developed Separatist views, and was at variance with the Church of England, and also with other sectarians. At some point in the 1590s he emigrated to Holland, living in Amsterdam, where he continued his...
LAWES, Henry. b. Dinton, Wiltshire, 1596 (baptized 5 January); d. London, 21 October 1662. His early career was as teacher of music in the household of the Earl of Bridgewater. In 1626 he was appointed to the Chapel Royal, and in 1631 he became a musician in the King's Musick. At the Restoration of 1660 he was reinstated to these positions, becoming additionally 'Composer in ye Private Musick for Lutes and Voices'. He was famous in his own time, holding concerts at his house which were attended...
PLAYFORD, Henry. b. Islington, London, 5 May 1657; d. London, May-Dec 1709. As the son of the leading English music publisher of the time, John Playford*, he naturally followed in the same line, being apprenticed to his father in 1674, and inheriting part of the business in 1687. Henry maintained many of John Playford's titles and adhered to his preference for typeset music, which was steadily losing ground to the new engraving methods; for these reasons he never attained his father's dominance...
VAUGHAN, Henry, b. Newton-by-Usk, Llansanffraid, Breconshire, April 1622; d. Llansanffraid, 23 April 1695. Born into an old, though impoverished, Welsh family, he was educated by a clergyman-schoolmaster, Matthew Herbert of Llangattock, and then at Jesus College, Oxford, from 1638. Leaving in 1640 before taking his degree, Vaughan then studied law in London at the wish of his father. Attempting to escape the consequences of the Civil War (he fought on the Royalist side), he returned to South...
Here a little child I stand. Robert Herrick* (1591-1674).
From Herrick's His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces, Wherein (amongst other things) he Sings the Birth of his Christ: and Sighes for his Saviours Suffering on the Crosse (1647). It was entitled 'Another grace for a Child', following 'Grace for children', a little known poem-grace that began:
What God gives, and what we take'Tis a gift for Christ His sake:Be the meale of Beanes and Pease,God be thank'd, for those, and these…
'Here a...
Herr Jesu Christe, mein getreuer Hirte. Johann Heermann* (1585-1647). First published in Heermann's Devoti Musica Cordis (Breslau and Leipzig, 1630). It was entitled 'Vom heil. Abendmahl'. It had nine 8-line stanzas, with the note that 'Kyrieleison' should be sung after the fourth and the last line of each stanza. In EG, where it appears in the 'Abendmahl' (Holy Communion) section, this has been added, making 10-line stanzas. The four-stanza text at EG 217 omits stanzas 4, 5, 7, 8 and 9.
It...
Herr Jesu, deine Angst und Pein. Tobias Clausnitzer* (1619-1684). This hymn originated as 'Jesu, dein betrübtes Leiden', a hymn at the end of the first sermon in Clausnitzer's Passions-Blume (1662), where it was entitled 'Clausnicers Passions-Lied/ So zu jeder Betrachtung mit gesungen worden'. It began:
Jesu! Dein betrübtes Leiden!
Deine schwere Creuzes-Pein!
Solle mein ganzes Dencken seyn
Alle Welt-Land abzuschneiden;
Jesu! Deine bitter Noth!
Krancket mich biss auf den Tod.
It...
How happy is he born and taught. Sir Henry Wotton* (1568-1639).
According to Logan Pearsall Smith (1907) this was written during one of the times when Wotton, who led a hectic and adventurous life, was out of favour with King James I. It was published by Isaak Walton in Reliquiae Wottonianae (1651) with the title 'The character of a happy life'. It had six stanzas:
How happy is he born and taught, That serveth not another's will? Whose armour is his honest thought: And simple truth his utmost...
How lovely are thy dwellings fair. John Milton* (1608-1674).
This metrical version of Psalm 84 was one of the Psalms 80-88, dated 'April, 1648 . J.M.' published in Poems, &c. upon Several Occasions (1673). The date of 1648 marks a period between the end of the Civil War and the execution of Charles I, in which there was much tension between the army and Parliament. Milton's most recent biographers suggest that 'the psalms chosen have a particular resonance in the context of the impending...
How shall I sing that majesty. John Mason* (ca.1645-94).
Written probably at Water Stratford, Buckinghamshire, and first published in Mason's Spiritual Songs: or Songs of Praise to Almighty God, upon Several Occasions (1683), as 'A General Song of Praise to Almighty God', a hymn of twelve stanzas. Modern versions print only the first four stanzas, often with the second halves of the second and third stanzas transposed. Although it is not one of Mason's versifications of Psalms, it seems to...
Hymni Sacri et Novi (1689). This is the title of a collection by Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil*, published in Paris and dedicated to Cardinal Bulloni, abbot-elect of Cluny. The author was 'Santolio Victorino' (de Santeuil's religious name, Santolius Victorinus). It contained 53 hymns for saints' days and the Great Festivals of the church's year, and 12 for collective and general use for martyrs, doctors, evangelists, confessors, and others. There followed a prayer and three poems, succeeded by 12...
I sing the birth was born tonight. Ben Jonson* (?1573-1637). Published in Underwoods, a collection of his writings added to his Workes and published in 1640 after his death. It was entitled 'A Hymne On the Nativitie of my Saviour'. The first appearance in a modern book was in the Oxford Hymn Book (1908). It shows Jonson's cleverness, especially in stanza 3 (of 4):
The Father's wisedome will'd it so, The Sonnes obedience knew no No, Both wills were in one stature; And, as that wisedome hath...
I to the hills will lift mine eyes. Scottish Psalter* (1650).
This metrical version of Psalm 121 is one of the best known and most loved of Scottish psalm texts. The text dates from the 1650 Scottish Psalter, and has been in continuous use since that time in Scotland and beyond. It paraphrases the eight verses of the psalm in four Common Metre stanzas of great dignity and simplicity. The 1650 text replaced that of the earlier Scottish Psalter, The Forme Of Prayers And Ministration Of The...
I waited for the Lord my God. Scottish Psalter, 1650.
This metrical version of Psalm 40 has 17 stanzas in The Psalms of David in Metre of 1781 and The Scottish Psalter, 1929, but the text that is customarily used in worship is from stanzas 1-4:
I waited for the Lord my God, and patiently did bear; At length to me he did incline My voice and cry to hear.
He took me from a fearful pit, and from the miry clay, And on a rock he set my feet, establishing my way.
He put a new song in my...
In the hour of my distress. Robert Herrick* (1591-1674).
From Herrick's His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces, Wherein (amongst other things) he Sings the Birth of his Christ: and Sighes for his Saviours Suffering on the Crosse (1647). It was entitled 'His Letanie, to the Holy Spirit'. It had twelve triple-rhymed stanzas, with a refrain, 'Sweet Spirit, comfort me!'
Twelve stanzas was too long even for a litany hymn, and most hymnbooks select five or six.The original text of the six-stanza...
In this world, the isle of Dreams. Robert Herrick* (1591-1674).
Herrick published His Noble Numbers: or, His Pious Pieces, Wherein (amongst other things) he Sings the Birth of his Christ: and Sighes for his Saviours Suffering on the Crosse in1647. It included this poem, entitled 'The white Island: or place of the Blest'. It celebrates the reality of heaven, the 'white Island' (' white' signifying innocence) and contrasts it with the 'teares and terrors' of earth (it should perhaps be...
HINTZE, Jakob. b. Bernau, near Berlin, 4 September 1622; d. Berlin, 5 May 1702. He was the son of the town musician of Bernau, later town musician of Spandau. He was a pupil of the Berlin town musician Paul Nieressen, after which he studied in various towns near the Baltic, Stettin, Elbing, Königsberg, and Danzig. He also spent some time in Denmark. He was town musician ('Stadtmusiker') at Stettin (1651-59), and became Court Musician to the Elector of Brandenburg in 1666.
The Berlin publisher,...
DE BRÉBEUF, Jean, SJ. b. Condé-sur-Vire in Lower Normandy, France, 25 March 1593; d. Saint-Ignace, Canada, 16 March 1649. Born into a family that may have been related to the English Earls of Arundel, Brébeuf entered the Jesuit novitiate at Rouen at age 24, where he taught at the Collège de Rouen and was ordained priest in 1622 at Pontoise. A linguist, he was chosen to go to the missions in New France; he sailed from Dieppe in April 1625. After spending a winter with the Montagnais of the...
See 'Sponsa Christi quae per orbem'*
SANTEUIL, Jean-Baptiste de. b. Paris, 12 May 1630; d. Dijon, 5 August 1697. Born into a prosperous Parisian family, Jean-Baptiste de Santeuil became a regular canon of the celebrated Abbaye de Saint Victor in Paris, taking the name 'Santolius Victorinus'. His duties allowed him welcome opportunities for mingling with society, and he gained a reputation as a wit that was reflected, not entirely creditably, in Santeuilliania, a volume of sayings attributed to him that was published, ostensibly at...
GUYON, Jeanne Marie ('Madame Guyon'). b. Montargis, France, 13 April 1648; d. 9 June 1717. She was born Jeanne Marie Bouvières de la Mothe, of a well-to-do family. After a convent education, she was married (1664) to the wealthy Jacques Guyon (he was then aged 38, she was 16), who died in 1676. The years of her marriage were not happy, according to JJ 'partly from disparity of years, partly from the tyranny of her mother-in-law, partly from her own quick temper' (JJ, p. 475). She had been...
CLARKE, Jeremiah (I). b. ca. 1674; d. London, 1 December 1707. He was a chorister of the Chapel Royal from about 1685 to 1692, and a pupil of John Blow (1648/9–1708). He was organist of Winchester College 1692–5, of St Paul's Cathedral from 1699, and of the Chapel Royal from 1704. He was a prolific and successful composer of both sacred and secular music. His ever-popular 'Trumpet Voluntary' originated as a harpsichord piece called 'The Prince of Denmark's March'; the trumpet was introduced...
TAYLOR, Jeremy. b. Cambridge, 1613 (baptized 13 August); d. Lisburn, County Antrim, Ireland, 13 August 1667. Although his parents were not prosperous, his father taught him some grammar and mathematics before he entered the Perse School. He entered Gonville and Caius College as a 'sizar', a poor scholar who did the duties of a servant, in 1626 (BA 1631, MA 1634). A brilliant student, he was ordained in 1633, graduating in 1631. Through the influence of Archbishop Laud, he was made a Fellow of...
OUDAAN (Oudaen), Joachim Fransz. b. Rijnsburg, the Netherlands, 7 October 1628; d. Rotterdam, 26 April 1692. Oudaan was a tile-maker in Rotterdam. As an enthusiastic young man he was attracted to millenarian sects; he later became associated with the Anabaptists, who were strong in the Netherlands at the time, developing into the Mennonites. Oudaan became a member of the Mennonite community, and a deacon of it. He translated the psalms into Dutch in Davids Psalmen Nieuwelkx op Rym-maat gestelt...
CRÜGER (Krüger), Johann. b. Gross Breesen near Guben, Niederlausitz, 9 April 1598; d. Berlin, 23 February 1662. German Cantor, composer and music theorist. Crüger stands as the most significant melodist since the Reformation. 80 melodies and 19 reworkings of melodies have been attributed to him (Fischer-Krückeberg, 1933). His melodies point stylistically to the transition from 'Kirchenchoral zur Andachtsarie' ('church chorale to devotional song', Moser, p. 84).
Crüger was above all one of the...
AHLE, Johann Georg. b. Mühlhausen, 1651 (baptized 12 June); d. Mühlhausen, 1706 (buried 5 May). He was the son of Johann Rudolf Ahle*, whom he followed as organist of St Blasius (his successor was Johann Sebastian Bach*). Like his father he became a member of the town council, and was a popular local composer of songs for weddings and of sacred music. As a poet and musician he was awarded the 'Dichterkrone' ('poetic crown') by the Emperor Leopold I in 1680. He also wrote a series of...
EBELING, Johann Georg. b. Lüneberg, 8 July 1637; d. Stettin, 4 December 1676. He was the son of a bookseller. He studied at the Johanneum. He also received a sound musical education at the Johanniskirche from the Cantor, Michael Jacobi. While studying at the Helmstadt University (1658-60), his musical talents were sponsored by Christian Ludwig. After spending time at the Collegium Musicum in Hamburg (1660-2), he took himself to Berlin in 1662 where he took on the post of Cantor at St Nicholas...
HEERMANN, Johann. b. Raudten, Silesia (now Rudna, Poland), 1585; d. Lissa (Leszno, Poland), 17 February 1647. He was educated at Raudten and at Wohlau. He then attended the Gymnasium at Breslau (Wroclaw) and then at Brieg (Brzeg), later matriculating as a student at the University of Strasbourg (1609). His studies were cut short by a serious eye infection, and he returned to Silesia, where he was ordained deacon in 1611, becoming assistant to the elderly pastor at Köben (now Chobienia, Poland)....
SCHEIN, Johann Hermann. b. Grünheim, near Annaberg, Saxony, 20 January 1586; d. Leipzig, 19 November 1630. At an early age, after the death of his pastor father, Schein's family moved to Dresden. At the age of 13 he was singing soprano in the court chapel of the Elector of Saxony and receiving instruction in theoretical and practical music from the Capellmeister Rogier Michael. After studies in Schulpforta he matriculated at the University of Leipzig, where he studied law and liberal arts and...
ALTENBURG, Johann Michael. b. Alach, near Erfurt, 27 May 1584; d. Erfurt, 12 February 1640. He was educated at school at Erfurt and at the University (BA 1599, MA 1603). He was a schoolmaster at Erfurt, first as a teacher at the Reglerschule and then as Rektor of the school connected with St Andreas' Church (1600-09). He was also Kantor at St Andreas' from 1601. In 1609 he left teaching to become a pastor, and was assistant at two parishes near Erfurt before becoming pastor at Tröchtelborn...
OLEARIUS, Johann. b. Halle, 17 September 1611; d. Weissenfels, 14 May 1684. Born the son of a well-known Lutheran superintendent, he was educated at the Latin school and at the University of Wittenberg (MA 1627, adjunct of the Faculty of Philosophy, 1635). In 1637 he became Licentiate and Superintendent at Querfurt (south-west of Halle); in 1643 he became 'Hofprediger' (court preacher) and 'Beichtvater' (private chaplain) to the Duke August von Sachsen-Weissenfels at Halle. In the same year he...
ROSENMÜLLER, Johann. b. in or near Oelsnitz (Vogtland), 24 August 1617 (?); d. Wolfenbüttel, 1684 (buried 12 September). He received his early musical training at the Lateinschule at Oelsnitz. In 1640 Rosenmüller matriculated as a student of the theological faculty at Leipzig University and in 1642 he became Collaborator (auxiliary teacher) at the Thomaskirche, where he was promoted to Baccalaureus funerum (first assistant) in 1650. From 1651 Rosenmüller also held the post of organist at St...
AHLE, Johann Rudolf. b. Mühlhausen, Thuringia, 24 December 1625, d. Mühlhausen, 9 July 1673. Ahle began his education at the Gymnasium at Mühlhausen, moved ca. 1643 to Göttingen, and started to study theology at Erfurt University in 1645. Nothing is known of his musical training in these years, but during his university years he took up the office of Kantor at the school and church of St. Andreas in Erfurt (1646). Ahle returned to Mühlhausen in 1650, where he became organist at St. Blasius in...
SCHOP, Johann. b. Hamburg, ca. 1590; d. Hamburg, summer 1667. No documents survive pertaining to his youth and school years. In 1614, Schop gained probationary employment as a musician at the court chapel of Duke Friedrich Ulrich in Wolfenbüttel. His varied instrumental expertise on the lute, cornet and trombone, and his excellent violin playing, led to a permanent post there in 1615. Nevertheless, in the same year Schop moved to the court chapel of King Christian IV of Denmark in Copenhagen,...
BACH, Johann Sebastian. b. Eisenach, 21 March 1685; d. Leipzig, 28 July 1750. He was the most important member of a Thuringian family of musicians, whose technical accomplishment as a performer was revered by his contemporaries, and whose genius as a composer was not only recognized during his own time but has significantly influenced the development of Western music.
He was born in Eisenach and attended the local Latin school, the same one that Martin Luther* had attended two hundred years...
AUSTIN, John. b. Walpole, Norfolk, 1613; d. London, 1669 (buried 31 March). He was educated at the grammar school, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, and St John's College, Cambridge. He became a Roman Catholic sometime between 1632 and 1640. He entered Lincoln's Inn to study for the Bar, but abandoned the law and became tutor to the Catholic Fowler family at the priory of St Thomas near Stafford. He published Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices Containing Exercises for every day in the Week (Paris,...
DOWLAND, John. b. 1563; d. London, between 20 January and 20 February 1626. Nothing is known about the first 17 years of Dowland's life, but it is thought that he underwent his musical apprenticeship in the service of courtiers such as Sir Henry Cobham (with whom he spent some four years in Paris), George Carey, and Henry Noel. In 1588 he was admitted to the degree of B.Mus at Oxford. In the same year John Case, in his Apologia musices, listed him among the most celebrated musicians of the day....
MILTON, John, the elder. b. ca. 1563; d. London, 1647 (buried 15 March). He is believed to have been a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford, and may have been born near Oxford. He moved to London in 1585, where his son, the poet John Milton*, was born in 1608. He was a scrivener, who became sufficiently prosperous to retire to Horton, Buckinghamshire, in 1632. He returned to London in 1643. His music was greatly valued by his contemporaries: it is referred to by his son in the affectionate poem...
PLAYFORD, John. b. Norwich, 1622/23; d. London, between 24 December 1686 and 7 February 1687. He became a London publisher and bookseller. He was apprenticed to the stationer John Benson in 1639/40 for seven years. On completion of his apprenticeship he became a member of the Yeomanry of the Stationers' Company, which entitled him to trade as a publisher. He thereupon obtained the tenancy of a shop in or near the porch of the Temple Church, from which all his publications were issued. His...
ADDISON, Joseph. b. Milston, near Aylesbury, Wiltshire, 1 May 1672; d. Kensington, London, 17 June 1719. He was the son of a clergyman who became Dean of Lichfield. He was educated at Charterhouse and (after a period at Queen's College) Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1691, MA 1693). He became a prominent man of letters: he first made his name with a poem, The Campaign, written in 1704 to celebrate the Duke of Marlborough's victory at Blenheim. He was extremely active politically in Whig circles,...
See 'To my humble supplication'*
STENNETT, Joseph. b. Abingdon, Berkshire, 1663; d. Knaphill, Buckinghamshire, 11 July 1713. He was educated at Wallingford Grammar School. He moved to London in 1685, joining the Seventh Day Baptist Congregation at Pinners' Hall, Broad Street in 1686 and becoming pastor there in 1690. As a Seventh Day Baptist, he was free to preach in other chapels in London on Sundays, and he became widely known and respected as an eminent nonconformist. He married Susanna, daughter of George Guill, a Huguenot...
TRANOVSKÝ, Juraj (Tranoscius). b. Teschen, Silesia (Cieszyn, Poland), 9 April 1592; d. Liptovský Svätý Mikuláš, Hungary, 29 May 1637. He studied at the Gymnasium (Grammar School) at Guben from 1603-05 and at Kolberg, and later at Wittenberg (1607-12), returning to Prague, where he taught in the St Nicholas Gymnasium, later becoming rector of a school in Holešov, Moravia. He was ordained in 1616, and became pastor of Meziřiči. In 1623 he was imprisoned during the persecution of Protestants...
FALCKNER, Justus. b. Langenreinsdorf, near Zwickau, Saxony, 22 Nov 1672; d. probably in America, ca. 1723. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied at Halle under August Hermann Francke (I)*. The intense and demanding Pietism of Halle made him feel inadequate to be a minister, and he became a lawyer in Rotterdam; but he responded to a call from a Swedish pastor, Andrew Rudmann, for help for the Lutherans in America, where he agreed to be ordained (1703). He ministered to a Dutch congregation...
Lord, now the time returns. John Austin* (1613-1669).
First printed in Austin's Devotions in the Antient Way of Offices (Paris, 1668), in the section 'The Office of our B. Saviour', where it is part of 'Complin for our B. Saviour'. It had eight 4-line stanzas:
Lord, now the time returns, For weary man to rest; And lay aside those pains and cares With which our day's opprest:
Or rather change our thoughts To more concerning cares: How to redeem our mispent time, With sighs, and...
GOTTER, Ludwig Andreas. b. Gotha, 26 May 1661; d. Gotha, 19 Sept 1735. The son of a Lutheran Superintendent, he worked in his native town in local government, first as a secretary and then as a senior official (Hofrat). He is described in JJ as 'a pious, spiritually-minded man, with tendencies towards Pietism; and one of the best hymn-writers of the period' (p. 444). His hymns appeared in the Geistreiches Gesang-Buch (Halle, 1697); nine were in the important Pietist collection, Johann...
OPITZ, Martin. b. Bunzlau, Silesia (Boleslawiec, Poland), 23 December 1597; d. Danzig (Gdansk, Poland), 20 August 1639. The son of a master butcher, he was educated at Bunzlau, the Magdalene-Gymnasium at Breslau, and the University at Frankfurt-an-der-Oder. He studied at Heidelberg for a year (1619-20) before travelling as a tutor to a young Danish nobleman in Holland and Jutland. He was briefly professor of poetry at the Gymnasium at Weissenberg, Transylvania (1622-23), before being employed...
SARBIEWSKI, Mathias Casimir (Maciej Kazimierz). b. near Plonsk, Poland, 24 February 1595; d. 2 April 1640. Sarbiewski entered the tutelage of the Jesuit order at the age of seventeen. After a thorough grounding in rhetoric, philosophy, and the humanities, he journeyed to Rome in 1622, where he was ordained as a priest in 1623. It was perhaps during this time that he first encountered Maffeo Barberini, a man educated by and sympathetic to the Jesuits (Barberini was elected Pope Urban VIII in...
FRANCK, Melchior. b. Zittau, ca. 1579?; d. Coburg, 1 June 1639. Little is known of his early life, but he was a chorister at St Anna's Church, Augsburg. He was a pupil of Hans Leo Hassler*, moving with him to Nürnberg in 1601, where Franck published his chorale collection, Contrapuncti Compositi deutscher Psalmen und anderer geistlichen Kirchengesänge (1602). He was appointed Kapellmeister to Duke Johann Casimir of Saxe-Coburg, who encouraged his work until the Duke's death in 1633; his...
TESCHNER, Melchior. b. Fraustadt, Silesia (now Wschowa, Poland), 29 April 1584; d. Oberpritschen (now Przyczyna Górna, Poland), 1 December 1635. He was educated at Fraudstadt (he may have been taught by Valerius Herberger*, with whom he was later to be associated) and at the University of Frankfurt an der Oder, where he studied Philosophy, Theology and Music, the last taught by Bartholomäus Gesius*. In 1609 he was appointed Kantor at the Lutheran Church at Fraustadt known as the 'Kripplein...
VULPIUS, Melchior. b. Wasungen, near Meiningen, Thuringia, 1570; d. Weimar, 7 August 1615. His surname was originally Fuchs ('Fox'); he latinised it to Vulpius (a common practice, cf. Paul Speratus*) during his time in Schleusingen, Thuringia, where, under the patronage of the court chaplain, A. Scherdinger, he became a teaching assistant at the Gymnasium in 1589; then, from 1591, Cantor choralis, and later Cantor figuralis. One can infer from a petition of September 1590 that at first Vulpius...
SCHIRMER, Michael. b. Leipzig, 1606 (baptised 18 July); d. Berlin, 4 May 1673. He was educated at the Thomasschule at Leipzig, and studied theology at the University there. He was a youthful prodigy, who began his undergraduate study at the age of 13. He became Rektor at Freiberg (Saxony) in 1630, combining it with the post of pastor at Striegnitz. He was crowned as a 'King's Poet' in 1637.
In 1636 he was appointed Sub-Rektor at the Gymnasium at the Greyfriars Cloister in Berlin, where he...
TATE, Nahum. b. ca. 1652; d. 30 July 1715. Born of an Irish family, he was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1672). He moved to London in 1676, and became part of the London literary scene, where he became a friend of John Dryden* and published poems and translations from Ovid and Juvenal. He was active in the drama also, re-writing the end of Shakespeare's King Lear to give it a happy ending (which is not such a silly idea as it sounds: Dr Johnson approved of it, and it was played as the...
A New Version of the Psalms of David, Fitted to the Tunes Used in Churches, by Nahum Tate* and Nicholas Brady* (1696) was a response to mounting criticism of Sternhold* and Hopkins*'s psalm paraphrases of 1562. It made slow headway against the Old Version*, but eventually gained an acknowledged place as an alternative psalm book for Anglican use. From about 1770 to 1830 it was probably the most widely used word book in the church, being frequently bound at the back of the Book of Common Prayer....
BRADY, Nicholas. b. Bandon, Cork, Ireland, 28 October 1659; d. Richmond, Surrey, 20 May 1726. He was educated at Cork, and at Westminster School, London. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, but was sent down, for reasons that are unknown. He returned to Ireland and entered Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1685, MA 1686). He was ordained in 1687, becoming a prebendary of Cork Cathedral and the holder of several poor Irish livings. Early in the reign of William III he came to London, where he...
LE TOURNEAUX, Nicholas. b. Rouen, Normandy, 30 April 1640; d. Villers sur Fère, West of Rheims, 28 November 1686. Born into a poor family, he was educated by the Jesuits in Paris, and became a priest 'under the canonical age' (Frost, 1962, p. 574). He was appointed vicar of St Étienne des Tonneliers in his native Rouen, moving to the Sainte Chapelle, Paris, in 1675, before becoming Prior of the monastery at Villers sur Fère. Some of his hymns were included in the Paris Breviary of 1680, and the...
Now from the altar of my heart. John Mason* (ca. 1646-1694).
This is from Mason's Spiritual Songs, or, Songs of Praise to Almighty God upon several occasions (1683). It was entitled 'A Song of Praise for the Evening'. It had three stanzas and a half stanza:
Now from the Altar of my Heart, Let Incense Flames arise. Assist me, Lord, to offer up Mine Evening Sacrifice. Awake, my Love; Awake, my Joy, Awake my Heart and Tongue. Sleep not when Mercies loudly call: Break forth into a...
Now that the Day-star doth arise. Latin, perhaps 5th century, translated by John Cosin* (1595-1672).
This is Cosin's translation of 'Iam lucis orto sidere'*, the traditional hymn for Prime in Monastic Uses. According to The Hymnal 1940 Companion, p. 117, it took the place of the corresponding hymn in the Benedictine tradition (see 'Rule of Benedict*). It was printed in Cosin's A Collection of Private Devotions in the Practice of the Ancient Church (1627), as a hymn for Morning Prayer:
Now that...
Nun jauchzet, all ihr Frommen. Michael Schirmer* (1606-1673).
Published by Johann Crüger*, Schirmer's colleague at the Greyfriars Cloister and Gymnasium, Berlin, in his Newes vollkömliches Gesangbuch/ Augspurgischer Confession (Berlin, 1640). It was in the Advent section, where it was entitled 'Ein ander schön Adventliedlein. M. Michael Schirmers'. The 'ander' refers to 'Macht hoch die Tür, die Tor macht weit'*, with which it is presumably to be compared and contrasted.
It is found in the...
O esca viatorum. Latin, 17th century or earlier.
In Gotteslob this hymn is described as having been translated at Würzburg in 1649 ('O wunderbare Speise/ auf dieser Pilgerreise'). It was printed in a Maintzisch Gesangbuch (1661), where it is given in Latin and German. The German text is headed 'Gesang von dem waren Himmelbrodt' ('hymn on the true heavenly bread'). The Latin text is earlier (see Maurice Frost, Historical Companion to A&M, 1962, p. 346). It had three stanzas:
O esca...
O Heilger Geist, kehr bei uns ein. Michael Schirmer* (1606-1673).
Published by Johann Crüger*, Schirmer's colleague at the Greyfriars Cloister and Gymnasium at Berlin, in Newes vollkömliches Gesangbuch/ Augspurgischer Confession (Berlin, 1640). It was in the Whitsun-tide section, where it was entitled 'Ein ander PfingstLiedlein M. Mich. Schirmers' ('another short Whitsun-tide hymn by Michael Schirmer'). It is found in EG in seven 7-line stanzas, with line 4 as an effective pause with (in most...
O send thy light forth and thy truth. Scottish Psalter*.
These well known stanzas paraphrase verses 3-5 of Psalm 43. In the Scottish Psalter of 1650, The Psalmes of David in Meeter, the text was as follows:
O send thy light forth, and thy truth: let them be guides to me, And bring me to thine holy Hill, ev'n where thy dwellings be.
Then will I to Gods altar go, to God my chiefest joy: Yea, God, my God, thy Name to praise my harp I will employ.
Why art thou then cast down, my soul? what...
O Trinity, O blessed Light. William Drummond of Hawthornden* (1585-1649).
This translation first appeared in A Primer or Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, published by the Catholic John Heigham (Saint-Omer, 1619) where it was one of a series of 19 hymns described as 'a new translation done by one most skilful in English poetry' (Barkley, 1979, p. 90). They were linked to Drummond's name in The Works of William Drummond, of Hawthornden. Consisting of Those which were formerly Printed, and Those...
On all the earth thy Spirit shower. John Wesley* (1703-1791) adapted from Henry More* (1614-1687).
This hymn consists of the last four stanzas of a hymn of fifteen stanzas by John Wesley, based on one by Henry More beginning 'When Christ his body up had born' [sic.], published in More's Divine Hymns, added to the Second Edition of his Divine Dialogues (1668), where it was entitled 'An Hymn Upon the Descent of the Holy Ghost at the Day of Pentecost'. For the first part of Wesley's hymn (eleven...
On Christmas night. English Traditional, ascribed to Luke Wadding (1628–1691).
Paul Westermeyer* notes that this is a '“Wexford carol” (though not the carol most often called the “The Wexford Carol”' (Westermeyer, 2010, p. 50). The text and the tune of this favorite carol have distinct backgrounds, though the exact origins of each are unclear. The first printed version of an earlier form of the text appears with the ascription, 'Another short Carroll for Christmas day' in A Smale Garland of...
PETROS Bereketes. b. 1665?; d. 1725?. The name Bereketes derives from the Turkish word 'bereket', meaning 'abundance'. The story goes that when Bereketes was asked by his pupils if he had more heirmoi for them, he always answered that he had an abundance of them. Petros studied music in his home town of Constantinople and afterwards with Damianos of Vatopedi on Mount Athos. He was influenced by works by his contemporaries Chrysaphes the Younger*, Germanos of Neai Patrai* and Balasios*. He was...
DASS, Petter. b. Northern Herøy, 1647, date unknown; d. Alstadhaug, 18 September 1707. Born at Northern Herøy in Nordland, he was the son of Peiter Pittersen Dundas (c. 1620-1654), a Scottish immigrant from Dundee, and Maren Falch (1629-1707). Following his father's death he was taken into care by relatives and friends, and was schooled in Bergen from 1660. After study at the University of Copenhagen (1666-69) he returned to Norway, where he became tutor for the family of the parish priest of...
CORNEILLE, Pierre. b. 6 June 1606; d. 1 Oct 1684. Born at Rouen into an affluent bourgeois family, Corneille was educated at the Jesuit college and studied law at the university of his native town His skill in Latin verse composition was not matched by success in advocacy, so his father bought him a position in the local magistracy. Though Corneille took his legal duties seriously, he soon went to Paris where theatres were springing up after the Wars of Religion. After comedies and Le Cid, a...
Remember, O thou man. English traditional carol, 16th or 17th century.
This carol or hymn was set to music in Thomas Ravenscroft*'s Melismata (1611), where it was entitled 'A Christmas Carroll':
Remember, O thou man, O thou man, O thou man, Remember, O thou man, Thy time is spent: Remember, O thou man, How thou cam'st to me then, And I did what I can, Therefore repent.
Six stanzas were printed in The Oxford Book of Carols (1928), from which the above text is taken. Stanzas 2-6 began:
2....
ALLISON, Richard. b. ?1560–70, d. ?before 1610. He was a servant of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick (d. 1589/90); little is known about his musical activities other than his publications.
He provided ten harmonizations of tunes in The Whole Book of Psalms: with their wonted tunes by Thomas East*, but his most significant contribution was his own collection, published in 1599 as The Psalmes of David in Meter . . . to be Sung and Plaide upon the Lute, Orpharyon, Cittern or Base Violl....
CRASHAW, Richard. b. London, 1612/13; d. Loreto, Italy, 1648. The son of a Puritan clergyman, Crashaw was educated at Charterhouse and Pembroke College, Cambridge (BA 1634). At Cambridge he acquired a reputation as a neo-Latin poet, and as a supporter of the high church practices of Archbishop Laud. He became a Fellow of Peterhouse, where he was associated with John Cosin*. In 1643 he left England as a consequence of the Civil War, living at first at Leiden in Holland and then at Paris. He...
DAVIS, Richard. b. Cardiganshire, Wales, 1658; d. Rothwell, Northamptonshire, 1714. WRS (W.R. Stevenson) in JJ, p. 281 notes that he was well educated, and a person who was for some years master of a school in London. He must have become an Independent Church minister at some point, because he was invited by the congregation at Rothwell to become their pastor. He remained there for 24 years, which indicates a pastorate from 1690 onwards.
Stevenson described him as 'a remarkable man', who...
Sponsa Christi quae per orbem. Jean-Baptiste de Contes (1601-1679). From the Paris Missal of 1665. A later edition of 1739 identified de Contes (Dean of Paris from 1647 until his death, 4 July 1679) as the author. It was described in JJ as 'one of the finest of the more recent French Sequences' (p. 1080). The most notable translation into English is that of John Ellerton*, beginning 'Bride of Christ, whose glorious warfare'. It appeared in Church Hymns (1871) with the first line as 'Church of...
See 'Disposer supreme, and Judge of the earth'*
The Lord's my shepherd, I'll not want. Scottish Psalter (1650).
This paraphrase of Psalm 23 is the most famous of Scottish metrical psalms, although its fame outside Scotland is comparatively recent. The text is that of the Scottish Psalter* of 1650, sometimes printed with the slight emendation of 'no ill' for the original 'none ill' (verse 3 line 2).
Psalm 23 is a psalm that is greatly loved for its beauty and its power to comfort, and it is not surprising that this version is now frequently...
They are all gone into the world of light. Henry Vaughan* (1622-1695).
From Silex Scintillans: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations, the second Edition, in two Books; by Henry Vaughan, Silurist (1655). The word 'Silurist' refers to the Silures, the ancient inhabitants of South Wales, where Vaughan lived. The second part of this book, with 'The Authors Preface To the following Hymns', was dated 30 September 1654. It contains a tribute to 'the blessed man, Mr George Herbert, whose holy life and...
BROWNE, (Sir) Thomas. b. London, 19 November 1605; d. Norwich, 19 October 1682. He was educated at Winchester College and Broadgates Hall, Oxford (now part of Pembroke College), followed by the study of medicine at Montpellier, Padua, and Leiden. In 1637 he began medical practice at Norwich, where he remained for the rest of his life. He had previously written a version of Religio Medici. This was published without his knowledge in 1642, and officially in 1643. Among his subsequent works were...
EAST [Est, Este], Thomas. b. Swavesey, near Cambridge, ca. 1540; d. London, 1608. Born in Cambridgeshire, East spent his working life in London. He was the leading music printer of the late Elizabethan period, working as the assignee of William Byrd, who held a monopoly in the printing of polyphonic music. He printed most of Byrd's and Morley's music as well as such landmark publications as Musica transalpina (1588), Dowland's Second Booke of Songes or Ayres (1600) and The Triumphes of Oriana...
ELLWOOD, Thomas. b. Crowell, near Chinnor, Oxfordshire, 1639 (baptized 15 October); d. Amersham, Buckinghamshire, 1 May 1713. He was born into a Puritan family which moved to London during the Civil War to support the Parliamentary cause. In 1659 Ellwood heard two Quakers preach at Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire, and was so impressed that he became one of the early Friends. Thereafter his life was dominated by the joys of being a Quaker (friendships, such as that with the Pennington family,...
KINGO, Thomas Hansen. b. 15 December 1634; d. 14 October 1703. He was born at Slangerup, North Zealand, Denmark, the son of a weaver. He attended the newly founded grammar-school at Frederiksborg from 1650 to 1654, and after four years at the University of Copenhagen he graduated in 1658 as Master of Theology. After some years as private tutor in West Zealand, he became chaplain in 1661 at Kirke Helsinge, also in West Zealand. In 1668 Kingo was appointed as priest in his native town of...
KEN, Thomas. b. Little Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, July 1637; d. Longleat, Wiltshire, 19 March 1711. He was the son of Thomas Ken, an attorney. He was brought up by his brother-in-law, Isaak Walton (1593-1683), the biographer of John Donne* and George Herbert*. Ken was educated at Winchester College (1651-56), Hart Hall, Oxford, and New College, Oxford (BA 1661, MA 1664). He was appointed Tutor in Logic at New College in 1661, and took Holy Orders in 1661 or 1662. He was rector of Little...
RAVENSCROFT, Thomas. b. ?1589; d. ? Ravenscroft became a chorister at Chichester Cathedral in 1594 and then, ca. 1598, of St Paul's Cathedral. At that time the choirboys of St Paul's, in addition to their cathedral duties, also constituted a theatrical company which put on plays in the private theatres - plays in which music had a prominent place. While at St Paul's he studied at Gresham College, and at the age of 14 went to Cambridge University, from where he graduated in 1605. He first sought...
VICTORIA, Tomás Luis de. b. Ávila, Spain, ca. 1548; d. Madrid, 27 August 1611. Victoria was a choirboy at Ávila Cathedral. He studied from about 1565 at the Collegio Germanico in Rome, and taught there from 1571. In 1575 he was ordained to the priesthood. His clerical activities in Rome included a chaplain's position at S. Gerolamo della Carità (from probably 1582 until 1585) and charitable work for the Archconfraternity of the Resurrection, for which he also occasionally provided music. As a...
Up to those bright and gladsome hills. Henry Vaughan* (1622-1695).
From Silex Scintillans: Sacred Poems and Private Ejaculations (1650). The first two words of this title mean 'sparkling flint'. It was headed 'Psalm 121'. It is a simple paraphrase of the Psalm by one who loved the hills of South Wales, where he lived. The 1650 text was as follows:
Up to those bright, and gladsome hils, Whence flowes my weal and mirth, I look, and sigh for him, who fils, (Unseen,) both heaven, and earth.
He...
BARTON, William. b. ca. 1597/8; d. 14 May 1678. Nothing is known of his early life. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1622, MA 1625), and ordained priest in 1623. He may have been the William Barton who was vicar of Mayfield, Staffordshire, in 1643, and who suffered for his Puritan sympathies at the hands of the local Royalists. Under the Commonwealth he flourished: he became minister of St John Zachary, London, in 1646, and vicar of St Martin's, Leicester (now Leicester...
CROFT, William. b. Nether Ettington, Warwickshire, 1678 (baptized 30 December); d. Bath, 14 August 1727. He served as a chorister in the Chapel Royal under John Blow, and in 1700 became a Gentleman Extraordinary, and later organist, of that institution. On Blow's death in 1708 Croft succeeded him as Composer and Master of the Children. In the same year he also succeeded Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey. From 1700 to 1712 he was also organist of St Anne's, Soho.
In 1713 Croft was awarded...
DRUMMOND, William, of Hawthornden. b. Lasswade, near Edinburgh (now in Midlothian), 13 December 1585; d. Lasswade, 4 December 1649. He was the son of Sir John Drummond (1553-1610), Laird of Hawthornden. He was educated at the High School of Edinburgh, and Edinburgh College (now the University of Edinburgh), MA 1605, followed by a time in France studying law. On the death of his father he became the Laird of Hawthornden, and lived at Lasswade, devoting his time to local affairs and to writing....
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott. Tobias Clausnitzer* (1619-1684).
According to James Mearns*, this hymn for Trinity Sunday first appeared in a Gesang-Buch published at Culmbach-Bayreuth in 1668, where it had the initials 'C.A.D.' (JJ, p. 238). It appeared with Clausnitzer's name in a Nürnberg Gesang-Buch (1676) in three stanzas, corresponding to the three persons of the Holy Trinity:
Wir glauben all' an einen Gott, We all believe in One true God, Vater, Sohn, heiligen...
Ye boundless realms of joy. Nicholas Brady* (1659-1726) and Nahum Tate* (1652-1715).
This was Tate and Brady's version of Psalm 148 in A New Version of the Psalms of David (1696) (see 'New Version'*). It was in the same metre of 66.66.4.44.4, and sung to the same tune, as the paraphrase by John Pullain* in the Old Version* of 1562. Tate and Brady's text had eight stanzas, with the verses of the psalm, from 1 to 14, marked beside each stanza:
1, 2 Ye boundless realms of joy, ...
Ye gates, lift up your heads on high. Scottish Psalter* (1650).
This is the metrical version of Psalm 24: 7-10, traditionally sung in the Church of Scotland at the 'Great Entrance' of the elements at the service of Holy Communion. Because this service was normally held on a few occasions in the year only, it became a moment of high significance. The minister and elders would bring in the bread and wine, and this part of Psalm 24 would be sung.
It was to match the solemn grandeur of this...