Everyone now calls it “Old Coronation,” and it is entitled to the adjective by this time, being considerably more than a hundred years of age. It was composed in the very year of Perronet's death and one wonders just how long the hymn and tune waited before they came together; for Heaven evidently meant them to be wedded for all time. This is an American opinion, and no reflection on the earlier English melody of “Miles Lane,” composed during Perronet's lifetime by William Shrubsole and published with the words in 1780 in the Gospel Magazine. There is also a fine processional tune sung in the English Church to Perronet's hymn.
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The author of “Coronation” was Oliver Holden, a self-taught musician, born in Shirley, Mass., 1765, and bred to the carpenter's trade. The little pipe organ on which tradition says he struck the first notes of the famous tune is now in the 50 / 28 Historical rooms of the Old State House, Boston, placed there by its late owner, Mrs. Fanny Tyler, the old musician's granddaughter. Its tones are as mellow as ever, and the times that “Coronation” has been played upon it by admiring visitors would far outnumber the notes of its score.
Holden wrote a number of other hymn-tunes, among which “Cowper,” “Confidence,” and “Concord” are remembered, but none of them had the wings of “Coronation,” his American “Te Deum.” His first published collection was entitled The American Harmony, and this was followed by the Union Harmony, and the Worcester Collection. He also wrote and published “Mt. Vernon,” and several other patriotic anthems, mainly for special occasions, to some of which he supplied the words. He was no hymnist, though he did now and then venture into sacred metre. The new Methodist Hymnal preserves a simple four-stanza specimen of his experiments in verse:
They who seek the throne of grace
Find that throne in every place:
If we lead a life of prayer
God is present everywhere.
Sacred music, however, was the good man's passion to the last. He died in 1844.
“Such beautiful themes!” he whispered on his death bed, “Such beautiful themes! But I can write no more.”