Descants

The author of "Ye holy angels bright", Richard Baxter (1615-1692), was a poet and cleric - serving at one point, Oliver Cromwell as a regimental chaplain, and then upon the Restoration, was chaplain to the restored throne and was subsequently offered the bishopric of Hereford, which he declined. He finished his career as a "nonconformist minister," a kind of freelance lecturer or speaker, not in holy orders and without a parish.  The text appeared in his work, Poetical Fragments, which expanded through three additions, followed by a supplement. "Rejoice, the Lord Is King" first appeared in John Wesley’s 1744 volume, Moral and Sacred Poems. Two years later Charles Wesley included it in Hymns for Our Lord’s Resurrection. The original was in six verses, though in most hymnals it appears with four.

John Darwall (1731–1789) was an English clergyman and hymnodist best known for his setting of Psalm 148, known as Darwall's 148th, which was sung at the inauguration of a new organ at his church in Walsall, England, UK. The first publication was in the New Universal Psalmodist (1770) with only soprano and bass parts - which would is not as unusual as it might appear. At that time, many organists were able to read a figured bass, filling in the tenor and alto on sight. A written-out harmonization would have to wait until after the turn of the century.

For James Higbe, 2005.

downloads

Darwall's 148th version 2.4.2

Ye holy angels bright

Rejoice the Lord is King

audio demo

descant verse

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