Hymn of the Week: August 29
by Robert Lehman,
Organist and Choirmaster
The Church of St. Michael & St. George
Proper 17B – August 29, 2021
Hymn 557: Rejoice, ye pure in heart!
Words: Edward Hayes Plumptre (1821-1891)
Music: Vineyard Haven; Richard Wayne Dirksen (1921-2003)
The words of this hymn are in the public domain.
Music: Copyright © 1974 by Harold Flammer Inc., Delaware Water Gap, PA 18327 SKU: 85239
The great uplifting hymn of praise Rejoice, ye pure in heart! was written for use at an annual choir festival held in Peterborough Cathedral in May of 1865. The author, Edward Plumptre, was an Anglican divine and educator whose works on the interpretation of scripture were complemented by his writing of verse. The hymn appears in the Hymnal 1982 to two different tunes; the first is associated with Trinity Church, Wall Street in New York, but the second tune has the more interesting story.
The tune, Vineyard Haven was composed by Richard Dirksen for the installation of The Most Rev. John Maury Allin as Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in 1974 in the Washington National Cathedral. In the final meeting of those planning the service, it was decided that an additional hymn was needed in the liturgy and this text was chosen, though the Hymnal 1940 (the hymnal in use at the time) did not provide a tune for these words that the committee thought was significantly stately and befitting the occasion. Dr. Dirksen excused himself from the meeting and went directly to his private office/studio on the top floor of the cathedral administration building where he quickly dashed off this tune. Returning to the assembled committee some minutes later, Dirksen offered his fresh, ink-still-wet tune for consideration, and it was rousingly greeted as just what was needed. Dirksen named his new tune Vineyard Haven after the village of that name on the island of Martha’s Vineyard to honor The Very Rev. Francis Bowes Sayer, Jr., Dean of Washington Cathedral, who had a home there. The hymn, with its new tune, has been a staple of our hymnody ever since.
The composer wrote of this tune: “The music reflects [the quality of rejoicing] most exactly at the two interpolated ‘Hosannas’… which rise like daily orisons, pointing the way and presaging the reward at the end… to raise such ‘Hosannas’ forever in his presence and with the company of heaven in the life eternal.”
Two fine renditions of the hymn can be heard below:
Rejoice ye pure in heart!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing!
Your glorious banner wave on high,
The cross of Christ your King.
Hosanna, hosanna!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.
With all the angel choirs,
with all the saints of earth,
pour out the strains of joy and bliss,
true rapture, noblest mirth.
Hosanna, hosanna!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.
Your clear hosannas raise,
and alleluias loud;
while answering echoes upward float,
like wreaths of incense cloud.
Hosanna, hosanna!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.
Yes, on through life’s long path,
still chanting as ye go,
from youth to age, by night and day,
in gladness and in woe.
Hosanna, hosanna!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.
Still lift your standard high,
and march in firm array,
as warriors through the darkness toil,
till dawns the golden day.
Hosanna, hosanna!
Rejoice, give thanks, and sing.
At last the march shall end;
the wearied ones shall rest;
the pilgrims find their Father’s house,
Jerusalem the blest.
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