This is a recessional in CWB, which notes a text by J. Clifford Evers as set to SCHONSTER HERR JESU. It is neither.
On the other hand Hymnary notes it appears in One In Faith with a text by Omar Westendorf and is set to ST ELIZABETH. As an old WLP copyright the sheet music can still be purchased at GIA with those details. This tune is also known as CRUSADER’S HYMN.
Mary at Godsongs confirms the Evers attribution to be false, and I suppose CWB probably copied the mistake from The Veritas Hymnal.
The text is here.
In all fairness to the editors of CWB1, J. Clifford Evers is one of a number of pen names that Omer Westendorf used when writing new hymns for the Peoples Hymnal, and the tune is referenced by SCHONSTER HERR JESU (and ASCALON) in HymnQuest. Indexing hymn texts and tunes is not a simple matter!!!
Chris
Agreed – I should have looked up Evers to discover it was a pseudonym.
https://hymnary.org/person/Evers_JC2
… but help me out here, the tune I’ve seen for SCHONSTER HERR JESU is not the same as ST ELIZABETH. Are there multiple different hymn tunes with the same German name being Anglicised to many different English names?
Too hard.
cheers and thanks
Geoff
Both SCHONSTER HERR JESU and SAINT ELIZABETH come from the same source (Hoffman & Richter’s “Schlesische Volkslieder”, Leipzig, 1842), are melodically the same, but can differ rhythmically, and there is a measure that seems to have fallen overboard in the journey across the Atlantic (the third before the end in CWB). In hymn tune parlance this doesn’t normally result in a different name, but Australian Hymn Book had a bit both ways and lists the two tunes with the other name in brackets: ST. ELISABETH (ASCALON) and ASCALON (ST. ELISABETH). So, along with CRUSADER’S HYMN, four names for essentially the same tune. I’m not saying that any of this is good!
Even well known tunes such as SLANE (yes, its Irish, not German) have a significant variation when it is used for Be Thou, My Vision (10.10.10.10 as normally written) and Lord of All Hopefulness (10.11.11.12), though CWB2 got around this by altering (damaging) the text of Be Thou, My Vision so they could keep a consistent melody.
ERHALT UNS, HERR is also known as WITTENBERG and SPIRES and is also subject to melodic variation.
In summary, different tune names and melodic variations are all too common and a pain in the neck!
Many thanks, Chris.
I fear I am playing the damaged version of Be Thou My Vision on Sunday.
Geoff
BE thou my vision, O Lord of my heart,
Naught be all else to me, save that thou
Thou my best thought in the day and the night,
Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.
Be thou my wisdom, be thou my true word,
I ever with thee, and thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father and I thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with thee one.
Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
Be thou my armour and be thou my might;
Thou my soul’s shelter and thou my high tower,
Raise thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine inheritance through all my days;
Thou, and thou only, the first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure thou art.
High King of heaven, when the battle is done,
Grant heaven’s joy to me, bright heaven’s Sun,
Christ of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
This is the version that I believe is not totally butchered.
Note the last verse says “when the battle is done” – This is the Catholic version, Protestant versions say “victory won”, which is a bot problematic.
The Divine Office uses “victory won” as does CWB2.
I know 🙁
But the Divine Office hymns are an interesting bunch. They seem to have scrounged around from multiple places, including the dreaded (at least in our parish) New Catholic Hymnal, which had very brutal hymn editors.
The version in the office is very different with clunkier verses:
High King of heaven, thou heaven’s bright sun,
Grant me it’s joys after vict’ry is won;
Christ of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.
And the office version is missing verse 3