Page 41 - CMQ September 2019

HYMN MEDITATION
Last year we marked the 60th anniversary of the death of Ralph Vaughan Williams,
musical editor of the English Hymnal and celebrated English composer. Many of the commemorations that took place highlighted his orchestral, choral and instrumental works, but his most widely sung music is found in his few but ubiquitous hymn tunes. The most famous is surely Sine nomine (‘Without name’), which has stuck, limpet-like, to William Walsham How’s lengthy hymn, which is itself a sine qua non of
All Saints’ Tide and appears in most hymn books. Many who never hear or sing any other note composed
by Vaughan Williams will know this tune and have taken its accompanying text into the heart
of faith, having learnt it by singing it. The strength of the bond between this tune and text is not original; indeed it displaced another wonderful tune that has had to struggle to keep up ever since.
William How was born and educated in Shrewsbury before going to Wadham College, Oxford, graduating in 1845. He then studied for the ministry at Durham University. His title post was at Kidderminster, serving a second curacy in his hometown of Shrewsbury. In 1879 he was consecrated Bishop of Bedford,
and ministered in East London until 1888 when he became the
first Bishop of Wakefield, which
he remained until his sudden death while on holiday in Ireland. He was renowned in his day as having a great affinity for children, for the poor of the East End, and for using
a London omnibus as his main mode of transport. A prolific hymn writer from the age of 13, his other hymns include O King of kings, whose reign
of old, written for the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897, for which Sir Arthur Sullivan wrote the tune Bishopgarth. Nevertheless, ‘For all the saints’ is the only hymn of his still sung today.
It was first published in 1864, in
Hymns for Saints’ Days, and other Hymns, edited by Earl Mason, who was the great-nephew of Admiral Nelson. Originally entitled ‘For all thy saints who from their labours rest’, How changed it to ‘For all the saints ...’ when it was included in Church Hymns seven years later. He subtitled it, ‘A cloud of witnesses – Heb 12.1’, referring to the un-named epistler’s famous spur to faith.
‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.’ (Hebrews 12.1–2)
This ‘cloud of witnesses’ is not
only the great and the good of the encyclopedia of saints, the apostles, evangelists and martyrs recorded in gospels, epistles and histories, but the countless, nameless heroes of faith who confessed the name of Jesus. Other references come from Revelation 2.10, the ‘crown of life’, and the ‘pearl streams’ from Revelation 21.21. The ‘well-fought fight’ alludes to 2 Timothy 4.7.
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Bishop How wrote 11 verses, which to those of us who omit ‘starred’ verses from our hymnbooks seems daunting. Intended as a processional hymn, it seems brief when compared with Samuel Stone’s extended version of ‘The church’s one foundation’ written in 1885 for use in Salisbury and St Paul’s Cathedrals (see CMQ, June 2010). A close reading of the rarely published verses 3–5 reveals a congruence with the Te Deum,
an ancient canticle still used in processions today. When nowadays churches often use only five or six verses, few realize that they are singing only half of the hymn, and there could well be a case for using the lost verses on particular general feast days of apostles, martyrs and evangelists, perhaps as an office hymn (which might merit a different, gentler tune). While the hymn is often used at All Saints’ services, it is also fitting for All Souls’, or indeed at any funeral,
as well as specific commemorations of patron or other saints. Yet we should remember that both How himself and Vaughan Williams likely had in mind the nameless, unsung saints. For while we may believe that only some people can attain sainthood, we also hold the fact that not one of us is worthy, and yet, by the grace of God, all
the faithful are saints, the hagioi, the holy ones of God.
The idea that we remember nameless saints is probably why Vaughan Williams called his tune Sine nomine. Universally acclaimed as a great tune, and fitted so well
to the martial, upbeat anticipatory feel of the text, it should still be remembered that although it was written specifically for the text, there was already a perfectly good tune in use: Engelberg. In 1904 a