Rebel to Redeemed…Sharing HIS Kind of Love
“O taste and see how gracious is the Lord” was composed for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation in 1953. Ralph Vaughan Williams married his melody with the scripture found in Psalm 34. The hymn was inspired by Psalms 34:8 “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.” (KJV) Williams was born in […]
Read more
Blaenwern is a Welsh hymn. The song was composed by William Penfro Rowlands during the 1904-1905 Welsh revival. Rowlands was born on April 19, 1860. He was a Welsh schoolteacher, composer, and conductor of the Morriston United Choral Society. He died on October 22, 1937. The song was first published in the 1915 Cân a Moliant by Henry H. Jones. This […]
Read more
My Soul, There is a Country was written by Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry. He was the 1st Baronet and an English composer, teacher and historian of music. He was born February 27, 1848. He is best known for his choral songs “Jerusalem” and anthem “I was Glad”. He died on October 7, 1918 from the Spanish flu. “In May […]
Read more
Every year we sing Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s Day, but where did it come from? Auld Lang Syne is a Scots poem that was written by Robert Burns in 1788. His poem was set to a traditional folk song. Music historians are unsure if the melody used today is the original melody Burns set to the song or […]
Read more
The Hallelujah Chorus is the most well-known portion of Geroge Frideric Handel’s “Messiah”. Handel used the King James Bible and the Coverdale Psalter to compose his text. The “Messiah” was first performed in Dublin on April 13, 1742. The “Hallelujah Chorus” is at the end of part 2, which concentrates on the Passion of Jesus. This portion has become a […]
Read more
The “Sussex Carol” is a popular Christmas Carol in Britain. Luke Wadding, a 17th Century Irish Bishop, first published the song in 1684. It is unknown whether he wrote the song himself or had recorded it from earlier coposers. The text and tune were discovered by Cecil Sharp and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The men wrote the song down as sung […]
Read more
I have found two different stories for this hymn. The first states it is believed “The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy” was written Jamaican singer-songwriter Oswald Dunbar sometime in the early 1960s. Legend states he adapted the lyrics from an earlier Jamaican folk song “Livvy’s Song” to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. The text follows the story as […]
Read more
“In dulci jubilo” means in sweet rejoicing in Latin. The original text is believed to have been written around 1328 by Heinrich Seuse, a German mystic. According to folklore, “Seuse heard angels sing these words and joined them in a dance of worship.” The tune first appears in a manuscript dating around 1400. Many historians believe the melody may have […]
Read moreEnglish poet Christina Rosetti published a poem under the title “A Christmas Carol” in January 1872 issue of Scribner’s Monthly. Composer Gustav Holst composed a setting to her words in 1906. The new hymn appeared in The English Hymnal under the title “In the Bleak Midwinter”. In 1909, Harold Darke composed an anthem for the piece, which is widely performed […]
Read more
I thought we’d look at a popular Patriotic song, This Land is Your Land. The American folk song was written in 1940 by Woody Guthrie. During this time he hitchhiked from Los Angeles to New York City and continuously heard God Bless America played on the radio and jukeboxes. He is said to have written the song in a “flophouse […]
Read more
Christ is Made the Sure Foundation was a Latin hymn written sometime in the late 6th or 7th Century under the title Urbs beata Jerusalem. The original hymn was sung as an unaccompanied plainsong melody. In 1851, John Mason Neale translated the hymn from Latin into English. Many modern versions of the texts vary greatly from his original translations. The […]
Read more
God Be with You till We meet Again was written by Jeremiah E. Rankin around 1880. It is undated but he gave a copy to Sankey in 1882. Rankin was born on January 2, 1828 in Thornton, New Hampshire. He received his doctorate in 1869 and served as president of Howard University a few years. He wrote and published a […]
Read more
“I Vow to Thee, My Country” is a British patriotic hymn. Sir Cecil Spring Rice wrote the poem “The City of God” or “The Two Fatherlands” in either 1908 or 1912. The poem described how a Christian owes his loyalties to both his homeland and the heavenly kingdom. In 1908, he was posted at the British Embassy in Stockholm. In […]
Read more
Sleep, Dearie, Sleep was played at the end of Queen Elizabeth II funeral at Westminster Abbey. Her bagpiper played this beautiful lament. I’ve been unable to find any additional information about who wrote the song.
Read more
The Lord’s My Shepherd is a hymn based on Psalm 23. It first appeared in the Scots Metrical Psalter in 1650 and is usually attributed to the English Puritan Francis Rous. The tune Crimond is generally credited to Jessie Seymour Irvine, daughter of a parish minister of the Church of Scotland during Queen Victoria’s reign. The hymn was a favorite […]
Read more
This hymn was recently sung at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Rev. John Ellerton wrote the hymn in 1870 to be included in A Liturgy for Missionary Meetings. Two different translations of the text are included in German official hymnals. The theme focusses on the worldwide fellowship of the church. It goes on to offer a continual prayer and […]
Read more
Recently we sung A Broken Heart, My God, My Life in church. A hymn I had not heard before and wanted to learn more about. A Broken Heart, My God, My Life was written by Isaac Watts. Watts was a prolific writer. He wrote sermons, treatises, poems and hymns. Often he wrote hymns to be sung with his sermons. He […]
Read more
He will Hold Me Fast was written by Ada Ruth Habershon best known for the song “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?”. She was born in 1861 in Marylebone, England. She first began writing hymns in 1899 in German. In 1901, she wrote in English. In 1905, Ruben A. Torrey and Charles Alexander asked Habershon to write hymns for their evangelistic […]
Read more
Come, come to Jesus, do not keep him waiting was written by Elisha Hoffman. He sought to create songs for congregational worship. He said “a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper’s attitude toward God or God’s purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely […]
Read more
Shall I Come Just As I Am is a hymn written by Elisha A. Hoffman. Hoffman was born in 1839 and ordained into the ministry in 1868. He served numerous churches and wrote over 2,000 hymns. Some of his best known hymns are “Leaning on the Everlasting Arms”, “Are You Washed in the Blood?” and “I Must Tell Jesus”. He […]
Read more