All My Hope on God is Founded

"All My Hope on God is Founded" is a well-known hymn, originally German, which was translated into English in 1899 and which established itself in the latter part of the twentieth century.

"All My Hope on God is Founded"
Hymn
Church in Yattendon, where the translator worked who authored the Yattendon Hymnal
Native name"Meine Hoffnung stehet feste"
Writtenc. 1680 (1680), trans. 1899 (1899)
Text
Meter87 87 33 7
Melody
Published1936 (1936)

History

Words

The original words "Meine Hoffnung stehet feste" were written around 1680 by Joachim Neander.

In 1899 these were freely translated into English by Robert Bridges.[1] He was, at the time, living in the Berkshire village of Yattendon, where he was choir master for the parish church of St Peter and St Paul.[2] Disappointed with the range of hymns available, he made his own collection which he entitled the Yattendon Hymnal and included this hymn, number 69.[3][4]

Music

The original tune was a German chorale melody named Meine Hoffnung (from its German text). This tune was also used as the principal choice for the Methodist Hymns and Psalms book of 1983.

In 1930, Dr Thomas Percival (TP) Fielden, director of music at Charterhouse School, sent Bridges' text to a friend, composer Herbert Howells, requesting Howells compose a new setting of the hymn for use at the school. Howells received the request by post one morning, in the middle of breakfast. Almost immediately a tune suggested itself to him and the hymn was apparently composed on the spot (in the composer's words) "while I was chewing bacon and sausage." The completed setting, titled A Hymn Tune for Charterhouse, was sent to Fielden, and became a regularly used hymn at the school.

Fielden was one of the editors of The Clarendon Hymn Book, and when that book was published in 1936 he chose to include the hymn. Howells' son Michael had died in childhood the previous year, and in tribute Howells rechristened the tune Michael. The hymn's popularity increased in consequence as it became more widely known, though its use remained largely confined to public (independent) school use in Britain for the next thirty years or so.[5][6]

Its popularity began to spread in 1969 when it was included in the "100 Hymns for Today" supplement of Hymns Ancient and Modern, one of the standard Church of England hymnbooks of its day. The Methodist church included it (albeit as second choice) in the 1983 Hymns and Psalms, and it was the main choice in the 1986 New English Hymnal. It has subsequently appeared in many hymnbooks across the English-speaking world.

The hymn was sung by the Royal Family at the Committal Service for HM Queen Elizabeth II at Saint George's Chapel on September 19, 2022.[7]

See also

References
  1. Watson, John Richard. "Joachim Neander". The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology. Canterbury Press.
  2. Howse, Christopher. "Sacred mysteries". Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  3. "Hymnology: Robert Bridges; Yattendon Hymnal". Archived from the original on 31 August 2016. Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  4. "Hymn notes". Archived from the original on 27 September 2011. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
  5. https://www.stephenlayton.com/sites/default/files/server_files/user/howells_requiem_cd_cover.pdf: "All the world knows and sings the great hymn All my hope on God is founded. All the world knows too that the tune is named ‘Michael’. Less well known is that, like the Requiem, it is not a direct response to Michael’s death, although Howells published it in his son’s memory.In a broadcast to mark his ninetieth birthday in 1982, Howells recounted how he received the words of this hymn by Robert Bridges in the post one morning whilst in the middle of breakfast. Almost immediately a tune suggested itself to him and the hymn was apparently composed on the spot (in the composer’s words) ‘while I was chewing bacon and sausage’. The words had been sent by his friend T P Fielden, director of music at Charterhouse, and the hymn, composed in 1930, was originally called simply A Hymn Tune for Charterhouse, where it was regularly sung. Fielden was one of the editors of The Clarendon Hymn Book, and when that book was published in 1936, the year after Michael’s death, it included Howells’ hymn, now christened ‘Michael’, in his memory."
  6. "All my hope on God is founded – Michael (Howells) - from CDP12101 - Hyperion Records - MP3 and Lossless downloads". Retrieved 3 March 2017.
  7. "In full: The Orders of Service for Queen Elizabeth II's state funeral and committal service". CNN.
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