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A toi la gloire, O Ressuscité. Edmond Louis Budry* (1854-1932).
Companions and Handbooks have long been uncertain about the date of this hymn and its first printing. The Swiss National Library confirms that it was published in Chants Évangéliques (Lausanne, 1885), and in subsequent editions of that book (1886, 1889, 1892, 1896, 1908). It was well enough known in Switzerland to have been selected as one of the texts in Chants de Pâques à 2 ou 4 voix avec accompagnement d'Orgue (Lausanne, 1905)....
VINET, Alexandre. b. near Lausanne, 17 June 17, 1797; d. Clarens, 4 May 1847. Vinet was a literary critic, with essays on Pascal, Racine and Châteaubriand, pastor in the Canton of Vaud, moralist, and poet.
Vinet studied theology in Lausanne. He taught French and French literature at the Basel gymnasium as early as 1817, before being ordained in his native town in 1819. During this period he acted as a stand-in for other pastors in Basel. In 1819 he became a privat-docent at the University,...
MALAN, (Henri Abraham) Caesar (César). b. Geneva, Switzerland, 7 July 1787; d. Vandoeuvres, Switzerland, 18 May 1864. Descended from Waldensians (see Waldensian hymnody*), Malan's family originally settled at Mérindol in Provence, but were dispersed owing to religious persecution in 1714. Educated in Geneva, Malan was at first pastor in the National Church of Geneva and in accord with its near-Unitarian character. Around 1820, he became pastor of a separatist group in Geneva.
Malan was a...
Contrary to popular belief, Calvin was not against trained singers leading worship song. While excluding organs and performing choirs, Calvin did allow a designated leader to teach children to sing the unaccompanied, unison, vernacular psalms in metrical paraphrase. The children, who were probably placed at the ends of the benches, supported congregational song. Loys Bourgeois* was Calvin's director of congregational singing, and director ('maître des enfants') of the Geneva community...
BUDRY, Edmond Louis. b. Vevey, 30 Aug 1854; d. Vevey, 12 Nov 1932. Born in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Budry was educated at Lausanne, studying at the theological faculty of the Église Évangélique Libre du Canton de Vaud, a breakaway church from the National Reformed Church of Vaud. He served as a pastor of that church at Cully and Ste Croix, between Lausanne and Vevey (1886-89) and of the Free Church at Vevey (1889-1924). He died at Vevey and is buried at Cully. He is famous for...
OSER, Friedrich. b. Basel, 29 February 1820; d. Biel-Benken, near Basel, 15 December 1891. He was educated at school and university at Basel, where he also studied theology. He was ordained to a pastorate at Waldenburg in 1845. For a large part of his active life he was prison chaplain at Basel (1867-1884), followed by a pastorate at Biel-Benken from 1884 until his death.
The tragic loss of his wife and daughter caused Oser to write Sechzig Kreuz- und Trostlieder mit einem Anhang von Liedern...
The Genevan Psalter, 1539-1562
The singing of psalms was regarded by Jean Calvin* as an essential part of congregational worship, and it was a distinctive feature of the reformed church at Geneva in the 16th century. Unlike Luther*, Calvin was cautious about using hymns, because they were of human composition. In the words of Louis F. Benson*, 'He would have nothing in the cultus which could not claim the express authority of Scripture' (1915, p. 23). Psalms, however, were seen as inspired by...
ZOLLIKOFER, Georg Joachim. b. St Gallen, Switzerland, 5 August 1730; d. Leipzig, 22 January 1788. Zollikofer was educated at St Gallen and at Bremen and Utrecht. After a short period as a private tutor at Frankfurt-am-Main, he returned to Switzerland as pastor of the Reformed church at Murten (in the canton of Freiburg today), followed by pastorates at Monsheim (Pfalz), 1754-58, and briefly at the Huguenot town of Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt/Main (a few months in 1758). In 1758 he accepted a...
FRANC, Guillaume. b. Rouen, ca. 1515 ; d. Lausanne, Switzerland, 1570. He worked in Geneva as singer, professor of music and cantor in the reformed Cathedral Saint-Pierre. In 1541 he became the director of 'une eschole de musique' (music school), where he was appointed professor of music and singing. When Jean Calvin* returned to Geneva, the Council introduced psalm-singing and the training of school children to sing in church. On 2 May 1542, Franc was appointed as 'maystre des escholes'....
Have you had a kindness shown. Henry Burton* (1840-1930).
Written at Acton on 8 April 1885, and first printed in The Christian Advocate (New York, 1886), and in Burton's Wayside Songs of the Inner and the Outer Life (1886). JJ quoted from the author's manuscript:
This is based on a little incident in the life of my brother-in-law, the Rev. Mark Guy Pearse. When a boy returning home from a Moravian school in Holland, the steward of the boat on which he sailed from Bristol to Hayle showed him...
LAUFENBURG, Heinrich von. b. Laufenburg, Aargau, Switzerland, ca. 1390; d. Strasbourg, ca. 1460. He is named after his birthplace, a town on the Rhine, now on the border with Germany: in JJ he is listed as 'Heinrich of Laufenburg' (p. 507; Catherine Winkworth* uses 'Henry of Loufenburg', and Wackernagel 'Heinrich von Loufenberg'). In JJ James Mearns* noted that he was first heard of as Dean of the Collegiate Church of St Maurice at Zofingen, Aargau. He later became a Dean at Freiburg, Baden,...
Je Te salue, mon certain Rédempteur. French Psalter, Strasbourg, 1545, possibly by Jean Calvin*.
Found in an edition of the French Psalter published in Strasbourg in 1545, this was printed in Corpus Reformatorum volume 34, Calvini opera vol. 6 (Braunschweig, 1867). It was placed at the end of a set of nine French metrical psalms by Calvin, but regarded by the editors as of doubtful authorship.
In the year following the publication of Corpus Reformatorum the text was translated by Elizabeth Lee...
CALVIN, Jean (John). b. Noyon en Picardie, France, 10 July 1509; d. Geneva, 27 May 1564. He attended the 'Collège des Capettes' in his native town. In May 1521, an ecclesiastic benefice was granted to him in the Cathedral of Noyon. Two years later, he studied at the 'Collège de la Marche' at Paris with the humanist Mathurin Cordier. Between 1524 and 1528, he received a scholastic training at the 'Collège Montaigu'. After having obtained the degree of 'Maître ès Arts', according to his father's...
LAVATER, Johann Kaspar. b. Zürich, Switzerland, 15 November 1741; d. Zürich, 2 January 1801. The son of a doctor, he was educated in his native city in the Academic Gymnasium and the Theological Faculty of the University (as a young man he was a close friend of Heinrich Füssli, who came to England and became famous as the painter Henry Fuseli). Lavater was ordained in 1762, taking up a position as diaconus of the Orphanage Church in 1769 and becoming pastor in 1775. In 1778 he became diaconus...
STEINER, Johann Ludwig. b. Zürich, 1 July 1688; d. Zürich, 27 March 1761. He was the son of the town trumpeter of Zürich, whom he succeeded in 1705, carrying on the family tradition of providing the town trumpeter for almost 200 years, from 1617 to 1803. Johann was an accomplished musician, who had organ lessons from L. Kellersberger at Baden (Aargau), and who played other instruments. He was also a skilled clock-maker. He was the composer of the first Swiss single-author collection of hymn...
SCHMIDLIN, Johannes. b. Zürich, 22 May 1722; d. Wetzikon, 5 November 1771. The son of a ship's captain, he was a student at the music college of the church of Our Lady at Zürich. From 1736 he attended the Collegium Carolinum under Cantor Johann Caspar Bachofen, who influenced him greatly. At the same time he studied theology, and was ordained in 1743. He was vicar of Dietlikon (1744-54) and priest of Wetzikon and Seegräben from 1754 until his death. He was known as a composer of edifying...
STAPFER, Johannes. b. Bern, Switzerland, 1719 (baptised 27 December); d. Bern, 21 October 1801. He was educated at Bern, and became a minister of the Swiss Reformed Church, serving at Aarburg (in the Canton of Bern, now in Aargau), before returning to Bern as Professor of Practical Theology at the Theological College in 1756. He taught at the Latin School at Bern (1761-73) and at the Theology College (1774- ), where he was Rektor (1787-90, and 1796). His sermons were printed as Johannes...
Lord, her watch Thy church is keeping. Henry Downton* (1818-1885).
This stirring hymn for mission was written in 1866 during Downton's time in Geneva, and sung at the annual meeting of the Church Missionary Society in that year. It was published in the Seventh Edition of D.T. Barry's Psalms and Hymns for the Church, School, and Home (1867) and subsequently in Downton's Hymns and Verses, Original and Translated (1873). Too late for the First Edition of A&M, and missed by the 1868 Appendix,...
BOURGEOIS, Loys. b. Paris, ca. 1510–15; d. ca. 1559. Bourgeois was a composer of chansons who adhered to the Reformed religion. Born in Paris, he emigrated from Lyons to Geneva in 1545 and was granted citizenship in 1547. From 1539 to 1557 he worked as musical editor for successive editions of the Calvinist psalter of Clément Marot* and Théodore de Bèze* (see French Protestant psalms*), adapting old Latin hymn melodies (see Medieval hymns and hymnals*) and sequence* melodies, and composing some...
Senfl, Ludwig. b. ca. 1489/91; d. 1542/3. Of Swiss origin, Senfl became a choirboy in the Imperial court chapel of Maximilian I in 1496. He was a pupil of Henricus Isaac*, and remained attached to the Imperial court choir, both as an alto and as a composer, until its dissolution on Maximilian's death in 1519. By 1523 he was in Munich, serving Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria. Although Senfl was sympathetic to the reformation whilst his employer remained a committed Catholic, he kept this post until...
O Jesus Christus, wachs' in mir. Johann Kaspar Lavater* (1741-1801).
From Lavater's Christliche Lieder…Zweytes Hundert (1780), with the date 'Am Neujahrstage 1780'. It was prefaced with the words 'Christus muß wachsen; ich aber muß abnehmen' ('Christ must increase; but I must decrease'), from John 3: 30. It is found in Part II of Lavater's Zweihundert Christliche Lieder (Zürich, 1844), at no. 86 (the book is not indexed). It had ten 4-line stanzas. It is well known in British and American books...
OLD HUNDREDTH.
This is the most durable of all hymn tunes in the English-language repertory. Associated with William Kethe*'s version of Psalm 100 ('All people that on earth do dwell'*) from its first printing in the Anglo-Genevan psalter of 1560, it was taken from the French Genevan Psalter* of 1551 (see 'French Protestant psalms'*). Indeed, like all Kethe's psalm versions, this one was written to fit the French tune.
Loys Bourgeois* had originally provided the tune for Théodore de Bèze*'s...
SCHAFF, Philip. b. Chur, Switzerland, 1 January 1819; d. New York, 20 October 1893. He was an illegitimate child from a poor family. His father died before Philip was one year old, and he had a disturbed and unhappy childhood in an orphanage from which he was rescued by a local minister, who arranged for the clever child to be educated at a Lutheran school at Kornthal, Württemberg, and then at the Gymnasium at Stuttgart, and at the Universities of Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin. After working as a...
DAVANTÈS, Pierre (Latin pseudonym: 'Antesignanus'). b. Rabastens (southern France, near Tarbes), ca. 1525; d. Geneva, 31 August 1561. Very little is known about his life, although he possibly worked in Lyon. Early in 1559 he moved to Geneva and was accepted as a citizen (bourgeois). Expert in philology, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, he was not only an outstanding humanist but also a theorist and melody writer. Contributing to the Renaissance practice of ad fontes (the return to original sources), he...
PÂQUIER, Richard. b. Bursins (Switzerland), 25 October 1905; d. Vevey, 28 January 1985. The son of Ernest Henri, farmer, and Cécile Justine Masson, he became a Swiss Reformed pastor, ecumenical theologian, liturgist, and historian of the Vaud canton. A fellow student and friend of the philosopher Marcel Regamey (1905-82), he studied theology in Lausanne (1923-27) and at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut (1929) . He was pastor in Bercher (1929-1943) and Saint-Saphorin (1943-1966). He...
German-speaking Switzerland
Reformation
In German-speaking parts of Switzerland at the time of the Reformation, the most common form of Sunday service was the south German preaching service. At first this involved no music or hymn-singing whatever; then, following the example of Strasbourg and the community hymn singing of the south German towns, psalm-singing was introduced. In some places this happened quickly; in others more slowly. Schools often led the way with psalm-singing, and...
ZWINGLI, Ulrich (Huldrych). b. Born at Wildhaus, Switzerland, 1 January 1484; d. Kappel, 11 October 1531. Born in the Toggenburg valley, Zwingli was educated at the Latin school at Basel (1494-96) and Bern (1497-98) before going to the University of Vienna (1498-1502) with a period in Paris. Returning to Basel, he graduated with a Master's degree in 1506, and was ordained in the same year. After serving as a curate at Constance and a priest at Glarus, he entered the monastery at Einsiedeln in...
Zeuch an die Macht, du Arm des Herrn. Friedrich Oser* (1820-1891).
First published in an enlarged edition of Oser's Sechzig Kreuz- und Trostlieder mit einem Anhang von Liedern auf des Kindes Tod. Weihnachtsgabe für die Trauernden in der Vaterstadt (Wiesbaden, 1865). It is found in the Swiss Gesangbuch der Evangelisch-Reformierten Kirchen der Deutschsprachigen Schweiz in the 'Dank-, Buß- und Bettag' section. In EG it is found in the 'Angst und Vertrauen' section (EG 377), with the first line as...