The Story of the Hymns and Tunes Part 67

In the old "Carmina Sacra" a n.o.ble choral (without name except "No war nor battle sound") well interprets portions of the 4th and 5th stanzas of the great hymn, but replaces the line--

"The idle spear and shield were high uphung."

--with the more modern and less figurative--

"No hostile chiefs to furious combat ran."

Three stanzas are also added, by the Rev. H.O. Dwight, missionary to Constantinople. The subst.i.tuted line, which is also, perhaps, the composition of Mr. Dwight, rhymes with--

"His reign of peace upon the earth began,"

--and as it is not un-Miltonic, few singers have ever known that it was not Milton's own.

Dr. John Knowles Paine, Professor of Music at Harvard University, and author of the Oratorio of "St. Peter," composed a cantata to the great Christmas Ode of Milton, probably about 1868.

Professor Paine died Apr. 25, 1906.

It is worth noting that John Milton senior, the great poet's father, was a skilled musician and a composer of psalmody. The old tunes "York" and "Norwich," in Ravenscroft's collection and copied from it in many early New England singing-books, are supposed to be his.

The Miltons were an old Oxfordshire Catholic family, and John, the poet's father, was disinherited for turning Protestant, but he prospered in business, and earned the comfort of a country gentleman. He died, very aged, in May, 1646, and his son addressed a Latin poem ("Ad Patrem") to his memory.

"HARK! THE HERALD ANGELS SING."

This hymn of Charles Wesley, dating about 1730, was evidently written with the "Adeste Fideles" in mind, some of the stanzas, in fact, being almost like translations of it. The form of the two first lines was originally--

Hark! how all the welkin rings, "Glory to the King of Kings!"

--but was altered thirty years later by Rev. Martin Madan (1726-1790) to--

Hark! the herald angels sing Glory to the new-born King!

Other changes by the same hand modified the three following stanzas, and a fifth stanza was added by John Wesley--

Hail the heavenly Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all He brings, Ris'n with healing in His wings.

_THE TUNE._

"Mendelssohn" is the favorite musical interpreter of the hymn. It is a n.o.ble and spirited choral from Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's cantata, "Gott ist Licht."

"JOY TO THE WORLD, THE LORD IS COME!"

This inspirational lyric of Dr. Watts never grows old. It was written in 1719.

Joy to the world! the Saviour reigns!

Let men their songs employ While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy.

Dr. Edward Hodges (1796-1867) wrote an excellent psalm-tune to it which is still in occasional use, but the music united to the hymn in the popular heart is "Antioch," an adaptation from Handel's Messiah. This companionship holds unbroken from hymnal to hymnal and has done so for sixty or seventy years; and, in spite of its fugue, the tune--apparently by some magic of its own--contrives to enlist the entire voice of a congregation, the ba.s.s falling in on the third beat as if by intuition.

The truth is, the tune has become the habit of the hymn, and to the thousands who have it by heart, as they do in every village where there is a singing school, "Antioch" is "Joy to the World," and "Joy to the World" is "Antioch."

"HARK! WHAT MEAN THOSE HOLY VOICES?"

This fine hymn, so many years appearing with the simple sign "Cawood" or "J. Cawood" printed under it, still holds its place by universal welcome.

Hark! what mean those holy voices Sweetly sounding through the skies?

Lo th' angelic host rejoices; Heavenly hallelujahs rise.

Hear them tell the wondrous story, Hear them chant in hymns of joy, Glory in the highest, glory, Glory be to G.o.d on high!

The Rev. John Cawood, a farmer's son, was born at Matlock, Derbyshire, Eng., March 18, 1775, graduated at Oxford, 1801, and was appointed perpetual curate of St. Anne's in Bendly, Worcestershire. Died Nov. 7, 1852. He is said to have written seventeen hymns, but was too modest to publish any.

_THE TUNE._

Dr. d.y.k.es' "Oswald," and Henry Smart's "Bethany" are worthy expressions of the feeling in Cawood's hymn. In America, Mason's "Amaland," with fugue in the second and third lines, has long been a favorite.

"WHILE SHEPHERDS WATCHED THEIR FLOCKS."

This was written by Nahum Tate (1652-1715), and after two hundred years the church remembers and sings the song. Six generations have grown up with their childhood memory of its pictorial verses ill.u.s.trating St.

Luke's Christmas story.

While shepherds watched their flocks by night, All seated on the ground, The angel of the Lord came down And glory shone around.

"Fear not" said he, for mighty dread Had seized their troubled mind, "Glad tidings of great joy I bring To you and all mankind."

_THE TUNE._

Modern hymnals have subst.i.tuted "Christmas" and other more or less spirited tunes for Read's "Sherburne," which was the first musical translation of the hymn to American ears. But, to show the traditional hold that the New England fugue melody maintains on the people, many collections print it as alternate tune. Some modifications have been made in it, but its survival is a tribute to its real merit.

Daniel Read, the creator of "Sherburne," "Windham," "Russia,"

"Stafford," "Lisbon," and many other tunes characteristic of a bygone school of psalmody, was born in Rehoboth, Ma.s.s., Nov. 2, 1757. He published _The American Singing Book_, 1785, _Columbian Harmony_, 1793, and several other collections. Died in New Haven, Ct., 1836.

"IT CAME UPON THE MIDNIGHT CLEAR."

Rev. Edmund Hamilton Sears, author of this beautiful hymn-poem, was born at Sandisfield, Berkshire Co., Ma.s.s., April 6, 1810, and educated at Union College and Harvard University. He became pastor of the Unitarian Church in Wayland, Ma.s.s., 1838. Died in the adjoining town of Weston, Jan. 14, 1876. The hymn first appeared in the _Christian Register_ in 1857.

It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old, From angels bending near the earth To touch their harps of gold.

"Peace to the earth, good will to men From Heaven's all-gracious King."

The world in solemn stillness lay, To hear the angels sing.