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January 26, 2024

Tune Showcase: Belmont

Categories: Hymnody Music

Metre: Common Metre (8.6.8.6.)
Composer: William Gardiner

William Gardiner (b. Leicester, England, 1770; d. Leicester, 1853) The son of an English hosiery manufacturer, Gardiner took up his father’s trade in addition to writing about music, composing, and editing. Having met Joseph Haydn and Ludwig van Beethoven on his business travels, Gardiner then proceeded to help popularize their compositions, especially Beethoven’s, in England. He recorded his memories of various musicians in Music and Friends (3 volumes, 1838-1853). In the first two volumes of Sacred Melodies (1812, 1815), Gardiner turned melodies from composers such as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven into hymn tunes in an attempt to rejuvenate the singing of psalms. His work became an important model for American editors like Lowell Mason (see Mason’s Boston Handel and Haydn Collection, 1822), and later hymnbook editors often turned to Gardiner as a source of tunes derived from classical music.
(Source: https://hymnary.org/person/Gardiner_W)

Instances

The tune Belmont is found in the following hymnals:

1888 Hymns and Tunes
– Hymns 147-150

1908 Christ in Song
– Hymn #765, Amazing Grace

1941 Church Hymnal
– Hymn #295, Amazing Grace

1985 Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal
– (not found)

Videos

Psalm 119:57-60 Tune Belmont

Four verses from the 1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter are showcased here: specifically from Psalm 119 (verses 57 through 60). A wonderful arrangement here: four-part a capella singing, with a lovely descant part in the third verse.

Psalm 119:57-60
1650 Scottish Metrical Psalter

57 Thou my sure portion art alone,
which I did choose, O Lord:
I have resolved, and said, that I
would keep thy holy word.

58 With my whole heart I did entreat
thy face and favor free:
According to thy gracious word
be merciful to me.

59 I thought upon my former ways,
and did my life well try;
And to thy testimonies pure
my feet then turned I.

60 I did not stay, nor linger long,
as those that slothful are;
But hastily thy laws to keep
myself I did prepare.