Month: July 2017

Please turn your hymnals to number 147 (Second Tune) and join the clarinets in, “O Wondrous Type, O Vision Fair”.

Number: 147 (Second Tune)
First Line: O Wondrous Type, O Vision Fair
Name: CAMERONIAN MIDNIGHT HYMN.
Meter: L.M.
Tempo: In moderate time
Music: Scottish Hymn Melody
Text: Latin Hymn, XV cent.
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66 a.

Clarinet Arrangement: 147b-OWondrousTypeOVisionFair

“Cameronian Midnight Hymn” is probably the best name for a hymn ever.

However, “Carmeronians” were another cult, like the Hauges.

From the Merriam Webster Dictionary:

Definition of Cameronian
One that holds the ecclesiastical and political doctrines of Richard Cameron and his followers who refused to recognize any civil government that did not explicitly admit that it derived its power from Jesus Christ, who were called Scottish Covenanters after 1680, and who later formed the Reformed Presbytery that in time became the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

Which, I guess, IS interesting, since the 45th President of the United States self-identifies himself as, “Presbyterian”.

Anyway, it is a pleasant, and somewhat Martial hymn, whose folk roots are quite apparent.

Please turn your hymnals to number 147 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in, “O Wondrous Type, O Vision Fair”.

Number: 147 (First Tune)
First Line: O Wondrous Type, O Vision Fair
Name: CONDITOR ALME SIDERUM.
Meter: Irregular
Tempo: Unison
Music: Mode IV
Arr. by Ernest White
Text: Latin Hymn, XV cent.
Tr. John Mason Neale, 1818-66 a.

Boy, I’m starting to get psyched! I’m almost done with the Church Year. Only two more songs to go after this one!

I started this project in March of 2016, (with “Hark! A Thrilling Voice is Sounding“,) nominally with the goal of getting through the songs of the Church Year. It did take a bit more than a year, but what can you do. But, boy, my clarinet playing and recording has come a long way in that year.

It has been a super helpful exercise.

After finishing with the Church Year, I’ll probably take a break from hymns. Maybe try a bit more arranging. So expect fewer updates, as that will be more work.

This is a pretty typical Edmund White take on a Latin chant. In a lot of ways, these hymns are the most challenging in the book. The parts are far less symmetrical than most modern hymns.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

Please turn your hymnals to number 146 (Second Tune) and join the clarinets in, “In Heaven Above”.

Number: 146 (Second Tune)
First Line: In Heaven Above
Name: HAUGE.
Meter: 8 6, 8 6, 8 8 6.
Tempo: With movement
Music: Norwegian Folk Melody
Text: Laurentius Laurentii Laurinus, 1573-1655
Revised Johan Åström, 1767-1844
Tr. William Maccall, 1812-88

Clarinet Arrangement: 146b-InHeavenAbove

This is actually a pretty fun arrangement with counter movement in both the bass and tenor parts.

I don’t know that it is a particularly well known hymn melody, it is only used for this hymn that I can tell, and I can only find the information from the hymnal about it, that it is a, “Norwegian Folk Melody”. Not knowing enough about Norwegian Folk Melodies, I can’t tell you more than that.

Without more information, I am going to guess that this song might be named after Hans Nielsen Hauge, based on the following:

Because Hauge’s preaching coincided with the years during which many Norwegians were migrating to America, the Haugeaninfluence on Lutheranism in America has been considerable.^[20] The Lutheran Church in America had a Hauge Synod, Eielsen Synod and Lutheran Free Church all indicative of that influence.^[21][22][23] Hauge is remembered on the liturgical calendar of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on March 29 as one of the Renewers of the Church.^[24]

From wikipedia:

Hans Nielsen Hauge (3 April 1771 – 29 March 1824) was a 19th-century Norwegian Lutheran lay minister, spiritual leader and author. He led a noted Pietism revival known as the Haugean movement. Hauge is also considered to have been influential in the early industrialization of Norway.^[2] [3]

He had a poor and otherwise ordinary youth until 5 April 1796, when he received his “spiritual baptism” in a field near his farm. Within two months, he had founded a revival movement in his own community, written a book, and decided to take his mission on the road. He wrote a series of books in his lifetime. In a total of 18 years, he published 33 books. Estimates are that 100,000 Norwegians read one or more of them, at a time when the population was 900,000 more-or-less literate individuals.^[4]

In the next several years, Hauge traveled – mostly by foot – throughout most of Norway, from Tromsø in the north to Norway in the south. He held countless revival meetings, often after church services. In addition to his religious work, he offered practical advice, encouraging such things as settlements in Northern Norway. He and his followers were persecuted, though their teachings were in keeping with Lutheran doctrine. He began preaching about “the living faith” in Norway and Denmark after a mystical experience that he believed called him to share the assurance of salvation with others. At the time, itinerant preaching and religious gatherings held without the supervision of a pastor were illegal, and Hauge was arrested several times.

Hauge faced great personal suffering and state persecution. He was imprisoned no less than 14 times between 1794 and 1811, accused of witchcraft and adultery, and of violating the Conventicle act of 1741^[6] (at the time, Norwegians did not have the right of religious assembly without a Church of Norway minister present). His time in prison broke his health and led to his premature death. Upon his release from prison in 1811, he took up work as a farmer and industrialist at Bakkehaugen near Christiania (now Oslo).^[7][8]

In 1815, he married Andrea Andersdatter, who later died in childbirth that same year. In 1817, he married Ingeborg Marie Olsdatter (1791-1872) and bought the Bredtvet farm (now the site of Bredtvet Church in Oslo) where he died. Three of his four children died in infancy. His surviving son, Andreas Hauge, became a priest in the Church of Norway and Member of the Norwegian Parliament.^[9]

Moreover, the name Hauge seemed familiar to me, as in “Hauge Church”, from when I was growing up in Wisconsin.

Hauge Log Church

Notes: Also known as Hauge Lutheran Old Church. Before 1850 the pioneers of Perry Township had no way of liturgical worship..  In 1850 the congregation relied on circuit preachers.  On March 28, 1851, the first formal Norwegian worship was held.  The congregation decided to build a 20’ x 20’ building.  The building was comprised of logs and constructed in 1852.
During its early years dissension grew among the members over the form their worship should take.  Those who were interested in change to a less formalized service before they left Norway and were followers of the Haugean Movement  and those who wanted the formal “high-church” style of the state church of Norway.  At a meeting held in November of 1854, the faction loyal to the State Church of Norway voted to form its own congregation. The settlers who chose to remain with the 1852 congregation affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and later became known as the Hauge Congregation.  In 1927 the original 1852 church building was restored.  The church is on the National Register of Historic Places. 

Please turn to number 146 (First Tune) and join with the clarinets in, “In Heaven Above”.

Number: 146 (First Tune)
First Line: In Heaven Above
Name: LAURINUS.
Meter: 8 6, 8 6, 8 8 6.
Tempo: Majestically
Music: Swedish Koralbok, 1697
Text: Laurentius Laurentii Laurinus, 1573-1655
Revised Johan Astrom, 1767-1844
Tr. William Maccall, 1812-88

Clarinet Arrangement: 146a-InHeavenAbove

I thought, for sure, with a name like “Laurentius laurentii Laurinus” there would be something about this guy. But this is it. He was a Swedish Rector, Dean, and poet.

In any case, it is a nice hymn!

Short Name: Laurentius Laurentii Laurinus
Full Name: Laurinus, Laurentius Laurentii, 1573-1655
Birth Year: 1573
Death Year: 1655
Laurinus became a principal in Söderköping, Sweden, in 1603, and in 1609, a rector in Haradshammar in Linköping diocese, Östergötland, later a dean. But he was known as a poet in the Swedish, German and Latin languages.