NOTE ON THE PRECEDING MELODIES.

The melodies which had been sung by the early Christians in the Catacombs, derived possibly from the Temple services, were collected and systematized by St. Ambrose in the fourth century and St. Gregory in the sixth. The latter adopted eight principal melodies, the Gregorian Tones; and the name of Plainsong is given to music in that style, of which the foregoing are specimens. Their date is uncertain; but it is probable that in some cases the writer of the words was also the composer of the music.

Protected by ecclesiastical authority, they have escaped to a great extent the alterations which nearly all wellknown melodies undergo, and are thus of great historical interest. Their remoteness from modern music is due to the circumstances of their origin; they were set, largely, to suit the irregular accent of prose (Alleluias, Antiphons, Sequences), they were intended to follow closely the smooth transitions and moderate compass of the speaking voice, and were for many centuries unharmonized and unaccompanied.

No system of writing these timeless melodies in modern notation can be regarded as entirely satisfactory. The method here adopted is that in use at St. Matthew's, Westminster. The unit is the crochet; the minim is as a rule something longer, and the quaver and semiquaver something shorter. Occasionally, however, the difference is one of loud and soft rather than of long and short. For instance, in the word 'dulcis' (in the first line) the two syllables would take about the same time to sing; but the two notes of the first syllable are passed over smoothly, and are of similar length, whereas in the second syllable the first note is rather dwelt on and emphasized at the expense of the second.

The somewhat unusual division of the words, by which the syllables are made to end with a vowel, is intended to accentuate the importance, especially in Latin, of singing on the vowels rather than on the consonants.

The Editors wish to express their indebtedness in the compilation of these Notes to many books of reference, and especially to Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology and the Dictionary of National Biography.

I.

NOTES ON THE HYMNS.

Some Terms used in the following Notes will be found explained on pages 469-475.

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3, 4. Part of the evening and morning hymns for the use of the Scholars of Winchester College.

4. One of the five hymns added to the New Version in 1782.

5. The latter part of Bishop Ken's morning hymn, with one verse (v. 2) from the midnight hymn.

11. Almost universally used as an evening hymn, but the allusion to eventide is really metaphorical. The hymn was written by Lyte about two months before his death, when, in weakness and ill health, he had been making a great effort to preach to his people.

14. Part of the evening hymn, 'Tis gone, that bright and orbed blaze,' from the Christian Year.

15. Part of the evening hymn, 'Sweet Saviour, bless us ere we go.'

16. Part of the morning hymn, 'Hues of the rich unfolding morn,' from the Christian Year.

17. The first eight lines of a sonnet, entitled 'Easter.'

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18. Translated from the hymn for the Ninth Hour, attributed (probably wrongly) to St. Ambrose.

19. Translated from the Roman Breviary revision of St. Ambrose's evening hymn, which began 'O lux beata Trinitas.'

21. Written as a hymn for Holy Baptism. The doxology is not original.

22. In previous editions of this book the translation given of the Latin original of this hymn was an adaptation of Isaac Williams' 'Now the day's declining wheel.' Williams' translation, in its original form, was entirely unfitted for congregational use, and had been very much altered.

24. Translated from St. Ambrose's morning hymn. 25. Translated from the hymn appointed in all ancient breviaries for the Sixth Hour. It has been attributed, but on no sufficient grounds, to St. Ambrose.

26. The Latin original is appointed in the Paris Breviary for Sunday evenings between Trinity and Advent. This translation was first published in this hymn book (1860). It was sung at the evening service at Wellington College on the day of Archbishop Benson's funeral.

28. The Vesper hymn in the Service Book of the Greek Church. It is quoted by St. Basil in the fourth century as being of unknown authorship and date. 29. This translation was first published in this hymn book.

30. Often wrongly attributed to Luther. Verse I appeared anonymously in the Sheffield Psalms and Hymns, 1802; the last three verses were added by Dr. Collyer in 1812, and were altered by Cotterill in 1820 to their present shape. More than twenty versions of the bymu exist.

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31. The Latin original of this hymn began Vox clara ecce intonat'; it was wrongly ascribed to St. Ambrose, but is certainly ancient, perhaps of the fifth century. It was recast in the Roman Breviary, where it begins 'En clara vox redarguit'; and from that recast this translation was made.

32, 34, 36. This, the most famous of all Latin hymns, was written in Italy by a Franciscan Friar in the thirteenth century. Its hold upon men's minds is shown by the fact that there are about 90 translations of it into German, and 160 into English. The first line is taken directly from the Vulgate of Zeph. i. 15; the third line is meant to imply that Jew and Gentile alike bear witness to the truth Christians believe, and is an instance of the mediaeval view which coordinated heathen with Christian prophecies. From an unwillingness to admit the Sibyl as a witness to divine truth, the French missals in the eighteenth century altered the line to 'Crucis expandens vexilla,' basing it on the expectation that the sign of the Son of man (Matt. xxiv. 30) would be the apparition of a cross in the sky.

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33, 35, 37. This translation, made by Archbishop Benson when a master at Rugby, was first published in this book. The verse With sharp pangs my heart is wounded,' formerly omitted, is restored from the Archbishop's original MS. now at Wellington College.

38, 39. A compilation by Madan of two separate hymns by John Cennick and Charles Wesley. Cennick's hymn was of six verses, only two of which-'Every island' and 'Now redemption '—appear here; Wesley's was of four, the first three and the last in this version.

40. From the Lay of the Last Minstrel.

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41. With the third verse compare Pope's Messiah :

'He from thick films shall purge the visual ray,

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And on the sightless eyeballs pour the day.'

43, 44. O come, O come, Emmanuel' is a translation from the seven greater Antiphons. These were short passages, taken or adapted from Scripture, sung before and after the Magnificat in the last days of Advent; and 'O Sapientia,' the beginning of the first of them, is printed in our Prayer Book Calendar opposite December 16, when it was to be sung. They are known as the O's, each beginning with O. Some time probably in the twelfth century, an unknown author took five of them (O Emmanuel, O radix Iesse, O Oriens, O clavis David, O Adonai) and made them into a hymn with the refrain— 'Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel Nascetur pro te, Israel :'

and from this Dr. Neale's translation was made.

46. The last verse was added when the hymn was sung at Dean Alford's funeral, Jan. 17, 1871.

49. One of the original hymns in the Supplement to the New Version, 1702.

50. Probably of the seventeenth or eighteenth century, and of French or German authorship.

52. Wesley's original hymn, which began—

'Hark! how all the welkin rings,

Glory to the King of kings!'

was altered by Whitefield and Madan; and the hymn, in this its best known form, appeared first as one of the five hymns added to the New Version

in 1782.

57. From the Christian Year, for this day.

63. A paraphrase of Isa. ix. 2-8.