381. Another year of setting suns
John W. Chadwick, 1840-1904
This poem came from the Unitarian stream of hymnody which was so strong during the middle of the nineteenth century. Chadwick, born at Marblehead, Mass., graduated from Harvard in 1864 and the following 40 years served as minister of the Second Unitarian Church in Brooklyn. He wrote biographies of Channing and Parker and is the author of considerable poetry. It has been noted that many of his hymns possess the simplicity and spirit of the writings of Whittier, the Quaker poet, and might easily pass for his.
MUSIC. HOLY CROSS. The source of this tune is not clear. It is ascribed in various hymnals to Thomas Hastings, to Mendelssohn, to John Stainer, and to Mozart. James Love, who was well informed on English hymn tunes, says that it was adapted from an anonymous organ “Andante” which was said to be based on a theme by Mozart. The tune, in 3-4 time, appears in the Methodist Hymnal, 1935, the arrangement credited to James C. Wade, an organist and conductor of choral groups, born in Staffordshire, England, 1847.
382. The year is gone beyond recall
Latin
Tr. F. Pott, 1832-1909
From a Latin hymn, Lapsus est annus, found in a Breviary of Meaux, 1713 and 1734. It was used for compline after the first vespers of the Festival of the Circumcision, which is the last office sung on December 31. The original reads as follows:
Lapsus est annus: redit annus alter:
Vita sic mutis fugit acta pennis: