Descant to the hymn tune INTERCESSOR by C. Hubert H. Parry. Hymn by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (d.1945); adapt. Fred Pratt Green, © Hope Publishing Company. Used by permission. Free score with harmonized descant. Free score. 

DIETRICH BONHOEFFER is well known for his deep and conscientious faith, which led to his increasingly defiant resistance to the dark cloud that descended upon Germany under Hitler. In 1933, the 27-year-old theologian emerged as the leading voice for The Confessing Church, a Protestant resistance movement. This lead to his forming of an underground seminary, and the writing of two important volumes, Life Together, and his landmark The Cost of Discipleship, in which he makes a clear distinction between 'true' and 'cheap' grace. Also employed in military intelligence, he joined a group plotting to overthrow Hitler but was arrested and imprisoned in 1943. After the failure of the 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler he was transferred to a concentration concentration camp, and a week before the Allies liberated the camp that held him, he was hanged by the Nazis. The text to the hymn By gracious powers was written New Year's Eve 1944 and smuggled out of prison in a letter to his friends. It appeared in various forms, most notably as seven stanzas in the 1959 English language publication of The Cost of Discipleship. Fred Pratt Green (1903-2000) was commissioned to render five verses in English for use in the hymnal, Cantate Domino. Many hymnals conclude with four verses - but there is an optional fifth verse, a paraprase of the first. Both are included here.

The tune INTERCESSOR was composed in 1906 by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, who has penned many prominent settings, including I was glad, and the hymn tune JERUSALEM (And did those feet in ancient time). Parry was a prolific scholar and editor, and then (as now) revered for his masterful compositions.  

For The Rev. Dr. Martha Giltinan

Updated: Oct 2024

Sources
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/133.html
http://www.gbod.org/lead-your-church/history-of-hymns/resource/history-of-hymns-by-gracious-powers
https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-by-gracious-powers

C. Hubert H. Parry
http://www.hymnary.org/person/Parry_CHH
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubert_Parry

By gracious powers

Text by Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
adapt. by Fred Pratt Green
© Hope Publishing Company
Separate license required for descant voices

Though due to copyrights we cannot reproduce it here, you may view the hymn's text on the Hope Publishing website.

Descant with organ harmonization.

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