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A type of those bright rays on high. Latin, 15th Century, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866), and the Compilers of A&M (1861).
This translation of 'Caelestis formam gloriae'* (Neale and JJ use 'Coelestis...'. Frere, 1909, and Frost, 1962, use 'Caelestis') is from The Hymnal Noted Part II (1854), where it was headed 'O Nata Lux de Lumine' incorrectly. The other details on the 1854 page are 'For the Transfiguration' and 'From the Salisbury Hymnal', with a quotation from Philippians...
Allchin, Arthur MacDonald. b. Acton, London, 20 April 1930; d. Oxford, 23 December 2010. Donald, as he was always called, was the youngest of four children of Frank MacDonald Allchin, a physician, and Louise Maude, née Wright. He was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated in modern history and proceeded to take a BLitt, published as The Silent Revolution (1958), a history of 19th-century Anglican religious communities which became the standard study of the...
Accept, O Lord, our Alms, though small. Wilson Carlile* (1847-1942).
This was printed by Lady Victoria Carbery* in the Church Hymnal for the Christian Year (1917, retained in the 1920 edition). It was included in the 'Introduction', in a section 'Hymns for the Alms and Oblations'. It was preceded by a quotation from 1 Peter 2: 5: 'Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.' It also referred...
THRUPP, Adelaide ('A.T.'). b. London, 1831; d. Guildford, Surrey, 1908. She was the sister (not the daughter, or the wife, as is sometimes asserted) of Joseph Francis Thrupp*, and she assisted him with the publication of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (Cambridge, 1853). In this book his hymns appear with the initials 'J.F.T.' and the hymn by which she is remembered, 'Lord, who at Cana's wedding-feast'*, is one of two given the initials 'A.T.' The other was 'O Thou, who didst Thy light...
Advent tells us Christ is near. (Arabella) Katherine Hankey* (1834-1911).
According to JJ, p. 483, this was written in 1888 for Sunday School children at St Peter's, Eaton Square, London, then as now a prosperous part of the city (although Hankey organised classes for shop girls). It was printed on a card, with a tune composed by Hankey herself, before being included in many English-speaking hymnbooks on both sides of the Atlantic. It is not a hymn for Advent, in spite of the first line: it is...
Again the Lord's own day is here. Attributed to Thomas à Kempis* (ca. 1380-1471), translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866) and the Compilers of A&M (1861).
This hymn was used in the 'Evening' section for 'Sunday' in the First Edition of A&M. It was based on a translation by Neale in The Hymnal Noted, Part II (1854). The Latin text began 'En dies est dominica'. Frost (1962, p. 149) notes that the translation is of a selection of stanzas (1, 4, 5, 6, 29) of a poem of 29 stanzas...
WYTON, Alec (Alexander Francis). b. London, 3 August 1921; d. Danbury, Connecticut, 18 March 2007. After his parents separated, he received his early encouragement from an aunt in Northampton who suggested he learned the piano and organ. When war broke out in 1939, he joined the Royal Corps of Signals but was discharged early owing to a duodenal ulcer. He then went on to the Royal Academy of Music and, in 1943, he became organ scholar at Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1945) where he studied history...
BARRY, Alfred. b. London, 15 January 1826; d. Windsor, 1 April 1910. He was the son of the architect of the Houses of Parliament, Sir Charles Barry. He was educated at King's College, London (1841-44) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1844-48; BA 1848, MA 1851). He was briefly a Fellow of Trinity College, and took Holy Orders (deacon 1850, priest 1853). By that time he had become sub-Warden of Trinity College, Glenalmond, Perthshire, an independent school of the Scottish Episcopal Church founded...
All hail, adorèd Trinity. Latin, before 11th century, translated by John David Chambers* (1805-1893).
The Latin text of this hymn began 'Ave! Colenda Trinitas'. According to JJ, p. 98, it was in The Latin Hymns of the Anglo-Saxon Church (Durham: the Surtees Society, 1851), from the Durham MS of the 11th century. Frost described it as 'One of the Anglo-Saxon hymns for the Trinity office, but it did not find a place in the Norman and later Uses. Its versification is, in parts, not even...
All praise to Thee, O Lord. Hyde Wyndham Beadon* (1812-1891).
From The Parish Hymn Book (1863), the book edited by Beadon, Greville Phillimore*, and James Russell Woodford*. It began 'Glory to Thee, O Lord', altered to the present first line, perhaps to avoid confusion with 'Glory to Thee, O Lord'* by Emma Toke*, published a decade earlier in 1852. It has appeared in a number of books, if only because it is one of the few hymns to celebrate the first miracle of Christ at the marriage of Cana...
All prophets hail thee, from of old rejoicing. Thomas Alexander Lacey* (1853-1931).
This is one of the few hymns on the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary, as related in Luke 2: 22-33. It is a translation of a Latin hymn attributed to Hrabanus Maurus* (ca. 780-856) beginning 'Quod chorus vatum venerandus olim'. It was translated into fluent Sapphic stanzas:
All prophets hail thee, from of old announcing, By the inbreathèd Spirit of the Father, God's Mother, bringing prophecies to...
Alleluia, song of sweetness. Latin, 11th century or earlier, translated by John Mason Neale* (1818-1866).
This is Neale's translation of 'Alleluya, dulce carmen'*, the hymn used in various rites to mark the pre-season of Lent, normally sung before Septuagesima Sunday, the ninth Sunday before Easter, the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday. It was printed in Neale's Mediaeval Hymns and Sequences (1851), with a preface:
The Latin Church, as is well known, forbade, as a general rule, the use of...
Almighty Father, God of love. Hester Periam Hawkins* (1846-1928).
This hymn was not included in the list of Hawkins' hymns by James Mearns* in Appendix II of JJ (p. 1646). It may have been written after the completion of the Appendix. It is included here because it was the best known of her hymns in America (British books preferred 'Heavenly Father, may thy blessing'*, although the present hymn was in FHB, 1933). The editors would welcome information about the composition and first...
Almighty Father, hear our cry. Edward Henry Bickersteth* (1825-1906).
Written in 1869, this was published in Bickersteth's Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer* (1870). It was then printed in the Second Edition of A&M (1875) in the section 'For Those at Sea'. It was retained in A&M (1904), and in the Standard Edition of 1922, but dropped from A&MR.
Another version, also dated 1869, was published in Bickersteth's The Two Brothers, and other poems (1871), beginning 'Lord...
Almighty Father, who dost give. John Howard Bertram Masterman* (1867-1933).
First published in In Hoc Signo: hymns of war and peace (1914), with music edited by Walford Davies*. It is eminently suitable for war time, but because the sentiments are general, it can be seen as a hymn for various purposes: after the war of 1914-1918 it came to be seen as a hymn for World Peace and Brotherhood (the heading of the section in which it appears in MHB). It could also be used for missions: it appeared in...
Almighty God, Thy word is cast. John Cawood* (1775-1852).
Written in 1816, and first published in Thomas Cotterill*'s suppressed Eighth Edition of his Selection of Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (1819), in five stanzas. It was entitled 'After a Sermon'. It was based on Mark 4: 3-9. It was printed in James Montgomery*'s Christian Psalmist (Glasgow, 1825), and other books, including Godfrey Thring*'s A Church of England Hymn Book (1880), and became widely known.
There are two texts of this...
Altar Hymnal, The (1884/1885).
The Altar Hymnal was a production of the Anglo-Catholic wing of the Church of England. It was edited by Claudia Frances Hernaman*, Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell, and Walter Plimpton. The music editor was Arthur Henry Brown*. His name appeared on the title page together with that of Thomas Thellusson Carter (rector of Clewer, Berkshire, and the biographer of John Armstrong*), who provided a brief introduction. That introduction left the reader in no doubt about what...
An image of that heavenly light. Latin, 15th Century, translated by Richard Ellis Roberts* (1879-1963).
This is the translation of the Latin hymn, 'Caelestis formam gloriae'* used by EH in preference to the one by John Mason Neale*, 'A type of those bright rays on high'*, which formed the base text for the hymn in the A&M tradition, 'O wondrous type, O vision fair'*. It was the first of four hymns on the Transfiguration in EH, which paid more attention to the Feast of the Transfiguration...
And now the wants are told, that brought. William Bright* (1824-1901).
First published in Bright's Hymns and Other Poems (1866), in six stanzas. It was almost immediately used in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M (1861), where it had a doxology. Beginning with Mark 9: 36, the story of Christ setting a child 'in the midst of them' [the disciples], it portrays very exactly a child's approach to the wonder and mystery of God, although it is a hymn for adults also. Stanza 6,...
And now this holy day. Edward Harland* (1810-1890).
Published in the Supplement (1876) to Harland's Church Psalter and Hymnal (1855). It was included in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M, and thus in A&MS, after which it was omitted from A&MR. It is a hymn for Sunday evening, designated 'For the Young' in both books: its simplicity is appealing, although it expresses an idea of a kind of Sunday that has disappeared, and one that was probably never very popular with...
And now, my soul, another year. Simon Browne* (1680-1732).
This hymn was found in a number of British books in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a shortened form of a dramatic hymn by Browne, from Volume 1 of his Hymns and Spiritual Songs, in Three Books, designed as a Supplement to Dr Watts (1720). It was entitled 'New Year's Day'. The original text is dramatic and revealing:
And now, my soul, another year Of my short life is past: I cannot long continue here, And this may be...
Angels lament, behold your God. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
The text by Coffin was in the Paris Breviary, 1736, and in Hymni Sacri Auctor Carolo Coffin (1736). It began 'Lugete, pacis Angeli', and was set for Friday Vespers. It proved attractive to translators, including Isaac Williams*, William John Blew*, Robert Campbell*, John David Chambers*, and David Thomas Morgan* (JJ, pp. 701-2). The compilers of the First Edition of A&M chose Chandler's,...
The Psalms of David have been recited in a musical form since they were written, the word 'psalm' deriving from the Greek word for 'a song sung to a harp'. In temple worship, the psalms would have been recited by a solo cantor with a congregational refrain. This form developed into simple melodies or tones that characterise plainsong, which itself was the musical form for psalmody adopted in the early and medieval Church. This was especially so in the monastic foundations which observed the...
[This article considers congregational song in the Church of England (later, The Anglican Church of Canada) in that part of British North America which became known as Canada. It does not deal with hymnody in Newfoundland, a separate British colony until 1949, when it became a Canadian province.]
Systematic British settlement in Canada began in 1763, after France ceded sovereignty to Britain. During the 18th century, the singing repertoire and practices of the Church of England in Canada...
Another year is dawning. Frances Ridley Havergal* (1836-1879).
According to JJ, p. 72, this was written in 1874 for an ornamental card or leaflet published by a firm called Caswell in 1875 (this publisher has not been found, and it may be an error for Caswell, the part of Swansea where FRH died). It is not in Under the Surface (1874), as JJ goes on to state. In The Poetical Works of Frances Ridley Havergal (1884), edited by her sister Maria, it was included in the section entitled 'New Year...
COXE, (Arthur) Cleveland. b. Mendham, New York, 10 May 1818; d. Clifton Springs, NY, 20 July 1896. The son of a Presbyterian minister named Cox (according to Samuel Willoughby Duffield, 1886, p. 224, he added an 'e' as part of his rebellion against his father and his father's denomination), he lived as a young man in New York with his uncle, a doctor who was an active member of the Episcopal Church. Coxe became an Episcopalian himself, and after graduating from New York University he trained...
JONES, Arthur Morris. b. 1899; d. 1980. He was a missionary and musicologist, educated at Keble College, Oxford, and Wells Theological College. He took Holy Orders (deacon 1922, priest 1923) and served curacies at Ashford, Kent (1922-24) and St Michael and All Angels, Maidstone, Kent (1924-28). In 1929 he became a missionary in what was then Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. He took up a post as Warden of St Mark's Teachers' Training College, under the auspices of the Universities' Mission to...
As now the sun's declining rays. Charles Coffin* (1676-1749), translated by John Chandler* (1806-1876).
Coffin's hymn, beginning 'Labente jam solis rota' was written for the revised Paris Breviary of 1736, edited by the Archbishop of Paris, Charles-Gaspard de Vintimille, who encouraged Coffin to write new Latin hymns. It was set for the service of None. It was published in the same year as the Breviary in Hymni Sacri Auctore Carolo Coffin (1736).
John Chandler's translation appeared in his...
As the sun doth daily rise. Horatio Bolton Nelson* (1823-1913).
The origins of this hymn are shrouded in mystery. It was a Latin text, beginning 'Matutinus altiora', translated by a 'J. Masters'. Nothing seems to be known of the Latin text or of its translator. JJ, p. 1579, followed by all commentators, gave the first line of Masters' translation as 'As the sun to brighter skies', and noted that the hymn was described as 'King Alfred's Hymn. Words by O.B.C. Music by Dr Smith'. The entry...
As Thou didst rest, O Father, o'er nature's finished birth. Alfred Barry* (1826-1910).
This hymn was written before 1886, when it appeared in Henry Allon*'s Congregational Psalmist Hymnal. It was subsequently included in Godfrey Thring*'s A Church of England Hymn Book (1880), and William Garrett Horder*'s The Hymn Lover: an account of the rise and growth of English Hymnody (1889). It was retained in Horder's Worship-Song (1905). It was also found in the revised edition of Church Hymns (1903),...
As when the weary traveller gains. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life'. It is found in Section IV ('Comfort') of Book III as hymn 58, entitled 'Home in view'. The text in 1779 had six stanzas, as follows:
As when the weary travell'r gains The height of some o'erlooking hill; His heart revives, if cross the plains He eyes his home, tho' distant still.
While he surveys the much-lov'd spot, He...
Ask ye what great thing I know. Johann Christoph Schwedler* (1672-1730), translated by Benjamin Hall Kennedy* (1804-1889).
Schwedler's hymn, beginning 'Wollt ihr wissen was mein Preis?', has the response at the end of each stanza, 'Jesu, der Gekreuzigte' ('Jesus the crucified'):
Wollt ihr wissen, was mein Preis? Wollt ihr wissen, was ich weiß? Wollt ihr sehn mein Eigentum? Wollt ihr hören, was mein Ruhm? Jesus, der Gekreuzigte, Jesus, der Gekreuzigte.
The hymn was published after his...
At thy feet, O Christ, we lay. William Bright* (1824-1901).
First published in the Monthly Packet of Evening Readings for Members of the English Church (October 1867), and then in the Second Edition of Bright's Hymns and Other Poems (1874). It became widely known after its printing in the Second Edition of A&M (1875). It is a morning hymn, meditating upon human weakness, but its simplicity of line, and the rhyming couplets, also make it suitable for children. It has been frequently...
Awake, awake: fling off the night. John Raphael Peacey* (1896-1971).
This hymn was one of a number of Peacey's hymns published in 100HfT and thus in A&MNS. It had the title 'The New Life'. It is based on phrases from Ephesians 5: 8-10, in the New English Bible translation: 'For though you were once all darkness, now as Christians you are light. Live like men who are at home in daylight; for where light is, there all goodness springs up, all justice and truth.' So Peacey's verse 2 (of 5)...
Awake, O Lord, as in the time of old. Henry Twells* (1823-1900).
This was published in Twells's Hymns and Other Stray Verses (1901), entitled 'Whitsuntide'. It was preceded by the quotation from Acts 2: 'And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.' In 1901 the first stanza was:
The day of Pentecost is fully come; With one accord we gather in one place; And is the Voice of Heaven's great Teacher dumb? Or quenched the Flame of His all-conquering...
Awaked from sleep we fall. Greek, 8th Century, translated by Robert Maude Moorsom* (1831-1911).
First published in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M. It is a translation in three stanzas, of an 8th-century Horologion, or Book of Hours, which, as its name implies, was used for the fixed hours of Divine Service in the Eastern Church. This particular text comes from the midnight service: the word 'Awaked' (rather than the more common 'Awake') is particularly significant:...
Awhile in spirit, Lord, to Thee. Joseph Francis Thrupp* (1827-1867).
This is a hymn for Lent from Thrupp's Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (Cambridge, 1853), later published in Church Hymns (1871, Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874). It was preceded by ' “Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind.” - 1 St. Peter iv. I' It had five stanzas:
Awhile in spirit, Lord, to TheeInto the desert would we flee;Awhile upon the barren steepOur...
Before the throne of God above. Charitie Lees De Chenez* (1841-1923).
According to JJ, p. 109, this was written in 1863 and published in Within the Veil, by C.L.S. (1867); 'C.L.S.' stands for Charitie Lees Smith, her maiden name. It was entitled 'The Advocate'. Before that it had been included by Charles Haddon Spurgeon* in Our Own Hymn Book (1866), so it must have been published elsewhere, probably in leaflet form.
It crossed the Atlantic very quickly: JJ noted its appearance in Laudes Domini...
Before the world's foundation. Timothy Dudley-Smith (1926- ).
This hymn was written in 1998. Like many of Dudley-Smith's hymns, it was his response to a commission. The Methodist Publishing House, which traced its history back to the time of John Wesley*, had moved from London to Peterborough in 1988. Its Chief Executive, Brian Thornton, planned a Service of Thanksgiving to mark ten years since the move, and Dudley-Smith responded to a request for a hymn to be sung to mark the occasion (2003,...
Begone unbelief, my Saviour is near. John Newton* (1725-1807).
First published in Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life'. It was headed 'I will trust and not be afraid' and had seven stanzas in a combination of iambic and anapaestic metre reminiscent of Charles Wesley*. It has been particularly valued by Methodists: all seven stanzas appeared in The Primitive Methodist Hymnal (1887, 1889). It featured in several denominational...
'Behold the Bridegroom draweth nigh'. Robert Maude Moorsom* (1831-1911).
First published in Moorsom's Renderings of Church Hymns (1901). It was a translation of a Greek text, 'Idou ho nymphios', in four stanzas. The Greek text may be found in Hymns Ancient and Modern, Historical Edition (1909), edited by Walter Howard Frere*, pp. 62-3. It is based on the story of the wise and foolish virgins in Matthew 25: 1-13. Moorsom translated the four Greek stanzas as follows:
'Behold the Bridegroom...
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 throne of grace. John Newton* (1725-1807).
In Book I of Olney Hymns (1779), 'On select Passages of Scripture', this was hymn XXXIII, supposedly on II Samuel 3: 5, one of three hymns of which the first was 'Come, my soul, thy suit prepare'. The verse on which the three hymns were based was given as 'Ask what I shall give thee', which is from I Kings 3: 5. The section on I Kings follows that of II Samuel, but the printer in 1779 misplaced the division between the Old Testament...
The Book of Praise (1862)
This influential anthology of hymns was the work of Roundell Palmer*, a distinguished politician and man of letters. Its full title was The Book of Praise from the best English Hymn Writers. It was published by Macmillan in London and Cambridge in 1862. The frontispiece showed a picture of David with his harp, to emphasise the continuity of tradition between the great psalmist and contemporary hymn writers. The book was very successful, and there were many further...
ORD, Boris. b. Bristol, 9 July 1897; d. Cambridge, 30 December 1961. The son of Clement Ord, a lecturer in the University of Bristol, and Joanna Anthes, a German, he was christened 'Bernhardt', but was invariably known as 'Boris'. He was educated at Clifton College, Bristol, and the Royal College of Music (1914-1920, interrupted by war service in the Royal Flying Corps). At the RCM he was taught by Walter Parratt*. In 1920 he moved to Cambridge as organ scholar of Corpus Christi College, where...
DOUGLAS, Charles Winfred. b. Oswego, New York, 15 Feb 1867; d. Santa Rosa, California, 18 Jan 1944. Douglas was raised as a Presbyterian. His first contact with the Episcopal Church came in 1888 as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, Syracuse, New York, while a student at Syracuse University (BM, 1901). He attended St. Andrew's Divinity School, Syracuse; and Matthews Hall, Denver, Colorado. He was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church 1893, priest 1899, serving as a minor Canon of St John's...
DAW, Carl Pickens, Jr. b. Louisville, Kentucky, 18 March 1944. Carl Daw was born into a Baptist preacher's family. He received degrees in English from Rice University, Houston, Texas (BA 1966), and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (MA, PhD, 1970); he taught English at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia (1970-78). In 1981 he received a divinity degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. After ordination in the Protestant Episcopal Church, he...
DE CHENEZ, Charitie Lees (née Smith; also Charitie Lees Bancroft). b. Bloomfield, Merrion, Dublin, 21 June 1841; d. (?) Oakland, California, USA, 1923. The daughter of a Church of Ireland rector, Sidney Smith, she lived at home at Aghalurcher, County Fermanagh, and in Tattyreagh, County Tyrone, where her father held the living from 1867 onwards. She married Arthur E. Bancroft in 1869; after his death she married again, and is sometimes known by her second married name of De Chenez (sometimes...
CLARKE, Charles Erskine. b. 10 February 1871; d. 8 March 1926. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (BA 1892, MA 1896). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1896, priest 1897), serving curacies at St Luke's, Southampton (1896-99), St Mary's, Battersea, London (1899-1900), and St Luke's, Battersea (1900-14). He was vicar of St Luke's (1914-24), and Perpetual Curate of St John the Evangelist, Redhill, Surrey (1924-26).
Clarke's 'O, David was a shepherd lad'* was written for a hymn...
GRANT, Charles, Lord Glenelg. b. India, 26 October 1778; d. Cannes, France, 23 April 1866. He was the eldest son of the Director of the East India Company, and the older brother of (Sir) Robert Grant*. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and became a Fellow of the College in 1802. In 1807 he was called to the Bar, but became Member of Parliament for Inverness (where his father had been an MP) in the same year. He served in various government positions from 1813 onwards; he was...
LLOYD, Charles Harford. b.Thornbury, Gloucestershire, 16 October 1849; d. Eton, 16 October 1919. He was educated at the local grammar school, and at Rossall School, Lancashire. He showed early promise as a musician, and was playing the organ in a local church at the age of ten. He studied at Magdalen Hall (now Hertford College), Oxford (BA 1872), during which time he became friendly with C.H.H. Parry* and John Stainer*, and founded the Oxford Musical Club (Dibble, 1992, p. 50). He became a...
CALVERLEY, Charles Stuart. b. Martley, Worcestershire, 22 December 1831; d. London, 17 February 1884. He was the son of a clergyman, Henry Blayds, and was known until 1852 as Charles Blayds. He was educated privately from the age of five to fifteen, after which he was at Marlborough College for a short time before moving to Harrow in 1846. He won a scholarship to Balliol College, Oxford, and matriculated there in 1850, winning the Chancellor's Prize for a Latin poem in 1851. He was sent down...
EVEREST, Charles William. b. East Windsor, Connecticut, 27 May 1814; d. Waterbury, Connecticut, 11 January 1877. Everest graduated from Washington College (now Trinity College), Hartford, Connecticut, in 1838. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1842, and served as rector of the Episcopal Church at Hamden, Connecticut, for the following thirty-one years. Among his publications were Vision of Death (Hartford, 1837), Babylon, a Poem (Hartford, 1838) and The poets of Connecticut: with...
BARNARD, Charlotte Alington (née Pye). b. Louth, Lincolnshire, 23 December 1830; d. Dover, Kent, 30 January 1869. She was the daughter of Henry Alington Pye, a local solicitor and speculator who became Warden of Louth and County Treasurer. Charlotte's mother, Charlotte Yerburgh, died in 1848. As a child she had ambitions to write poetry, and by 1847, aged 16, she was well enough known and admired (and the daughter of a local dignitary), to be chosen to lay the foundation stone of Louth railway...
Chetham's Psalmody
The title of this important collection was The Book of Psalmody. It was first published at Sheffield in 1718 by John Chetham or Cheetham (1665 – baptized 4 February -1746), subsequently master of the Clerk's School, Skipton, Yorkshire, and curate of Skipton, 1741-46. Further editions followed in 1722, 1724 and 1731, with many successors. It has been described as 'the most important country collection [of psalm settings] of all' (Temperley, 1979, p. 181). Each edition during...
BATEMAN, Christian Henry. b. Wyke, Yorkshire, England, 9 August 1813; d. Carlisle, Cumberland, 27 July 1889. Bateman was the son of John Frederick Bateman (1772–1851), a mostly unsuccessful inventor, and Mary Agnes Bateman (née La Trobe) (1772–1848), and the fourth of six siblings (his older brother, the eminent civil engineer John Frederick La Trobe Bateman (1810–1889), was - unlike his father - one of the most successful innovators of his era, supervising reservoirs and waterworks in Ireland...
The Christian Social Union, and its hymns
The Christian Social Union was founded in 1889. However, its concerns had been exercising thoughtful church people, and many others, throughout the 19th century: movements such as those of the Chartists in the 1840s, and the writings of such thinkers as Frederick Denison Maurice (1805-1872) and Charles Kingsley* provided a background to the practical experience of clergy such as Percy Dearmer* in the East End of London. The Salvation Army was founded...
The Church Army Mission Hymn Book. This was published in Britain ca. 1960 (no date is given, and there is no indication in the very brief preface). It was a successor to Hymns for the Church Army (ca. 1894), edited by Wilson Carlile*, the army's founder, and Hymns and Choruses of the Church Army (n.d., but ca. 1910, and frequently reprinted).
The front cover was embossed with the Church Army shield, a crown and crossed swords, and the words 'Fight the good fight'. The book contained 133 hymns,...
Come, pure hearts, in sweetest measures. Latin, translated by Robert Campbell* (1814-1868).
First published in Campbell's Hymns and Anthems for Use in the Holy Services of the Church within the United Diocese of St Andrews, Dunkeld, and Dunblane (Edinburgh, 1850), where it was entitled 'Commemoration of Evangelists'. It was a translation of three stanzas from two anonymous Sequences of the 12th century, 'Iucundare, plebs fidelis'*, and 'Plausu chorus laetabundo'* (altered by Clichtoveus*: see...
Cowley Carol Book. This was a two-part collection of Christmas carols edited by George Ratcliffe Woodward*. The 'First Series' (1901, revised 1902) consisted of 39 carols, many already published. The Second Edition (1902) had 65 items. The 'Second Series' was delayed by the First World War, and appeared in 1919, with a further 37 carols. Charles Wood* co-edited this second volume. The origin of the title lies in a request for a carol book from the Church of St John, Cowley, Oxford, home of the...
Creator of the earth and sky. Ambrose of Milan* (339/340-397), translated by Charles Bigg* (1840-1908).
This translation of 'Deus Creator omnium'*, a hymn regarded as certainly by St Ambrose, was made by Bigg for EH (1906), where it had eight stanzas, the last of which was a doxology:
Creator of the earth and sky, Ruling the firmament on high, Clothing the day with robes of light, Blessing with gracious sleep the night.
That rest may comfort weary men, And brace to useful toil again, And...
ROBERTS, Daniel Crane. b. Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York, 5 November 1841; d. Concord, New Hampshire, 31 October 1907. He was educated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. During the Civil War he served as a private in the 84th Ohio volunteers. Immediately after the war he was ordained into the Episcopal Church of America (deacon 1865, priest 1866). He served in parishes at Montpelier, Vermont; Lowell, Massachusetts; Brandon, Vermont; in 1878 he was appointed to St Paul's, Concord, New...
MALGAS, Daniel. b. Eastern Cape, South Africa, ca.1853; d. Fort Beaufort, South Africa, March 1936. Malgas was an ordained Anglican priest, whose career was based in the eastern part of the Cape Colony near Kwa Maqoma (formerly Fort Beaufort). An official record of his exact birth date has not been found. It is possible that his birth was not registered because his parents converted to Christianity when Malgas was in his late teens. He began formal education in 1872 at St Luke's Mission....
MORGAN, David Thomas. b. 17 September 1809; d. Whipps Cross, Walthamstow, Essex (now Greater London), 14 November 1886. He is described by some authorities as a 'Russian merchant'. He published Hymns of the Latin Church. Translated by D.T. Morgan. With the originals appended (privately printed, 1871). This was enlarged as Hymns and other Poetry of the Latin Church, Arranged according to the Calendar of the Church of England (1880), containing one hundred hymns. The Preface to this second book...
Day of judgment, day of wonders. John Newton (1725-1807).
Written in 1774 (JJ, p. 282), this dramatic hymn was no. LXXVII in Olney Hymns (1779), Book II, 'On Occasional Subjects'. Book II was divided by Newton into four sections, 'Seasons', 'Ordinances', 'Providences', 'Creation'. This was from the 'Providences' section. It was entitled 'The Day of Judgment'. The text in 1779 was as follows:
Day of judgment, day of wonders! Hark! The trumpets awful sound,Louder than a thousand thunders, ...
Do no sinful action. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
From Alexander's Hymns for Little Children (1848). It was Hymn V, on the first promise in the catechism, to 'renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the lusts of the flesh' (following the promise made by the godparents at Baptism). It had seven stanzas:
Do no sinful action, Speak no angry word; Ye belong to Jesus, Children of the Lord.
Christ is kind and gentle, Christ is pure and...
Draw the circle wide. Gordon S. Light* (1944- ).
Inclusive language for humankind and for God was a strong current in the tide of liturgical renewal among mainstream Canadian churches in the 1980s and 1990s. Anglican, Catholic, Presbyterian and United Churches responded to the call for new congregational song with collections that included not only strophic hymns new and revised, but also songs in many genres and languages from writers and composers around the globe. How seriously the hymnal...
DAYMAN, Edward Arthur. b. Padstow, Cornwall, 11 July 1807; d. Shillingstone, Dorset, 30 October 1890. He was educated at Blundell's School, Tiverton, Devon, and Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1830, MA 1831, BD 1841). An outstanding undergraduate with a First Class degree, he was appointed to a Fellowship of his College. He took Holy Orders, becoming rector of Shillingstone in 1842. He was a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral from 1862 onwards, and a noted historian of the Cathedral: with a fellow Canon,...
DARLING, Edward Flewett. b. Cork, Republic of Ireland, 24 July 1933. Edward Darling was educated at Cork Grammar School, Midleton College, Co. Cork, and St John's School, Leatherhead, Surrey. Following further study at Trinity College, Dublin (where he graduated and qualified for ordination in the Divinity School), he took Holy Orders (deacon, 1956, priest 1957), serving two curacies: at St Luke's, Belfast (1956-59) and St John's, Orangefield, Belfast (1959-62). He was appointed first...
HARLAND, Edward. b. Ashbourne, Derbyshire, 1810; d. Colwich, Staffordshire, 8 June 1890. He was educated at Wadham College, Oxford (BA 1831; MA 1833). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1833, priest 1834), and was curate of Newborough, near Peterborough (1833-36) and Sandon, Essex (1836-51). In 1851 he became vicar of Colwich, and chaplain to the Earl of Harrowby. He was admitted Prebendary of Eccleshall in Lichfield Cathedral, 1873. He was the author of Index Sermonum (1858), and a popular Church...
LE GRICE, Frederick Edwin. b. Harleston, Norfolk, 14 December 1911; d. Ripon, North Yorkshire, 25 June 1992. Educated at Queen's College, Cambridge, Edwin Le Grice was ordained in the Church of England in 1936 and served curacies in Leeds and Paignton before becoming Vicar of Totteridge, Greater London. He later became a residentiary canon at St Albans Cathedral before his appointment as Dean of Ripon Cathedral, a post he held from 1968 until his retirement in 1984.
Several texts by Le Grice...
SMITH, Elizabeth Joyce. b. Stawell, Victoria, Australia, 27 February 1956. The daughter of Churches of Christ parents, she was educated at Euroa High School and Monash and Melbourne Universities (1974-78); Trinity College Theological School (the Anglican member of Melbourne's United Faculty of Theology), where she took a BD (1986); and the Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California. There she completed her PhD in 1995; it was published as Bearing Fruit in Due Season: Feminist Hermeneutics...
WORDSWORTH, Elizabeth. b. Harrow, Middlesex, 22 June 1840; d. Oxford, 30 November 1932. She was the eldest child of Christopher Wordsworth*, headmaster of Harrow School from 1836 to 1844, and later Bishop of Lincoln. She was educated privately, teaching herself Greek, and becoming an accomplished linguist. After many years as CW's daughter when he was the vicar of Stanford-in-the-Vale, Berkshire (also a canon of Westminster), and later a Bishop (whom she assisted in his Commentary on the Whole...
TOKE, Emma (née Leslie). b. Holywood, near Belfast, 9 August 1812; d. Ryde, Isle of Wight, 29 September 1878. She was the daughter of a clergyman, John Leslie, who became Bishop of Elphin (later Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh) in 1819. She married the Revd Nicholas Toke, of Godinton Park, near Ashford, Kent, in 1837 (Godinton was the seat of the Toke family, which he may have served as chaplain. He is not listed as holding a benefice, and is not found in the Clergy List after 1867; he may have died...
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...
For everyone born, a place at the table. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020).
This was written in 1996 from Murray's involvement in the work of Amnesty International, and the liberal theology of her husband, John Stewart Murray*, in his church at Wellington, New Zealand. It has its origins in the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights' of the United Nations (December 1948), which stated that 'All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights', and that 'Everyone has the right to...
CAREY BROCK, Frances Elizabeth Georgina (née Baynes). b. St Martin's, Guernsey, Channel Islands, 7 September 1827; d. St Martin's, 30 December 1905. She was a writer of a number of religious books, some for children. She married Carey Brock (1824–1892), rector of St Pierre du Bois Church, Guernsey; he became Dean of Guernsey in 1869, holding office until 1891. At her marriage, she took his Christian name as well as surname. Among her publications were 'Almost Persuaded': a tale of village life,...
CHESTERTON, Frances Alice (née Blogg). b. 28 June 1869; d. 12 December 1938. She was the eldest child of a diamond merchant, George William Blogg (of French descent: the name was originally de Blogue) and his wife Blanche, née Keymer. Frances was educated at Notting Hill High School, followed by a time as a pupil-teacher at a Church of England Convent, St Stephen's College (1889-91). Her parents had progressive views about the education of women, and her mother set up a debating society in the...
From out the cloud of amber light. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
This hymn for St Mark's Day (25 April) was written by Alexander for the Second Edition of A&M (1875). It draws upon the traditional association of St Mark with a winged lion. It had five stanzas:
From out the cloud of amber light, Borne on the whirlwind of the north, Four living creatures wing'd and bright Before the Prophet's eye came forth.
The Voice of God was in the Four Beneath that awful crystal mist, And...
BLACK, George Alexander. b. Toronto, 8 May 1931; d. Paris, France, 1 July 2003. He was professor of French Language and Literature, Latin, Liturgy and Church Music at Huron College, University of Western Ontario at London, Ontario; and a Canadian liturgist, hymnist, organist and choral director. George Black served as organist and choir director at several Toronto churches before he moved to London, ON, where he continued leading congregational music while teaching at Huron College. As Director...
SMYTTAN, George Hunt. b. Bombay (now Mumbai), India, 1822; d. Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, 21 February 1870. He was the son of a doctor of the Bombay Medical Board. He was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge (BA 1845, MA 1849), and took Holy Orders (deacon 1848, priest 1849). Two of his sermons were printed in Alnwick, Northumberland, which suggests that he served a curacy there before becoming rector of Hawksworth, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, in 1850. He resigned the Living of...
PRYNNE, George Rundle. b. West Looe, Cornwall, 23 August 1818; d. 25 March 1903. Educated at St Catherine's College, Cambridge (BA 1839), he took Holy Orders (deacon 1841, priest 1842), serving a curacy at St Andrew's, Clifton, Bristol. He was appointed vicar of St Peter's, Plymouth, in 1848, where he remained for the rest of his life. A record of part of his time there was published as Thirty-five years of mission work in a garrison and seaport town (Plymouth, 1888). An indication of his...
HODGES, George Samuel. b. Walmer, Kent, 1827; d. Maidenhead, Berkshire, 10 December 1899. He was educated at Jesus College, Cambridge (BA 1851), and took Holy Orders (deacon 1851, priest 1852). He served curacies at Calbourne, Isle of Wight (1851-52), Farnham, Surrey (1852-55), Calbourne again (1856-58), Kirkham, Lancashire (1858-60), and Fladbury, Worcestershire (1860-61), before becoming vicar of Wingates, Lancashire (1861-75). He was subsequently vicar of Dunston and Coppenhall,...
WARREN George William. b. Albany, New York State, 17 August 1828; d. New York City, 17 March 1902. Warren was educated at Racine College, Wisconsin, and was primarily self-taught as a musician. He served Episcopal parishes in Albany, New York (1846-1860), Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, New York (1860-1870), and St Thomas Church, New York City (1870-1900). Warren composed service music, anthems, and hymns. His sacred music was published by William A. Pond, Union Square, New York, and by 1888...
BLUNT, Abel Gerald Wilson. b. 1827, date unknown; d.1902. He was educated at Pembroke College, Cambridge, (BA 1850, MA 1860). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1851, priest 1852). He served a curacy at Lilleshall, Shropshire, (1851-56) before becoming Perpetual Curate of Crewe Green, Cheshire, (1856-60). From there he was appointed Rector of St Luke's, Chelsea, where he remained for forty years (1860-1901). He retired to Grasmere, Westmorland (now Cumbria).
According to JJ, his hymns were written...
NOEL, The Hon. Gerard Thomas. b. Ketton, Rutland, 2 December 1782; d. Romsey, Hampshire, 24 February 1851. Born into a noble family (his father was Sir Gerard Noel Edwardes, who took the name of Noel in 1798, and became a Baronet in 1813). He was educated in Kent, and Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1805, MA 1808). He entered Lincoln's Inn in 1798, presumably intending to become a lawyer, but decided to take Holy Orders (deacon 1806, priest 1807). He was curate of Radwell, Hertfordshire...
God everlasting, wonderful and holy. Harold Riley* (1903-2003).
This was written before 1968, when it appeared in the Catholic hymnal The Parish Hymn Book. It was subsequently included in English Praise (1975) before being included in MHfT (1980) and thus in A&MNS. It was headed 'To the altar of God': its four stanzas explore the liturgical custom in many churches of reverencing the altar. They are wonderfully compact and meaningful: they describe adoration (stanza 1), thankfulness (stanza...
God weeps. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931–2020).
Shirley Erena Murray explores the profound and complex reality of God's Incarnation in this hymn. She describes the context for the composition in her collection, Every Day in Your Spirit (1996), where it was first published: 'God Weeps (1994). A protest at violence, including child abuse and the battering of women, as well as violence on a world scale' (Murray, 1996, n.p.).
As is common with Murray's texts, she sets the structure and tone in the...
God who hast caused to be written thy word for our learning. T. Herbert O'Driscoll* (1928 - ).
Herbert O'Driscoll recast the Collect, Epistle (Romans 15:4-13) and Gospel (Luke 21:25-33) from the Book of Common Prayer into language of the mid 20th century for worship on the second Sunday of Advent. The new hymn would fit in congregational worship with the vocabulary and structure of recent translations of the Bible and of Anglican liturgy. The 'thy' in the first line has been changed to 'your'...
SADOH, Godwin. b. Lagos State, Nigeria, 28 March 1965. An Anglican organist, composer, hymn writer, church musician, and professor of music, Godwin Sadoh received certificates in piano, theory, and general musicianship from the Royal School of Music, London (1982-1986), and degrees in piano and composition from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria (BA, 1988); in African ethnomusicology from University of Pittsburgh (MA, 1998), in organ performance and church music from University of...
Goode's Psalms
An Entire New Version of the Book of Psalms. William Goode* (1762-1816).
This collection was published in 1811, with a Second Edition in 1813 and a Third in 1816. It was presumably given the 'Entire New' title to distinguish it from the 1696 'New Version' by Nahum Tate* and Nicholas Brady*, and from other predecessors such as Isaac Watts* and James Merrick*: in the Preface, Goode said that Watts' The Psalms of David, 1719, was 'simple and elegant', but that it professed to be...
LIGHT, Gordon Stanley. b. Claresholm, Alberta, 7 May 1944. A bishop in the Anglican Church of Canada, Gordon Light was born into a military family. He has lived in Alberta and in various places in Canada. Studies at Carleton University (Ottawa) (BA, 1965), then at Trinity College (Toronto) (STB, 1969) led to ordination as deacon and priest in the Anglican Church in 1969. In 2001, he was consecrated as bishop for the Anglican Parishes of the Central Interior of British Columbia. Light worked in...
He who by a mother's love. George MacDonald* (1824-1905).
This two-stanza poem appeared in MacDonald's 'Organ Songs', in his Works of Fancy and Imagination (1871), and then in his Poetical Works (1893). It was entitled 'Christmas Meditation':
He who by a mother's love Made the wandering world his own, Every year comes from above, Comes the parted to atone, Binding Earth to the Father's throne.
Nay, thou comest every day! No, thou never didst depart! Never hour hast been away! Always...
BANCROFT, Henry Hugh. b. Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, 29 February 1904; d. Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, 11 September 1988. A student of E. P. Guthrie and J. S. Robson at Grimsby, Bancroft took his FRCO in 1925 and served as organist and choir director at Old Clee Parish Church for four years before emigrating to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1929 to begin his Canadian career at St Matthew's Anglican Church. He completed an external BMus at Durham in 1936. During 1936-37 he served at the Church of the...
How lost was my condition. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book I, 'On select Texts of Scripture'. It was Hymn 62, entitled 'The good Physician'. The text on which is was based is (unusually) not given, but it comes after a hymn on Isaiah 45: 22 and before a hymn in Isaiah 54: 5-11. There is no physician in the intervening chapters, but it is a very general hymn on the power of Jesus to heal the sin-sick soul (cf. Jeremiah 8: 22, Mark 2: 17). It had five stanzas in 1779:
How...
Hymns Old & New
This is the title, with additional variants, of a series of hymnbooks published from 1986 onwards by Kevin Mayhew*, first from Leigh on Sea, Essex, and subsequently from an address near Stowmarket, Suffolk, sometimes described as Rattlesden and sometimes as Buxhall, both local villages. The title of these books is an obvious reference to the great British hymnal of the 19th century and after, Hymns Ancient and Modern*, to which these books are intended to be a modern...
In grief and fear to Thee, O Lord. William Bullock* (1798-1874).
According to JJ, p. 564, this appeared in Bullock's Songs of the Church (Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1854), with the title 'The Church in Plague or Pestilence'. It had five stanzas:
In grief and fear, to Thee, O Lord, We now for succour fly,Thine awful judgments are abroad, O shield us, lest we die!
The fell disease on every side, Walks forth with tainted breath;And Pestilence, with rapid stride, Bestrews the land with death.
Our...
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...
MARASCHIN, Jaci C. b. Bagé, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, 12 December 1929; d. São Paulo, 29 June 2009. At the end of his career Maraschin was Emeritus Professor at the São Paulo Methodist University and an ordained priest of the São Paulo Anglican DioceSse of the Brazilian Episcopal Anglican Church, part of the Anglican Communion. He started his musical education early in life with private tutors for music theory and piano. He held a Diploma from the Instituto Musical de Porto Alegre, Brazil, and...
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...
HOPKINS, John Henry, Jr. b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 28 October 1820; d. Hudson, New York, 14 August 1891. The son of John Henry Hopkins (1792-1868), an Episcopal Church priest who became the first Bishop of Vermont, he was educated at the University of Vermont (AB, 1839, MA, 1845). He moved to New York City to work as a reporter, intending to prepare for a law career, but changed his mind and entered the General Theological Seminary in New York (BD, 1850). He became the first instructor of...
MAUNDER, John Henry. b. Chelsea, London, 21 February 1858; d. Brighton, Sussex, 25 January 1920. He was the only son of John and Eliza Maunder. He married Ellen Fanny Fulgoux Dakin of Wandsworth, March 1880: they had one daughter, Winifred, b. October 1884.
Little of Maunder's early life is known, except that he studied at the Royal Academy of Music. Two announcements in the London Gazette (27 April 1877 and 2 December 1898) and two census entries, 1891 and 1911, confirm his employment as an...
MURRAY, John Stewart. b. Invercargill, New Zealand, 5 November 1929; d. 17 February 2017. The son of a pioneer Scottish settler family, John Murray was educated at King's High School and the University of Otago, Dunedin. After graduating (MA 1952), he studied at King's College, Cambridge, from 1952 to 1955, completing an MA in Divinity in 1954, followed by a period of study at the Graduate School, Bossey Ecumenical Institute, Geneva, where he was awarded a Diploma in Ecumenical Studies. He...
Troutbeck, John. b. Blencowe, Cumberland, England, 12 November 1832; d. London, 11 October 1899. An Anglican minister, church musician, and translator, Troutbeck received degrees from University College, Oxford (BA 1856; MA 1858). The son of George Troutbeck of Penrith, John married Elizabeth Forbes (1832–1923) in 1856. Following his ordination (deacon, 1855, priest, 1856), he served as precentor at Manchester Cathedral (1865–1869) and a minor canon and precentor at Westminster Abbey in 1869....
A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (CPH, 1737) was the first Anglican hymnal published in Colonial America for use in private and public worship (Evans, no. 4207). It was compiled and published in 1737 at Charles-town [now Charleston], South Carolina, by the missionary-priest, John Wesley*, for use in his ministry to English settlers and others who attended his religious societies in Savannah and Frederica, in the Georgia colony.
The Collection is patterned after resources used by Anglican...
DAVIS, Katherine Kennicott. b. St Joseph, Missouri, 25 June 1892; d. Concord, Massachusetts, 20 April 1980. After education at St Joseph's High School, Davis studied at Wellesley College (BA, 1914), where she won the Billings Prize for Composition. After additional studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, she returned to her alma mater to teach piano and music theory. At some point she studied for one month with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Davis taught singing and piano at...
Kindred in Christ, for his dear sake. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779). It was in Book II, 'On occasional Subjects', in a section entitled 'Providences'. It was Hymn LXX, entitled 'A welcome to christian friends':
Kindred in Christ, for his dear sake, A hearty welcome here receive; May we together now partake The joys which only he can give!
To you and us by grace 'tis giv'n, To know the Saviour's precious name; And shortly we shall meet in heav'n, Our hope, our way, our...
Lambeth Praise is the title of a hymnbook produced for the Lambeth Conference of 1998. The Lambeth Conference is a meeting every ten years of all the bishops in the world-wide Anglican Communion, normally held in the eighth year of each decade. Originally it was held in London, where Lambeth Palace is the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury, but now it is held at Canterbury.
The book was compiled by Geoff Weaver*, the Director of Music for the 1998 Conference. It contained 296 hymns, divided...
Let streams of living justice. William Whitla (1934 –).
Set to Gustav Holst*'s THAXTED, 'Let streams of living justice' was written in 1989 as a response to the events in Tiananmen Square, in Beijing, China; and dedicated to the mothers of the disappeared (in Argentina), the author's home community of Holy Trinity in Toronto, and the people of Tiananmen Square. It was first published in Sing Justice, Do Justice (Selah Publishing, 1998), the result of the Hymn Society in the United States and...
Lord of the brave, who call'st Thine own. John Huntley Skrine* (1848-1923).
Written in 1893 for a service of Confirmation during the time that Skrine was Warden (Headmaster) of Trinity College, Glenalmond, a 'public' or independent school (i.e. private school) with a strong Anglican tradition. It was later published in Skrine's Thirty Hymns for Public School Singing (1899). It was included in the Public School Hymn Book (PSHB, 1903), and remained in later editions (1919, 1949), until it was...
Love's redeeming work is done. Charles Wesley* (1707-1788).
The first stanza of this hymn is stanza 2 of Charles Wesley's 'Christ the Lord is risen today'*. Wesley used quotation marks in the first line to indicate that he was echoing the first line of the hymn from Lyra Davidica (1708), 'Jesus Christ is risen today'*. He probably wanted to demonstrate that he could write a different, and greater, hymn than the three simple stanzas of Lyra Davidica.
'Christ the Lord is risen today' was first...
DAWN, Maggi Eleanor. b. 1959. Maggi Dawn is a British musician, author, theologian, and Church of England priest. Prior to ordination, she worked as a singer-songwriter. She remains active as a guitarist and singer. She held chaplaincies at King's College and Robinson College, Cambridge University; from 2011 to 2019 she was Associate Dean for Marquand Chapel and Associate Professor of Theology and Literature at Yale University. She was Principal of St Mary's College, Durham University, UK from...
HATCHETT, Marion Josiah. b. Monroe, South Carolina, 19 July 1927: d. Sewanee, Tennessee, 7 August 2009. Son of a United Methodist Church minister, he was confirmed as a member of the Episcopal Church while a student at Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina (AB 1947). He continued his studies at The School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee (BD, 1951, STM, 1967), and General Theological Seminary, New York City (THD, 1972).
Ordained in the Episcopal Church (deacon...
SIDEBOTHAM, Mary Ann. b. London, 31 July 1833; d. Ryde, Isle of Wight, 20 February 1913. According to Frost (1962) she was a talented musician. She lived with her brother Thomas, vicar of St Thomas on the Bourne, Farnham, Surrey, where she was church organist. She was a friend of the composer Henry Thomas Smart*, and it may have been at his suggestion that she became music editor of The Children's Hymn Book, for use in children's services, Sunday schools, and families (1881), edited by Frances...
BEVAN, Maurice Guy Smalman. b. 10 March 1921; d. 20 June 2006. Bevan came from a line of Anglican clergymen. He was brought up in Shropshire, and educated at Shrewsbury School and Magdalen College, Oxford, which he left after a year to do military service in World War II. After the war he became a member of the St Paul's Cathedral choir as a bass baritone. A colleague in the choir, the counter-tenor Alfred Deller, founded the Deller Consort in 1950, of which Bevan became a valued member. The...
FLEMING, Michael (Paschal Marcon). b. Oxford, 8 April 1928; d. Croydon, 10 January 2006. He was the son and grandson of Church of England clergymen: his father, Guy Fleming, was curate of St Mary Magdalene, Oxford. During World War II he was evacuated to Cornwall, where he began organ lessons. After the war he was educated at St Edmund's School, Canterbury, followed by National Service. He went up to University College, Durham, in 1949 (BA, Music, 1952) where he also acted as organist of St...
Mirfield Mission Hymn Book
The Community of the Resurrection (CR) was founded in Oxford in 1892 by six priests, including Charles Gore, subsequently Bishop of Worcester, Birmingham and Oxford. It moved to Mirfield, West Yorkshire, in 1898. From the outset it combined a strong liturgical interest with a concern for the poor and needy, and it provided practical and spiritual help, notably in London. For much of the 20th century it also staffed missions in other countries, most significantly in...
COKE-JEPHCOTT, Norman. b. Coventry, Warwickshire, England, 17 March 1893; d. New York City, 14 March 1962. Coke-Jephcott was an organist, choral director, and composer. His main contribution to hymnic bibliography is The Saint Thomas Church Descant Book.
Norman Coke-Jephcott's parents were Edwin Coke Jephcott (1857-1927) and Annie May (Clarke) Jephcott (1855-1922). Edwin was a music teacher and organist in Coventry, where, in Holy Trinity Church, Norman was baptized on 20 April 1893. On 29...
Not for tongues of heaven's angels. Timothy Dudley-Smith* (1926-2024).
Based on 1 Corinthians 13, this was written at Ruan Minor, Cornwall, in August 1984. It followed a conference of the Hymn Society of America at Elmhurst, Illinois, during which the author had a conversation with Bob Batastini*, who was looking for a new hymn for Worship, Third Edition to be sung to Peter Cutts*s tune BRIDEGROOM (composed for 'As the bridegroom to his chosen'* by Emma Frances Bevan'). Back in the United...
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 may He who from the dead. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, Hymn 100. It is found among the 'Short Hymns' at the end, in the section entitled 'After Sermon'. It had three stanzas:
Now may He who from the deadBrought the Shepherd of the sheep,Jesus Christ, our King and Head,All our souls in safety keep!
May he teach us to fulfill,What is pleasing in his sight;Perfect us in all his will,And preserve us day and night!
To that dear Redeemer's praise,Who the...
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...
O for the robes of whiteness. Charitie Lees De Chenez* (1841-1923).
According to JJ, p. 109, this was published in Within the Veil, by C.L.S. [Charitie Lees Smith, her maiden name] (1867), but this has not been verified. It has also been stated that it was published in leaflet form in 1860. It was certainly printed in Lyra Britannica (1867), edited by Charles Rogers, where it was entitled 'Heavenly Anticipations'. Philip Schaff*, who printed it in Christ in Song (New York, 1869), described it...
GIBSON, Paul S. b. Guelph, Ontario, Canada, 3 August 1932. He earned the LTh at St Chad's Theological College, Regina (1954), a BA at Bishops University (1956), and studied at Oxford University (1957) doing research on the moral theology of Tractarians. He holds honorary degrees from the University of Emmanuel College, Saskatoon; Huron College, London; Vancouver School of Theology; Montreal Diocesan College; and Trinity College, Toronto. In 2006, he received the Cross of St Augustine, presented...
DAVISON, Peter Wood Asterly. b. Montreal, 12 June 1936. After a year at McGill University, he went to Balliol College, Oxford (BA 1959, MA 1962), Cuddesdon Theological College, Oxford (1959-61), and subsequently to McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago (DMin 1989). Ordained in 1961, he returned to Canada, serving as rector in Anglican churches in Montreal and in Alymer, Quebec, and in Vancouver; before becoming rector at Bishop Cronyn Memorial Church in London, ON, where he also taught...
LUTKIN, Peter Christian. b. Thompsonville, Wisconsin, 27 March 1858; d. Chicago, Illinois, 27 December 1931. Peter Lutkin, composer, conductor, organist, and educator, received much of his early musical education by singing as a chorister in the choir at St Peter and St Paul's Episcopal Church in Chicago, where he began studying the organ at age 12. He was exposed to the new wave of Anglican music that prevailed in Episcopal churches in America. He spent the years from 1881 to 1884 studying in...
BROOKS, Phillips. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 December 1835; d. Boston, 23 January 1893. He came from a prosperous and religious family, who left the First Church of Boston, where Phillips had been baptized, when it became Unitarian. The family then worshipped at St Paul's Episcopal Church, and Phillips became an Episcopalian. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College (AB 1855). After a failed attempt at teaching at his old school, he went to Virginia Theological Seminary...
Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship (SPCK, 1852-1869).
There are a number of books with this title, or similar titles, published by different editors in the mid-19th century. They are strong evidence of the increasing importance of hymn singing in worship. The list in JJ, p. 337-8, is instructive: many of them seem to have been compiled by incumbents of parishes for the use of their congregations. Examples included Christian Psalmody; being Psalms and Hymns adapted to Public Worship by the...
Quiet, Lord, my froward heart. John Newton* (1725-1807).
From Book III of Olney Hymns (1779), 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life.' This hymn comes from Section V, 'Dedication and Surrender'. It was entitled 'The Child (e)'. The '(e)' points to two references at the foot of the page, Psalm 131: 2 ('Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child') and Matthew 18: 3-4 ('Except ye be converted,...
GLOVER, Raymond F. b. Buffalo, New York, 23 May 1928; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 15 December 2017. Ray Glover, distinguished hymnist and church musician, was a boy chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo. He studied with Healey Willan* at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (BM, 1952), and Robert Baker (1916-2005) at the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City (MSM, 1954). Returning to Buffalo he served as organist and choirmaster, St Paul's Cathedral...
TRENCH, Richard Chenevix. b. Dublin, 9 September 1807; d. London, 28 March 1886. He came from a distinguished family: his uncle Frederic was Lord Ashtown, and his great-grandfather was Bishop of Waterford. He was educated at Harrow School (1819-25) and Trinity College, Cambridge (1825-29: BA 1829; MA 1833), where he was a member of the exclusive 'Apostles' club, together with Alfred Tennyson* and Arthur Hallam. After a period spent travelling, he took Holy Orders (deacon 1832, priest 1835),...
BROWN-BORTHWICK, Robert. b. Aberdeen, 18 May 1840; d. 17 March 1894 . He was educated at St Mary Hall, Oxford, then an independent Hall associated with the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, now a part of Oriel College. He took Holy Orders in 1865, serving curacies at Sudeley, Gloucestershire (1865-66), Evesham, Worcestershire (1866-68). He became Assistant Minister of Quebec Chapel (1868-69), Incumbent of the Chapel of the Holy Trinity, Grange in Borrowdale, near Keswick (1869-86), and...
PALMER, Roland Ford. b. London, England, 12 December 1891; d. Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 24 August 1985. He was educated in London at the Skinners' Company School, and (after leaving for Canada in 1905) at the Grove School, Lakefield, Ontario. He studied at Peterborough Collegiate Institute and Trinity College, Toronto (LTh, 1914, BA 1916). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1916, priest 1917). After serving in two parishes in Ontario, Engelhart and Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), he left for...
ARNATT, Ronald Kent. b. Wandsworth, London, 12 January 1930; d. Fredericksburg, Virginia, 23 August 2018. Arnatt was an organist, composer, conductor, and editor. He composed several hymn tunes and organ pieces based on hymn tunes.
His parents were Josiah Henry Arnatt (1891-1958) and Elizabeth Christina (Kent) Arnatt (1903-1986). As early as 1937, Ronald's name appeared in lists of prize winners for singing and playing piano. In 1938 he was featured as 'Boy Musical Prodigy'. 'The remarkable...
The Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) is an educational charity that promotes the best use of music in worship, church life, and the wider community. It also publishes music and training resources, and organizes courses, short workshops and activities. With over 7,500 affiliates, members and 1,500 supporting friends in over 40 countries, it is an international network, supported by over 750 volunteers and a small team of staff based throughout the UK. RSCM in America, RSCM Australia, RSCM...
The Salisbury Hymn Book (1857). This was published in Salisbury and London, although it may have originated in a hymnbook for the local diocese of the former. It was edited by Horatio Bolton Nelson*. There was no Preface, but a letter addressed to Earl Nelson from the Bishop of Salisbury, Walter Kerr Hamilton, dated November of that year, was printed as follows: 'My dear Lord,/ I very much like the Hymn-book which you have sent me, and I quite approve of your publishing it./ I remain, Yours...
Sarum Hymnal, The (1868). This hymnbook was a successor to The Salisbury Hymn Book (1857), edited by Horatio Bolton Nelson*. In The Sarum Hymnal the editors were Earl Nelson, James Russell Woodford* and Edward Arthur Dayman*. Woodford was rector of Kempsford, Gloucestershire, and subsequently Bishop of Ely. He had previously edited The Parish Hymn Book (1863) with Hyde Wyndham Beadon* and Greville Phillimore*. Woodford included three of his own hymns:
'Lamb of God, for sinners slain'
'Not by...
Saviour, visit thy plantation. John Newton* (1725-1807).
This was Hymn LI in Book II ('On Occasional Subjects') of Olney Hymns (1779). Book II was divided into four sections, 'Seasons', 'Ordinances', 'Providences', and 'Creation'. The present hymn was in section II. It was entitled 'Prayer for a revival'. There were five 8-line stanzas, notable for Newton's ability to sustain the gardening metaphor, and for a lament by his usually sanguine spirit:
Saviour, visit thy plantation, Grant us,...
Sing Alleluya forth ye saints on high. George Timms* (1910-1997).
Timms often re-worked earlier hymns. This is clearly written in imitation of 'Sing Alleluia forth in duteous praise'*, the translation of 'Alleluia piis edite laudibus' by John Ellerton*, found in the Appendix (1868) to the First Edition of A&M and in Church Hymns (1871; Church Hymns with Tunes, 1874). This had become very popular when set to ALLELUIA PERENNE by William Henry Monk* for the early editions, or later to a...
Sing God's Glory (2001).
This is the title of a new and enlarged edition of Sing His Glory (1997), sub-titled 'Hymns for Sundays and Holy Days, Years A, B & C', published in Britain by the Canterbury Press, Norwich. The new title recognises the claims of the feminist movement in Britain, and the sub-title is an accurate description of the contents. The Revised Common Lectionary was authorised for use in the Church of England from Advent 1997, and this compilation is described as 'one...
Sing of Mary, pure and lowly. Roland Ford Palmer* (1891-1985).
Written for the revised edition of the Canadian Book of Common Praise (Toronto, 1938), to which it was submitted anonymously (Palmer was a member of the committee). According to the H82 Companion, Volume 3A, p. 537, it was based on a poem of unknown authorship found in a pamphlet at Ilkeston, Derbyshire, ca. 1914, written for the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Mary. After the Canadian publication, the first two stanzas were printed in...
CHÁVEZ-MELO, Skinner. b. Mexico City, 17 November 1944; d. New York City 25 January 1992. Chávez-Melo attended Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts (BM, 1968), Union Theological Seminary, New York City, New York (MSM, 1971) [later serving there as choirmaster] with additional study at the Juilliard School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. From 1972-1985 he held faculty and administrative positions at the Manhattan School of Music and The Mannes College of Music in New...
Songs for a Gospel People (Winfield, BC: Wood Lake Books, 1987). Songs for a Gospel People was a collection issued as a supplement to The Hymn Book (1971) of the Anglican and United Churches of Canada, under the authority of two annual conferences (Alberta and British Columbia) of the UCC. It was prepared by a team directed by R. Gerald Hobbs*, professor of church history and music at Vancouver School of Theology; with Darryl Nixon*, as music editor; and with the collaboration of publisher...
Spirit of God, that moved of old. Cecil Frances Alexander* (1818-1895).
First published in Hymns for Public Worship (1852, 1855), edited by Thomas Vincent Fosbery* for the SPCK (it is possible that Fosbery, born in Ireland, had a particular interest in Irish authors: cf. Emma Toke*). It had four stanzas. Taylor (1989, p. 172) notes that it was then printed in Alexander's Hymns Descriptive and Devotional (1858), with an additional stanza (stanza 3 in the following text; this stanza has not been...
Stop, poor sinner! stop and think. John Newton* (1725-1807).
This is from Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life.' It was the second hymn in the first section of Book III, 'Solemn Addresses to Sinners', entitled 'Alarm'. It had five stanzas:
Stop, poor sinner! stop and think Before you farther go!Will you sport upon the brink Of everlasting woe?Once again I charge you, stop! For, unless you warning take,Ere you are aware, you...
O'DRISCOLL, Thomas Herbert. b. Cork, Ireland, 17 October 1928; d. Victoria, British Columbia, 25 July 2024. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, 1951 and ordained in 1952. He became assistant rector at Christ Church Cathedral, Ottawa, Canada, in 1954. He served for three years as chaplain with the Royal Canadian Navy at Shearwater, Nova Scotia, before returning to Ontario (1960-67). He was Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in Vancouver, British Columbia (1968-1982), Warden of the College...
Tell me no more of earthly toys. Susanna Harrison* (1752-1784).
From Harrison's Songs in the Night (1780). This hymn was included in John Dobell*'s A New Selection of Seven Hundred Evangelical Hymns (1806), but it was never much used in Britain. The publication of Dobell's book in the USA made it widely known. It was entitled 'Renouncing the World', and sometimes associated with 1 Timothy 6: 6 ('godliness with contentment is great gain')or 2 Corinthians 4: 18 ('While we look not at the things...
The Hymnary (1872). The editors of The Hymnary (1872) were William Cooke*, Honorary Canon of Chester, and Benjamin Webb*, vicar of St Andrew's, Wells Street, London. It was published by Novello, Ewer & Co., following the decision of the Proprietors of A&M to transfer the printing of their book from Novello to William Clowes. Thus The Hymnary was born out of commercial rivalry, and its editors must have been instructed to make a more attractive book than A&M (1861) and...
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...
KELLY, Thomas. b. Kellyville, Queen's County [Co. Laois], Ireland, 13 July 1769; d. Dublin, 14 May 1855. He was the son of an Irish judge, Baron Kelly of Kellyville. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA, 1789), and began studying for a legal career. Against the wishes of his family, however, he gave up the law and became ordained as a priest in the Church of England in Ireland (1792). He began preaching in Dublin in 1793: the emphasis on the doctrine of grace, and the unusual energy...
PHILLIPS, Thomas King Ekundayo, b. Ondo State, Nigeria, 8 March 1884; d. Lagos, Nigeria, 10 July 1969. Born into the family of Bishop Charles Samuel Phillips of the Anglican Communion, he was the father of five children. Phillips graduated from Trinity College of Music, London (1914), majoring in organ and violin. He was the second Nigerian to receive a bachelor's degree in music from this institution. Phillips was appointed in 1914 to the position of Organist and Master of the Music at the...
TROEGER, Thomas Henry. b. Suffern, New York State, 30 January 1945; d. Falmouth, Maine, 3 April 2022. Troeger was educated at Yale University (BA 1967) and Colgate-Rochester Divinity School (BD 1970). He was associate minister of New Hartford Presbyterian Church, New York (1970-77). He then taught homiletics at the Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozier Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York (1977-91); he was Norma E. Peck Professor of Preaching and Communication at Iliff School of Theology,...
FOSBERY, Thomas Vincent. b. Limerick, Ireland, 1807; d. Bracknell, Berkshire, 1875. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin (BA 1830, MA 1847). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1831, priest 1832), serving a curacy at Etchilhampton, Wiltshire (1831-34). From 1834 to 1849 his career is uncertain. He is listed in the Clergy Lists from 1841 onward as living at Westcliff House, Niton, Isle of Wight, but with no benefice. He became the incumbent of Sunningdale, Berkshire (1849-57) and vicar of St...
To thy pastures fair and large. James Merrick* (1720-1769).
This is from Merrick's The Psalms, translated or paraphrased in English Verse (Reading, 1765). It is based on his version of Psalm 23, which in the last two lines, has a distinct echo of 'The Lord my pasture shall prepare'* by Joseph Addison*:
Lo, my Shepherd's hand divine!Want shall never more be mine.In a pasture fair and largeHe shall feed his happy Charge,And my couch with tend'rest care'Midst the springing grass prepare.When I...
A Generous Tribute: Twells on Lyte.
Henry Twells* paid a felicitous tribute to Henry Francis Lyte* that deserves to be better known. In Twells's Hymns and Other Stray Verses (1901), published after his death, there is a poem entitled 'The Rev. Henry Francis Lyte'. Twells described him as
A Parish priest, whose anxious post Was on South Devon's rocky coast, Through all his life at various times Had clothed his thoughts in graceful rhymes.
The poem goes on to describe Lyte's most famous hymn,...
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...
CARBERY, Lady Victoria Cecil Evans-Freke (née Cecil). b. 6 November 1843; d. 22 February 1932. She was the daughter of Brownlow Cecil, second Marquess of Exeter, who christened her after the young Queen. In 1866 she married (his second marriage) William Charles Evans-Freke (d. 1894), eighth Baron Carbery. She was designated Baroness Carbery in 1889. Before that date, as 'V. Evans-Freke', she had (probably through the Earl of Harrowby) become friendly with Edward Harland*. She produced The Song...
BOWIE, (Walter) Russell. b. Richmond, Virginia, 8 October 1882; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 23 April 1969. Bowie was educated at Harvard University (BA 1904, MA, 1905), and Virginia Theological Seminary (BD 1909, DD 1919). He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1909 and served Emmanuel Church, Greenwood, Virginia (1909-11); St Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia (1911-23, with hospital chaplaincy in France during World War I); and Grace Church, New York City (1923-39). He became Professor of...
JUDE, William Herbert. b. Westleton, near Aldeburgh, Suffolk, September 1852; d. Willesden, Middlesex, 8 August 1922. His family moved to Norfolk when he was a child, and he went to school at Wisbech Grammar School, where he was a precocious musician, composing incidental music for Shakespeare's plays. Realising his talent, his parents sent him to Liverpool, where he was looked after by an uncle, D.C. Browne, himself a composer and organist. At the age of 14 he became the organist of a church...
GILBERT, Walter Bond. b. Exeter, 21 April 1829; d. Oxford, 2 March 1910. The son of Samuel Thomas Gilbert, he studied music, and as a young man played the organ at St Thomas's Church, Exeter. He was further taught by the Exeter Cathedral organist, Samuel Sebastian Wesley* (organist 1835-42). Gilbert was organist of several notable Churches from 1847 onwards: Topsham, Devon (1847-49); Bideford, Devon (1849-54); Tonbridge, Kent (1854-59); Maidstone, Kent (1859-66); Lee, Kent (1866-68); and...
We praise thy name, all-holy Lord. Ebenezer Josiah Newell* (1853-1916).
This hymn on Saint David (ca. 500- ca. 589) was included in EH and NEH, SofPE, and A&MR. The three stanzas in EH and subsequent books were selected from a hymn in seven stanzas on the Welsh saints, published in The Northern Churchman and St David's Weekly (29 February 1896, i.e. just before Saint David's day, 1 March). There is reference to David's noble birth (he was the son of Ceredig ap Cunedda, king of Ceredigion)...
While with ceaseless course the sun. John Newton* (1725-1807).
JJ notes (p. 1275) that this was first published in Newton's Twenty-Six Letters on Religious Subjects. To which are added, Hymns, &c. by Omicron (1774), where it was the last hymn in the book, entitled 'On the New Year'. It was included in the 1774 Edition of Richard Conyers*'s Collection of Psalms and Hymns, from Various Authors, before finding its place as the opening hymn of Book II ('On Occasional Subjects') of Olney Hymns...
Why should I fear the darkest hour. John Newton* (1725- 1807).
According to JJ, p. 1279, this was published in the Gospel Magazine for June 1771, signed 'Omicron', with the title 'In uno Jesu omnia'. It was then included in Olney Hymns (1779), Book III, 'On the Rise, Progress, Changes, and Comforts of the Spiritual Life', where it was Hymn XLVI, with the title 'Jesus my all'. It was in the 'Comfort' section, hymns XLIII to LVIII. It had eight 3-line stanzas, with one misprint ('interceedes',...
WILSON, William Carus. b. Heversham, Westmorland, 7 July 1791; d. London, 30 December 1859. Born William Carus, he had the name Wilson from his father, William Carus (1764-1851), who took it when he inherited Casterton Hall and its estates from an aunt in 1793. The father was Member of Parliament for Cockermouth (1821-26).
William Carus Wilson, the son, was educated privately and at Trinity College, Cambridge (BA 1815, MA 1818). After initially being rejected for ordination on account of his...
DOANE, William Crosswell. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 2 March 1832; d. New York City, 17 May 1913. He was the son of George Washington Doane*, born when his father was minister of Trinity Church, Boston. The family moved to Burlington when his father was consecrated Bishop of New Jersey in the year of his birth. He was educated at Burlington College (founded by his father), graduating in 1850. He was ordained deacon in 1853, serving as an assistant to his father, and priest in 1856. He founded St...
JONES, William. b. Lowick, Northamptonshire, 30 July 1726; d. Nayland, Suffolk, 6 January 1800. He was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford (BA 1749), after which he took Holy Orders (deacon 1749, priest 1751). He served curacies at Finedon, and then Wadenhoe, both in Northamptonshire, before becoming the incumbent of Bethersden, Kent (1754-55) and then Pluckley, Kent (1755-77). In 1777 he moved to Nayland in Suffolk as Perpetual Curate, from which his many...
PENNEFATHER, William. b. Dublin, 5 February 1816; d. Muswell Hill, Middlesex, 30 April 1873. He was the son of a distinguished Irish lawyer who became chief Baron of the Exchequer Court. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin (BA 1840; his undergraduate career was interrupted by illness). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1841, priest 1842), and was successively curate at Ballymacugh and vicar of Mellifont, near Drogheda, where he ministered to the people during the famine of 1845. He moved to...
ROMAINE, William. b. Hartlepool, County Durham, 25 September 1714; d. London, 26 July 1795. The son of a Huguenot refugee, he was educated at Houghton-le-Spring Grammar School and Hart Hall, Oxford, followed by Christ Church (BA 1734, MA 1737). He took Holy Orders (deacon 1736, priest 1738), serving curacies simultaneously at Banstead, Surrey and Horton, Middlesex. He was chaplain to the Lord Mayor of London in 1741, and a 'Lecturer' at St Botolph's, Billingsgate in 1748 and at St Dunstan's in...
WHITLA, William John. b. Galt (now Cambridge), Ontario, Canada, 1 May 1934. Whitla was educated at University College, Toronto (BA, English Language & Literature, 1957); University of Toronto (MA, English, 1961); Trinity College, Toronto (STB, Bachelor of Sacred Theology, Graduate Honours degree in Theology, 1961); Merton College, Oxford (DPhil, English, 1968).
He was Professor of English and Humanities at York University, Toronto (1963–94), and Professor Emeritus and Senior Scholar...
With all thy Pow'r, O Lord, defend. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833).
This is from Hill's A Collection of Hymns, chiefly intended for the Use of the Poor (1776), the second of two hymns for ministers, 'For Ministers at their Arrival', and 'For Ministers at their Departure':
With all thy Pow'r, O Lord, defendHim whom we now to Thee commend;Thy faithful Messenger secure,And make him to the End endure.
Gird him with all-sufficient Grace; Direct his Feet in Paths of Peace; Thy Truth and Faithfulness...
Worship Songs, Ancient and Modern was published as a joint venture in 1992, in Britain by the Canterbury Press, Norwich, and in the USA by Hope Publishing Company*, Carol Stream, Illinois. It was something of a surprise: A&M was 'an organisation identified so positively with the traditional world of hymnody', but it had identified a need to bridge 'the present gap between the classic hymn and the popular chorus' (Introduction).
The 100 songs are arranged alphabetically. There are some that...
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 that in his Courts are found. Rowland Hill* (1744-1833).
This hymn comes from Hill's A Collection of Hymns, chiefly intended for the Use of the Poor (1776), where it was entitled 'Enjoyment of Christ in Worship':
Ye that in his Courts are found,List'ning to the joyful Sound,Lost and helpless as ye are,Sons of Sorrow, Sin, and Care,Glorify the King of Kings,Take the Peace the Gospel brings.
Turn to Christ your longing Eyes,View his bloody Sacrifice;See in Him your Sins forgiv'n,Pardon,...