Favourite hymns: best suited words and tune

[Pulcinella]

A Salymap-type thread with apologies if we've had one already.

Following a comment on a thread for a forthcoming CE, I thought it might be fun to nominate hymns that appeal because of a good (perfect?) match between the words and the tune. Please give the name of the tune and the composer, if you can.

My two starters are:

All my hope on God is founded: Michael (Howells)
For all the saints: Sine nomine (RVW)

[kernelbogey]

Guide me O thou great redeemer: Cwm Rhondda (Hughes)

(I'm not Welsh )

[Pulcinella]

Guide me O thou great redeemer

(I'm not Welsh )

Presumably sung to Cwm Rhondda

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cwm_Rhondda

I need to amend the OP to ask for the name of the tune and the composer (if possible); I hope you won't mind me editing your post.

[kernelbogey]

Fine, Pulcers. Yes, Cwm Rhonda; but The Wikipedia 'sample' is awful...!

Also In the bleak midwinter: Cranham (Holst)

[vinteuil]

"Forty Days and Forty Nights"

Words: George H Smyttan 1856.
Music: HEINLEIN - Nürnbergisches Gesangbuch, 1676 ; melody attributed to Martin Herbst [1654–1681]

[smittims]

What an inviting thread; thanks for starting it.

I always preferred hymns about nature, perhaps because the others tended to be theologically-complex for a child to understand. I suppose it's difficult to put into verse an idea that has to be biblically-unimpeachable to satisfy the clergy. I found my favourites were by Jan Struther, who I imagined (inexplicably) as a tall, lanky swiss Lutheran pastor , striding the hills in a broad-brimmed hat. I was surprised to find she a was a little Scots lady who wrote the Mrs Miniver stories much loved by Winston Churchill.

Songs of Praise is a treasure-chest of forgotten poets and composers: Edward J Brailsford (1841-1921) for instance, who wrote 'All things which live below the sky' :

I love to hear the robin sing
Perched on the highest bough;
To see the rook with purple wing
Follow the shining plough

This is no. 445 for which the tune is 'Jackson' named after its composer, T. Jackson (1715-81) but we sang it to 'Rodmell' which Vaughan Williams adapted from an English folk song. Some of the somposers would have been friends of his, such as Martin Shaw, who wrote Little Cornard, the tune of 'Hills of the North , Rejoice!' a stirring advent hymn.

[mopsus]

"Forty Days and Forty Nights"

Words: George H Smyttan 1856.
Music: HEINLEIN - Nürnbergisches Gesangbuch, 1676 ; melody attributed to Martin Herbst [1654–1681]

When I first learnt this the last two verses were sung to a major-key tune 'Buckland' because of the change of mood. Even as a child I found this deeply naff, partly because Buckland is a much weaker tune, and decided I preferred the wilderness to the 'eternal Eastertide' because the music was better!

Hills of the North is now generally sung to drastically changed words which are rather overshadowed by the tune.

[oddoneout]

Hills of the North, Rejoice to Little Cornard is a favourite of mine. As a child the words conjured up colourful pictures in my mind, and as an adult I appreciate the quality of the music and the chance it offers to make the most of the words, for both choir and congregation.
Disturbing(and sad I think) to find that someone has found it necessary to rewrite, but modern forms of Christian worship seem to require such reworkings. I have come across others from the same source.

https://hymnsocietygbi.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/1205-Moorsom-Hills-of-the-North-ready.pdf

From Ancient and Modern; Hymns and Songs for Refreshing Worship
I also have a soft spot for 'My song is love unknown'.

[Pulcinella]

The (minor) tenth leap in Little Cornard (mentioned in at least one of last year's Advent threads) is a bit of a killer, though.

[JSB Rules]

Veni, veni Emmanuel. Music - Thomas Helmore (born in Kidderminster in my own beloved county of Worcestershire); Words - (from original Latin text) John Mason Neale.

As soon as I hear the first few notes of this fabulous Carol I'm back in the hall of my old grammar school for morning assembly any day in December from 1967 to 1972.

[french frank]

Lord of all Hopefulness, J(oyce)Anstruther, trad Irish folk tune 'Slane'.

[Petrushka]

Where to start? I sang in a parish church choir as a treble then tenor/baritone from 1965 to 1975 and sang countless hymns for all occasions many of which I still love and which bring back many memories. Pulcinella has already chosen two of my top favourites so here are a few more:

O Praise ye the Lord (Laudate Dominum) (Parry)

Glorious Things of thee are Spoken (Abbot's Leigh) (Cyril Taylor)

Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending (Helmsley) (attr Thomas Olivers)

Light's Abode, Celestial Salem (Regent Square) (Henry Smart)

Abide With Me (Eventide) ( W.H. Monk)

Dear Lord and Father of Mankind (Repton) (Parry)

I could easily choose another half dozen. Christmas hymns (not carols) are a subject on their own which I've not included.

[Rolmill]

How shall I sing that majesty - Coe Fen
There is a green hill far away - Horsley
Love divine, all loves excelling - Blaenwern

[Padraig]

'The 25th of March; the Day of the Annunciation; she was conceived of the Holy Ghost.' School Catechism.

Sonata No. 1 in D Minor, C. 90 "The Annunciation": Praeludium - Aria and Variations - Finale - YouTube

[jonfan]

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy - Corvedale
When I survey - Rockingham

Charles Wesley said he’d ditch all his hymns if he could have written ‘When I survey’. (Or words to that effect!)

The Revised English Hymnal states the second line of ‘There is a green hill’ should be ‘outside the city wall’ making more sense than the usual ‘without a city wall’, which as a youngster I thought - why mention there was no wall.