BACKGROUND

This hymn was published in 1806 in the Evangelische Gezangen. At this time the Reformed churches in the Netherlands were dealing with many issues. Not only dogmatic issues, but also church musical issues. Church music itself was not of such a high caliber: the psalms and hymns were sung slowly and isometric, meaning that every note has the same length or value.

The Psalm singing was improved since 1773 when a rhyming of the Psalms was finalized and released for use in the churches. The hymn book Evangelische Gezangen was also an attempt to improve the singing of the churches, and it was answering the call for more hymns. (In turn, the new hymns played also a role in the Secession of 1834...)

This hymn, as we have it, was composed with the same note values, as people were used to in that time, and there were no rests. Steady, majestic and powerful singing was the result. This hymn is the result of the time it was written, and it provides us with a great example of church musical history from the Romantic era.

SINGING AND ACCOMPANIMENT

This tune is sung not too fast. We need to take time off the last note of every line to breath. This is a common technique, and we are using this already with many other hymns (such as Hymn 74 on the tune Melita).

With the accompaniment it is important to indicate the tempo in the prelude (and do not slow down at the end of the prelude so that the congregation loses the beat). At the end of every line lift the soprano and bass voices for the last half of the last note: this is the time the congregation should breath and you can help them breath. Keep a steady tempo throughout - a changing tempo (faster of slower) makes it more difficult for the singers.

SHEETMUSIC

Link

(More information about this hymn and the Reformed church music in around 1806 in the Neterlands, can be found in "Compendium bij de Gezangen uit het Liedboek voor de Kerken" (Prof. Dr. G. van der Leeuw Stichting), "Daer wert om 't seerste uytgekreten..." (Dr. Jan Luth), "Een in Lied en Leven", Dr Jan Smelik, "Zanger en Speellieden" W. Milo, and other sources.)

HYMN PRACTISE

www.bookofpraise.ca

Some of the musical notation of the hymns has changed in the 2010 BoP compared with the 1984 BoP.

General changes are removal of phrase marks and fermatas, update of time signatures and barlines.

Specific changes are:

In the next few posts I will discuss the individual hymns and provide more details about the changes and what that means for the congregations and the organists (pianists).