A hymn worthy of an Apostle

A Bright Contribution to Saints’ Hymns

September 21 is the feast of St. Matthew. In observance of the feast day, today we sang a hymn intended for the occasion: “He sat to watch o’er customs paid” by Rev. William Bright (1824-1901). I didn’t recognize it because it’s not in Hymnal 1916, Hymnal 1940 or Book of Common Praise 2017.

According to Julian’s Dictionary of Hymnology (via Hymnary), Bright was an Oxford grad, fellow and later chaired professor (and canon of Christ Church Oxford). Julian concludes: “Canon Bright's hymns merit greater attention than they have received at the hands of compilers.” Indeed, his best known hymn, “And now, O Father, mindful of the love”, appears in only 73 hymnals. By comparison, John Mason Neale has 24 hymns in more than 100 hymnals, although such prodigious output of timeless hymns (e.g., “All glory, laud and honor,” “Good Christian men rejoice” and “O come, O come Emmanuel”) is impossible to match.

“He saw to watch o’er customs paid” appears in 11 hymnals. In Songs of Praise Discussed, it is described thus

Dr. Bright’s hymn, which is one of  the really good saint’s day hymns, combining in lines of classical finish the historical facts with their practical application, was first published in the Supplementary Hymns to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1889).

The first and last of the six verses summarize the premise of the hymn:

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

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

Tuning In

Alas, both my favorite Anglican hymnal and the newest Anglican hymnal don’t include this hymn. Hymnal 1940 is lamentably sparse in its coverage of saints’ days, something that Hymnal 1982 certainly improves upon.

While there is a consistent pattern of the text, the choice of tune was highly fragmented. Because it is Long Metre (8.8.8.8), there is an embarrassment of options.

Of the 11 hymnals, 7 are familiar Anglican hymnals. Not surprisingly, the hymn first appeared with the 2nd supplement (1889) to original 1861 Hymns Ancient & Modern (aka “original edition” aka “standard edition”). In these, it is hymn #615 with the tune Gloucester, while the same text and tune are #238 in the “New Edition” (1904). Finally, the Hymns Ancient & Modern Revised  (1950, aka the “Revised edition”) it was #563, to Thomas Turton’s tune Ely.

The English Hymnal (1906) published the hymn (#240) to the tune Alfretòn. The same text and tune are also found in the 1925 Songs of Praise (#237), and the 1986 New English Hymnal (#189).

A third tune was chosen by Hymnal 1982 (#281). Breslau is a 15th century German tune, harmonized by Mendelssohn.

Today, however, we sang none of the above. Instead, our choir director selected Creator Alme Siderum. This Sarum plainsong tune is one of my favorites — and beloved by many — from its use with the hymn “Creator of the Stars of Night.”

No matter what the tune, the text is one that one that deserves to be in any Anglican hymnal.

Collecting Our Thoughts

For mass, the gospel is the calling of Matthew (Matthew 9:9-13), and for mass and daily office the collect from 1549 until 1928 is the same

O ALMIGHTY God, who by thy blessed Son didst call Matthew from the receipt of custom to be an Apostle and Evangelist; Grant us grace to forsake all covetous desires, and inordinate love of riches, and to follow the same thy Son Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

The collect in the 1979 ECUSA prayer book is inexplicably different (even in Rite I)

We thank you, heavenly Father, for the witness of thine apostle and evangelist Matthew to the Gospel of thy Son our Savior; and we pray that, after his example, we may with ready wills and hearts obey the calling of our Lord to follow him; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

For this collect, the 2019 ACNA prayer book does not follow the 1979 (as it often does), but more closely follows the historic Anglican liturgy:

Lord Jesus, you called Matthew from collecting taxes to become your apostle and evangelist: Grant us the grace to forsake all covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, that we may follow you as he did and proclaim to the world around us the good news of your salvation; for with the Father and the Holy Spirit you live and reign, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Amen! to the plagal cadence

There were four papers related to Anglican music at this week’s annual conference of the Society for Christian Scholarship in Music, held at St. Michael’s College in Toronto. One paper looked at the metrical psalm translation of Abp. Matthew Parker, another the BBC’s weekly broadcasts of choral evensong.

A third paper was my ethnographic study of hymn singing at six Episcopal/Anglican parishes. At the beginning of my session, Jason Terry of Bradley University presented the other Anglican paper — a summary of his 2016 doctoral dissertation, “A History Of The Plagal-Amen Cadence.”

Dr. Terry only had time to present about 10% of his 133-page dissertation. However, a sense of it can be seen in the beginning of his dissertation abstract:

Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, most hymns in the Anglo-American tradition ended with the congregation singing amen following the original stanzas, almost always framed within a plagal cadence. Helping this tradition take root was Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861), an Anglican hymnal that published the “amen” cadence after every modern hymn. This practice was heavily adopted among other denominational hymnals throughout England and the United States, peaking around the turn of the century. By the middle of the twentieth century, a decline in the number of hymnals including this cadence was noticeable; however, it would take until the end of the century for the plagal-amen cadence to disappear from hymnals.

In his talk, he traced both the origin of the “Amen” and then the plagal (IV-I) chord progression for the Amen.

Historic use of “Amen”

The oral presentation skipped over the text of his dissertation that summarizes the use of the “Amen” in the first 1500 years of Christianity:

In contemporary worship, amen is most frequently heard as a closing to a prayer. … Interestingly, no prayer in the New Testament Gospels concludes with amen, including the recorded prayers of Christ. Neither is it suggested anywhere in the New Testament that worship leaders added amen to their own prayer except after a doxology. Rather, when the prayer finished with “through the Lord Jesus Christ,” the response was amen.

Thus in New Testament writings, amen was used more commonly as an approval or confirmation of the leader’s prayer, not as a concluding word to the prayer itself. This convention was altered some centuries later when communal prayers with their established texts included the congregational amen as a part of the text. Such formulae were loved by early Christians and they “used them as an expression of greeting, a token of union, a sign of recognition, almost as a password.

The practice of concluding prayers with amen has become so popular in Church history that, since the standardization of worship elements (i.e., collect prayers, spoken formulae, etc.), it was quite rare to hear a prayer without a prominent amen. By the time the Reformers decided to alter worship templates, it would have been unlikely that they would alter the place of amen within worship.

Which is the hymn which authentically requires an “Amen”?

Ambrosian hymns—hymns in the style of Ambrose, though not necessarily penned by him—have continuously been sung by the Church since their conception. While all of the hymn’s text would have been important to the worshipers, the part most relevant to the present research is the doxological endings. The template of Ambrosian hymns was to end with a Trinitarian doxology (and consequently a concluding amen). Erik Routley assumes the custom to have been that most Christians “within earshot of the hymn being sung would shout out amen.”By this, the shouters would affirm their belief in what had just been sung and implicitly repudiate the heretical doctrines of the day 

The Plagal Cadence

For the plagal cadence, a key antecedent was John Merbecke’s Book of Common Praier Noted (1550), as in this collect from page 60 of Merbecke (p. 16 of Terry’s dissertation):

Since I decades removed from my last composition class, Terry had to remind me that the plagal cadence assumes that the melody of the “Amen” remains on the root, as opposed to a rising half step (ti-do) or falling step (re-do) would typically resolve V-I (“authentic” cadence).

Two decades later, Thomas Tallis’ Preces and Responses (1570) [a musical setting of key texts in sung Morning Prayer] includes both plagal and authentic cadences.

A Plague of Amens

To understand the trend in the use of the “Amen,” Terry told the conference that he spent 3.5 years looking at more than 1,000 hymnals. In short form, what happened was

• Thomas Helmore adopted plagal cadences, both in his Manual of Plainsong (1850) and as music editor of Hymnal Noted (1851)
• As in so many other aspects of 19th century hymnody
• Hymns Ancient & Modern copied/adapted Hymnal Noted
• English hymnody quickly copied Hymns A&M assuming the Anglicans were the liturgical experts
• In the mid- to late-20th century, the Anglicans started phasing out Amens
• Eventually most hymnals followed suit

Conclusion

The dissertation includes discussion of the use of “Amen” in the ancient and medieval period. In his talk, Terry also alluded to the various alternate theories of transmission that he investigated (and ruled out) between 1570 and 1850.

It still is a complicated story. Because this is such a common area of confusion (or at least interest) by Anglican laity, I am hoping that he will publish a summary version in a form that is suitable for a church adult education class.

Celebrating the Circumcision

Today is the feast that has been known since the 6th century as the Feast of the Circumcision. In the Book of Common Prayer, from Cranmer's original 1549 to the 1928 American edition, it’s called the Circumcision of Christ.

Feast Day

What we know of the circumcision comes from one verse in Luke’s gospel: “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21, ESV). This makes reference to his parents learning of his name in the Annunciation (Luke 1:31) and the dream of Joseph (Matthew 1:21). The Bible doesn’t say much about the ceremony, nor about that of his cousin John (Luke 1:59-79), but the nature of the ceremony of circumcising and naming Jesus was as expected for the male child of line of Abraham (Matthew 1:1-16).

The theological issues of the Circumcision are discussed in a December 2014 episode of Issues Etc. featuring Dr. Arthur Just, which was rebroadcast a week ago. As they note, the Circumcision of Jesus is obedience to the Old Covenant, while it is meaningless for the New Covenant (Colossians 3:11).

The 1549 BCP acknowledged this history with its collect (in modernized spelling) that persisted through 1928:

Almighty God, which madest thy blessed son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of thy spirit, that our hearts, and all our membres, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy son Jesus Christ our Lord. 

In the 1979 prayer book, the feast has been renamed The Holy Name and the collect drops all reference to the Circumcision. Marion Hatchett, in one of his more partisan apologies for the ’79 revisionism, quotes someone else as saying Cranmer et al “turned the day into a commemoration of circumcision, rather than of the Circumcision of our Lord” (Commentary on the American Prayer Book, 169) — without explaining why the book drops all reference to circumcision rather than trying to shift the emphasis to The Circumcision.

In the ACNA trial liturgy, it’s called The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ, but the collect puts more effort into explaining the theological significance of the feast:

Almighty God, whose blessed Son was circumcised for our sake in obedience to the Covenant of Moses, and given the Name that is above every name: give us the grace to faithfully bear his Name, to worship him in the Spirit given in the New Covenant, and to proclaim him as the Savior of the world; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Festal Hymns

In Hymnal 1940, there is one hymn (#113) for “The Circumcision” and 10 alternate hymns that focus on the holy name. In Hymnal 1982, there are five hymns (#248-252) listed for “Holy Name”, and the one circumcision hymn is gone. One hymn in common between the two is “Jesus, Name of wondrous love!” (H40: 323; H82: 252). However, as you might expect, the list of alternate hymns in H40 includes a variety of hymns about the name of Jesus that are sung at other times (e.g. what’s now called Christ the King Sunday) such as “At the Name of Jesus” (H40: 356; H82: 435).

The English Hymnal (1906) has two hymns (#36-37) for “The Circumcision of Christ” and my copy of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1868 edition) lists three hymns (#55-57). The common thread is “The ancient law departs” (A&M: 55, H40: 113), with the familiar tune St. Michael from the Genevan Psalter by 16th century composer Louis Bougeois. The hymn was dropped from The English Hymnal (1906) and Hymnal 1982.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion credits the original French text to Sebastian Besnault, as published in 1736. The 1860 translation of five verses is credited to the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern:

The ancient law departs,
And all its terrors cease;
For Jesus makes with faithful hearts
A covenant of peace.

The light of light divine,
True brightness undefiled,
He bears for us the shame of sin,
A holy, spotless child.

His infant body now
Begins our pains to feel;
Those precious drops of blood that flow
For death the victim seal.

Today the name is Thine,
At which we bend the knee;
They call Thee Jesus, child divine!
Our Jesus deign to be.

All praise, Eternal Son,
For Thy redeeming love,
With Father, Spirit, ever One,
In glorious might above.

It immediately entered the American hymnody with Hymnal 1874, but by 1940 retained only three of the five verses (1,2,4). The missing third verse is an important one in explaining the Circumcision as the first time that Christ shed his blood for mankind, when he (with the help of his earthly parents) fulfilled the Mosaic covenant so that it might be abolished.

Still, this very familiar tune (what’s not to like about a Genevan Psalter tune?) and the text that matches the festal day seem like one that should be embraced (not ignored) whenever the appropriate collect and/or readings are scheduled for church.

Update: Former Anglo-Catholic (now Ordinariate Priest) Fr. John Hunwicke defends the recent decision of the RCC to de-emphasize the Circumcision in this feast, and instead emphasize the BVM and the Incarnation.

Two forgotten gems of Hymnal 1940

A week ago (Trinity III in the traditional lectionary) we visited a Continuing parish, which (like most 28 Prayer Book) parishes, uses my favorite hymnal.

Sometimes I fall into the conceit that the hymns I know are the only ones worth playing. The music director (unintentionally) taught me a lesson both about Anglican hymnody and Hymnal 1940. Two hymns were new (or at least unfamiliar), and certainly ones that deserve further attention.

Give praise and glory unto God

The processional was Hymn 287, “Give praise and glory unto God,” on a the 1675 text by Johann Jacob Schütz.  The Lutheran Hymnal Companion (p.19) makes clear there were nine stanzas in the Schütz original and because of its text  it “was taken up into almost all German hymnals”. Alas, there is significant variation in the text and tunes among the English-language hymnals in my library.

In Hymnal 1940, three verses of the text were translated by Arthur Farlander and Winifred Douglas (1867-1944). Douglas was music editor of Hymnal 1916 and Hymnal 1940, who (according his biography in the Hymnal 1940 Companion) died a few hours after editing the proofs to H40. The hymn was one of 12 H40 translations solely or jointly authored by Douglas. The text was set to Peter Sohren’s 1668 tune, labelled Elbing in H40 and Du Lebensbrot, Herr Jesu Christ in H82 (#375). In the PC H82, “and mortal men” (v2) becomes “and mortals then.”

However, the Douglas translation is idiosyncratic to H40 (H82) and not followed elsewhere. Other hymnals use the 1864 Frances Elizabeth Cox (1812-1897) translation of Schütz, “Sing praise to God who reigns above.” In the CoE, this includes Hymns Ancient & Modern (#294), The English Hymnal (#478) and New English Hymnal (#447); the 1906 uses a Luther melody Nun Freut Euch while the 1986 institutes a new tune, Palace Green, by Michael Fleming (1928-2006). (The earlier A&M seems to use the same tune as TEH except in a different key).

Given its popularity among Germans, the hymn is not surprisingly a staple of the Missouri Lutherans. The Lutheran Hymnal (#19) uses six verses translated by Catherine Winkworth (“All praise to God, who reigns above”) and a tune ihr Lobet den Herrn by Melchior Pulpous (c. 1570-1615). The recent Lutheran Service Book (#819) uses 3 verses of Cox and 1 verse of Winkworth to the same tune (which it labels Ihr Lobt Gott den Herren.)

I could find no record of the text in 1 Baptist or  3 Presbyterian hymnals in my collection, but I don’t claim that collection is comprehensive. Neither the Cox nor Winkworth translation appear in the earlier PECUSA hymnals, Hymnal 1892 or Hymnal 1916.

Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace


The recessional was Hymn 433, “Lead us, O Father, in the paths of peace,” a 1868 text by William H. Burleigh. The text (not found in 20th century CoE hymnals) began with Hymnal 1892 (#422, Tune: Cassidy). Hymnal 1916 (#248) has the 1862 tune Langran, which is the 2nd tune in 1940.

Out of H40, we sang the 1st tune, Song 22, a tune by the great 17th century organist and composer, Orlando Gibbons originally published in the 1623 The Hymnes and Songs of the Church (and reprinted in 1856). The Gibbons tune is the one retained in Hymnal 1982 (#703); however, as H82 is wont to do, it is cut down to three verses (dropping the 2nd, “Lead us, O Father, in the paths of truth”).

Conclusion

So were I on the committee editing the New Anglican Hymnal, I would propose keeping #433 with Gibbons but suggest using either the Cox or Winkworth translation for “Sing praise to God.” Of course, at an H40 parish, I’d use them both as printed 70 years ago.

Adding to The Foundation

Second of two parts.

In listening to the wonderful broadcast commentary on “The Church’s One Foundation” by Dr. Arthur Just, I came up with a few observations of my own that went beyond those of the Issues Etc. radio show. It’s an important hymn — and I spent several hours listening to the show, doing my research, and writing the first posting — so I thought I’d share those observations.

Of the hymnals published since the Rev. Samuel John Stone penned the words in 1866, I found it in all 10 hymnals where I looked:

• Church of England: Hymns Ancient & Modern (#320), The English Hymnal (#489), New English Hymnal (#484)
• PECUSA: Hymnal 1872 (#202), Hymnal 1916 (#484), Hymnal 1940 (#396), Hymnal 1982 (#525)
• LCMS, home church to Dr. Just and Issues Etc.: The Lutheran Hymnal (#473), Lutheran Worship (#289), Lutheran Service Book (#644)

With the exception of NEH, all use the tune Aurelia by S.S. Wesley. Just to be difficult, the compilers of NEH provide Somestown (by 20th century composer “A.T. Batts”) and suggest Aurelia as an alternate.

Text

The version we have as Anglicans is that of Hymn #320 in Hymns Ancient and Modern: both the later CoE and the PECUSA hymnals use the words selected by William Henry Monk Henry Baker for that seminal hymnal. I don’t have the original 1861 edition, but an 1870 New York edition lists the hymn. (Update Sept. 5: A review of various 1860s editions of A&M on Google Books — and Baker’s biography in the 1892 Dictionary of Hymnology — suggests that the hymn was not present in the 1861 original, but was added in Baker’s 1868 Appendix to A&M.)

However, Dr. Just notes that Rev. Stone’s hymn was part of a series of 12 hymns on the Apostle’s Creed. Sure enough, the original seven verses can be found as Article IX of  Stone’s original book:

The Church's one foundation
  Is Jesus Christ her Lord,
She is His new creation
  By water and the Word:
From Heaven He came and sought her
  To be His holy Bride,
With His Own Blood He bought her
  And for her life He died.

She is from every nation,
  Yet one o'er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation
  One Lord, one Faith, one Birth,
One Holy Name she blesses,
  Partakes one Holy Food,
And to one Hope she presses
  With every grace endued.

The Church shall never perish!
  Her dear Lord to defend,
To guide, sustain, and cherish,
  Is with her to the end:
Though there be those who hate her,
  And false sons in her pale,
Against or foe or traitor
  She ever shall prevail.

Though with a scornful wonder
  Men see her sore opprest,
By schisms rent asunder
  By heresies distrest:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
  Their cry goes up " How long?"
And soon the night of weeping
  Shall be the morn of song!

'Mid toil and tribulation
  And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
 Of peace for evermore;
Till with the vision glorious
  Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
   Shall be the Church at rest!

Yet she on earth hath union
  With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
  With those whose rest is won,
With all her sons and daughters
  Who, by the Master's Hand
Led through the deathly waters,
  Repose in Eden-land.

O happy ones and holy!
  Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
  On high may dwell with Thee:
There, past the border mountains,
  Where in sweet vales the
Bride With Thee by living fountains
  For ever shall abide! Amen.

Veteran Anglican hymn-singers will immediately note two differences from their familiar hymn: the Anglican version is missing two verses, and the words are slightly different. From a comment made by Dr. Just, I discovered that The Lutheran Hymnal uses a different selection of verses:

CoE, ECUSA	TLH	Stone	Stanza
1	1	1	The Church’s one foundation
2	2	2	She is from every nation (becomes “Elect from every nation”)
-	3	3	The Church shall never perish!
3†	4	4	Though with a scornful wonder
4	5	5	’Mid toil and tribulation
5	-	6	Yet she on earth hath union
-	-	7	O happy ones and holy!

(†Lutheran Worship uses the same verses as the Anglicans, except that it drops the middle verse; I don’t know what the Lutheran Service Book says because I don’t have it front of me.)

In Hymns A&M, there is a slight change to the first phrase of the second verse. I can certainly understand that the “she” would be confusing, and so “Elect from every nation” seems better. The third verse is not sung (outside those LCMS parishes using TLH.)

The most dramatic change is that the final verse from Hymns Ancient & Modern — as also used by the subsequent English and American hymnals — is a composite of Stone’s final two verses:

Yet she on earth hath union
  With God the Three in One,
And mystic sweet communion
  With those whose rest is won,
O happy ones and holy!
  Lord, give us grace that we
Like them, the meek and lowly,
  On high may dwell with Thee:

I rather like the Baker-ism, but then that’s not surprising since I’ve been singing it for decades and never knew of the original text.

Performances

I only know of four CD performances of the hymn, and I have three of them:

I have two copies of a performance by Kings College (Cambridge), from their CDs Abide with Me: 50 Favourite Hymns and Be Still My Soul. I cannot recommend the former enough: the title says it all. The latter CD has 23 hymns, a smaller but still a valuable collection.

I also have it performed by the Wells Cathedral choir on Jerusalem the Golden, volume 2 of their indispensable five-volume set on “The English Hymn.” This seems to be what Issues Etc. used.

Cathedral Choral society has it among 26 hymns in Hymns Through the Centuries, with many fine hymns but (alas) a few modern ones.

Reference

S.J. Stone, Lyra Fidelium: Twelve hymns on the twelve articles of the Apostles’ Creed, Oxford: Parker & Co, 1866, pp. 38-43.

Oldest Christian B-side

Back when I was growing up, teenagers still bought their new music on 45 rpm disks. The artist (or record company) would pull some sort of hot song from the new album and put it on the front of the 45, and then fill the back (the “B-side”) with something else that was unlikely to be a hit. (Occasionally, they underestimated the potential of the B-side and the buyer got two good songs for the price of one.)

Normally when Christian musicians think of the Christian poet Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-c. 413), we think of his incomparable Christmas song, Corde natus, or, as translated by J.M. Neale:

Of the Father’s Love begotten

Ere the worlds began to be,

He is Alpha and Omega,

He the Source, the Ending He,

Of the things that are, that have been,

And that future years shall see,

Evermore and evermore!

But during Epiphany, we get a second Prudentius hymn:

O sola magnarum urbium

Maoior Bethlem, cui contigit

Ducem salutis caelitus

Incorporatum gignere

Today, we don’t sing it in the Latin, but as “Earth has many a noble city,” hymn #48 in Hymnal 1940 (or #127 for those who use Hymnal 1982). [Conjubilant with Song also blogs on this hymn during this Epiphany season.]

The text was translated by Edward Caswall. As with “Of the father’s love,” both Hymnals use the version from Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861). Somehow the 1982 crew resisted the temptation to bowdlerize the text (perhaps because the M-word was absent.)

Of course, this is not really a B-side. Ignoring the lack of 120V AC and phonographs in the 5th century, the tune for both hymns is an anachronism — in this case, the ever-popular Stuttgart (1715) attributed to C.F. Witt. (Although Stuttgart is better known for the Advent favorite “Come thou long expected Jesus,” it was actually introduced to Anglicans with this hymn in Hymns Ancient & Modern.)

Still, it’s a fun mental exercise to think of how Prudentius gave us the words to these two timeless hymns, and how a 5th century entrepreneur might have packaged them for the faithful to enjoy together.

Our Father's love

In what is becoming an annual event, as with last year Pastor Todd Wilken did a one hour segment of Issues Etc. today on a single Christmas hymn, by interviewing Dr. Arthur Just, professor at the Concordia Theological Seminary in Ft. Wayne, Indiana.

For Christmas Day 2008, the second hour of the (pre-taped) show is about the hymn “Of the Father's Love Begotten.” Dr. Just summarized its importance as follows:

This is perhaps one of the most sublime christmas carols there is. It is an absolutely magnificent hymn and one of the oldest hymns in our canon.

The poem was written ca. 400 by the Spanish Christian poet, Aurelius Clemens Prudentius (348-c. 413). The first verse of the Latin original is as follows:

Corde natus ex parentis
ante mundi exordium
Alpha et Omeega cognominatus,
ipse fons et clausula
Omnium quae sunt, fuerunt,
quaeque post futura sunt.

Modern hymnals owe their English version to a translation by John Mason Neale in 1854, among the many medieval texts he translated. However, we today use the modified version of the Neale translation, created by Henry Williams Baker, editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern.

In fact, Hymn #46 in Hymns A&M lists both the (Baker-modified) English text and the Latin original that they used for the translation. The first verse in A&M is:

Of the Father’s Love begotten
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the Source, the Ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see,
Evermore and evermore!

To Dr. Just, this hymn of joy at the incarnation of the Christ is also a hymn of praise and mystery. To this, I would add that this hymn — reaching to us across the centuries, from a time closer to Jesus’ time on earth than to our own — speaks to the eternal nature of God and his love for us. Such transcendent timelessness is (at least to me) an essential element of any Christian liturgy.

Neale is also credited with selecting (or at least finding) the tune that we use today. The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion (1990) summarizes the tune as:

Divinium Mysterium is a plansong melody used by Neale for his translation of “Corde natus ex Parentis” in the collection The Hymnal Noted (1851). There it was captioned “Melody from a manuscript at Wolfenbutel of the XIIIth century.”

Wherever it was first printed, most hymnals refer to the tune as “Plainsong, Mode V, 11th cent.”

In addition to being among the most important (if not earliest) Christmas hymns, it is also among the most popular. YouTube lists 23 different videos, most (but not all) concert performances by school choirs.

Amazon lists 60 versions of “Of the Father’s love begotten.” Of these, after poking through them I bought the version performed by a choir from a special program at Rider University. It seemed like the most authentic, although it’s only verses 1, 6 and 9 of the nine listed in A&M.

I was disappointed and a little surprised not to find a recording of the Latin version anywhere, particularly since this would fit the recent interest in Gregorian chant. Sure, the words predate Pope Gregory by at least 200 years, but the tune is later than Gregory and is in the Gregorian style. I will keep searching, in hopes of finding a recording somewhere, hopefully by a church choir in a sanctuary with suitable medieval acoustics.

An ancient hymn of devotion

I argue for the importance of retaining traditional hymns, such as those that predate the 1861 English hymnal, Hymns Ancient & Modern. Today we retain a large body of hymns from the 16th century, but what hymns would be considered “ancient”? From the medieval period? The Dark Ages? Only a handful of hymns date from before the 11th century, even though much plainsong remains in the Gregorian style.

Last week’s service concluded with one such hymn, Hymn 204 from my favorite hymnal:

Humbly I adore thee, Verity unseen,
who thy glory hiddest ’neath these shadows mean;
Lo, to thee surrendered, my whole heart is bowed,
Tranced as it beholds thee, shrined within the cloud.

It is a childhood favorite, a really timeless chant that evokes simple adoration of the Lord our Savior. The 1940 hymnal attributes the original (Latin) words to Saint Thomas Aquinas as of 1260 (while others attribute it to 1264). Sure enough, it’s easy to find the original seven verses online from the Roman missal.

Adoro te devote, latens Deitas, quae sub his figuris vere latitas: tibi se cor meum totum subiicit, quia te contemplans totum deficit.

Visus, tactus, gustus in te fallitur, sed auditu solo tuto creditur; credo quidquid dixit Dei Filius: nil hoc verbo Veritatis verius.

In cruce latebat sola Deitas, at hic latet simul et humanitas; ambo tamen credens atque confitens, peto quod petivit latro paenitens.

Plagas, sicut Thomas, non intueor; Deum tamen meum te confiteor; fac me tibi semper magis credere, in te spem habere, te diligere.

O memoriale mortis Domini! panis vivus, vitam praestans homini! praesta meae menti de te vivere et te illi semper dulce sapere.

Pie pellicane, Iesu Domine, me immundum munda tuo sanguine; cuius una stilla salvum facere totum mundum quit ab omni scelere.

Iesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio, oro fiat illud quod tam sitio; ut te revelata cernens facie, visu sim beatus tuae gloriae. Amen.

After coming home from church, I found the Latin version in my MP3 collection, converted from my copy of the 1990 Gregorian Chant CD by the Benedictine Monks of the Abbey of St. Maurice & St. Maur. Even without understanding the Latin, the familiar haunting melody evokes religious worship of centuries past.

The Episcopalian translation is credited by Oremus to the Monastic Diurnal of 1932, a Benedictine list of prayers (while the 1940 Hymnal implies an original 1939 translation). The Monastic Diurnal is out of print in the US but available new in the UK.

The Church of England has been singing a different translation by James Woodford, variously estimated at 1850-1852, which first appeared in Hymns Ancient & Modern:

Thee we adore, O hidden Savior, Thee,
Who in Thy sacrament dost deign to be;
Both flesh and spirit at Thy presence fail,
Yet here Thy presence we devoutly hail.

It’s in my 1869 edition of A&M, as well as The English Hymnal. Below is a summary of the various versions:

Hymnal	Date	Hymn	Melody	Translation	Verses
Hymns Ancient & Modern	1869	206 1st tune	1869: “old melody” subsequent: “Plain song”	1869: uncredited subsequent editions: “Bishop Woodford and compilers”	1,5,6,7
The English Hymnal	1906	331	“Proper Melody (from the Solsines Version)”	“Bishop J.R. Woodford”	1,5,6,7
Hymnal 1940	1940	204	Adoro Devote “Benedictine Plainsong; Mode V, 13th century”	“Hymnal Version, 1939”	1,2,5,7
Hymnal 1982	1982	314	Adoro devote “French church melody, Mode 5, Processionale, 1697”	Hymnal 1940 (but with new translation of last verse)	1,2,5,7
Lutheran Worship	1982	432	“mode V; Processionale, Paris, 1697”	New lyrics by Frank von Christierson	n/a

There are also differences in the music — beyond the question of whether the tune dates from the 13th or 17th century. All the versions of the past 140 years begin on a D, but the rhythms are distinct. Hymns Ancient and Modern uses both triplet and a dotted rhythm (and longer note) at the end of every phrase:
In TEH, the triplets are gone, but the dotted rhythm remains. On this side of the pond, the Hymnal 1940 has equal durations except that it doubles the duration in both the middle (“thee”) and end (“unseen”) of each phrase:

Hymnal 1982 suggests equal durations except at the end of each phrase:

Among LCMS Lutherans, I didn’t find it in the 1941 The Lutheran Hymnal, but found the music in the 1982 Lutheran Worship (without the Aquinian word and new insipid stanzas). Interestingly, these lamentable words seem paired with the most accurate musical notation: instead of D major, LW shows Mode V in the key of A major (since a Lydian mode tune ending in D is ending on the subdominant).

Update Sept 3, 2pm: My use of “ancient” was too sloppy, for two reasons. First, as my Orthodox reader Jeff reminded me, the writings of 13th century Aquinas are largely rejected by the Eastern branch of Christianity. Theologically, it seems like an “ancient” hymn should date to the period of one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church, and thus an “ancient” hymn would be one that predates not only the 95 Theses (1517) but the Great Schism (1054).

Second, I had forgotten that “ancient” (history, culture, writing) referred to a specific historical period ending in the 5th century with the Fall of Rome.

So even though a 13th century hymn is one of the oldest in the hymnal, it probably doesn’t qualify as “ancient.” But then what does? There are a few hymns from before 1054, but how many from before 476? Do we have accurate dates for any of these hymns? This raises another question: are there any “ancient” hymns in Hymns Ancient & Modern. Alas, that’s a question for another posting.

English Hymnbook Shopping

Inspired by Catherine Osborne’s blog (and with some advice from Dr. Osborne herself) during this week’s visit to London I set aside time for hymnbook shopping. Using her tips, as well as the Internet (notably UKCBD and Tentmaker), I narrowed my search down to four stores, which I visited (in between other business) over three days. Below are the stores (in order visited)

	Chapter Two	SPCK	Cornerstone	Pendleburys
Transit Stop	Rail: Woolwich Arsenal	Tube: Westminster	Tube: West Finchley	Rail: Stoke Newington Bus: Dunsmore
Hymns Ancient & Modern	used	?§	new§
The English Hymnal	used	new†	new
Songs of Praise. Enlarged edition	used			used
The New English Hymnal		new	new

† They only had the limited printing (500 copies) of the Centenary Edition

§ New copies are
New Standard Edition

Overall, I was pretty successful in my shopping this weekend:

• Hymns Ancient and Modern. This was the first standardized British hymnal. I bought three at Chapter Two: 1st Edition with Appendix (1869); 2nd Edition with 2nd Supplement (1906); Standard Edition (1916). Because there were so many editions, I need to compare these and do some research to see if I need any more.
• The English Hymnal (1906). This is the book Dr. O praises without ceasing, and features Ralph Vaughan Williams as music editor (and composer of several new tunes) and Pearcy Dearmer as editor of the texts.
• Songs of Praised, Enlarged Edition (1931). The original 1925 edition appears to have quickly gone out of print, but used copies of the 1931 are readily available.

I didn’t buy these in-print hymnals, available new at several stores and at Amazon UK:

• Hymns Ancient & Modern, New Standard Version (1983). Probably has a nostalgia value for hymn singers, but no historical significance for my interests in tracing the impact of English hymnals upon those in the US.
• The English Hymnal, Revised Edition (1933). Also edited by Vaughan Williams and Dearmer. This is the hymnal used by two generations in the Church of England, and has significant changes from the earlier edition. This is to Dr. Osborne what the 1940 Hymnal is to me. Obviously I’ll have to get it, but I decided not to pay £37 for a new copy at this time.
• The New English Hymnal (1986). No influence (yet) on American hymnals, but I might someday get it to contrast the parallels between Hymnal 1940->Hymnal 1982 and TEH->NEH.

As it turns out, my greatest successes were at the two used bookshops, Chapter Two (East of The City) and Pendleburys (behind the Stamford Hill library). Both had 1½ racks of used hymnals, although Pendleburys' was temporarily out of most of the COE books. Overall, the Chapter Two books were older and cheaper, with almost nothing at Pendleburys printed before WW II. Fittingly, Pendleburys is in the annex to a church (Stamford Hill United Reformed Church) — as Chapter Two once was, until their landlord church needed the space back and they had to move.

Both also had an assortment of other Protestant English hymnals (Baptist, Congregational, Methodist, Presbyterian). However, I hadn’t researched those before I came, and so didn’t have a shopping list. To analyze the parallel development of Hymns Ancient & Modern and The English Hymnal, I will be getting The Church Hymnary (Church of Scotland and allied Presbyterian churches), both in the original (1898) and revised (1927) editions, but probably not the third (1973).

I plan on going back to both stores on a future trip. SPCK had only a token used collection, but because of its location (just south of Westminster Abbey) is more convenient than any of the others. Cornerstone was very friendly, but not a place for researching liturgical music; it was almost identical to a standard U.S. “Christian” bookstore, so that it had any hymnals at all suggests the dominant role that Anglican worship plays (or once played) in England, compared to the centuries-old religious pluralism of the US .

The hymnals I saw more often than any other were The Celebration Hymnal (must be the current bestseller), Complete Mission Praise and the Redemption Hymnal (1951, but now back in print). Both are outside the scope of my current interest.

I also acquired some interesting books on hymns, which will be another posting. Only Pendleburys had any sort of assortment of books here, with three shelves (half of a rack) on hymnody, so that’s how they got my money.