MUSIC. NEANDER. This famous tune has been associated with various words. The composer first published it in 1680 set to the hymn, “Unser Herrscher, unser König.” It is also used with Schmolk’s “Open now the gates of beauty” ([505]), and in England it is almost invariably associated with “Come, ye saints, and raise an anthem,” by J. Hupton and others.
Joachim Neander, 1650-80, whose real name was Neumann, was born at Bremen, where he spent most of his life. As a youth he was somewhat wild but in time became converted and associated himself with the Pietists of Germany. He was a friend of Spener, the leader of the Pietists. His unconventional zeal brought him into conflict with the authorities of the Reformed Church of which he was a member, and he was dismissed for a time from his office as teacher in the Düsseldorf schools. Being obliged to leave town, he lived for some months in a cave in the region of the Rhine, where he composed many of his hymns. He is the foremost hymn writer of the German Reformed Church and is called “the Paul Gerhardt of the Calvinists.” Neander, like Luther, was a man of scholarship and accomplishment in poetry and music, as well as theology. He wrote more than 60 hymns and composed tunes for them.
128. Ye servants of the Lord
Philip Doddridge, 1702-51
“The Active Christian” is the author’s title of this hymn. It appeared first in Job Orton’s posthumous edition of Hymns founded on Various Texts, 1755. It is founded on Luke 12:35-37:
Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;
And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.
Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Doddridge, known for his sound learning and genuine Christian character, was a first-rate hymn writer. He taught Hebrew, Greek, algebra, trigonometry, logic, philosophy, and theology to classes of candidates for the Congregational ministry.
For further comments on Doddridge see [Hymn 56].
MUSIC. OLD 134TH (ST. MICHAEL) is one of the greatest of short-meter tunes, derived from the tune composed by L. Bourgeois for Psalm 101 in the Genevan Psalter of 1551.
For comments on L. Bourgeois see [Hymn 34].