Yes, it’s been a while, mostly because I haven’t been out sniffing for new tunes. This one came across me unexpectedly, and I want to share it. I first learned of STOWEY (.mid, .mp3) courtesy of The Sycamore Tree. The text provided on that site makes me think that this is a folk song and therefore not under any particular copyright, but if anyone has any evidence to the contrary I’d like to know. Incidentally, the four-part arrangement you hear here (here hear? Oh boy… :/ ) is my realization of a 3-part midi file I dredged up somewhere. There don’t appear to be any four-part hymn arrangements of this tune on the Internet, so I made one. Thank you, Choral Writing & Arranging!

I couldn’t find much about this tune. The tune nickname (according to Sig) is “The Fair Flower of Northumberland.” The use of “Northumberland” tells me that a.) it’s likely British (it seems to have a faint English madgrigal quality to it) and b.) it’s probably old. Beyond that I don’t know anything else about it. Come to think of it, with the use of “likely” and “probably” I suppose I don’t really know anything for sure about it, except that it has a very pleasing sound.

The meter is 11.11.11.11. which narrows down the options for suitable texts. I did find that “Away in a Manger” goes well with this tune, and I suspect that if I ever decide to try my hand at arranging that song (over-arranged as it is) I’ll sneak this tune in there somewhere. If you’re like me and think the knock-off attempts at singing “How Firm a Foundation” in a truly pentatonic mode are becoming tiresome, you can sing that text to this tune, as well. If you think Adoniram Gordon should have written the tune associated with “My Jesus, I Love Thee” in 3/4 (rather than a fairly sedating 4/4) you can try that text. If you’re of the “I don’t like refrains because they were pop tags added to songs to increase their fun level in the 1800’s” crowd, you can lop off the repetative refrains of both “Whiter than Snow” and “Hiding in Thee” and sing both to this tune.

This week’s tune is the gem HELMSLEY (.mid, .mp3). It’s an anonymous English tune dating back to 1765, when it first appeared in John Wesley’s Select hymns designed chiefly for the use of the people called Methodists (better known, thankfully, as simply Select Hymns). The unusual thing about this tune is that it appeared in a time when so many other English hymn tunes were flat and rather uninteresting. Oddly enough, while these tunes themselves are unexciting, the arrangement possibilities give then new life as majestic anthems. One of the best arrangements of this tune can be found on the CD Sing Ye Heavens: Hymns for All Time by the Cambridge Singers.

I would venture that this majestic tune is not at all known in America, at least not with any consistency. It is an English creation, published by the Wesleys in London, and so it remains to this day. It is commonly wedded with the text “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending!”, a text written by John Cennick and revised by Charles Wesley and Martin Madan. Indeed, the very nature of the song - a joyous looking ahead to the second Advent - fits the glory of this tune quite well.

The actual meter of the tune itself is 8.7.8.7.12.7., but good luck finding other texts set to that exact pattern. The tune is, however, flexible enough to handle other meters, provided the person setting the text to the music is creative enough with how he repeats a word or phrase in the fifth line (stanza). In that vein, there are a handful of 8.7.8.7.8.7. texts that work well - “Angels from the Realms of Glory” (it works, trust me) and “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” (with a little tweaking; see #144 in Rejoice! for a tweak that works well) come to mind. One can also fit 8.7.8.7.4.7. texts (probably easier than the ones listed above) - Keble’s “God, the Lord, a King Remaineth” (a paraphrase of Psalm 93 [+/-] [93:1]The LORD reigns; he is robed in majesty; the LORD is robed; he has put on strength as his belt. Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. Your throne is established from of old; you are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O LORD, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their roaring. Mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea, the LORD on high is mighty! Your decrees are very trustworthy; holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore.) works well, and provided you’re working with a motivated choir or congregation, G.H. Bourne’s “Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendor” can work.

Of course, I personally think that any text other than the Cennick/Wesley/Madan “Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending” is a second-rate use of the tune. Likewise, I think combining that text with CWM RHONDDA (which we Americans commonly use for “Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah”) is, nicely put, corny. So I guess this is a Tune/Text of the Week, otherwise known as simply a T/TotW.

[Listening to: Lo! He Comes with Clouds Descending - The Cambridge Singers - Sing, ye Heavens: Hymns for All Time (04:15)]

This week’s tune is dubbed CANTERBURY (.MID, .MP3), though it’s nearly indistinguishable from SONG 13 (.MID, .MP3). Both tunes are by Orlando Gibbons, an English career musician from the late 16th century. Gibbons (1583-1625) was born into a musical family and educated at Cambridge and Oxford. This training later gave him the background to be the organist for England’s Royal Chapel and later the Westminster Abbey.

The tune itself is a simple one. The poetic meter of the song is 7.7.7.7. CANTERBURY is likely just a reharmonization of SONG 13, with the biggest change being the removal of the decidedly Renaissance figure in measure 6. For comparison’s sake, I’ve included the MIDI and MP3 of both tunes.

Unfortunately, the actual number of texts to fit the 7.7.7.7. is very small. Fans of R. Vaughan Williams will be glad to know that this tune fits the text of “The Call” from Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, text taken from George Herbert. I don’t know of many American churches that sing this text, but this tune is appropriate for the text, and IMO it’s a lot more accessible to the hymn style than Greer’s adaptation of a solo art song. Beyond that, Charles Wesley’s “Come, and Let Us Sweetly Join” and “Depth of Mercy,” as well as Samuel Longfellow’s “Holy Spirit, Truth Divine,” are suitable texts for this song. For those brave enough to write a new text to this meter, I would suggest a meditative, prayerful theme. From all the texts that seem to fit well with this song, their general attitude is one of prayer. Indeed, the very tune itself is peaceful and meditative.

Note on Tunes of the Week: whenever I feel the urge or hear something really cool that I’ve never heard before, I’ll do a little research and post the tune here. You’ll find out all sorts of cool stuff…at least stuff that I think is cool.

Today’s Tune of the Week is KINGSFOLD (mp3, midi). KINGSFOLD started as a generic English folk tune, something wandering “minstrels” would sing on their travels. In the opening years of the 20th century, Ralph Vaughan Williams travelled the countryside of England, recording different folk tunes. When he returned home, he would set them in four parts for use in a hymnal. It was for the 1906 The English Hymnal, for which he was musical editor, that he recorded this folk tune and arranged it in four parts. The tune originally was wedded with a text taken loosely from Luke 16:19-30, where Christ tells the story of Lazarus the beggar and a rich man who spurns him. (Incidentally, some wonder if this story actually happened, because, unlike all of Christ’s other parables, this one contains an actual name.) The text of the song was entitled “Dives & Lazarus;” you can read about it in more detail here. As was the case with many folk songs (and not just those of that time), one text could be used with a multitude of tunes; but the reason I say that this tune and that text presented a valid combination is because Vaughan Williams later used the KINGSFOLD tune in his string orchestral work, “Five Variants on Dives & Lazarus.”

The tune can be used for any number of texts today. It’s metrical pattern is 8.6.8.6.D, or doubled common meter. Some more well-known texts that can be used with this meter of tune are: “I Sing the Mighty Power of God” by Watts; “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” by Sears; and “O Little Town of Bethlehem” by Brooks. Most commonly this tune is used with the text “O Sing a Song of Bethlehem” by Louis Benson (who, incidentally, was from Philadelphia). The tune alternates between the keys of E minor (where it starts and ends) and G major (where it sits most of the song). It’s melody is folk-like, but the lush harmonies by Vaughan Williams make it excellent anthem material. KINGSFOLD has been judged one of the most important folk tunes that Vaughan Williams harmonized.