Descant to the hymn tune ST CLEMENT (live recording). Free score with harmonized descant. Free score.
The tune ST. CLEMENT was composed for this text by Clement Scholefield (1839-1904), a clergyman and self-taught musician. He wrote several hymn tunes, of which only one - this one - survives. It appeared in Arthur S. Sullivan's 1874 hymnal, Church Hymns with Tunes, and the tune was 'named' for its composer by the publisher. The cathedral establishment of Scolefield's day were dismissive of this tune, though its singing public has a much higher tune opinion, as does the Royal Navy, which has listed this particular combination as its evening hymn. John Ellerton (1826-1893) wrote the evening text 'The day thou gavest Lord is ended' at the height of the Victorian missionary empire, for A Liturgy for Missionary Meetings (1870). It was published a year later in Church Hymns, another missionary-based hymnbook. The this combination exists in German hymnals with the translation Du lässt den Tag, o Gott, nun enden.
Updated: Mar 4 2012
Recorded live at Church of the Advent, Boston, sung by the Choir of Christ Church (Hamilton Mass.), Daniel Jay McKinley, organist and choirmaster.
NOTE: This arrangement is in F. If your hymnal has this tune in another key and you wish it to be in F, too, you can download the hymn score in F from the CPDL website.
So be it, Lord; thy throne shall never,
like earth’s proud empires, pass away:
thy kingdom stands, and grows forever,
till all thy creatures own thy sway.
– John Ellerton 1826-1893
