#55 “God moves in a mysterious way” (#330 St Anne) W: William Cowper (1731-1800) M: William Croft (1678-1727) William Cowper was a celebrated poet of his time, admired by both Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth. In writing about nature, and everyday life, he caused a major change in the course of English poetry. Cowper suffered serious bouts of mental illness throughout his life but found solace in evangelical Christianity, and it was this interest which introduced him to John Newton, author of ‘Amazing Grace’. It was Newton who invited Cowper to contribute to a new collection of hymns and Cowper wrote 68 of the 280 hymns including this one and “There is a fountain filled with blood”. William Croft William Croft was an august individual. Educated at the Chapel Royal, he became “Master of the Children” (sounds like a lovely job!) and, eventually, organist at Westminster Abbey and official composer to Queen Anne. Indeed, he wrote pieces for her funeral and the subsequent coronation of King George. It is generally thought that the tune gets its name from St Anne’s Church in Soho where he served as organist ... but there isn’t actually any documentation that he was, indeed, the composer. Can’t find these words with this tune – which we should all know anyway – so here’s the tune on a small parlour organ: https://youtube/watch?v=gH99vJKdFYU
Posted on: Fri, 07 Nov 2014 22:02:10 +0000
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