Alleluia! Alleluia! Hearts to heaven and voices raise 

The text of this hymn is by Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885).  A nephew of William Wordsworth, Christopher was educated at Winchester College and Trinity College, Cambridge (where his father was Master), graduating B.A. 1830.  In 1832/33 he travelled in Greece and wrote several books about Greece on his return.  Ordained to the priesthood in 1835, he was appointed Headmaster of Harrow School the next year, as well as Public Orator of the University.  He was appointed Canon of Westminster Abbey in 1844 and Archdeacon of Westminster in 1865.  In 1869 he became Bishop of Lincoln.  Among his many publications are an edition of the Greek New Testament with commentary, a work on ancient graffiti at Pompei, and a monumental Commentary on the Whole Bible in 16 volumes.

 

This hymn is in Wordsworth’s collection of religious poems, The Holy Year (1862).  In the preface, ever the teacher, he wrote, “A hymn ought to edify the mind, as well as to gratify the ear. It ought to be profitable to be read, as well as agreeable to be sung.”  Modern printings in 8-line stanzas mask Wordsworth’s intentional choice of 15-syllable lines in imitation of classical drama; ever the scholar, he wrote: “It was an ancient rhythmical principle that the tetrameter trochaic of fifteen syllables should be specially employed on occasions where there is a sudden burst of feeling, after a patient waiting, or a continuous struggle. This metre never finds its place at the beginning, but is reserved for a later period in the drama, both tragic and comic, of the ancient stage. The long, rapid sweep of this noble metre, and the jubilant movement of the verse, render it very suitable for use on the great festivals of the Christian year, such as Easter and Ascension, when, after severe trial [and] quiet endurance, the church is suddenly cheered by a glorious vision which gladdens her heart and evokes a song of rapture from her lips.”

 

When William Monk published an edition of Wordsworth’s collection with tunes he used a tune called “Hallelujah,” composed for this hymn by Henry Gauntlett (1805-1876). [Gauntlett composed the tune “Irby” for “Once in royal David’s city.”] But Gauntlett’s tune has not remained in wide use.  The words are sometimes sung to the tune of Beethoven’s “Hymn to joy.”  We normally sing “Lux Eoi” (light of the east, or of the dawn) by Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900).  The phrase Lux eoi is in a cento taken from Liber Cathemerinon (Book of Hours) of the early Christian poet Aurilius Prudentius Clemens for a hymn at Lauds in the Monastic Breviary: Nox, tenebrae et nubila (Night, shadows and clouds depart). Prudentius’ work is a series of 12 poems on the canonical hours and the feast days of the church.

 

Sullivan was a chorister in the Chapel Royal from 1850; in 1856 he received the first Mendelssohn Scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music and then to the Conservatorium der Muzik in Leipzig.  On his return from Germany Sullivan worked as organist of two London churches, St Michael’s, Chester Square, Pimlico (1861-67) and St Peter’s, Cranley Gardens, Kensington (1867-72), while composing both sacred and secular music.  Although best known today for his collaborations in light opera with W.S. Gilbert, Sullivan was a prolific hymn writer.  He edited Church Hymns with Tunes for the SPCK in 1874.  He wrote to his mother, “I hope that the hymn-book will be a blessing to the Church. It’s a curse to me.”  And to a friend, “Had I known the wearisome labours of it, I would not have undertaken it for a thousand pounds.”  In his hymn book Sullivan paired Wordsworth’s text with Henry Smart’s tune “Bethany”; he composed “Lux eoi” for John Mason Neale’s “All is bright and cheerful round us,” and also used it for “Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding.”  The first pairing of “Lux eoi” with Wordsworth’s hymn seems to have been in E.J. Hopkins’ Church Praise with Tunes, 1883.