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We have noted previously on the blog (see flower - summer's) the seldom sung stanza of "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven", that marvelous paraphrase of Psalm 103.

Wikipedia tangent: By the way, did you know that "Praise, my soul, the King of heaven" has its own Wikipedia article? How many other hymns have this distinction? This is a notable hymn, apparently, having been sung at "the 1947 royal wedding of Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh." One assumes that the stanza in question was included then.

The time has come to actually sing this, I think. It's about that time of year, of course, the autumnal equinox falling on Tuesday, September 23 this year.

We're editing that Hallelujah to "Alleluia" so that it matches the Hymnal 1982.

The stanza serves the hymn, we think, with only a little kink in the syllabification being the line that begins "Our God . . ." That "Our" gets a little too much emphasis for our taste.

There are also musical/choral reasons for singing it.

John Goss's setting provides

1. organ accompaniment for unison singing, intended for the first stanza
2. Four parts
3. A (softer) organ accompaniment for unison singing of treble voices (st. 3 in the Hymnal 1982, but note that Goss's indication for trebles is not included).
4. A different accompaniment for unison singing for the final stanza.

Singing the "Frail as summer's" stanza as st. 4 allows the replication of the four part version of the harmony, which adds a very nice symmetry to the hymn, we find.

But this stanza is not included in any hymnals that we can find. Do you know of one that uses it?

Frail as summer’s flower we flourish,
Blows the wind and it is gone;
But while mortals rise and perish
Our God lives unchanging on,
Praise Him, Praise Him, Hallelujah
Praise the High Eternal One!

Henry F. Lyte

Labels: Goss, Henry Francis Lyte, Hymnal 1982, hymns, Psalms, weather