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Hymn History: My Hope is Built on Nothing Less

“My Hope Is Built”
Edward Mote
The United Methodist Hymnal, No. 368

The Pender UMC Traditional Service Closing Hymn “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less” on Sunday January 15, 2023 was played by Uriah Moore on piano, accompanied on guitar by Brian Stevenson and sung the Pender Sanctuary Choir and congregation.

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare note trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

Edward Mote (1797-1874) falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners. He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15.

Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. He published his hymns with selections by others in 1836 in Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns. Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term “gospel hymn” appears.

American Methodist hymnologist and hymnal editor Robert Guy McCutchan notes that the hymn was probably written in 1834 and originally began, “Nor earth, nor hell, my soul can move.” The original title was “Jesus, my All in All.” Mr. McCutchan cites the origin of this hymn narrated by the composer as it appeared in a London periodical, The Gospel Magazine:“One morning it came into my mind as I went to labour, to write an hymn on the ‘Gracious Experience of a Christian.’ As I went up to Holborn I had the chorus,

On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

“In the day I had four verses complete, and wrote them off…. On the Sabbath following… by the fireside [I] composed the last two verses… Brother Rees of Crown Street, Soho, brought out an edition of hymns (1836) and this hymn was in it.”

Baptist hymnologist William Reynolds summarizes the rest of the story: “The next Sunday [Mote] visited the home of some fellow church members where the wife was very ill. The husband informed Mote that it was their custom on the Lord’s Day to sing a hymn, read the Bible, and pray together. Mote produced the new hymn from his pocket, and they sang [“The Solid Rock”] together for the first time.”

UM Hymnal editor Carlton Young notes in his Companion that the hymn is of uneven quality. Indeed, the version in our hymnals today is the result of careful editing of the original six stanzas into four, choosing the most coherent lines from the original.

One can quickly see how the best lines of Mote’s two original stanzas were combined to make a much more articulate whole in the stanza cited at the beginning of this article.

Dr. Young comments on the revised product: “[This hymn’s] compelling topic—the parable about the security of building a house on rock, as opposed to sand (Matthew 7:24-27)—and subsequent redaction and setting to a simple, repetitious, foot-stomping tune have merged to form a hymn of faith that over the generations has proved useful and comforting to many in their daily spiritual journey.”

The “foot-stomping” tune was composed by American gospel song composer, William Bradbury (1816-1868), a fellow Baptist, for Mote’s text in 1863 and appeared during the American Civil War in Bradbury’s Devotional Hymn and Tune Book (1864).

Adapted from https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-my-hope-is-built

Christmas Music, Part 20 – O Come, O Come Emmanuel (again)

20 Dec

The origins of popular Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” extend back to the 9th century. Photo and Canva illustration by Crystal Caviness, United Methodist Communications

When United Methodists sing “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” few likely know this popular Advent hymn’s origins span across 1200 years.

The story of how Latin vespers chanted by monks in the 800s found itself recorded in the 21^st century by the likes of Kelly Clarkson and Wynonna Judd follows a circuitous and mysterious history through Europe.

The words

“O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” hearkens back to medieval times when Christmas Vespers were sung, primarily in monasteries, from December 17 to December 23, a tradition which continues to this day in Roman Catholic and Anglican churches. Using hymns called “O” Antiphons, the verses, sung in Latin, all began with “O.” (The word, “antiphon” means psalm or anthem.)

Englishman John Mason Neale first translated the “O” Antiphons from Latin to English in the early 1850s. Neale was an Anglican priest, hymn writer and prize-winning poet who was influenced by the Oxford Movement.

Said to be a high church traditionalist, Neale eschewed the hymns of popular 18^th century composer Isaac Watts, who wrote more than 600 hymns, including “Joy to the World.” Neale longed to return the Church to its liturgical roots and was known for translating ancient Greek and Latin hymns into English.

In addition to authoring “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel,” Neal also wrote “Good King Wenceslas,” “Good Christian Men, Rejoice,” and the Palm Sunday hymn, “All Glory, Laud and Honor.”

Fun fact: Neale’s first version of the hymn began with the words, “Draw nigh, draw night, Emmanuel.”

The music

In 1851, Thomas Helmore is credited with pairing the familiar tune we sing today, called “Veni Emmanuel,” with the English translation of the words when he published “Hymnal Noted.” At the time, Helmore attributed the music to “a French Missal in the National Library, Lisbon.” Additional details of the melody’s origins remained a mystery for more than 100 years. In 1966, Mary Berry, a British musicologist, discovered a 15^th-century manuscript of the melody at the National Library of France. The original composition, according to Berry’s writings, is a burial processional chant with the words, “Bone Jesu dulcis cunctis.” The author is unknown.

Though the “Veni Emmanuel” tune is the most common, alternative versions exist, particularly in German.

The popularity

When Helmore published “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” in “Hymnal Noted,” he unknowingly set the song on its trajectory to distinction.

Helmore’s version was included in “Hymns Ancient and Modern,” edited by William Henry Monk, published in 1861 and considered the Church of England’s official hymnal. By the end of the 1800s, more than three-quarters of English churches used the volume, making “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel” part of the Christian church’s tradition.

Across the decades, translators tweaked the verses. The version we sing today, including the one found as no. 211 in the United Methodist Hymnal, combines Neale’s translation with revisions made in 1941 for the Episcopal “Hymnal” and translations by Henry Sloane Coffin, a Presbyterian minister and social activist.

In addition to serving as an Christmastime standard both in Christian and secular society (dozens of popular music acts have recorded versions of the hymn), the verses provide a meaningful devotion for us during the Advent season, a time when we prepare and await the birth of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us.

Crystal Caviness works for UMC.org at United Methodist Communications. Contact her by email or at 615-742-5138.

Adapted from https://www.umc.org/en/content/hymn-history-o-come-o-come-emmanuel