Francis Jackson (b. Malton, Yorkshire, England, 1917) wrote EAST ACKLAM in 1957 at York Minster Abbey, where he had a long and distinguished career as organist and music master (1946-1982). The tune's name refers to the hamlet northeast of York, England, where Jackson has lived since 1982. Jackson received his early musical training at the York Minster School, later studied with Edward Bairstow, and received his doctorate from Durham University (1940). From 1947 to 1980 he conducted both the York Musical Society and the York Symphony Orchestra. He has published a wide array of organ and church music and was very popular as an organ recitalist.
Jackson originally wrote the tune as a setting for Reginald Heber's (PHH 249) "God that madest earth and heaven," which was usually sung to the popular Welsh tune AR HYD YNOS. Now matched to Pratt Green's text in several modern hymnals, EAST ACKLAM was first published in the British supplement Hymns and Songs (1969).
The tune has several striking features: the hammer-blow chords at the end of lines 1, 2, and 4; the melodic sequences; and the stunning melodic rise to the climax in lines and 4. Although good choirs may enjoy the challenge of the harmony, the tune is best sung in unison by congregations. Use solid accompaniment and observe a ritardando, at the very end of stanza 3.
--Psalter Hymnal Handbook, 1987
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