SHARPTHORNE

Composer: Erik Routley

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Tune Information

Title: SHARPTHORNE
Composer: Erik Routley (1968)
Meter: 12.12.12
Incipit: 12342 55642 11123
Key: d minor
Copyright: © 1969, Hope Publishing Co.

Notes

Erik Routley (PHH 31) composed SHARPTHORNE in 1968 to be published as a setting for Bayly's text in the British supplementary hymnal 100 Hymns for Today (1969). SHARPTHORNE is actually a revision of another Routley tune, TIES CROSS, which was the setting for Bayly's text in the 1951 Rejoice, O People. Routley said SHARPTHORNE is "a sort of paraphrase in the minor key" of TIES CROSS. Sharpthorne and Tyes Cross are both villages in Routley's native county of Sussex, England.

SHARPTHORNE is a rugged tune (one of Routley's best!) with several repeated motives and sequences; it fits well with the stern prophetic message as interpreted by Bayly. The tune is best sung in unison. One way to sing it is to have a choir or soloist sing the first two lines of each stanza and have everyone sing the refrain line, at which time the organ should thunder its support! An even more dramatic performance can be arranged as follows: a soloist can walk among the aisles of the church singing the prophet's lines in stanzas 1 through 3, a choir can sing stanza 4, and everyone can join in on stanza 5.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

Timeline

Arrangements

Organ Solo

  • At the Name of Jesus: Four Hymns of Devotion
    Composer/Editor Michael A. Burkhardt
    Published By: MorningStar Music Publishers, Inc. (2012) pp. 10
  • The Bristol Collection of Contemporary Hymn Tune Preludes for Organ Volume Three
    Composer/Editors Lee Hastings Bristol, Jr.; Mathilde McKinney
    Published By: Harold Flammer, Inc. (1975) pp. 31

Instances

Instances (1 - 19 of 19)

Common Praise (1998) #171

Hymnal Supplement 1991 #811

Moravian Book of Worship #695

Text InfoTune InfoAudio

Psalter Hymnal (Gray) #293

Rejoice in the Lord #176

RitualSong (2nd ed.) #859

RitualSong #785

Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal #571

The Book of Praise #710

The Covenant Hymnal #718

The Hymnal 1982 #605

The Presbyterian Hymnal #405

Audio

The United Methodist Hymnal #441

Audio

The United Methodist Hymnal #772

The Worshiping Church #571

Together in Song #618

Worship (3rd ed.) #624

Worship (4th ed.) #748

Worship and Rejoice #686

Include 2 pre-1979 instances
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