Good Christians all, rejoice and sing  

Cyril Argentine Alington (1872-1955), the author of this hymn, was educated at Marlborough College before matriculating at Trinity College, Oxford, with a degree in Latin and Greek in 1893 and another in Philosophy and Ancient History in 1895.  Later he received an Oxford D.D., and still later an honorary DCL from Durham University.  He was a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, from 1895 to 1904.  Alington taught at Marlborough and at Eton before being ordained in 1901; he then became Headmaster, successively, of Shrewsbury School and Eton.  He was a Chaplain to King George V from 1921 until 1933, the year he retired from teaching to become Dean of Durham Cathedral. Alington wrote only eight hymns, although he wrote other verse as well.  He wrote voluminously otherwise: a dozen books on Christianity or other religious topics, several books of ephemera as a Headmaster, and a series of twelve detective novels, as well as various other things.  This hymn was first published in 1931 in Dearmer, Vaughan Williams, and Shaw’s Songs of Praise.  Alington’s first line was “Good Christian men, rejoice and sing,” but that line, as well as other phrases, have now been changed in the interest of inclusivity.  [For the curious, the name personal name Argentine developed from the 15th century marriage of William Alington to Elizabeth Argentein, descendant of an Anglo-Norman family named de Argentein.]

 

We sing Alington’s words to the tune known as “Vulpius”,  composed by Melchior Vulpius (1570-1615).  (Vulpius had Latinised his German family name Fuchs [Fox], a fairly common practice at the time.)  He attended the local Latin school in his birthplace, where he was taught by an accomplished composer, Johann Steurelein, and then had some time in the Gymnasium in a larger Thuringian town, Speyer.  Although he had no degree, nor even any university study, he became a teaching assistant in Latin in the Gymnasium in Schlersingen. In 1591 he was appointed Cantor choralis (lead singer) there; later he became Cantor figuralis (director).  In 1596 he became Stadtkantor at the Weimar court, where he remained until he died.  Vulpius wrote a number of motets in both  Latin and German, a setting of the passion according to St Matthew, and a full set of gospel motets for Sundays and feast days, published in two volumes of Cantiones Sacrae.  His hymnal Kirchen Geseng und Geistliche Lieder (“Church Chants and Spiritual Songs” 1604) contained 30 of his hymn tunes.  This tune, originally known as “Gelobt sei Gott,” was written for an Easter hymn, "Gelobt sei Gott in höchsten Thron”  (Praised be God enthroned on high), by Michael Weisse (1488-1534).  It was published with Vulpius’ tune and harmonizations in the Lutheran hymn book Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch in 1609.  We sing this tune also to Henry Ley’s “The strife is o’er.”