Anonymous
This hymn, emphasizing the silences of God as manifested in the world without and within, is of anonymous authorship. It is found in Hymns of the Spirit but most of the other modern hymnals have overlooked it.
MUSIC. WINDSOR is an English tune of unknown origin. It was set to Psalm 116 in a book of Psalm tunes by M. William Damon, published in 1591. It is one of a number of tunes written in the minor mode which appear in the Hymnary. Note that the “Amen” closes with the chord in F major, in keeping with the general practice of following a minor tune with an “Amen” in which the last chord is in the major mode.
In Songs of Praise, London, 1931, this tune is set to the hymn “Jesus, the very thought of Thee” ([155]).
40. Abide with me; fast falls the eventide
Henry F. Lyte, 1793-1847
One of the great consolation songs of Christianity. It is really not an evening hymn, but for a person in his last illness, when the thought of passing through the gateway of death, and the glory of the great beyond are the soul’s vital concern. It has long been sung at evening services because, presumably, the end of the natural day suggests the evening of life, and the mood of the tune is so well suited to the pensive quietness of the close of day.
Henry F. Lyte, a Scotsman, was a young clergyman in the Church of England when he wrote this hymn. There is a popular tradition that he wrote it near the end of his life when ill health compelled him to resign his parish and after he held his last communion on September 4, 1847. But James Moffatt, the distinguished historian and translator of the Bible, gives a different account of its origin. He says the hymn was inspired during the fatal illness of an intimate friend of the author, Rev. William A. Le Hunte. Dr. Lyte was constantly at the side of his dying friend who, in his closing hours, repeatedly said these words, “Abide with me,” which moved Dr. Lyte to write the hymn. Twenty-seven years later, 1847, when he felt his own end approaching, he recalled the hymn.
MUSIC. EVENTIDE is Monk’s best known tune. In a letter to J. C. Hadden, Mrs. Monk wrote: “This tune was written at a time of great sorrow—when together we watched, as we did daily, the glories of the setting sun. As the golden rays faded, he took up some paper and pencilled that tune which has gone over all the world.” The composition is said to have been completed in ten minutes. It was the last hymn sung by the Canadian nurse Edith Cavell before she suffered martyrdom in Belgium, October 12, 1915.
Wm. H. Monk, 1823-89, English organist and composer, devoted his life to the service of church music. For forty years he held the post of organist at King’s College, London, and St. Matthias, Stoke Newington, devoting himself to the advancement of good congregational singing. “He taught many to praise God who had never praised Him before; he taught others to praise Him more worthily than hitherto.” He was the music editor of the famous Hymns Ancient and Modern, published in England, 1861.