109-GoodChristianMenRejoiceAndSing

Please turn to number 109 and join with the clarinets in “Good Christian Men Rejoice and Sing”.

Number: 109
First Line: Good Christian Men Rejoice and Sing
Name: VULPIUS (GELOBT SEI GOTT).
Meter: 8 8 8. With Alleluias.
Tempo: With excitation
Music: Melchior Vulpius, cir. 1560
Harm. by Ernest MacMillan, 1893-
Text: Cyril A. Allington, 1872-1955

Clarinet Arrangement:109-GoodChristianMenRejoiceAndSing

This is a pleasant and uncomplicated hymn in 3/4.

Huh! The gentleman who harmonized this hymn was Canadian!

Sir Ernest Alexander Campbell MacMillan, CC (August 18, 1893 – May 6, 1973) was a Canadian orchestral conductor and composer, and Canada’s only “Musical Knight”. He is widely regarded as being Canada’s pre-eminent musician, from the 1920s through the 1950s. His has contributed to the development of music in Canada as conductor, performer, composer, administrator, lecturer, adjudicator, writer, humourist, and statesman.

And the original composer:

Melchior Vulpius (c. 1570 in Wasungen – 7 August 1615 in Weimar) was a German singer and composer of church music.

Vulpius came from a poor craftsman’s family. He studied at the local school in Wasungen (in Thuringia) with Johannes Steuerlein. From 1588, he attended the school in Speyer. After marrying in 1589, he obtained a position at the Gymnasium in Schleusingen. In 1596, he was named cantor in Weimar.

He wrote and published church music, the best known being the setting of the hymn Ach, bleib mit deiner Gnade (Ah, stay with your grace) on a text by Josua Stegmann. This setting was often performed in Protestant churches on New Year’s Day and at the end of the service. Important compilations were Cantiones sacrae (1602, 1604), Kirchengesänge und geistliche Lieder Dr. Luthers (1604), Canticum beatissimae (1605) and Ein schön geistlich Gesangbuch (1609). The Cantional (a collection of songs) was published posthumously in 1646 in Gotha.