Nahum Tate, 1652-1715, was the son of an Irish clergyman, and, like Brady, received his education at Trinity College, Dublin. He was only a second-rate poet but managed to receive appointment as Poet Laureate of England in 1690.
Nicholas Brady, 1659-1726, was granted the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity from Dublin University for services rendered to the Protestant cause. Among his many appointments were the chaplaincy to the king of England and incumbency of Stratford-on-Avon. Tate and Brady recast all of the Psalms into metrical verse in an attempt to improve on the old version then in use in the churches. Their work was done in a day when only the psalms were permitted to be sung in worship services in England. The writing of hymns was still in the future. Only a few of their renderings still find a place among our modern English hymns. The Hymnary includes two besides this one, Nos. [583] and [586].
MUSIC. The tune was found in St. Basil’s Hymn Book where it is credited to Haydn, but we are not told which Haydn. No further information concerning its origin has been traced. It is especially effective when sung by a large congregation.
MORNING
19. When morning gilds the skies
19th century
Tr. E. Caswall, 1814-78
A radiant morning hymn of adoration. It comes from the German song, “Bei frühem Morgenlicht,” of unknown authorship, which first appeared in print in the Katholisches Gesangbuch, 1828, bearing the title, “A Christian Greeting.”
Bei frühem Morgenlicht
Erwacht mein Herz und spricht.