Page:The Methodist Hymn-Book Illustrated.djvu/74

 62 THE METHODIST HYMN-BOOK ILLUSTRATED

Hymn 25. Raise the psalm : let earth adoring. EDWARD CHURTON, D.D. (8).

A version of Psalm xcvi. From The Cleveland Psalter, 1854, where it was in thirteen stanzas of four lines, with the refrain Hallelujah, Amen.&quot; Dr. Kennedy published verses I, 2, 8-13 as two stanzas of sixteen lines each in 1863. The-Wesleyan hymn-book, 1875, adopted these, making four verses of eight lines, and omitting the refrain.

Hymn 26. Praise the Lord! who reigns above.

CHARLES WESLEY (i).

Psalms and Hymns, 1743; Select Psalms, Psalm cl. ; Works t viii. 262. A spirited version of the great orchestral psalm.

Hymn 27. The strain upraise of joy and praise,

Hallelujah.

NOTKER ; translated by JOHN MASON NEALE.

Cantemus cuncti melodum nunc, Alleluia is described in a MS. of 1507 as Another joyful sequence of Blessed Notker s for the Epiphany of Christ, with the title, &quot; The troubled Virgin.&quot; It is sung especially in the octave of the Epiphany. The title may refer to Matt. ii. 3, Jerusalem being termed the Virgin daughter of Sion ; the troubling there mentioned occurring at the season of the Epiphany. Dr. Neale himself attributes the sequence to Godescalcus, but this seems to be a mistake. Dr. Neale s translation appeared in his Hymnal Noted, 1854. He greatly regretted that Troyte s chant was substituted for the noble melody of the Alleluiatic Sequence. Every word had been fitted to that melody ; and, though he admits that it could not be learned in an hour or two, yet he had heard it thoroughly well sung and most heartily enjoyed by a school choir.

Notker Balbulus, as he was called from his slight stutter, was born in Switzerland about 840. He entered the school of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Gall at an early age, became one of the brethren, and gave himself to scholastic and literary work. He died at St. Gall, April 6, 912. He was a favourite of the Emperor Charles the Fat, and was practically the inventor of the Sequence, which he began to write about 862. As a youth he found great difficulty in remembering the musical notes or neumes set to the final A of the Alleluia in the Gradual

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