Wake, awake, for night is flyingAdvent hymn arrangementF. Melius Christiansen (1871-1955) Norweigian-born F. Melius Christiansen was for over thirty years the choral director of the choir at St. Olaf’s College, one of the most accomplished college choirs in the U.S. His robust arrangements of hymns remain a staple for many Christian college choirs, especially those Lutheran schools whose choral tradition he influenced. Christiansen’s vigorous arrangement of “Wake, awake, for night is flying” is sung here by one of those groups, the Luther College Nordic Choir, conducted by Allen Hightower.
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Wake, awake, for night is flying
Hymn #3Text: Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608)Music: Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608)Tune name: SLEEPERS, WAKE(WACHET AUF) THE TEXT Both text and tune are the work of Philipp Nicolai, a Lutheran pastor whose parish in Westphalia witnessed the death of over 1,300 members during an epidemic which raged between July 1597 and January 1598. During those dreadful months, Nicolai found himself burying up to thirty of his parishioners every day. To maintain some sense of hope, Nicolai re-read Augustine’s City of God. The following year he published the text and tune to this hymn as an appendix to a book of meditations called Freudenspiegel des ewigen Lebes (Joyful Reflection of Eternal Life). In that book’s preface, Nicolai…
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Teach me, my God and King
Hymn #476Text: George Herbert (1593-1633)Music: Traditional English carol tuneTune name: SANDYS THE TEXT Though he is celebrated as an English poet, George Herbert was born in Wales in 1593. His father’s family had been notable figures in the Welsh county of Montgomeryshire, having settled there in the thirteenth century. Herbert’s father died when he was only three and a half years old, and his mother soon moved the family to her native Shropshire, an adjoining English county. Herbert studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, and after completing his M.A., he became a fellow of the College, then orator for the University. He was ordained to the priesthood in 1626. Most of…
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Soldiers of Christ, arise
Hymn #552Text: Charles Wesley (1707-1788)Music: Isaac Smith (c.1725-c.1800)Tune name: SILVER STREET THE TEXT As typically sung, and as presented in our Hymnal, this hymn presents only a fraction of a long poem by Charles Wesley. First published in Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Poems (1749), it was called “The Whole Armour of God” and presents a poetic expansion of the exhortation from St. Paul in Ephesians 6:10-20. Wesley presented his hymn in eight-line stanzas; each stanza in our Hymnal contains half a stanza from the original. Below is the complete hymn, with the lines which appear in our Hymnal reproduced in bold. Soldiers of Christ, arise, And put your armour on,Strong…
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God, my King, thy might confessing
Hymn #280Text: Richard Mant (1776-1848)Music: Christian F. Witt (c.1660-1716)Tune name: STUTTGART THE TEXT This hymn was first published in 1824 in Richard Mant’s Book of Psalms, in an English Metrical Version. Mant was an Anglican deacon, priest, and bishop who was prolific in his writing on church history and biblical studies as well as in hymnody. He also translated many hymns from the Latin, including (Hymnal #67) “See the destined day arise.” The text is based on Psalm 145:1-12. Every line in the hymn captures some affirmation made in the Psalm. For example, the second half of Mant’s second stanza reads: “Age to age his works transmitteth; age to age…
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The Church’s one Foundation
Hymn #396Text: Samuel John Stone (1839-1900)Music: Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)Tune name: AURELIA THE TEXT In 1863, John Colenso, the Bishop of Natal in South Africa, was deposed by his metropolitan, Bishop Robert Gray of Cape Town, because of various heretical views inspired by higher-critical approaches to Scripture. As Ian Bradley notes in The Book of Hymns, “The Colenso affair reopened long-standing divisions between liberals and conservatives within the Church of England.” A recently ordained curate in Windsor (the home of Windsor Castle) was deeply disturbed by the controversy. Three years later, at the age of twenty-seven, the young priest, Fr. Samuel John Stone, expressed his concern about divisions in the…
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A mighty fortress is our God
Hymn #551Text: Martin Luther (1483-1546)Music: Martin LutherTune name: EIN FESTE BURG THE TEXT Inspired by Psalm 46, this is the most famous of all of Martin Luther’s many hymns. Almost 500 years old, it remains a confident and vigorous affirmation of God’s faithfulness and protection, despite the very different circumstances faced by believers. The Protestant Reformer’s reference in the fourth stanza to “earthly powers” and their hostility to the Word was no doubt a reference to the Roman Catholic hierarchy. But today this hymn is sung in Roman Catholic parishes, and the final stanza has a more ecumenical significance. Christians are united in affirming the ultimate powerlessness of the most…
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Now that the daylight fills the sky
Hymn #159Text: 6th century Latin hymnMusic: Benedictine plainsong; 17th-century Lutheran choraleTune name: IAM LUCIS ORTO SIDERE; HERR JESU CHRIST THE TEXT Before Amazon began to dominate our lives, “Prime” (with a capital P) was understood to refer to one of the times fixed in the life of the Church for liturgical prayer. Prime was the early-morning hour or “office,” typically tied to dawn. This hymn was regularly sung in the office of Prime in the Anglo-Irish liturgies, especially in the later Middle Ages, as it supplanted a hymn that had been appointed in the earlier Benedictine liturgy. The translation in our Hymnal is by the Anglican priest and prolific translator…
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Majestic sweetness sits enthroned
Hymn #353Text: Samuel Stennett (1728-1795)Music: 1635 Scottish PsalterTune name: CAITHNESS THE TEXT The son of a Baptist minister, Samuel Stennett followed his father into the ministry and was at the time of his death one of the most prominent of the dissenting ministers in London. He contributed 38 hymns to the notable 1787 hymnal, Selection of Hymns, edited by another notable Baptist preacher, John Rippon (1751-1836). Our Hymnal includes four of the original nine stanzas in the hymn; the others are included below in italics: To Christ, the Lord, let every tongueits noblest tribute bring:when he’s the subject of the songwho can refuse to sing? Survey the beauty of his…
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O day of rest and gladness
Hymn #474Text: Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885)Music: Early 17th-century German folk songTune name: WOODBIRD THE TEXT This is one of nine hymns in our Hymnal by Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln, nephew of the poet, William Wordsworth, and the most celebrated Greek scholar of his day. In 1862, he published The Holy Year, or, Hymns for Sundays and holy days throughout the year. “O day of rest and gladness” was the first hymn in the collection, an appropriate placement as the hymn is about the blessedness of every Sunday. The hymn reminds us that Sunday is the first day of the week, the first day of all Creation, and the day of…