William Williams, called the "Watts of Wales," was born in 1717, at Cefn-y-coed, near Llandovery, Carmarthenshire. He originally studied medicine, but abandoned it for theology. He was ordained Deacon in the Church of England, but was refused Priest's Orders, and subsequently attached himself to the Calvinistic Methodists. For half a century he travelled in Wales, preaching the Gospel. He died in 1791. Williams composed his hymns chiefly in the Welsh language; they are still largely used by various religious bodies in the principality. Many of his hymns have appeared in English, and have been collected and published by Sedgwick. His two principal poetical works are "Hosannah to the Son of David," and "Gloria in Excelsis."
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Composed by John B. Dykes (PHH 147), BEATITUDO was published in the revised edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (1875), where it was set to Isaac Watts' "How Bright Those Glorious Spirits Shine." Originally a word coined by Cicero, BEATITUDO means "the condition of blessedness."
Like many of Dykes's…
Lowell Mason (PHH 96) adapted AZMON from a melody composed by Carl G. Gläser in 1828. Mason published a duple-meter version in his Modern Psalmist (1839) but changed it to triple meter in his later publications. Mason used (often obscure) biblical names for his tune titles; Azmon, a city south of C…