494 Crown him with Many Crowns

Once again, our hymn of the week conversation concerns a discussion of conversion.  The author of the words is Matthew Bridges and he considered his hymn as a sermon in song.  His text was based on Revelation 19:12, ".....and on His head were many crowns."  He originally called his hymn, "The Song of the Seraphs" and it consisted of 6 verses.

Bridges once wrote a book condemning Roman Catholics; he later converted to Catholicism in 1848 and this hymn text was written in 1851.  He followed John Henry Newman out of the Church of England.  He lived for a while in Quebec, Canada before returning to England.

In 1874, a devout Anglican clergyman, Godfrey Thring, feared that Bridges' verses smacked too much of Catholic doctrine.  Bridges' verse 2 had references to the Virgin Mary and Thring decided to add some verses to the text.  Godfrey also wrote 6 verses.  Over the years, these 12 stanzas have become intermingled in hymnbooks, with editors mixing and matching verses.  Most hymnbooks contain 4 or 5 verses.

The composer of the tune, Diademata, was George Job Elvey.  Born into a musical family, Elvey started his musical career as a boy, singing at Canterbury Cathedral. Later, he received more formal training at the Royal Academy of Music. Around 1835, he was appointed master of the boys and organist at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor (one of his tunes, St. George’s Windsor, [the text usually used today with this tune is "Come Ye Thankful People Come"] takes its name from this location). He served at St. George’s for almost half a century. He was knighted in 1871 for his Festival March, played at the wedding of Princess Louise.  This hymn tune is not used for other texts in the mainline hymnals today.

In honor of Bridge's time in Canada, this weeks video contains not only the original text I grew up singing, but also some gorgeous photography from Canada.  Enjoy!

397 Now Thank We All Our God

Gratitude and thankfulness are a common theme in scripture.  There are 138 passages of scripture on the subject of thanksgiving and some are powerfully worded.  In 1Thessalonians, Paul wrote "In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Although there are not that many hymns devoted exclusively to thanking God, the hymn of the week for this week is one of the best known and most beloved hymns on both sides of the Atlantic and around the world concerning this topic.  The German Christians sing this hymn as frequently as we Americans sing the Doxology.

The author of this text, Martin Rinkart (1586-1659) was a Lutheran pastor in a village in Saxony.  His family was poor and his father was a coppersmith but that didn't stop young Martin from feeling and pursuing a call into the ministry.  Rinkart began his pastoral work just as the 30 Years' War was raging in Germany.

That time was a desperate time as refugees flooded the walled city of Eilenberg, Rinkart's hometown.  The Swedish army surrounded the city gates and inside there was nothing but plague, famine and fear resulting in increasing numbers of death.  800 homes were destroyed while the pastors were extraordinarily strained attempting to preach the gospel, took care of the sick and dying and burying the dead.  As the seige and plague continued, the pastors themselves began taking ill and dying until only Martin Rinkart was left alive; it was said that he often officiated as many as 50 funerals.

The town was overrun 3 different times, first the Swedish army, then the Austrians and then the Swedes again.  Afterwards, Martin Rinkart became a negotiator with the Swedish enemy after they demanded a huge ransom from the impoverished city residents.  He did it with such courage and faith that there was soon a conclusion of the hostilities.   Rinkart knew that there could be no real healing for the survivors of Eilenberg, so he composed this hymn; it has been sung around the world ever since.

This majestic tune was written by one of German's finest and most prolific composers, Johann Cruger who first published a hymnal in 1644.  This was such a fine hymnal, that there were 44 editions between 1644-1731.  This combination of tune and text appeared in the 1647 edition.

When I went to YouTube to select a video to include with this entry, I was struck at how many different versions there are available of this song.  I selected two different ones.  One is an arrangement by the modern English composer, John Rutter sung by Cambridge Singers.  Enjoy!

 

Being an organist, I couldn't resist sharing this video of the greatest female organist of the 20th century, Diane Bish playing an arrangement by Karg-Elert of this tune.  It is also a special piece for me because we used it as the postlude after the recessional when my husband and I got married in 1995.  Enjoy this organ virtuosity. 

 

711 Seek Ye First

A graduate of Eastern New Mexico University, Karen Lafferty music, finishing with a degree in choral music and oboe.  She also played pain, saxophone and guitar.  She became interested in climbing the ladder in show business so she started singing in saloons in New Orleans.

She realized as a Christian that the saloon life in New Orleans was not what she wanted to do so she renewed her commitment to the Lord and decided to use her talents for Him.  She auditioned for the Campus Crusade for Christ's chorus but was turned down.  It didn't have to do with her musical ability but rather her maturity as a Christian; she was crushed.  She decided to give guitar lessons but ended up with only 3 students--not nearly enough to support herself.

She was feeling crushed and discouraged--at the lowest part of her life, in fact when he went to a Bible study.  During that study that night, the group looked at the passage from Matthew 6 about how God takes care of the birds of the air.  In that study was the verse, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His Righteousness."  That evening she went home and began absent mindedly plucking on the guitar when suddenly this verse and melody came out.  She said, "That was it.  I went to bed and slept in peace, confident that God would do something."

One thing that is interesting as we look at many of the back-stories behind the hymns, often the writer and/or composer has spent part of their life living what we could say was an ungodly lifestyle.  However, God still uses them to do His work.

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."

8 Morning Has Broken

This song has a rather unusual story complete with interesting twists and turns.  We think it was probably a Galeic hymn tune originally.  In Scotland in the 1880s,  a wandering minstrel was singing the tune when someone noted the melody and preserved it for posterity.  In 1918, a Scotish poet put words to the melody using the title: "Child in the Manger."  In the 1920s, the editor of a British hymnal was looking for a light and happy hymn to sing at the beginning of a new day, and he wanted it sung to the old Gaelic tune.

Eleanor Farjeon,  a well-known playwright, novelist, and journalist, who had been on a long spiritual journey, was invited to write words to the tune now known as Bunessan.  Eleanor, who became an Anglican as a teenager was originally of Jewish descent.  She had dabbled in "alternative" beliefs including reincarnation.  She was received into the Catholic church when she was 70 after living a Bohemian lifestyle.  She called the text based, on Genesis 1:5,  "Thanks for the Day."

The song took its most famous twist in the 1970s when it was recorded by a devout Muslim....Cat Stevens;  it made it to the top of the pop charts.

Please enjoy this version, sung by Steven Curtis Chapman.  This video is especially appropriate for those of us who live on the coast.

       

688 A Mighty Fortress is our God

We tend to think of Martin Luther mainly as a great reformer, Bible translator (he translated the Bible from Latin into his native language, German), political leader, fiery preacher, and theologian.  But he was also a great musician.  The poet Samuel Coleridge once said of Luther, "He did as much for the Reformation with his hymns as he did through his translation of the Bible."  It was natural for Luther to value music as he grew up in an area of Germany that was known for its music.  Undoubtedly he grew up listening to his mother sing.  He also joined a boys' choir that sang at weddings and funerals, and he became proficient with the recorder (flute).

Luther had an important part to play in the Protestant Reformation.  He was determined to restore worship to the German Church.  He worked with other musicians to create new music for Christians and he himself wrote a number of hymns. It is said that he occasionally 'borrowed' popular secular melodies for his hymns; though occasionally when a tune brought too much criticism, he was "compelled to let the devil have it back again" because it was too closely associated with bars and taverns.

In addition to his musical and translating contributions, Luther was known for posting his Ninety-five Theses (points of belief and commitment) on the door of the Wittenberg Church in October, 1517.  Because of his rabble-rousing positions on doctrine, he faced continual threats to his life and he came to know and understand the gracious power of God's sheltering hand.

"A Mighty Fortress is Our God" is undoubtedly one of his greatest hymns.  The words are based on Psalm 46 and show's Luther's awareness of our intense struggle with Satan.  This is a difficult hymn to translate because the original German words are so vivid; therefore we have about 80 different English versions available.

Enjoy this version of "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir while marveling the beautiful pictures of God's creations.

Few people are aware of the fact the Martin Luther also wrote one of our most beloved Christmas carols, "Away in a Manger."

How Great Thou Art

This hymn as we now know it is really only about 30 years old.  For a 20th century hymn, it has quickly become a world-wide favorite.  It was introduced to American audiences at Stony Brook Bible College in 1951  but it wasn't until Cliff Barrows and Bev Shea of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Team used it during the famed London Crusade, that the hymn started to become universally well-known.

The original source for the words was a Swedish poem by the Reverend Carl Boberg written in 1886.  His inspiration for this text is said to have come from a visit to a beautiful country estate on the southern coast of Sweden.  He was caught in a awe-inspiring thunderstorm which swung between flashing violence followed by a clearing calm punctuated by a clear brilliant sun and the sweet songs of nearby trees. The experience prompted the pastor to fall to his knees in humble adoration of his mighty God and he penned a nine-stanza hymn.  Several years later the Swedish pastor was surprised to hear a congregation sing his poem to the tune of an old Swedish melody.

A generation later in the early 1920s English missionary Stuart Hine and his wife were ministering in Poland where they learned there was a Russian version of Boberg's poem sung to the Swedish melody.  The text was subsequently translated into German.  In 1925, the Reverend Gustav Johnson translated the original Swedish text into English.  This translation is quite different than what we typically use today but may still be found in some hymnals.  in 1927, the German was translated into the Russian language.

Stuart Hine arranged the poem into a hymn version based on an experience as he was ministering in the Carpatian mountains.  He was deeply impressed by the beauty of the woods and forest glades.  The fourth verse was written after he returned to England.

Is it any wonder that it is a world-wide favorite? A discussion of How Great thou Art is not complete without hearing the great George Beverly Shea singing it as part of a Billy Graham service. Enjoy!