Name of all majesty

with
MAJESTAS
ALL MAJESTY

I. Origins

Anglican minister Timothy Dudley-Smith had a custom of writing many of his hymns while on holiday at his summer home in Ruan Minor, Cornwall, England. In August 1979, while he was Archdeacon of Norwich, he crafted this hymn after reading the poetry of Walter de la Mare (1873–1956):

In the early months of 1979 I was enjoying the Collected Poems of Walter de la Mare, having only read him previously in anthologies. A page in my MS book at that time shows three extracts from his poems copied out for the sake of their metrical form. It is upon one of these that this text came to be loosely based; but I am reluctant to identify it further, since I fear most of the de la Mare magic is missing, simply in terms of rhythm (let alone language or meaning) in the text herewith.[1]

His hymn was first printed privately in the All Souls Supplementary Hymnbook (1980) for All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, London, text only, then in the author’s self-published anthology, A Collection of Hymns 1961–1981 (1981 | Fig. 1), also text only, and labeled “awaiting a composer,” since he had not found a tune suitable for the unique meter of 6.6.5.5.6.6.6.4, rhyming aabcddde.

The lack of a tune was soon rectified twofold when it was included the following year in Hymns for Today’s Church (1982 | Fig. 2) with new tunes, ALL MAJESTY by Norman Warren, and MAJESTAS by Michael Baughen, the latter harmonized by Noël Tredinnick. Baughen was a frequent collaborator of the author’s, dating back to their employment together at the Church Pastoral Aid Society and their co-production of Youth Praise (1966) and Youth Praise 2 (1969).

The two tunes are crafted very differently. Warren’s tune is in a steady triple time, situated in D minor, rising gradually up an octave through the first four phrases, then descending similarly back to the bottom through the next three, ending with an upward declaration at “Jesus is Lord.” Baughen’s tune is in a stately major key, duple time. Like Warren’s tune, it reaches upward from the bottom to the top of the octave scale through the first half, but unlike the other, the tune continues to climb in a series of three similar figures before settling at the upper tonic.

Baughen’s tune MAJESTAS has proved to be the most popular setting of this text. This pairing was recorded by the choir, orchestra, and congregation of All Souls’ Church on the LP album Hymns for Today’s Church (Word, 1982). For the Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (1992), Baughen supplied this explanation of his process:

MAJESTAS was possibly the ‘finale’ of partnership [with Timothy Dudley-Smith], and I am delighted that it has been a widely appreciated climax. The words demanded a tune of majesty but had to get a climactic sequence in the second half of each verse. The slight alteration of pattern in the seventh line is deliberate, of course, to help the climax. I love to hear it sung and to join in singing, when adequate emphasis is put upon line 8—“Jesus is Lord.” To him be the glory—forever.[1]

More details of the composition were given in Exploring Praise! (2006):

The music was written at All Souls’ Church in 1980 or ’81, with Noël Tredinnick sitting beside MAB at the grand piano, deciding whether the penultimate line of the tune should vary from the previous 2 in pattern. “We decided on balance that it should, and I am so glad we did!” said Michael; for his part, Noël wrote that “The brilliant tune by MAB inspired me to write many harmonizations.”[2]

Among editions of the author’s works, the text has appeared in A Collection of Hymns 1961–1981 (1981), Lift Every Heart (1984), and A House of Praise (2003), each with commentary.

II. Textual Analysis

The thrust of the hymn is the declaration at the end of each stanza. The author explained the significance in this way:

The final affirmation of each verse, “Jesus is Lord,” is said to be the earliest baptismal creed of the church: cf. Romans 10.9, Philippians 2.11, and 1 Corinthians 12.3, “No one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.”[3]

Fellow hymn writer Christopher Idle saw the whole hymn as an extension of those three words, saying, “If the first basic Christian creed was ‘Jesus is Lord,’ here is an attempt to clothe that simple phrase in fuller biblical dress. . . . Though several contemporary writers have taken the theme of Christ’s majesty, few have given it such content.”[4]

The “biblical dress” described by Idle includes an array of brief but important concepts and epithets. The psalmist said the name of the Lord is majestic (Ps. 8:1,9), as did the prophet Micah (5:4). The Bible often speaks of Christ as a long-held mystery, gloriously revealed (Rom. 16:25, Eph. 1:9, 5:32, Col. 1:26), adored by angels (Lk. 2:13–14, Rev. 4–5), with power, authority, and splendor well attested in numerous places. Jesus has been with God eternally (Jn. 1:1), and was sent to earth as an act of love (Jn. 3:16). He has overcome darkness (Jn. 1:5, 8:12, 12:46) and restored what was broken in Eden (Rom. 5:12–21, 1 Cor. 15:22). Finally, this sovereign light offers immortality (Jn. 3:16, 1 Cor. 15:53–54) and assurance of salvation (Is. 12:2, Heb. 10:22), and praise is a proper response.

Much later in life, the author expressed one regret, which was his use of enjambment in the final stanza (the continuation of one line into the next):

In my own text, “Name of all majesty,” I feel it is now too late to make changes, but were I writing it today, I would try to avoid the enjambment in these lines: “So with the ransomed, we / praise him eternally,” not least because I once heard a disastrous attempt on TV, Songs of Praise, to sing these words as if the “we” were part of the later line. I think it is fair to suggest that in hymn writing (I am not here thinking of lyric poetry), enjambment usually suggests a lack of that “smoothness” which was Charles Wesley’s aim.[5]

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
3 February 2022

Footnotes:

1. Paul G. Hammond, “Name of all majesty,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), p. 196.

2. Christopher Idle, “Name of all majesty,” Exploring Praise! vol. 1 (Darlington: Praise Trust, 2006), p. 235.

3. Timothy Dudley-Smith, “Name of all majesty,” A House of Praise (Carol Stream, IL: Hope, 2003), p. 426.

4. Christopher Idle, “Name of all majesty,” Exploring Praise! vol. 1 (Darlington: Praise Trust, 2006), p. 234.

5. Timothy Dudley-Smith, A Functional Art: Reflections of a Hymn Writer (Oxford: University Press, 2017), p. 99.

Related Resources:

Edward Darling & Donald Davison, “Name of all majesty,” Companion to Church Hymnal (Dublin: Columba, 2005), pp. 173–174.

“Name of all majesty,” Hymnary.org: https://hymnary.org/text/name_of_all_majesty