The new Christmas text, Songs of Christmas Day is the combination of two slightly altered poems. The original poems are A Song of Bethlehem by Gertrude Velguth, for verse 1 and Christmas Day by Kathleen O’Connor for verse 2.
Written in 1981 this hymn was published by Darcey Press in 1997 in Encounter with Erik Routley and Christmas Carols for Friends and Families. This new text speaks of not only God’s gift of the recognition of the Christ for humanity, but of our gift to express it.
The tune, Airikar, was written specifically for this text by Adrienne M. Tindall and subsequently harmonized by hymnist, Erik Routley. It represents a late 20th century traditional musical style that departs slightly from 4-part writing of the previous century.
AUTHORS
Velguth, Gertrude
Mrs. Gertrude E. Velguth, C. S., born in Gary, Indiana, grew up in Michigan, US. After graduating from the Conservatory of Music at Eastern Michigan College, she later studied at Michigan State University and at the Flint Institute of Arts.
In 1938, after a remarkable healing, Mrs. Velguth became an earnest student of Christian Science. Mrs. Velguth taught public school music and art in Flint for several years. She resigned her position as chairman of the Arts Department at Northern High School in Flint in 1945 in order to devote her entire time to the practice of Christian Science healing.
She was an active member of Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Flint, and served on the Christian Science Board of Lectureship of The Mother Church. She is the author of dozens of articles and poems that were published in the Christian Science periodicals in the mid-20th Century.
O’Connor, Kathleen
Miss Kathleen O'Connor served as Committee on Publication for Somerset, England, during the early part of the 20th century. She contributed dozens of articles and poems to the Christian Science periodicals for many decades.
Tindall, Adrienne M.
Adrienne Tindall, AAGO: A.B. Music (Composition), Vassar College. B. Mus., M.M. (Organ) American Conservatory of Music, Chicago. Continuing Education coursework in hymns and hymnals, including a three year coaching correspondence with Erik Routley, and a two year coaching correspondence with hymn text writer, Fred Pratt Green.
Tindall served as organist in Christian Science churches for 54 years. Actively engaged since the 1980s in publishing sacred music (Darcey Press), she has edited solo collections, organ prelude collections (mostly hymn tune based), and a special collection: Christmas Carols for Friends and Families, which includes "A Village Humble, Still."
Erik Routley (1917-1982)
Routley, D. Phil, F.R.S.C.M., F.W.C.C., F.H.S.A., was born in England in 1917. He was ordained in the Congregational Church of England and Wales in 1943, and remained a minister of the United Reformed Church, of which the Congregational Church is a part. Besides being pastor of four English churches, he taught Church History and directed music at Mansfield College, Oxford. In the 1970s when the “hymn explosion” began, Routley became a leader and dynamic participant in that movement. In 1975, Routley became Professor of Church Music and Director of Chapel at Westminster Choir College, Princeton New Jersey, residing in the US for the remainder of his life.
In a book written by his colleagues, Duty and Delight, Routley Remembered, (p. 233) it is noted: “In the relatively short space of forty-three years Erik Routley produced (in round numbers) 50 books and monographs, 4 hymnal companions, 600 published articles, 10 unpublished book-length manuscripts, 150 unpublished items (articles, critiques, lectures, etc.). In his lifetime he also served as editor for seven books and participated in the editorial decisions involving 15 hymnals. In addition, he composed something like 110 hymn and other tunes and about 70 original compositions (comprising 38 opus numbers). His hymn tunes and texts appear in more than 90 hymnals and hymnal supplements in America, England and other countries of the world.” Routley authored two particularly significant hymn researches/books, published in the US in 1979: An English-Speaking Hymnal Guide, and A Panorama of Christian Hymnody, which includes hymns from around the world. A third in-depth research volume followed: The Music of Christian Hymns, which was published in 1981.
Salient points of interest to hymnists in his classes included:
- Musicians should focus on serving the word and not being performers
- Contemporary hymn texts should address issues that were not already addressed in older hymnody
- Hymns are sacred but also have the simplicity of the folk song—what people are so comfortable singing
- Churches should embrace repertoire from “its growing points” —music from beyond the Western tradition to non-Western hymns.
“Routley is considered the most influential hymnodist of his generation.” (The Hymnal 1982 Companion [American Episcopal], Volume 2, p. 596.)
*This article was provided by Adrienne Tindall, with additional information sourced from the special issue of The Hymn, official magazine of The Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, October 2002 issue, Volume 54, No 4. This issue was a collection of articles honoring Routley in memoriam.