522 Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken

For this week's blog, we ask the question:  How are the great Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn, the American Confederate Civil War General Stonewall Jackson, and Adolph Hitler connected? Our blog answers that question. 

Oh yes, there is also another "Amazing Connection"

Haydn, born in 1732,  had a modest childhood growing up in a town in Eastern Austria receiving his musical training as a choir boy in Vienna--until his voice changed.  After studying composition and working for a Bohemian nobleman, Haydn entered the service of Prince Paul Anton Esterhazy.  That was the beginning of a musically fruitful 30 years of service.  Haydn also received a Doctor of Music Degree from Oxford University and spent several season conducting concerts and composing many new works while in the service of Prince Paul's son, Nicholas. Haydn's prodigious output includes 104 symphonies, 83 string quartets, 52 piano sonatas, 18 operas and 14 masses in addition to chamber music, songs, arias, oratorios, and other liturgical music.  He was a devout Christian who regarded himself as a steward of the gifts God had given him and prefaced each of his scores with "In nominee Domini" and closed them with "Laus Deo."

After trips to England in 1791 and 1794, Haydn was so impressed with the nationalistic singing of "God Save the Queen."  He wanted to have a piece for Austria. Someone wrote the words and Haydn wrote the music, probably based on a Hungarian or Croatian folk song.  Haydn later used used it in his Quartet in C, Opus 76, number 5.  During World War II, Hitler forbade the playing of the Quartet by musicians because he was afraid it would stir up nationalistic fervor in the Austrians.  It is reported that at one particular playing in Hitler's presence, when this theme was played the quartet played it in a minor key to disguise the true identity of the melody. Ironically after the war, the tune Austria was used for the German national anthem.

What about Stonewall Jackson?  He was a military genius and a wonderful Christian.  His men said of him, "If he ain't a-fightin', he's a-prayin'."  If he wasn't fighting or praying, he was singing hymns.  The fact that he couldn't carry a tune didn't seem to bother him in the least. This hymn was one of his favorites and one night in 1862, his army was bivouacked in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  The soldiers had marched 52 miles that day and were exhausted when they heard a strange singing.  The general had watched over his soldiers all night and now the General in his scruffy beard, slouched hat and unkempt hair had his face turned heavenward singing, "On the rock of Ages founded / What can shake my sure repose? / With salvations's walls surrounded, / Thou mayst smile at all thy foes."

Finally the amazing connection:  the words we use today were translated/written by John Newton, the author of the great hymn "Amazing Grace."