Gentle Mary Laid Her Child

with
[Ashford Tune]
TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM

I. Text: Origins

In the 8 October 1919 issue of the Canadian Methodist newspaper The Christian Guardian, the following announcement appeared under the heading “A Christmas Carol Contest.”

The Christian Guardian announces a Christmas Carol Contest open to anyone who cares to participate. This contest will be in two parts, the first part ending Tuesday, Oct[.] 28th, which will be for verses only, and the second part ending Tuesday, Nov. 25th, which will be for suitable musical settings of the prize poems among the verses submitted.

The notice went on to describe the prizes for the winning texts ($20.00 for first prize, $10.00 for second, and $5.00 for third), name the judges, and list the rules for the competition. The form the texts should take was specified as “Three verses of eight lines each, or four verses of six lines each, or five verses of four lines each.”[1]

 The results of the poetic part of the contest were revealed in the 5 November 1919 issue of the newspaper, which pointed out how over 200 entries were received “from every province in the Dominion, but also from Newfoundland and three or four points in the United States.” The winning text was by Joseph Simpson Cook (1859–1933), “Gentle Mary wrapped her child,” written in five stanzas of 7676 hymnic meter. The article proudly recognized Cook as one of their own Canadian Wesleyan Methodist preachers, noted his comment on being informed of his victory (“the prize-winning poem came as somewhat of an inspiration”), and printed the text (Fig. 1), as well as those of the second- and third-place winners (neither of which found much subsequent use).[2]

As seen in Figure 1, the first three lines in stanza one of Cook’s hymn originally read “Gentle Mary wrapped her child, / Laid Him in a manger; / There He lay, all undefiled,” with the first two lines of stanza five paralleling those of stanza one. When the text received its first hymnal publication in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada (1930), these lines were revised to read “Gentle Mary laid her Child / Lowly in a manger; / There He lay, the undefiled.” Also, following one of the requirements of the newspaper contest, the poem had been cast into five stanzas of four lines each, but in The Hymnary, the first four stanzas were combined into two eight-line strophes and a new quatrain was added to the original fifth stanza to form a final eight-line strophe, so the revised hymn consisted of three eight-line stanzas (Fig. 2).[3] Presumably, the revisions and extension of the text (which was probably done to fit the tune TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM) were by Cook himself—the preface indicates the hymn had been included gratis by his permission (p. vii). This altered version became the standard form of the hymn. In the index of The Hymnary, the piece was marked with an asterisk, indicating it was “suitable for use in Sunday Schools, Bible Classes, and Young People’s Guilds” (p. 839).

II. Text: Analysis

In describing the results of the carol competition, The Christian Guardian pointed out the “simplicity and heart-touching qualities” of Cook’s lyric.

The Christmas story is told beautifully, most reverently, and all the qualities of good versification are evident throughout. A feature worth noting perhaps is the remarkable climax gained by the repetition of the first stanza with the slight changes, giving an appealing modern touch to the last lines. This poem, we believe, is quite worthy of being placed alongside a good many similar carols already published. We hope it may find a place some time in the future in some of our Church Hymn Books.[4] 

The desire expressed in the last sentence was certainly fulfilled, because the hymn has seen significant use in U.S. and Canadian hymnals.

In addition to the features pointed out in the newspaper, the carol is commended by its frequent reference to Scripture.[5] The first two lines of stanzas one and three allude to Luke 2:7, “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” In Hebrews 7:26, Jesus is described as “an high priest . . . who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens” (“There he lay, the undefiled”). The child’s being described as “To the world a stranger” recalls John 1:10–11, “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” Stanza two summarizes the appearance of the angels to the shepherds in Luke 2:8–14, with an allusion to the coming of the Wise Men in Matthew 2:1–11.

The hymn also mentions the unassuming circumstances of Jesus’ birth and questions whether a (helpless) baby born in such (humble) surroundings can truly be the Savior of the world (1:5–8). But rather than point to the glorious announcement by the angels or the visit of the magi (both of which will come in the second stanza), the proof is to be found in the testimony of “the saved of all the race / Who have found his favor” (see 1 John 4:13–15), to whom Christ is “no more a stranger.” Despite Jesus’ “humble birth,” the carol observes him to be the “Son of God” and “the king of glory” (3:5–8). And yet, this biblical and theological truth is wrapped in a “simplicity of language [that] makes the hymn particularly appropriate for children.”[6] 

One unusual feature of the text is its combination of trochaic poetic meter (strong-weak) and 7676D hymnic meter, a connection that is relatively uncommon in hymnody. Trochaic meter is often used for words of an exclamatory or imperative character (for example, “Hark! the herald angels sing” or “Angels, from the realms of glory,” to note only Christmas hymns), while iambic meter (weak-strong) is more frequently employed for texts such as “Gentle Mary laid her child,” which are tender or reflective (“O little town of Bethlehem,” “What child is this”). As asserted by Austin C. Lovelace, “There is nothing meditative about trochaic movement.”[7] There are, of course, exceptions to these general principles; the trochaic opening of “Silent night” is a notable example, though it should be observed how this meter is not used throughout, with the modulations to dactylic meter (strong-weak-weak) in the second half of the lyric, creating more of an atmosphere of lullaby. No similar modulation occurs in “Gentle Mary laid her child,” which is consistently and resolutely trochaic throughout, potentially causing a mismatch between the expressiveness of the hymn’s message and the poetic meter in which it is clothed. However, Lovelace also noted, “While there is strength and directness” in 7676D trochaic meter, “the final six in each line ends on a weak pulse and adds a touch of gentleness,” and he calls “Gentle Mary laid her child” a “fine example” of this combination.[8] The trochaic meter of the text strongly affects the character of any tune with which it could be associated, as will be observed further below.

III. Tunes

As noted in the 8 October 1919 issue of The Christian Guardian, the carol contest was not only for new texts but also for new tunes to accompany the winning hymns. Though the announcement of the competition implied that all three of the placing texts would be provided with tunes, in fact all the chosen tunes were settings of Cook’s poem. The first-place piece, by Mrs. E.L. (Emma Louise) Ashford, was published in the 10 December 1919 issue of the newspaper (Fig. 3), with the second- and third-place winners by F. Virtine Morris and Herbert Sanders following in the 17 December and 24 December issues, respectively.[9] None of these prize-winning settings appear to have seen further use.

The tune paired with “Gentle Mary laid her child” in its first hymnal publication—and the one that remains the most widely used with the text—was TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, a bar-form (AAB) melody, which was first printed in Theodoric Petri’s Piæ Cantiones Ecclesiasticæ et Schola Veterum Episcoporum (Greifswald: Augustini Ferberi, 1582), a collection of 74 Latin songs from the medieval tradition that were popular in Scandinavia.[10] TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM was the last tune in the book and was set to a four-stanza text about spring (Fig. 4). The first stanza and a literal translation of it are given below. For a metrical translation of the Latin, see The Oxford Book of Carols (1928), no. 99.[11]

TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM entered English-language usage through the work of John Mason Neale (1818–1866) and his musical collaborator, Thomas Helmore (1811–1890). Neale was given a copy of the 1582 edition of Piæ Cantiones by the British ambassador to Sweden, which he then shared with Helmore. In 1853, Helmore and Neale published a collection of twelve Carols for Christmas-tide (London: J. Alfred Novello) in open score, all based on items from Piæ Cantiones, among which was TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM set to a new text by Neale, “Good King Wenceslas looked out” (Fig. 5).[12] Wenceslas (Václav) was a duke of Bohemia who was assassinated in 935 and after his death was “promoted” to kingly status by the Holy Roman Emperor Otto I (912–973). Wenceslas was legendary for his charitable deeds.

The combination of “Good King Wenceslas” and TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM quickly became a staple of the Christmas season, and turned this one-time spring carol into a tune closely identified with the December holiday. This association made it natural for the melody to be linked with another Christmas text, Joseph Cook’s prize-winning hymn, once the latter had been extended by four lines. 

“Gentle Mary laid her child” and TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM were first published together in The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada (1930 | Fig. 2, above). The melody was harmonized by Ernest C. MacMillan (1893–1973), an organist, conductor, composer, educator, and one of Canada’s most influential musicians during the first three-quarters of the twentieth century; he was knighted by Britain’s King George V in 1935. The tune was marked to be sung in unison at a “Moderately fast” tempo. MacMillan’s arrangement has become the standard one for TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM when the tune appears with “Gentle Mary laid her child,” though occasionally a harmonization published originally for “Good King Wenceslas” by John Stainer in Christmas Carols New and Old, First Series (1868) is found.[13] MacMillan’s setting has been lauded for its “two statements of the A portion [that] have sufficient variation to seem fresh but not obtrusively changed, while careful attention to passing notes in inner parts helps to maintain momentum. That sense of movement shifts to the bass line in the B section, balancing the melodic leap to the upper dominant that begins the section and gives grounding to the slow rising that precedes the final cadence.”[14]

TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM is a cheery, robust tune, which has led some to question if it is a good match for the evocative words of “Gentle Mary laid her child.” As noted above, part of the “problem” is with the text itself, since trochaic meter generally requires a tune to have a downbeat on the first syllable of every line; because of this strong opening, it can be difficult for nearly any music associated with “Gentle Mary Laid Her Child” to have an introspective or delicate character. Though perhaps not as effective with the first stanza and the opening of stanza three, the Piæ Cantiones tune certainly fits the message of the second stanza about the angels, magi, shepherds, and nature itself worshiping the child, as well as the call of the last two lines of the hymn to “Praise his name in all the earth” and “Hail the king of glory.” 

Nevertheless, hymnal editors and composers have made efforts to provide alternatives to TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM. The Episcopal Hymnal 1940 (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1943) opted to use the tune WEIMAR by Melchior Vulpius (no. 37), while The Hymn Book of the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada (N.pl.: n.pub., 1971), employed the tune GWYNNE by Stanley L. Osborne (no. 420). According to its composer, GWYNNE—originally composed as a choral piece in 1939—was written “to provide a tune far more in keeping with a lullaby than Tempus adest floridum, which is best left with ‘Good King Wenceslas’.”[15] Voices United: The Hymn and Worship Book of the United Church of Canada (Etobicoke, Ont.: United Church Pub. House, 1996) published the text with a tune by Alta Lind Cook (Joseph S. Cook’s daughter), GENTLE MARY, arranged by Scott Wilkinson (no. 46). Like Osborne’s GWYNNE, GENTLE MARY originally appeared in sheet music form (1956) before its hymnal printing.

In January 1981, the Hymn Society of America (now the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada) announced the results of a competition for new settings of several established texts, including “Gentle Mary laid her child.”[16] The tune chosen for Cook’s words was WOODBRIDGE by Maxcine W. Posegate (1924–1991), who hoped her “more gentle sounding tune” would “make this hymn’s tender words more accessible.”[17] The second edition of the Roman Catholic hymnal RitualSong (Chicago: GIA Publications, 2016) included “Gentle Mary laid her child” twice, once with MacMillan’s setting of TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM (no. 546) and the other time with a different tune from Piæ Cantiones, GAUDETE, arranged by Robert J. Batastini (no. 533); GAUDETE is similar to TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM in its rhythmic vigor. However, none of these other tunes have found widespread use, and TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM remains the most common melody associated with this text, probably due to its nearly century-long linkage with Cook’s hymn and its familiarity to congregations through its coupling with both “Gentle Mary laid her child” and “Good King Wenceslas.”

by DAVID W. MUSIC
for Hymnology Archive
26 April 2024

Footnotes:

1. The Christian Guardian, vol. 90, no. 41 (8 October 1919), p. [3].

2. The Christian Guardian, vol. 90, no. 45 (5 November 1919), p. 29. The article noted how Cook submitted three texts for the contest, but neither of the other two “found a place near the winners.” Incidentally, in its first publication, the text was not named “The Manger Prince,” as is sometimes stated; that title was given to the second-prize musical setting of Cook’s hymn, a choral piece (see below).

3. The Hymnary of the United Church of Canada (with music) (Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 1930), no. 57. The United Church of Canada was formed in 1925 by a merger of four Protestant denominations, including the Canadian Methodist church, of which Cook was a part. Carl P. Daw Jr., opined that the addition of the quatrain after the original stanza five was “To some extent . . . regrettable, because the original form had more artistic balance and a more evocative ending”; Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2016), p. 153.

4. The Christian Guardian, vol. 90, no. 45 (5 November 1919), p. 29.

5. The following analysis is based on the hymn’s now common three-stanza, eight-line form.

6. LindaJo H. McKim, The Presbyterian Hymnal Companion (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993), p. 36.

7. Austin C. Lovelace, The Anatomy of Hymnody (Chicago, IL: G.I.A. Publications, 1965), p. 67.

8. Lovelace, The Anatomy of Hymnody, p. 69. “The final six in each line” refers to the last (unstressed) syllable in the six-syllable lines

9. Unlike Ashford and Sanders, who both set the text in strophic fashion, Morris provided a through-composed setting for choir and vocal solo, titling his piece “The Manger Prince.” For some reason, first prize for the tune setting was $35 rather than the $20 first prize for the text but the awards for the second- and third-place tunes matched those of the texts at $10 and $5, respectively.

10. For more information about Piæ Cantiones, see DIVINUM MYSTERIUM.

11. In The Oxford Book of Carols by Percy Dearmer, R. Vaughan Williams, and Martin Shaw (London: Oxford University Press, 1928), no. 99, Dearmer provided a singing translation of the spring text for use with TEMPUS ADEST FLORIDUM, “Spring has now unwrapped the flowers.” He also decried Neale’s provision of a Christmas text for the tune (p. 207).

12. In the following year, Neale and Helmore reissued Carols for Christmas-Tide in a closed score edition as T. Helmore and J. M. Neale, The Condensed Vocal Parts to the Carols for Christmas-tide (London: J. Alfred Novello, 1854).

13. Henry Ramsden Bramley and John Stainer, Christmas Carols New and Old, First Series (London: Novello, Ewer, and Co., [1868]), pp. 20–21. Generally speaking, Stainer’s harmonization is used for “Good King Wenceslas,” while MacMillan’s is chosen for “Gentle Mary laid her child.” Other harmonizations have appeared occasionally in recent hymnals, including one by Theodore Beck in Worship Supplement (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1969), no. 716, repeated in Lutheran Worship (Saint Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982), no. 57; and one by Elfred Bloedel in Christian Worship: a Lutheran hymnal (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Pub. House, 1993), no. 56.

14. Car P. Daw Jr., Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2016), p. 154.

15. Stanley L. Osborne, If Such Holy Song: The Story of the Hymns in the Hymn Book 1971 (Whitby, Ont.: Institute of Church Music, 1976), no. 420.

16. “Hymnic News,” The Hymn, vol. 32, no. 1 (January 1981), p. 50.

17. “New Hymns,” The Hymn, vol. 32, no. 3 (July 1981), p. 169; the tune appears on pp. 168–169.

Related Resources:

Jere V. Adams, ed., Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville, TN: Convention Press, 1992), pp. 123–124.

C. T. Aufdemberge, Christian Worship: Handbook (Milwaukee, WI: Northwestern Publishing House, 1997), p. 76.

Fred D. Gealy, Austin C. Lovelace, Carlton R. Young, and Emory Stevens Bucke, Companion to the Hymnal: A Handbook to the 1964 Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1970), p. 185.

Joseph Herl, Peter C. Reske, and Jon D. Vieker, eds., Lutheran Service Book: Companion to the Hymns (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2019), vol. 1, pp. 115–117.

Donald P. Hustad, Dictionary-Handbook to Hymns for the Living Church (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Company, 1978), pp. 54–55.

The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 3rd rev. ed. (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1956), p. 30.

Forrest M. McCann, Hymns and History: An Annotated Survey of Sources (Abilene, TX: A.C.U. Press, 1997), p. 117.

Alexander MacMillan, Hymns of the Church: A Companion to the Hymnary of the United Church of Canada (Toronto: United Church Publishing House, 1935), p. 300.

Robert Guy McCutchan, Our Hymnody: A Manual of the Methodist Hymnal, 2nd ed. (New York: Abingdon Press, 1942), pp. 139–140.

Fred L. Precht, Lutheran Worship: Hymnal Companion (Saint Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 1992), p. 68.

Richard J. Stanislaw and Donald P. Hustad, Companion to the Worshiping Church: A Hymnal (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Company, 1993), p. 44.

William Studwell, The Christmas Carol Reader (New York: Harrington Park Press, 1995), pp. 146–147.

The Worshiping Church: A Hymnal: Worship Leader’s Edition (Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Company, 1991), no. 156.