9).Īlbert Edward Bailey, “While shepherds watched their flocks by night,” The Gospel in Hymns (NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1950), p. The first known pairing of this text and tune appeared in Hymns for the Use of the Methodist Episcopal Church with Tunes (NY: Carlton & Porter, 1857 | Fig. It has also gone by other names, including LUNENBURG, SIROE, DELAWARE, HARLEIGH, and SAXONY. This adapted hymn tune was first dubbed CHRISTMAS in Amos Blanchard’s Newburyport Collection of Sacred, European Musick (Exeter: Ranlet & Norris, 1807). In his 1791 collection of tunes, 27 were credited to Handel. In any case, passages on a pedal bass were not uncommon in hymn tunes of the period.Īrnold’s edition, The Works of Handel, was the first attempt at compiling Handel’s compositions, eventually released in 180 parts between 17, although ultimately not including Siroe. Handel, therefore, is not to blame for those nine consecutive E’s in the bass part our big jump occurs in the middle of them. To find the fourth, we have to jump ahead for 16 measures and end with the soloist’s final phrase. The first three come directly from the singer’s opening phrases. The arrangement is an ingenious one, calling for the last line of each stanza to be repeated, so there are five phrases. This became the now familiar tune CHRISTMAS, known in Britain as LUNENBURG. The result was our, allocated to Tate and Brady’s version of a psalm associated with the Christmas season. He was also busy editing the complete works of Handel, and so was just the man to pick out the attractive soprano aria “Non vi piacque” in the half-forgotten opera Siroe, and to see its possibilities for a hymn tune. Arnold, a prolific and successful composer for the stage, was then organist and composer for the Chapel Royal. John Wilson, in an article for The Hymn, explained Arnold’s influence in this adaptation:ĭr.
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