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This Week's Postlude
 About the Closing Improvisation
We are continuing a series of Closing Improvisations on "lesser known" hymns from the 1982 hymnal and will play the great tune "Russia" set to the text of "God The Omnipotent" ( #569).
One of the greatest attributes of Anglican legacy is it's Hymnology. This is not disposable music commonly associated with the modern church - but substantial musical literature that has withstood the test of time.
-The origins of most hymns is fascinating and the tune name has it's own special significance.
-The composition of a hymn usually begins with a text, but this one starts with a tune.
A little over 150 years ago, Nicholas I, Czar of Russia, ordered Alexis Lvov to compose a national hymn tune. For years Russians had been singing a Russian text to the English melody for "God Save Our Gracious King." Nicholas thought it was time his people had their own hymn. Lvov responded by composing the melody we now know as RUSSIA, or RUSSIAN HYMN. Many of us first learned this melody from listening to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.
Almost as soon as the Russians stopped borrowing the English tune, the English author Henry Chorley picked up this new Russian tune and wrote a text for it. That text, published in 1842, was entitled "In Time of War" and began with the words "God the All-Terrible!" Later, during the Franco-American war, John Ellerton added two more stanzas to Chorley's text.
The finished hymn is a stirring and powerful plea for peace,
one that is included in many contemporary hymnals. Some hymnals have altered the hymn a bit, changing the first line to "God the Omnipotent." Others, such as the Trinity Hymnal, have retained the original text. The text below is taken from Rejoice in the Lord:
God the Omnipotent! King,
who ordainest
thunder thy clarion, the
lightning thy sword;
show forth thy pity on high
where thou reignest:
give to us peace in our time,
O Lord.
God the All-merciful! earth
hath forsaken
thy ways all holy, and slighted
thy word;
bid not thy wrath in its
terrors awaken:
give to us peace in our time,
O Lord.
God, the All-righteous One!
earth hath defied thee;
yet to eternity standeth thy
word;
falsehood and wrong shall
not tarry beside thee:
give to us peace in our time,
O Lord.
God the All-provident! earth
by thy chastening
yet shall to freedom and
truth be restored;
through the thick darkness
thy kingdom is hastening:
thou wilt give peace in thy
time, O Lord.
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Entrance Hymn 398
