The Story of the Hymns and TunesButterworth, Hezekiah
Religion
The Story of the Hymns and Tunes
Butterworth, Hezekiah
Hymns -- History and criticism; Religious poetry
_THE TUNE._
No echo remains, so far as is known, of the responsive chant actually
sung by Ambrose, but one of the best modern choral renderings of the "Te
Deum" is the one by Henry Smart in his _Morning and Evening Service_. In
an ordinary church hymnal it occupies seven pages. The staff-directions
with the music indicate the part or cue of the antiphonal singers by the
words Decani (Dec.) and Cantor (Can.), meaning first the division of the
choir on the Dean's side, and second the division on the Cantor's or
Precentor's side.
Henry Smart was one of the five great English composers that followed
our American Mason. He was born in London, Oct. 25, 1812, and chose
music for a profession in preference to an offered commission in the
East Indian army. His talent as a composer, especially of sacred music,
was marvellous, and, though he became blind, his loss of sight was no
more hindrance to his genius than loss of hearing to Beethoven.
No composer of his time equalled Henry Smart as a writer of music for
female voices. His cantatas have been greatly admired, and his hymn
tunes are unsurpassed for their purity and sweetness, while his anthems,
his oratorio of "Jacob," and indeed all that he wrote, show the hand and
the inventive gift of a great musical artist.
He died July 10, 1879, universally mourned for his inspired work, and
his amiable character.
"ALL GLORY, LAUD AND HONOR."
_Gloria, Laus et Honor._
This stately Latin hymn of the early part of the 9th century was
composed in A.D. 820, by Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans, while a captive
in the cloister of Anjou. King Louis (le Debonnaire) son of Charlemagne,
had trouble with his royal relatives, and suspecting Theodulph to be in
sympathy with them, shut him up in prison. A pretty story told by
Clichtovius, an old church writer of A.D. 1518, relates how on Palm
Sunday the king, celebrating the feast with his people, passed in
procession before the cloister, where the face of the venerable prisoner
at his cell window caused an involuntary halt, and, in the moment of
silence, the bishop raised his voice and sang this hymn; and how the
delighted king released the singer, and restored him to his bishopric.
This tale, told after seven hundred years, is not the only legend that
grew around the hymn and its author, but the fact that he composed it in
the cloister of Anjou while confined there is not seriously disputed.
Gloria, laus et honor Tibi sit, Rex Christe Redemptor,
Cui puerile decus prompsit Hosanna pium.
Israel Tu Rex, Davidis et inclyta proles,
Nomine qui in Domini Rex benedicte venis
Gloria, laus et honor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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