The Story of the Hymns and Tunes | Page 9

now to give a list of Tallis' compositions for the Church. His music was written originally to Latin words, but when, after the Reformation, the use of vernacular hymns, was introduced he probably adapted his scores to either language.
It is inferred that he was in attendance on Queen Elizabeth at her palace in Greenwich when he died, for he was buried in the old parish church there in November, 1585. The rustic rhymer who indited his epitaph evidently did the best he could to embalm the virtues of the great musician as a man, a citizen, and a husband:
Enterred here doth ly a worthy wyght, Who for long time in musick bore the bell: His name to shew was Thomas Tallis hyght; In honest vertuous lyff he dyd excell.
He served long tyme in chappel with grete prayse, Fower sovereygnes reignes, (a thing not often seene); I mean King Henry and Prince Edward's dayes, Quene Marie, and Elizabeth our quene.
He maryed was, though children he had none, And lyv'd in love full three and thirty yeres With loyal spowse, whose name yclept was Jone, Who, here entombed, him company now bears.
As he dyd lyve, so also dyd he dy, In myld and quyet sort, O happy man! To God ful oft for mercy did he cry; Wherefore he lyves, let Deth do what he can.
"THE GOD OF ABRAHAM PRAISE."
This is one of the thanksgivings of the ages.
The God of Abraham praise, Who reigns enthroned above; Ancient of everlasting days, And God of love. Jehovah, Great I AM! By earth and heaven confessed, I bow and bless the sacred Name, Forever blest.
The hymn, of twelve eight-line stanzas, is too long to quote entire, but is found in both the Plymouth and Methodist Hymnals.
Thomas Olivers, born in Tregynon, near Newtown, Montgomeryshire, Wales, 1725, was, according to local testimony, "the worst boy known in all that country, for thirty years." It is more charitable to say that he was a poor fellow who had no friends. Left an orphan at five years of age, he was passed from one relative to another until all were tired of him, and he was "bound out" to a shoemaker. Almost inevitably the neglected lad grew up wicked, for no one appeared to care for his habits and morals, and as he sank lower in the various vices encouraged by bad company, there were more kicks for him than helping hands. At the age of eighteen his reputation in the town had become so unsavory that he was forced to shift for himself elsewhere.
Providence led him, when shabby and penniless, to the old seaport town of Bristol, where Whitefield was at that time preaching,[4] and there the young sinner heard the divine message that lifted him to his feet.
[Footnote 4: Whitefield's text was, "Is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?" Zach. 3:2.]
"When that sermon began," he said, "I was one of the most abandoned and profligate young men living; before it ended I was a new creature. The world was all changed for Tom Olivers."
His new life, thus begun, lasted on earth more than sixty useful years. He left a shining record as a preacher of righteousness, and died in the triumphs of faith, November, 1799. Before he passed away he saw at least thirty editions of his hymn published, but the soul-music it has awakened among the spiritual children of Abraham can only reach him in heaven. Some of its words have been the last earthly song of many, as they were of the eminent Methodist theologian, Richard Watson--
I shall behold His face, I shall His power adore, And sing the wonders of His grace Forevermore.
THE TUNE.
The precise date of the tune "Leoni" is unknown, as also the precise date of the hymn. The story is that Olivers visited the great "Duke's Place" Synagogue, Aldgate, London, and heard Meyer Lyon (Leoni) sing the Yigdal or long doxology to an air so noble and impressive that it haunted him till he learned it and fitted to it the sublime stanzas of his song. Lyon, a noted Jewish musician and vocalist, was chorister of this London Synagogue during the latter part of the 18th century and the Yigdal was a portion of the Hebrew Liturgy composed in medieval times, it is said, by Daniel Ben Judah. The fact that the Methodist leaders took Olivers from his bench to be one of their preachers answers any suggestion that the converted shoemaker copied the Jewish hymn and put Christian phrases in it. He knew nothing of Hebrew, and had he known it, a literal translation of the Yigdal will show hardly a similarity to his evangelical lines. Only the music as Leoni sang it prompted his own song, and he gratefully put the singer's name to it. Montgomery,