THE TUNE.
“St. Thomas” has often been the interpreter of the hymn, and still clings to the words in the memory of thousands.
The Italian tune of “Ain” has more music. It is a fugue piece (simplified in some tune-books), 63 / 39 and the joyful traverse of its notes along the staff in four-four time, with the momentum of a good choir, is exhilarating in the extreme.
Corelli, the composer, was a master violinist, the greatest of his day, and wrote a great deal of violin music; and the thought of his glad instrument may have influenced his work when harmonizing the four voices of “Ain.”
Arcangelo Corelli was born at Fusignano, in 1653. He was a sensitive artist, and although faultless in Italian music, he was not sure of himself in playing French scores, and once while performing with Handel (who resented the slightest error), and once again with Scarlatti, leading an orchestra in Naples when the king was present, he made a mortifying mistake. He took the humiliation so much to heart that he brooded over it till he died, in Rome, Jan. 18, 1717.
For revival meetings the modern tune set to “Come we that love the Lord,” by Robert Lowry, should be mentioned. A shouting chorus is appended to it, but it has melody and plenty of stimulating motion.
The Rev. Robert Lowry was born in Philadelphia, March 12, 1826, and educated at Lewisburg, Pa. From his 28th year till his death, 1899, he was a faithful and successful minister of Christ, but is more widely known as a composer of sacred music.
“BE THOU EXALTED, O MY GOD.”
In this hymn the thought of Watts touches the eternal summits. Taken from the 57th and 108th Psalms—
Be Thou exalted, O my God,