“All Creatures of our God and King” is a favorite hymn of praise that exhorts all creatures to join in the great Alleluia to God. Based on Saint Francis’s “Canticle of the Sun,” written around 1225, it reflects Francis’s core idea that we humans are siblings with all other creatures because God created us all. Anglican priest…
Hymn Guide: When I Survey The Wondrous Cross
“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” is one of the first hymns written in the English language; three hundred years later, it remains one of the finest. Isaac Watts composed and published the text in his groundbreaking 1707 work, Hymns & Spiritual Songs. Because of the emphasis on the cross, it is especially fitting for the…
My Songs Extol Thy Name: Thomas Sternhold and English Psalmody
Thomas Sternhold is the founder of English psalmody and the inventor of the metrical form at the base of English hymnody. Little known except in histories of church music, Sternhold’s contribution is now better understood, thanks to the pioneering work of scholar Beth Quitslund. Sternhold is commemorated on August 23, or at least he would…
Hymn Guide: Tell Out, My Soul
Tell Out, My Soul is an elegant and fun-to-sing paraphrase of Mary’s Song from Luke 1:46-55. Written in 1961 by Anglican Priest Timothy Dudley Smith, the hymn draws its title and opening line from the New English Bible published in the same year. The New English Bible was controversial for its use of contemporary idioms….
Hymn Guide: Be Still My Soul
Little is known about the life of Catharina von Schlegel, the 18th-century German author of “Be Still My Soul.” She was likely never married, which may have appealed to her unmarried translator, the 19th-century English hymn writer Jane Laurie Borthwick. Then there’s another striking similarity: Borthwick’s most famous hymn is “Come Labor On,” which, like…
Hymn Guide: Joyful, Joyful
“Joyful, Joyful” is a hymn so classic that it sometimes feels cliche. Presbyterian clergyman Henry van Dyke wrote the text alongside the Ode to Joy, from the finale of Beethoven’s 9th symphony. But inside this familiar topic, set to a familiar tune, there is unexpected theological substance. It does not treat joy as mere happiness….
Hymn Guide: And Can It Be
Charles Wesley was an Anglican Priest and itinerant preacher who wrote around 6500 hymns in his life. One of the first and best was “And Can It Be.” Likely written shortly after his evangelical conversion in May 1738, it reflects a personal relationship with Jesus through the experience of spiritual rebirth. Charles published “And Can…
Hymn Guide: St. Patrick’s Breastplate
St. Patrick’s Breastplate is one of the great hymns of the church, an ancient invocation of the Trinity that is relevant in every age. The hymn began as an Old Irish prayer of protection called a lorica, and the text is attributed to St. Patrick or his followers in early Celtic monasticism. Literally, lorica is the…
Hymn Guide: Zadok the Priest
Zadok the Priest is a choral work by George Frideric Handel, and one of his four Coronation Anthems. It adapts the text of 1 Kings 1:38-40, which recounts the anointing of Solomon as the King of Israel, by Zadok the priest. Written for the crowning of George II in 1727, this anthem has been used in every British coronation…
Hymn Guide: The Angel Gabriel
“Gabriel’s Message,” also known by its first line “The Angel Gabriel from heaven came,” is a hymn often sung at Christmas or the Feast of the Annunciation on March 25. Originally a folk carol from the Basque Country in northern Spain and southern France, the English paraphrase was written in 1895 by Anglican priest Sabine Baring-Gould….
Hymn Guide: All Glory be to Christ
What happens when you sing a new set of lyrics to a tune everybody knows? Either the new lyrics fall flat, and you want to go back to the original words. Or, on a rare occasion, the new lyrics create an added dimension of meaning, not erasing the original but adding something new. Then everyone…
Hymn Guide: Mary, Did You Know?
Yes, Mary know. Okay, it’s a bit more complicated than that. In this article, we’ll consider “Mary, Did You Know?,” exploring not only its history but also seeking to answer the question the songs asks.
