Hail glorious St Patrick

[mcb]

It's interesting to note that the editors of the Westminster Hymnal of 1912 included the hymn but, as noted above, introduced an entirely different and lovely Irish tune which may well be 'Clonmacnoise', but which I cannot find anywhere else, though it seems strangely familiar. But the Westminster Hymnal of 1940 reinstated the tune 'St Patrick'.

My copy of the Westminster Hymnal is dated 1958, and it has the tune Clonmacnoise, labelled as such. No sign of the more familiar tune, even in the appendix, to which the editors banished most of the popular tunes they disapproved of.

I see that Celebration Hymnal for Everyone incorrectly claims that 'St. Patrick' is traditional Irish, rather than by H.F. Hemy.

M.

[VML]

I think it was Hemy who took the tune of an old song, 'Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen...' and used it for 'Hail Queen of Heaven.'

Queen Mary, Queen Mary, my age is sixteen,
My father's a farmer on yonder green;
He has plenty of money to keep me sae braw,
Yet nae bonnie laddie will tak' me awa'.

The morning so early I looked in the glass,
And I said to myself what a handsome young lass;
My hands by my side, and I gave a ha, ha,
Come awa', bonnie laddie, and tak' me awa'.


See FSJ pt. 19, 221-3; Ford Song Histories, 125-134, on
"Bonny Dundee", which goes nowadays to this tune, put to it
around 1840 by Miss Dolby and popularised quickly; previously
occurring as a piano piece, "The Band at a Distance", and
beyond doubt borrowed from the children's song. The use of
the tune for Henri Hemy's hymn-tune Stella is from his
hearing it sung by little girls at the village of that name
near Newcastle; pub. 1851, this is our earliest date for the
game.

Mudcat

[John Ainslie]

It's interesting to note that the editors of the Westminster Hymnal of 1912 included the hymn but, as noted above, introduced an entirely different and lovely Irish tune which may well be 'Clonmacnoise', but which I cannot find anywhere else, though it seems strangely familiar. But the Westminster Hymnal of 1940 reinstated the tune 'St Patrick'.

My copy of the Westminster Hymnal is dated 1958, and it has the tune Clonmacnoise, labelled as such. No sign of the more familiar tune, even in the appendix, to which the editors banished most of the popular tunes they disapproved of.

Correction accepted. But at Prior Park College in the 1950s, then run by the Irish Christian Brothers, we certainly used the 1940 Westminster Hymnal with the tune 'St Patrick' - until a new music master from the Anglican tradition replaced the hymn with 'St Patrick's Breastplate', to the astonishment of the Brothers.

The tune reappeared in print in The Parish Hymn Book of 1966, where it is described as 'Traditional Melody'.

[presbyter]

As next Sunday is nearest the feast, guess which hymn I have been asked to include at Mass.

[musicus]

So that would be green vestments, then?

[docmattc]

Its always puzzled me why we sing 'dear saint of our isle' in England!

We had to sing this much at primary school (Irish headmaster). Even at age 8 it seemed very odd to be singing about the 'land of our birth' when it clearly wasn't! The last Irish born member of my family was born in Galway in 1846.

To complete Nazard's anorakness, the congregational Laudate has 'On Erin's green valley's' as a refrain. My full music version is in the car and I'm not going out to consult it now!

[presbyter]

So that would be green vestments, then?

Errrr - no - yet I do believe that there might be a gathering of Hibernian colleagues for lunch nearby where the custard will be subject to green food colouring.

[organist]

Presbyter you made me laugh I do remember a sung Mass where the PP said he would be lynched if we didn't change the last hymn to "Hail glorious St Patrick". He was so thrown by it all that he forgot to consecrate the wine so it was invalid. I waited to give him the note for the Mystery of Faith but he didn't realise and the MC did nothing! So it just goes to show that vociferous people who tackle PPs before Mass about music can be destructive! And as for the music at Masses I have been to in Ireland - oh dear! Hymns sung by the choir alone, Mozart Ave verum at communion where the organist stopped 2 bars from the end. I suspect that the organist hopped off the stool to get communion in the choir loft! It was like a knife had been pulled across a Leonardo!