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Really the word "hymn" refers to the words. But for most people the music comes to mind just as quickly, if not more so.

Of course, a congregation needs both words and music to sing a hymn. Otherwise I guess they could just mumble some poetry together, or, alternatively, hum something for a while.

Note to self: write some intentionally wordless hymns. Approach publishers.

But sometimes a melody is written for words that so encapsulates their sentiment that the result is stirring, compelling, and nothing short of miraculous: a triumph of the great symbiotic art of hymnody.

Words

Walter Russell Bowie's two hymn texts are provocative and "have been judged as among the finest by an American author written in the first half of this century" (Hymnal 1982 Companion). They are "Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth", and "O holy city, seen of John".

Walter Russell Bowie was a Social Gospel progressive who was baptized at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia in 1883 (just 21 years after Jefferson Davis was baptized there). He would serve as rector of the parish from 1911-1923. Just prior to assuming this rectorship, Bowie was asked for a hymn based on Revelation 21 by Henry Sloane Coffin for the collection Hymns of the Kingdom of God (1910). The result is "O holy city, seen of John".

One of Bowie's stanzas, however, seems not to have been handed down in most versions of the hymn. It appears in the original hymn text as stanza 2:

Hark, how from men whose lives are held
more cheap than merchandise;
from women struggling sore for bread,
from little children's cries,
there swells the sobbing human plaint
that bids thy walls arise!

Music

I'm particularly fascinated with the connection between Howells and the marvelous words of Bowie because Howells is, quite simply, my favorite composer of twentieth century church music, and I was the organist of St. Paul's, Richmond for five years (2010-2015). It was a delight to relish this tune (and sing it often) in a parish so closely linked with Bowie.

I have written before about the two Herbert Howells hymn tunes for the both of the published hymn texts of Walter Russell Bowie (Bowie, Walter Russell - connection to Herbert Howells). Mostly, I wrote of my perplexity that the tune in the Hymnal 1982 for Bowie's "Lord Christ" is in a major key (Hymn 598)! But today, on Howells's birthday, no less, I want to turn to the other tune, SANCTA CIVITAS.

Howells's tune, written in 1962, is extraordinary. In fact, Erik Routley, the prolific church music scholar, names it one of "Six Great Moments in Twentieth-century Hymn Music"

1. Vaughan Williams's KING'S WESTON, found at Hymn 435 (this article refers to hymns in the Hymnal 1982)
2. Cyril Vincint Taylor's ABBOT'S LEIGH, found at Hymn 523
3. A tune by Jean Langlais: DIEU NOUS AVONS VU TO GLOIRE (um, does anyone know this one?)
4. Herbert Howells's SANCTA CIVITAS, found at Hymn 582 (but not completely)
5. Michael Dawney's FELINFOEL (yeah, no idea about this one either)
6. And Richard Dirksen's VINEYARD HAVEN, found at Hymns 392 and 557

Tangent: Routley's work on hymns is always provocative. Of the six he names three are "bestsellers", one is mostly hiding in plain sight (Howells), and two of them I've never heard, nor can I find. There's more here to research, as always!

Howells's name for the tune, SANCTA CIVITAS, is Latin for "Holy City," making the text-tune connection clear. But more than that, the name is surely a reference to the large choral work by Vaughan Williams with that name. It was, after all, a close encounter with Vaughan Williams himself at the 1910 Three Choirs Festival that set Howells firmly on the path of being a composer.

Howells manages the melodic modality masterfully, with the music meandering from D minor to an F Major finish. The intervening notes between stanzas (they are in the original hymn but, most unfortunately, edited out of the Hymnal 1982) raise the Tonic to the Mediant so that the successive stanza can fall into place without a hitch.

There is what I believe to be an intentional seamlessness to the hymn accompaniment that arises when these inter-stanza passing tones are used (as in the wonderful recording from St. Clement embedded above). This is up to interpretation, to some degree. I can find another recording that does not treat the accompaniment this way.

If the "seamless" approach is what Howells had in mind, this is by no means a new technique, though it is an innovation on it. Think of the hymn tune ENGELBERG, written by Stanford, Howells's mentor, in 1904. The single, solitary "thump" allows the hymn accompaniment to be continuous, which has the affect of somewhat blurring the line between the strophic hymn form and something through-composed. And this is, in fact, the common modern-day performance practice with this tune. Howells's innovation is to simply expand that pedal thump into a treble "doo-doo" — which, incidentally, builds more time into the "join" between the stanzas for a breath but without making the interlude needlessly fussy.

Still with me? Good, because we haven't even brought up the final stanza yet. Howells gives this text the full treatment with a slightly altered harmonization and supremely musical descant. Not a single note is wasted, and the sopranos' expertise is fully demanded — this is not a trivial sing! But the result, to my ear, is so completely and utterly thrilling.

A melody of great sweep and dignity, with a descant for the final verse [sic] which gives the impression of having been conceived along with the tune and of being a natural efflorescence of it.

English Church Music, Royal School of Church Music, 1965

Consider the final stanza and the city that rises "in the mind of God". It is of divine imagination. And this inspired descant catches our souls and flings them heavenward where we chance to dream of things eschatological and that poorly-understood sentiment in the Lord's Prayer "thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven".

The unchurched Howells finds a way to join what we would call Bowie's Anglo-Catholic Socialism if he weren't in fact a Southern Churchman Social Gospelist.

Another thing that is lost in our modern hymnals is editorial direction. Howells, who never fails to give descriptive language, here gives "With warmth, but moving easily". I can't quibble at all with the St. Clement recording above, but I do want to note that it is a choral recording. I think that for a full congregation, the organ will want to provide a bit more "fire" for the warmth. The word "ardente" from the anthem "Like as the hart" comes to mind.

I suspect that, for many parishes, this tune is hiding in plain sight. If we did a survey I think we would find that the American tune on 583 is sung for these words more than 582. And there is precdent for a Howells tune having a slow start. MICHAEL first appeared in The Clarendon Hymnal in 1936 and was neglected for over thirty years. Though it doesn't appear in Routley's "Six Great Moments", it doesn't need to. It exploded in popularity, and it now has a Triple Platinum Hymnal hanging in its living room.

But perhaps SANCTA CIVITAS tends to be overlooked because the Hymnal 1982 doesn't present the hymn tune as Howells intended.

We can fix this.

I implore you in choirs and on organ benches: buy this hymn from Novello, or play it out of Hymns Ancient and Modern.

Your congregations will allow you two little extra notes, I promise.

And Howells wants it that way.

Labels: Dirksen, Engelberg, Henry Sloane Coffin, Howells, hymn, Hymn 392, Hymn 523, Hymn 557, Hymn 582, Hymn 598, Hymnal 1982, Langlais, Routley, St Paul's (Richmond), Stanford, Walter Russell Bowie

It's not often that you plan for a service to last three hours, but sometimes you do plan for exactly that on Good Friday. Jack Spong returned today, to offer meditations at six half-hour services from noon to 3 p.m.

He was in fine form, and is preaching/teaching from his forthcoming book on the Gospel of John. We delved into the symbolism and the "thesis" of that Gospel all afternoon.

A discovery for me, was that reading Mary's presence at the crucifixion as a symbol (John is the only Gospel to include her at the cross) gives incredible meaning to the words: "Woman, here is your son." Words directed at the elusive, unnamed "beloved disciple", whoever he is and whatever he signifies.

It was a low church service for this solemn Fast Day. The organ was on, the bells rang to cue the start and the end (and perhaps once in the middle due to programmer error...), but local tradition always supersedes denominational tradition, and here the local traditions of the of the parish piled on fast and furious.

We were well represented with rectors of the parish. The present rector; the preacher, Jack Spong; the author of one of the hymns sung at the service, "Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth", Walter Russell Bowie; and even the present rector's predecessor, who situated himself near the choir for the service.

These days are, of course, inherently conservative, liturgically. Look at Tenebrae. Who can understand it? What is it? Where does it come from? Just try to explain it to a Presbyterian, and you'll see what I mean.

So it should be no surprise that in these days, we do things as we've always done them, or at least, the best that we remember them, and to the best of our ability.

Who put that cross there? What does it mean?

Today, Jesus' cross stands between us and the Eucharist. Maybe that's why it's leaning on the altar rail (I think I've even seen it blocking the sanctuary entrance in other places).

But for the first time early this morning, I did receive communion from the reserved Sacrament. It's an interesting experience. The residue of the previous night's Eucharistic celebration lingers, but only in the memory. The bulk of the church itself is devastated. There is no cloth, no ornament, no light. And we occupy this strange area of circular logic, which crops up so often this week. Which Jesus are we eating? Well, the Resurrected Jesus who is fully present, of course. But weren't we contemplating him in prayer the garden? And doesn't he hang on the cross later today? The chronology is screwy.

But one thing has made a bit of sense this week, it continues to do so, and it will culminate rather gloriously at the end of the month. In the Daily Office readings, if one reads the entire Psalter in a month, one finishes the Psalter on Easter Day.

The dark, gritty bit that we're going through right now suits us just fine, and the Psalter will conclude tomorrow and the next day (twice; you read the "thirtieth day" portion on the thirty-first day as well).

But that's not all. I really can't recommend The St. Bede's Breviary highly enough for praying the Daily Office via an online text. The changes to the office that are made in Holy Week are stark:

• Offices begin with the Psalms (and antiphons if used) except for Compline; Compline begins with the Confession and Absolution, then jumps to the Psalms.
• All Gloria Patris are omitted.
• A penitential responsory replaces the 1st canticle at Morning and Evening Prayer
• All hymns are omitted
• The Offices conclude early. After the Gospel/second canticle of Morning and Evening Prayer, the Lord’s Prayer and the Collect of the Day are said at which point the Office ends. At Noon Prayer the Lord’s Prayer and Collect of the Day complete the Office immediately after the Psalm(s). At Compline, the Nunc Dimittis without Antiphon follows the Psalms, then the Lord’s Prayer and Collect conclude the hour.

Even the ever-familiar Magnificat takes on a different tone when the office around it shifts a bit. This is a wonderful tradition to know about, and to take part in.

File that under tricks of the trade. Like, how to hold a thurible (working on it), or how to program the bells (via graphing calculator?!), or how to feed a choir so no one faints (working on it)

. . . or how Jesus died so that we too can give our lives away fully to others, and we can be most fully ourselves.

To say it another way, so we can all be most fully alive.

Even when everything is stripped down, and sometimes because of that stripping down, we focus on what's present, what still remains -- what is just as effectual and real as ever -- out of God's abundance and grace.

Labels: Communion, Daily Office, Good Friday, John Shelby Spong, liturgy, Psalms, Walter Russell Bowie

There's a wonderful connection between St. Paul's, Richmond, and the English composer Herbert Howells.

The priest, author, editor, educator, hymn writer, and lecturer (thanks Wikipedia!) Walter Russell Bowie was born in Richmond, baptized at St. Paul's and was rector of the church from 1911-1923.

Among Bowie's best known hymns are "O holy city seen of John" and "Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to men". Both hymn texts were set to music by Herbert Howells.

"O holy city seen of John" appears in the Hymnal 1982 at Hymn 582 to Howells's SANCTA CIVITAS (though it is probably more often sung to MORNING SONG, the tune for that text at Hymn 583).

"Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to men" is often rendered as "Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to earth" in modern hymnals, including Rejoice in the Lord, a hymnal edited by edited by Erik Routley.

Routley pairs this with NEWNHAM a wonderful hymn tune that I have never heard nor seen anywhere before this week.

Fittingly, Howells's tune is in minor.

And only Howells could write a tune that begins on III (G-flat Major) and moves to i (E-flat minor). Actually, I could go on about this tune at some length, but maybe that's another article for another time.

The text is clearly wildly successful -- and paired with this beautiful tune, even more so.

Having now studied the text more closely and in conjunction with this E-flat minor sound world, the sprightly D Major strains of MIT FREUDEN ZART (Hymn 598) are more than a little cloying and antithetical to the seriousness of what we're singing about.

• "upon a cross they bound thee" (this is our answer to Christ's coming!)
• "mocked thy saving kingship"
• thorns
• new thorns
• "robe of sorrow"
• "doomed to death"
• crucified
• dust
• refuse
• "night of hate and war"
• perish
• lose
• wounded hands
• dust (again! Is this a Lenten hymn?!)
• loss

Which of these things suggests a major key, exactly?

I suggest that we all take up the Howells tune, with appropriate copyright permissions cleared with Novello, of course, and hasten to teach this text-tune pairing to our congregations.

By the way, Bowie was born on this date in 1882. He lived until 1969, so I hope that he heard the Howells tunes for his two texts, which were written in 1962 (Groves Dictionary) or 1964 (Rejoice in the Lord).

I wonder what he thought about them?

Labels: Howells, Routley, St Paul's (Richmond), Walter Russell Bowie

On this date in 1883, Walter Russell Bowie was baptized at St. Paul's, Richmond. Bowie was, as Wikipedia puts it, "a priest, author, editor, educator, hymn writer, and lecturer in the Episcopal Church".

PublicHealthIdaho.com Indicates that May 11, 1883 was a Friday. Other sources confirm this, but the Idaho public health site was higher in the Google search rankings.

Bowie is the author of such well-known and widely sung hymns as "O holy city seen of John" (Hymns 582 & 583 in the Hymnal 1982) and Lord Christ, when first thou cam'st to earth" (Hymn 598).

Southwest District Health in Idaho currently lists no events scheduled for May 11, 1883. The calendar reads: "Nothing is currently scheduled for this day."

Here's the latter hymn as it appeared in the Hymnal 1940:

Idaho Statehood: It makes sense that this organization would have nothing scheduled for 128 years ago given that Idaho did not receive statehood until 1890 (the 43rd state).

Labels: St Paul's (Richmond), Walter Russell Bowie

This post serves as a correction to our previous post today. See below for the Hymnal 1982 version of "Lord Christ when first thou cam'st to earth":

The original (I believe) text is printed in the Hymnal 1940:

Labels: Hymnal 1940, Hymnal 1982, hymns, Walter Russell Bowie

On this date, October 8, 1882 priest, author, editor, educator, hymn writer, and lecturer in the Episcopal Church, Walter Russell Bowie was born.

Bowie would be baptized at St. Paul's Church, Richmond. Watch this space; we'll tell you when. Check back this spring. Like in May.

His birth led to his baptism which led to his ordination to the priesthood.

Later, Bowie would be the rector of St. Paul's from 1911-1923.

CORRECTION: In my haste to find a version of this text that I could copy and paste here, I found this modern "update" that violates the rhyme scheme and the sense of the text (as pointed out in the comments below). My apologies. See this post for the printed versions in the Episcopal Hymnals 1940 and 1982.

Lord Christ, when first You came to earth,
Upon a cross they bound You,
And mocked Your saving kingship then
By thorn with which they crowned You;
And still our wrongs may weave You now
New thorns to pierce that steady brow,
And robe of sorrow round You.

O wondrous love, which found no room
In life, where sin denied You,
And, doomed to death, must bring to doom
The power which crucified You,
Till not a stone was left on stone,
And all a nation's pride, o'erthrown,
Went down to dust beside You.

New advent of the love of Christ,
Shall we again refuse You,
Till in the night of hate and war
We perish as we lose You?
From old unfaith our souls release
To seek the kingdom of Your peace
By which alone we choose You.

O wounded hands of Jesus, build
In us Your new creation;
Our pride is dust, our vaunt is stilled,
We wait Your revelation.
O Love that triumphs over loss,
We bring our hearts before Your cross;
Come, finish Your salvation.

Words by Bowie, Hymn 598 in the Hymnal 1982

Labels: hymns, St Paul's (Richmond), Walter Russell Bowie