49 Fun Facts About Hymn

Who wrote the words to 'Amazing Grace'?

Newton was a former slave-ship captain turned Anglican curate; the hymn illustrated a New Year's Day sermon in 1773.

In which hymn collection did 'Amazing Grace' first appear in print, in 1779?

Newton compiled it with the poet William Cowper while curate of Olney in Buckinghamshire.

What is the name of the tune to which 'Amazing Grace' has been sung since 1835?

New Britain is the tune William Walker paired with the words in his 1835 shape-note book Southern Harmony, after more than 20 other melodies had been tried.

'Be Still, My Soul' is sung to a melody from which Sibelius tone poem?

Finlandia: the hymn tune is taken from Sibelius's 1899 tone poem and carries Katharina von Schlegel's German words, translated into English by Jane Borthwick in 1855.

Carl Boberg's 1885 poem 'O Store Gud', later a famous English hymn, was written in which language?

Swedish: Carl Boberg wrote 'O Store Gud' in 1885 at Mönsterås on Sweden's Baltic coast, after watching a thunderstorm clear over the bay.

Which English missionary produced the 1949 translation of 'O Store Gud' sung by George Beverly Shea?

Stuart K. Hine, an English missionary who had worked in Ukraine, completed his English text in 1949; George Beverly Shea then made it famous at the postwar crusades.

Elvis Presley won his first Grammy in 1967 for a gospel album named after which hymn?

How Great Thou Art was his second gospel LP, after His Hand in Mine (1960); a live recording of the same hymn brought him another Grammy in 1974.

Henry Francis Lyte wrote 'Abide with Me' in 1847 while dying of which disease?

Tuberculosis: Lyte wrote the hymn in September 1847, weeks before the disease killed him at Nice that November; it was first sung at his own funeral.

What is the name of William Henry Monk's tune for 'Abide with Me'?

Eventide was composed by Monk for the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, which he edited; the name comes from the hymn's opening line, 'fast falls the eventide'.

'Abide with Me' is traditionally sung before which annual sporting event?

The FA Cup Final has opened with 'Abide with Me' since 1927, when Cardiff City beat Arsenal; it was chosen reportedly because it was King George V's favourite hymn.

Who wrote 'Rock of Ages'?

Augustus Toplady, an Anglican curate and fierce Calvinist opponent of John Wesley, published 'Rock of Ages' in The Gospel Magazine in 1776.

'Be Thou My Vision' is a translation of a poem in which language?

Old Irish: the poem 'Rop tú mo baile' was translated into English prose by Mary Elizabeth Byrne in 1905, versified by Eleanor Hull in 1912, and paired with the folk tune Slane in 1919.

Which hymn is famously said to have been played by the band as the Titanic sank?

Nearer, My God, to Thee, Sarah Flower Adams's 1841 hymn retelling Jacob's dream of a ladder to heaven, was also reportedly sung by passengers as the SS Valencia sank in 1906.

Who composed the tune 'St Gertrude' for 'Onward, Christian Soldiers'?

Arthur Sullivan composed St Gertrude in 1871; Sabine Baring-Gould had written the words in 1865 for children at Horbury Bridge, Yorkshire, processing to a neighbouring church.

Which organisation adopted 'Onward, Christian Soldiers' as its favoured processional?

The Salvation Army took up 'Onward, Christian Soldiers' as its favoured processional; the hymn's marching imagery suited a body organised with military ranks and brass bands.

Who wrote both the words and the tune of 'A Mighty Fortress Is Our God'?

Martin Luther wrote both text and melody, probably between 1527 and 1529, paraphrasing Psalm 46; the hymn has been called the Battle Hymn of the Reformation.

Which poet called 'Ein feste Burg' the Marseillaise of the Reformation?

Heinrich Heine, in his 1830s essay on religion and philosophy in Germany, called the hymn the Marseillaise of the Reformation; it has been translated into English at least seventy times, including Carlyle's 'A safe stronghold'.

Horatio Spafford wrote 'It Is Well with My Soul' after his four daughters died in what disaster?

Philip Bliss named the tune 'Ville du Havre'; Spafford had already lost a son and his fortune in the Chicago fire.

Roughly how many hymns and gospel songs did the blind writer Fanny Crosby produce?

More than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, among them 'Blessed Assurance' and 'To God Be the Glory', earned Fanny Crosby the title Queen of Gospel Song Writers.

Fanny Crosby wrote the words of 'Blessed Assurance' in 1873 to a tune by which friend?

Knapp played the new melody on her piano while a pipe organ was being installed and asked Crosby what the tune said.

Fanny Crosby was the first woman to do what in the United States Senate?

She had gone to Washington in 1843 to lobby for education for the blind.

Isaac Watts, credited with about 750 hymns, is known by what nickname?

The Godfather of English Hymnody: Isaac Watts, a Nonconformist minister, wrote some 750 hymns, among them 'Joy to the World' and 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross'.

'Our God, Our Help in Ages Past' paraphrases which chapter of the Psalter?

Psalm 90 ('Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations'); John Wesley changed 'Our God' to 'O God' in 1738, and the tune is William Croft's St Anne.

Charles Wesley, the Methodist leader, wrote roughly how many hymns?

Over 6,500 hymns by most counts, among them 'And Can It Be', 'Love Divine, All Loves Excelling' and the carol 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing'.

'Great Is Thy Faithfulness' takes its title phrase from which Old Testament book?

Lamentations 3:23 ('great is thy faithfulness'); Thomas Chisholm wrote the poem in 1923 and William Runyan set it to music in Kansas; the postwar evangelistic crusades made it famous.

For whom did Cecil Frances Alexander write the 1848 collection containing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'?

Hymns for Little Children also gave the world Once in Royal David's City and There Is a Green Hill Far Away.

Whose 1916 setting turned Blake's 'And did those feet in ancient time' into 'Jerusalem'?

Hubert Parry wrote it in 1916 at the request of Poet Laureate Robert Bridges, who wanted simple music a wartime audience could join in; Elgar orchestrated it in 1922.

'The Old Rugged Cross' was written in 1912 by which Methodist evangelist?

George Bennard began the hymn in Albion, Michigan, in 1912 and finished it in Pokagon, Michigan, where it was first sung in 1913.

Joseph Scriven wrote 'What a Friend We Have in Jesus' as a poem in 1855 to comfort whom?

His mother in Ireland: Scriven sent her the poem from Canada in 1855; it was published anonymously and his authorship emerged only decades later.

Charlotte Elliott's 'Just as I Am' became the altar-call song of which evangelist's crusades?

Billy Graham's crusades used it as the invitation hymn from the 1940s, and Graham titled his 1997 autobiography 'Just As I Am'; the usual tune is William Bradbury's Woodworth.

'Eternal Father, Strong to Save' is the service hymn of which armed force?

The Royal Navy sings William Whiting's 1860 hymn, drawn from Psalm 107, at services and funerals; the US Navy adopted it too, which is why it is also called the Navy Hymn.

'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' was innovative in 1707 for what reason?

It was not a direct paraphrase of Scripture: Isaac Watts, who had complained as a teenager about dull psalm-singing, wrote it as an original first-person meditation on Galatians 6:14.

'Lift Every Voice and Sing' was written by James Weldon Johnson to commemorate whose birthday?

Abraham Lincoln's birthday, 12 February 1900, in Jacksonville, Florida, where 500 schoolchildren sang it; J. Rosamond Johnson set it to music and the NAACP adopted it as the Negro national anthem in 1919.

Julia Ward Howe adapted the 'Battle Hymn of the Republic' from which Union marching song?

John Brown's Body supplied the tune; Howe wrote her new words after hearing Union soldiers sing it near Washington, and The Atlantic Monthly printed them in February 1862.

The Baptist pastor who wrote 'Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing' in 1757 was how old at the time?

22: Robert Robinson, born in 1735, wrote the hymn in 1757, before his years as a Baptist pastor; the familiar American tune is Nettleton, from John Wyeth's 1813 collection.

What was C. Austin Miles, writer of 'In the Garden', before he became a hymn editor?

A pharmacist: Miles trained in pharmacy and worked as a druggist before joining the Hall-Mack publishing company; his 1912 song pictures Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb.

The tune 'Old Hundredth', used for the Doxology, comes from which 16th-century psalm book?

The Genevan Psalter of 1551 carried the tune, usually attributed to Louis Bourgeois, set to Psalm 134; English use later joined it to Psalm 100, hence 'Old Hundredth'.

The Sacred Harp singing tradition uses how many note shapes?

Four: fa is a triangle, sol an oval, la a rectangle and mi a diamond; The Sacred Harp tunebook was first printed in 1844.

Hymns Ancient and Modern, the great Church of England hymnal, was first published in which year?

1861: the first edition, with William Henry Monk as music editor, contained 273 hymns and grew out of the Oxford Movement's revival of liturgical worship.

'Lead, Kindly Light' was written in 1833 by which future cardinal, then an Anglican?

He wrote it as a poem called The Pillar of the Cloud while becalmed at sea; Newman was canonised in 2019.

'Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee' sets Henry van Dyke's words to a melody by which composer?

Beethoven: Van Dyke wrote the poem in 1907 to fit the Ode to Joy theme from the Ninth Symphony of 1824, while a guest preacher at Williams College.

Cat Stevens took which 1931 hymn by Eleanor Farjeon into the US top ten in 1972?

Morning Has Broken reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1972; it is sung to Bunessan, a Scottish Gaelic tune named for a village on the Isle of Mull.

'I'll Fly Away', called the most recorded gospel song, was written by whom?

Albert E. Brumley got the idea while picking cotton on his father's farm in Oklahoma, borrowing a line from the ballad 'The Prisoner's Song'; the hymn was published in 1932.

'Cwm Rhondda', the tune of 'Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer', was written in 1907 by whom?

William Williams wrote the Welsh text in the 18th century; Hughes composed the tune for a chapel organ inauguration in Hopkinstown.

'Veni Creator Spiritus', sung at papal conclaves, is traditionally attributed to whom?

Rabanus Maurus, abbot of Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz, is the hymn's traditional author; English paraphrases include Dryden's 'Creator Spirit, by whose aid' of 1693.

'How Firm a Foundation', published in 1787, was which general's favourite hymn?

Robert E. Lee counted it his favourite hymn and it was sung at his funeral in 1870; the author is given only as 'K' in Rippon's Selection of 1787, probably Robert Keene.

Which pharaoh composed the Egyptian Great Hymn to the Aten?

Akhenaten, who moved Egypt's worship to the sun disc Aten in the 14th century BC, is credited with the hymn inscribed in the Amarna tomb of his courtier Ay.

Count Zinzendorf, who wrote some 2,000 hymns in the 18th century, was a bishop of which denomination?

The Moravians: Zinzendorf sheltered Moravian refugees on his Saxon estate at Herrnhut from 1722 and was consecrated a bishop of their renewed church in 1737.

The Kesh temple hymn, called the world's oldest surviving literary text, comes from which culture?

The Western tradition begins later with the Homeric Hymns, the oldest of which date from the 7th century BC.