We launch our trajectory through Advent by singing “Come, thou long-expected Jesus.” Its austere, steady melody is a respite from the hurried confusion that this month typically brings with it. Throughout Advent, our Sequence hymn will be “Creator of the stars of night.” You can learn more about this text and its plainchant tune from the page dedicated to this hymn. Both text and tune have been adapted by many composers for use in elaborate settings. Our choir has sung a setting by Tomás Luis de Victoria (c.1548-1611), which you can hear (performed by Ensemble Nobiles) on this page. The Sermon hymn for this Sunday is “O very God of very…

The Epistle reading for this last Sunday in the Church year is not from an epistle but from the prophet Jeremiah. Even though we’re not officially in Advent, the reading anticipates the anticipation present in Advent. (Christian experience includes many layers of anticipation). The first verse of that reading announces: “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” That righteous Branch is referenced in our Processional hymn, “How bright appears the Morning Star.” The text to this hymn is credited to Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608), but — as…

Our Processional hymn today — “The God of Abraham praise” — is based on a traditional Jewish hymn which in turn is based on a medieval Jewish creed. You may read more about it (and hear the Jewish hymn sung in Hebrew) here. The Sermon hymn is “Master of eager youth.” It is a paraphrase by F. Bland Tucker (1895-1984) of one of the earliest known Christian hymns, appended to a treatise called “The Tutor” by St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215). The hymn was called “Hymn of the Saviour Christ,” and it was a succession of metaphors addressed to Christ, some of them biblical, some of…

The Epistle reading for today is from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In it, we are exhorted to “be strong in the Lord” and to “put on the whole armor of God.” Our processional hymn describes the source of our confidence in the midst of spiritual combat, the foundation of our hope. The author of “How firm a foundation” was identified simply as “K” when the hymn was first published in 1787, and his (or her) identity remains a mystery. The text’s remarkable popularity may account for the large number of tunes associated with it. In every previous edition of our Hymnal, a different tune was used. Back in…

Our Processional hymn this Sunday honors the celebration on Friday of All Saints’s Day. “For all the saints” may be the definitive All Saints’ Day hymn. The text was written by William Walsham How (1823-1897) while he was serving as rector at Whittington in Shropshire, a post he held for 28 years before becoming suffragan bishop of East London. The author of over 50 hymns (including eight in our Hymnal), he once answered the question “What constitutes a good hymn?” by answering: “A good hymn is something like a good prayer — simple, real, earnest, and reverent.” A good hymn also includes well-crafted music, and few hymn tunes equal SINE NOMINE,…

As a choral prelude for our All Saints’ Day service, the choir sings two stanzas of “If thou but suffer God to guide thee,” a hymn by a pious seventeenth-century German poet. The Bach Cantatas website explains the hymn’s origins: Georg Neumark (1621-1681), who later in life was crowned as poet and held the position of court poet in Weimar, had composed the words and music to this famous chorale after having been attacked and robbed of everything that he possessed while traveling to the University of Königsberg (Kalinengrad) and, in the aftermath of this event, experiencing a difficult winter of deprivation until he finally found a position as a private tutor…

Our Processional hymn is “O Splendor of God’s glory bright,” which is often attributed to St. Ambrose, but probably wasn’t his work. (Read more about this hymn here.) Our Sermon hymn is “O Love that wilt not let me go.” It was written by George Matheson on the evening of June 6, 1882. A preacher in the Church of Scotland, Matheson (1842-1906) suffered from severely impaired eyesight from the time of his childhood. He nonetheless excelled in his studies at Glasgow University and later received doctoral degrees from the University of Edinburgh and the University of Aberdeen. Matheson wrote of this hymn’s origins: “It was composed with extreme rapidity; it…

Our Processional hymn — “When morning gilds the skies” — is a translation of an anonymous German hymn dating from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century. It is one of many hymns describing the inescapability of song in the life of the believer. Worship, especially through music, is the fitting response to Jesus Christ not only by believers but — as the hymn’s final stanza declares — by all of Creation. In 1899, the poet laureate of Great Britain, Robert Bridges (1844-1930), translated this hymn for use in English-language hymnals. Other translations by Bridges in our Hymnal include “Ah, holy Jesus, how hast thou offended” (#71) and “O sacred head, sore…

Psalm 100 has traditionally held a place of privilege in the Church’s worship. It is commonly known (after the first word in the Latin) as the Jubilate: “O be joyful.” The Jubilate is one of the canticles appointed for use in the daily office of Morning Prayer in the Book of Common Prayer. There the opening verse begins: “O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands.” This wording is from one of many English translations, some the work of noted poets, many by prominent Hebrew scholars. Catherine Parr, the sixth of Henry VIII’s six wives, tried her hand at a translation of Psalm 100 (apparently from a Latin Psalter,…

Our service opens with “Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven,” a hymn by Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847), a devout Anglican priest and a sensitive and accomplished poet. The hymn’s affirmation of God’s character of being “slow to chide, and swift to bless” echoes the Introit for today’s service, a text taken from Psalm 86, which acknowledges that the Lord is “good and gracious, and of great mercy unto all them that call upon [Him].” Our Hymnal contains dozens of hymns which credit John Mason Neale (1818-1866) as translator, usually of Medieval hymns originally in Latin or Greek. Neale’s work of eloquent translation had an unrivaled influence in recovering for…