1975 Baptist Hymnal query

[Haruo]

Anybody got their 1975 Baptist Hymnal handy? According to , that hymnal contained an instance of , a Christmas hymn that came out in 1700, i.e. before Isaac Watts got going. Keach was a Baptist, so it's not entirely unlikely that a Baptist hymnal might contain a song of his, but in this case my strong hunch is that it's a misattribution, and that the hymn is actually , which is not a Christmas hymn. If you have that hymnal handy—I have two copies of it, but can't put my fingers on one when I need it—would you do me a favor and look up that first line. I have no idea what the hymn number is. Once you find it, please let me know (a) to whom the hymnal attributes the words (Steele or Keach, or someone else), and (b) what the second line of the first verse is, the line after "my tongue", and (c) what tune it is set to. I'm thinking Robert Vaughn is a likely candidate for this assignment.

[Lou]

According to my 1975 Baptist Hymnal, that of the ugly pinkish-orange-tan cloth cover, "Awake, My Soul, Awake, My Tongue" is hymn #96. The words are attributed to Benjamin Keach. The entire 1st verse goes: "Awake, my soul, awake, my tongue, my glory, wake and sing, / And celebrate the holy birth, the birth of Israel's King!" The tune is "Winchester Old," from Thomas Est's Whole Book of Psalms (1592).

[Rvaughn]

Leland, you might also be interested in this. (It is preview-only at Google Books; hopefully it will allow you to see it.)

On of I Will Sing the Wondrous Story, Music and Richardson tell us “Furthermore, there was a conscious attempt to recapture hymns from the Baptist heritage that did not appear in recent denominational hymnals, among them Benjamin Keach’s ‘Awake, my soul, awake my tongue’...”

Beginning on , there are several pages about Benjamin Keach and his hymns.

[Haruo]

Thanks, both of you! Anybody have any leads on other Keach hymns, please let me know. He appears to have been the most prolific English hymnist before Watts, yet this is the only text of his I can find in a hymnal. Apparently there are a few others in a book called "The hymns and hymn tunes in the English metrical psalters", which I have ordered.

[Rvaughn]

From what I have read, the general consensus is that Benjamin Keach was effective in promoting hymn singing, while not especially effective in writing good quality hymns. IIRC, Music and Richardson point out a few they thought were very good, but didn't seem to think most of them reached the level to find continued use in the churches. I am not aware that many have survived in use, but is in the University of Michigan Digital Collections -- so you can look and judge for yourself.

[Haruo]

Thanks, Robert, I don't think anybody (not Watts or Wesley or Fanny or Anonymous) ever wrote 300 hymns in a row where the majority were great. I hadn't tracked the online Spiritual Melody down yet, so I greatly appreciate the link.

[James]

Julian, in his Dictionary of Hymnology has a nice article on Keach. He mentions Spiritual Melodycontaining nearly 300 hymns. Julian does not mention Keach in connection with the hymn under discussion. Julian credits Keach with introducing Baptists to hymns and hymn singing and with writing some 42 books.

[Rvaughn]

IMSLP has Julian's .

[Haruo]

[Rvaughn]

Looking at “Awake, my soul, awake, my tongue,” I noticed it is dated 1700 and realized it couldn’t be from Spiritual Melody in 1691. I found that is it in from 1700.

[Rvaughn]

Leland, not specific to your OP, but following in the general topic, you might be interested in this:

[Haruo]

Yes, that IS interesting. I wonder if any of them are worŭh resurrecting.

[Rvaughn]

Possibly Here are a few stanzas from in Reeve’s book:

Strike up you blessed Angels, Tune
Your Musick to the highest Key;
You separated Souls in bliss,
Sing forth his Praise (as well you may).

How precious is this Song of Songs,
Where Christ himself concerned is,
And sings the Praises of his Church,
As they’re concern’d in singing His!

Come blessed Spirit of our God,
Enflame our hearts with heav'nly fire;
We’ll sing our parts: O! raise our hearts
And Tune them yet a great deal high’r.

And from :

Well! I am come, my Spouse,
Thy Pray’rs have given me wings:
I have accepted all thy vows,
And tasted all thy things.

In thee I find my myrrh,
My honey-combs I eat:
Thy Milk and Wine is all Divine,
Thy Spices all are sweet.

Thy Plants that I have set,
Are in a thriving plight:
Thy heart a flour’shing Orchard is,
A Garden of delight.

These do not seem too bad of poetry to me, suggesting there is probably something that could be found to resurrect.

[Haruo]

[Rvaughn]

[Haruo]

I'll look for it. I'll hope to be able to use it in "Sankta Harmonio".

[Rvaughn]

Here is the JPG version Leland created. (I think what I did wrong was hit "add this file" rather than just submit.