Music Notes for Pentecost 25 — November 10, 2024

 


O God, Our Help in Ages Past – Text: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) / Music: William Croft (1678-1727)

Click to watch the video on Youtube.

In England, the first person to overcome the prejudice of singing hymns in church was Isaac Watts. Though he is rightly regarded as the pioneer of congregational hymnody of congregational hymnody in England, he was certainly not the first English hymn writer; however, he was the first person to perceive what was truly needed and provide it. This morning’s entrance hymn, O God Our Help in Ages Past, is Watts’ paraphrase of Psalm 90; he included it in his Psalms of David Imitated in the Language of the New Testament 1719 in nine stanzas of four lines. Three of those verses are typically omitted in modern hymnals.

The tune St Anne first appeared in A Supplement to the New Version of Psalms by Dr. Brady and Mr. Tate 1768. The composer’s name was not given, but it was later attributed to William Croft. Croft was a chorister under John Blow at the Chapel Royal, and later the organist at St. Anne’s, Soho. He left there to become a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal and assistant to the organist, Jeremiah Clark. At Clark’s death in 1707 Croft was appointed organist, and one year later he succeeded Blow at Westminster Abbey. It is believed St Anne was written while Croft was organist at the church of the same name.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
our shelter from the stormy blast,
and our eternal home:

under the shadow of thy throne
thy saints have dwelt secure;
sufficient is thine arm alone,
and our defense is sure.

Before the hills in order stood,
or earth received its frame,
from everlasting thou art God,
to endless years the same.

A thousand ages in thy sight
are like an evening gone;
short as the watch that ends the night
before the rising sun.
Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
bears all our years away;
they fly, forgotten, as a dream
dies at the opening day.

O God, our help in ages past,
our hope for years to come,
be thou our guard while troubles last,
and our eternal home.

Gerald Harder

/by

Music Notes for All Saints’ — November 3, 2024

 

And I saw a new heaven – Edgar Bainton (1880-1956)

Click to watch the video on Youtube.

Edgar Bainton (1880-1956) was a pupil of Stanford’s at the Royal College of Music. He spent much of his life in Newcastle-upon-Tyne as a teacher and principal at the Conservatoire. At the outbreak of World War I, Bainton was abroad, and subsequently was interned in Ruhleben. After the war he returned to Newcastle and once again became an active force in music-making in the north-east of England. In recognition of his work and influence, and prior to him leaving England to take up the appointment as director of the New South Wales State Conservatorium in Sydney, the University of Durham awarded him the degree of DMus honoris causa and he was also elected a Fellow of the Royal College of Music. Although not a prolific composer—and somewhat ignored as a composer in England—he did have some success with his operas in Australia.

The anthem And I Saw a New Heaven, this Sunday’s communion motet in church, is typical of Bainton’s work in that he was attracted to late-romantic harmony without indulging in the folksong-influenced modal harmonies which characterize much of the music of his English contemporaries such as Vaughan Williams. A setting of the first verses of Revelation 21, And I Saw a New Heaven is a favourite of choirs and Bainton’s best-known work.

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth:
for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;
and there was no more sea.
And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down from God out of heaven,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a voice out of heaven, saying,
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes;
and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain,
for the former things are passed away.”

Gerald Harder

 

 

/by