Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

At St Peter in Chains, Womersley Road, Stroud Green, North London. Yesterday it was Corpus Christi and I was in a gorgeous acoustic so here is an unaccompanied Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence. The tune, Picardy, originating in France as "Jésus-Christ s'habille en pauvre", first published in the 1848 collection 'Chansons Populaires des Provinces de France'. In 1906 I believe Ralph Vaughan Williams put this text to it, and arranged it. The origin of the text, in Greek, is thought to go back to the sixth century, and according to Hymnary.org developed into part of the Liturgy of St. James, a Syrian rite thought to have been written by St. James the Less, first Bishop of Jerusalem.
Gerard Moultrie (b. Rugby, Warnickshire, England, 1829; d. Southleigh, England, 1885) translated the text from the Greek; his English paraphrase was first published in Orby Shipley's Lyra Eucharistica (1864) and entitled "Prayer of the Cherubic Hymn." The Psalter Hymnal alters that paraphrase in part to solve Reformed sensitivities about eucharistic theology. Moultrie's great-grandfather had settled in South Carolina, but after siding with England during the American Revolution, he had moved back to Britain. Educated at Exeter College, Oxford, England, Moultrie served as a pastor and chaplain in the Church of England. In addition to writing his own hymns he prepared translations of Greek, Latin, and German hymns. He also edited several hymnals, including Hymns and Lyrics for the Seasons and Saints' Days (1867) and Cantica Sanctorum or Hymns for the Black Letter Saints' Days in the English and Scottish Calendars (1880). hymnary.org/te...

[@johnmcmicking395]

Beatifically beautiful, AND beautifully beatific.

[@paulwhetstone0473]

Nice acoustics and musicality. Those rrrrrrolled ars rrrrrrrock!

[@wendyhoadley9236]

I love that hymn! It is on my Christmas playlist, but this is a particularly lovely interpretation. Thank you! 🙏

[@marklammas2465]

That tune is definitely going into my txistu repertoire along with a mediaeval Basque tune I play from the 1300s. It has a majestically mediaeval feel to it. Two major key ancient tunes, with this minor one in the middle. Maybe Puer Nobis would nicely make the third. Do suggest others.
This one perfectly illustrates the fact that, even if you are, like me, not religious, some of the greatest simple tunes are found among British and European hymns. Excellently sung, fair lady, and those acoustics and rolled Rs are cracking good! 😁