SATB choir and chamber
orchestra or piano
SKU: MN.CH-1343
Composed by Dale
Jergenson. 21st Century.
Laurendale Associates
#CH-1343. Published by
Laurendale Associates
(MN.CH-1343).
UPC:
765844006727.
English.
Isaac
Watts (1674 –1748) was
born in Southampton,
England and was brought
up in the home of a
committed religious
Nonconformist; his
father, also Isaac Watts
had been incarcerated
twice for his views.
Watts could not attend
Oxford or Cambridge
because of being a
Noncomformist and because
these universities were
restricted to Anglicans,
instead attending the
Dissenting Academy at
Stoke Newington in 1690.
Watts lived at Abney Hall
in Stoke Newington until
his death in 1748; he was
buried in Bunhill Fields.
He left an extensive
legacy of hymns,
treatises, educational
works, and essays. His
work was influential
amongst Nonconformist
independents and
religious revivalists of
the 18th century by
contributing to English
hymnody with new poetry
to be used in worship.
The older tradition was
based on the poetry of
the Bible which was
developed from the
teachings of the
16th-century Reformation
leader John Calvin.
Watts’ introduction of
extra-Biblical poetry
opened up a new era of
Protestant hymnody with
other poets following in
his path. Many of
Watts’ hymns are
included in the
Christadelphian Hymnal,
the Episcopal Church’s
Hymnal 1982, Evangelical
Lutheran Worship, the
Baptist Hymnal, the
Presbyterian Trinity
Hymnal, and the Methodist
Hymns and Psalms. Many of
his texts are also used
in the American Hymnal
and The Sacred Harp.
Several of his hymns are
used in the hymnals of
the Church of Christ,
Scientist and The Church
of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. Of the
more that 600 tunes in
the Sacred Harp, 149 of
them have words by Isaac
Watts. Similarly, of the
180 tunes in the Missouri
Harmony 2005 Edition,
Isaac Watts is credited
with the words for 75 of
them. The majority of
these words come from
Watts monumental Psalms
and Hymns, first
published in 1707.
