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Hymn of the Month Returns
Last year, we instituted a project called, The Hymn of the Month. Throughout the year we explored one hymn that was not well known to the congregation. The goal was to expand the congregation's repertoire and to help us all reflect on the hymns we sing and why we sing them. This project resumes on Sunday.
Here is some basic information:
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hymn: refers to a poem or text that may be set to music. In The Presbyterian Hymnal the name of the hymn is the title at the top of the page.
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author: is the person who wrote the hymn (the words). The author’s name is found above the music on the left. The date the hymn was written is next to the author’s name.
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hymn tune: refers to the music that the hymn (the words) are sung to. On the page in the hymnal, the tune name is found directly under the title.
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composer: is the person who wrote the music of the hymn tune. This is found above the music on the right.
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meter: describes the number of syllables per line in the poem. This is found to the immediate right of the tune name. (This information is rarely of practical use to the congregation but is important for church musicians, liturgy planners, and hymnal editors because sometimes we want to sing a particular text but the tune is unknown to the congregation. If we know the meter, we can locate a familiar tune — using the tune index — and sing the hymn to the familiar tune. This is why we can do fun things like singing the hymn, Amazing Grace, to the tune of the theme from Gilligan’s Island. But I digress.)
This month we look at hymn 415, Come, Labor On. Written by Jane Laurie Borthwick in 1859, the text is a stirring poem that draws on Jesus’s harvest imagery. Jane Borthwick (1813-1897) was a Scot who spent her life in Edinburgh as a member of the Free Church. She and her sister, Sarah Findlater, published four volumes of translations entitled, Hymns from the Land of Luther.
The beautiful tune, ORA LABORA, was written for this text by the famous English organist and composer, T. Turtius Noble, in 1918. Noble (1867-1953) was born in Bath and educated at the Royal School of Church Music. Following a storied career in York Minster, he came to NYC where he was music director at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, Fifth Ave, from 1912 to 1947. During that time, he established the English cathedral tradition and, in 1919, founded the Saint Thomas Choir School for boys. Composed in the English cathedral style, the unison tune lends strength to the words of the poem, calling all to Christian service.
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