What good news the angels bring

with
GEORGIA
MONKLAND
INNOCENTS

I. Text: Origins

The text of this hymn is by William Hammond (1719–1783), published in his own collection, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs (London: W. Strahan, 1745 | Fig. 1), in seven stanzas of eight lines, without music. The original text was headed “Christ’s Birth,” with reference to Luke 2:10–11 and Matthew 1:21. Hammond was a longtime member of the Moravians (United Brethren), and his hymns have been reprinted frequently in their collections.

II. Text: Analysis

The first two stanzas are a meditation on the announcement of the angels in Luke 2, and the next two draw from the arrival of the magi and the jealousy of Herod in Matthew 2. The given reference to Matthew 1:21 is reflected in the first two lines of the fourth stanza. The last three stanzas point beyond Christ’s incarnation to his greater mission as Savior and Redeemer. Notice at the end of stanza five the Reformation doctrine of sola fide—by faith alone. The concept of being born again, as in stanza 6, comes from John 3. The final stanza is a call to worship.

III. Tunes

1. GEORGIA

Hammond’s text was first published with music in Thomas Knibb’s The Psalm Singers’ Help (ca. 1769), where it was set to a tune called GEORGIA (Fig. 2). The tune is based on “See, see, the conqu’ring hero comes” from the oratorio Judas Maccabaeus (1747) by George Frideric Handel (1685–1759), which itself was based on an earlier air from Gottlieb Muffat’s Componimenti musicali (c.1739). In this printing, the designation “Mr. G.W. Hymn 32nd” refers to George Whitefield’s Collection of Hymns (1753), where this hymn text was given in five stanzas. Handel’s melody was first adapted as a hymn tune by Thomas Butts in his Harmonia Sacra (1754); in that collection it was dubbed ABINGTON. In Knibb’s earliest collections (1760–1765) he called it HANDEL.

2. MONKLAND

At the end of the same century or the beginning of the next, Hammond’s text was set to a new tune by Moravian composer John Antes (1740–1811). The oldest surviving examples of the tune are in two manuscripts held in the archives of the Fulneck Moravian Church, Yorkshire, England. Both MSS are labeled “A Collection of Hymn Tunes Chiefly Composed for Private Amusement by John Antes” and are undated (Fig. 3a-b). The tune is in both MSS with no significant differences, and in both copies it was intended for Hammond’s text. In one collection, the text was labeled “H.B. No. 36,” which refers to A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren (1789), therefore the MS is thought to date between 1789 and Antes’ move to Bristol in 1808.

Antes’ tune was first published in Hymn Tunes of the Church of the Brethren (1824), compiled and edited by John Lees (1773–1839), a Moravian in the settlement at Fairfield, Manchester, England (Fig. 4).

Antes’ tune was renamed MONKLAND by the editors of the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861), because it had been newly arranged by John Wilkes (1823–1882), organist at the parish church in Monkland, Herefordshire, England.

3. INNOCENTS

For many decades, the most common tune setting for this text, especially in the Moravian church, has been INNOCENTS. The editors of The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 3rd ed. (1956) believed the tune was an adaptation of the aria “Non vi piacque ingiusti Dei” in Act 2 of George Frideric Handel’s opera Siroe (1728 | Fig. 5). The resemblance is primarily in the first two phrases. This aria is also considered to be the basis of the tune CHRISTMAS (“While shepherds watched their flocks by night”).

The same Hymnal 1940 editors also saw this melody as being developed via Samuel Webbe Jr. as the “Venetian Air arranged as a litany tune” in an unspecified publication in 1838. Methodist scholar James T. Lightwood named an unpublished sung called “The Sun” (ca. 1850) by Joseph Smith (1800–1873) of Halesowen, England, as another possible precursor, probably following the example of The English Hymnal (1906) and Songs of Praise (1925, rev. 1931), where the tune was credited to Smith. Archibald Jacob, in Songs of Praise Discussed (1933), explained the possible connection to Smith more fully:

It has not been definitely traced to an earlier source, but in a manuscript collection of tunes by Joseph Smith of Halesowen, Birmingham, there is one bearing a close resemblance to INNOCENTS, and it is possible, though by no means certain, that this is the original of the tune. Smith’s melody is entitled “The Sun,” and the 1st and 3rd lines are virtually identical with the corresponding lines of the present tune; but, as the alternate lines differ, the resemblance is quite possibly a coincidence, since the phrase is not, in itself, of an unusual kind (p. 203).

Whatever its true origins, the modern form of the tune was first printed in the November 1850 issue of The Parish Choir, and it was subsequently compiled into volume 3 of the collected editions (London: Society for Promoting Church Music, 1851 | Fig. 5). In that publication, it was intended for the Feast of the Holy Innocents (Dec. 28/29), and it was recommended for a related text, “Little flowers of martyrdom,” by Isaac Williams (1802–1865). The last several issues of the periodical were edited by William Henry Monk, therefore this tune is possibly his work. Isaac Williams’ text comes from Hymns Translated from the Parisian Breviary (1839) and is a translation of “Salvete flores martyrum,” which is an excerpt of the longer hymn “Quicumque Christum quaeritis” by Venantius Fortunatus (6th century).

Given the possible ascription to William Henry Monk, who also edited the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861), it is worth noting how the “Composer or source whence taken” was left blank in the tune index of HA&M, but Monk was listed as having “Harmonized or arranged” the music. With Monk being the editor of both The Parish Choir and HA&M, he would have known better than anyone how the tune came to be published in those sources, so the mystery remains unresolved.

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
25 November 2019

Related Resources:

W.H. Grattan Flood, The Choir, vol. 23 (London, 1932), pp. 32–33.

Archibald Jacob, “INNOCENTS,” Songs of Praise Discussed (Oxford: University Press, 1933), p. 203.

Lester Hostetler, “INNOCENTS,” Handbook to the Mennonite Hymnary (Newton, KS: General Conference, 1949), pp. 39–40.

James T. Lightwood, “INNOCENTS,” The Music of the Methodist Hymn Book, 3rd ed. (London: Epworth Press, 1950), p. 448.

Erik Routley, “INNOCENTS,” Companion to Congregational Praise (London: Independent Press, 1953), p. 132.

“INNOCENTS,” The Hymnal 1940 Companion, 3rd Ed. (NY: Church Pension Fund, 1962), p. 160.

Albert C. Ronander & Ethel K. Porter, “INNOCENTS,” Guide to the Pilgrim Hymnal (Philadelphia: United Church Press, 1966), pp. 31–32.

Paul Hammond, “INNOCENTS,” Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: Convention Press, 1992), p. 227.

Carlton R. Young, “INNOCENTS,” Companion to the United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1993), p. 218.

Hymn Tune Index:
http://hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/default.asp