Meter: 11.12.12.10
Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee;
Holy, holy, holy! merciful and mighty!
God in three Persons, blessèd Trinity!
This Trinity hymn was written by Bishop Reginald Heber (1783-1826) during his time as Vicar of Hodnet, Shropshire (1807-1823). It is the best known and most popular of the author's hymns.
First published posthumously in A Selection of Psalms and Hymns for the Parish Church of Banbury (1826), the hymn is a metrical paraphrase of Revelation 4:8-11, which is part of the Epistle for Trinity Sunday in the Book of Common Prayer. The image of the glassy sea (verse 2, line 2) is from Revelation 4:6.
Tune Nicæa (1861)
Composed for this hymn by the Revd John Bacchus Dykes (1823-1876) for Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), the tune Nicæa has its name taken from the Council of Nicæa, 325 AD, where the doctrine of the Trinity became recognised. He wrote the tune within 30 minutes - for the use on Trinity Sunday, which occurs eight weeks after Easter - which carried the praise of the Trinity to Christians everywhere.
John graduated with a music master in the same year he composed the tune as he has been a church organist in St John's Church, Hull since he was ten-years-old; was cofounder-then-president of the Cambridge University Musical Society; and appointed vicar of St. Oswald, Durham (1862-1876) .
John might have several different opinions with his bishop, Charles Baring of Durham, regarding "high-church" concept in church and he obtained no help from the bishop as he himself handle his whole parish which could be an exhaustive task.
Have written 300 hymns, John died in Sussex at age 53 on January 22, 1876.
The first and last lines are similar to Tune Wachet Auf (Sleepers wake) as both could draw from the common tradition of catholic hymnody established in the 16th century. Nicæa was more probably inspired by the tune Trinity (1850; John Hopkins) .
Regarded as Dykes' finest and has a timeless quality, Nicæa is one of several tunes where congregations experience difficulty in the melody. To help, the brackets indicate a downward or same note in the melody:
'Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almigh- (down) -ty' (1st line),
'Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and Migh- (same) -ty' (3rd line).
Click here for full lyric and tune Nicæa's MIDI file.
Source:
Holy, Holy, Holy complete review
Article on John Dykes
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