Join our new Director of Music, Mr. Tyrone Whiting (www.tyronewhiting.com), for the fourth episode of our new Lenten Hymn Sings series! Please, do share this video with friends and family to help spread the joy of hymn singing!

These are the audio versions of the weekly videos found on YouTube.

This week, our Associate for Communications & Administration Natalee Hill discusses the well known hymn "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" and Tyrone discusses the less well known "Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin" and plays them with which to sing along. These can be found in the Hymnal 1982 at 474 and 140 respectively.

The hymn texts are found within the transcript below.

A new episode will be released each Friday through Lent until Holy Week, as well as a special bonus episode on Easter Day (April 4), giving us all a chance to sing at home during this difficult time.

Transcript:

[Tyrone] Hello and welcome to the Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Philadelphia for the fourth episode in our Lenten Hymn Sing series.In this week's episode, we welcome Natalee Hill, our Associate for Communications and Administration, who will discuss one of her favorite lent hymns.We have really enjoyed reading your reflections and reactions on the hymns presented so far and we hope you will continue to join us each Friday through Lent, as well as joining us for a special bonus episode on Easter Day. Please do share these videos far and wide, and engage with us through the comments section and our social media pages. If you missed the first three episodes, please do visit our YouTube page where you can access all videos in the series. This week we mark one year since our lives changed in early 2020. As we pause, learn, and reflect on hymns, their scripture, and their histories, let us also remember the loss and sadness we've experienced, but also the progress and challenges overcome in the last 12 months. We will sing together again, and how wonderful that first note will be. [Natalee] When Tyrone asked me which of the Lenten Hymns he'd selected I most appreciated, I had two that I liked best...(Barb Ballenger got my first choice!) But I do also really appreciate "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross".I think how it speaks to me most, while I love the music, is in the text, (the poetry), of the hymn. I'm fairly well known as a bit of a perfectionist around the office, and elsewhere in my life, so the hymn's text about leaving behind the vanity of perfectionism, of always trying to do things right, and instead looking to the Cross and realizing that all that we do is only through God and not by our own human efforts. I find the text humbling and a good reminder for me on a regular basis.Recognized as the "Godfather of English Hymnody", the author of this hymn, Isaac Watts, was a renowned congregational minister, hymn-writer, and poet born in 1674 and dying in 1748. Watts was the son of a schoolmaster and was brought up in his father's religious non-conformist household. His father having been incarcerated twice for his views. Watts held many significant roles, and lived with former Lord Mayor of London Sir Thomas Abney at his residence of Abney Park until the end of his life, preaching and writing until his final days. Somewhat a "prodigy", Watts began studying Latin at age four and writing full verses in the same by the age of seven.Isaac Watts' prolific output of hymns helped to guide a new way of thinking about hymnody in England. His many publications, helped by earlier 16th century leaders such as John Calvin, led to the inclusion of new poetry for "original songs of Christian experience" to be used in worship.Published in 1780, the hymn tune known today as ROCKINGHAM first appears in Aaron Williams's A Second Supplement to Psalmody in Miniature and is most well known in Great Britain and North America for its connection to Isaac Watts' text.18th Century musician Edward Miller began his early adult life as an apprentice to his brick-road laying father. Thankfully for the rich history of hymnody, Miller ran away to the town of Lynn in South-East England and studied music with Charles Burney, a respected music historian.Despite their unorthodox arrivals into church music, their mix of words and music allow us to now sing When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.

1 When I survey the wondrous cross

where the young Prince of Glory died,

my richest gain I count but loss,

and pour contempt on all my pride.

2 Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,

save in the cross of Christ, my God:

all the vain things that charm me most,

I sacrifice them to his blood.

3 See, from his head, his hands, his feet,

sorrow and love flow mingled down!

Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,

or thorns compose so rich a crown?

4 Were the whole realm of nature mine,

that were an offering far too small;

love so amazing, so divine,

demands my soul, my life, my all.

[Tyrone] The author of this hymn, poet and scholar, John Donne is known as one of the leading figures in metaphysical poetry, as well as for his contributions to theological writing. He is also author to many sonnets, religious poems, songs, and sermons. John Donne was born into a recusant family in 1572, but would later become a clergyman in the Church of England, culminating in his appointment as Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral in London in 1621. This appointment came by order of the King, as Donne did not wish to even be ordained. Living in poverty for much of it, Donne spent his life, and indeed his money on leisure, travel, and his many love interests. Many settings of John Donne's works have been produced, including many during his lifetime. John Hilton the younger, a British early baroque composer, wrote the melody for this hymn's setting of Donne's text.Son of another musician and composer, John Hilton the Elder, Hilton the Younger succeeded his father as organist of St. Margaret's Church in Westminster, London in 1628. He would later become the Lutenist to Charles I in 1635. His collection of works in "Catch that Catch Can" of 1652, is an experiment in writing in the catch musical form, a type of canon or round. The harmonization we use today in the Hymnal 1982 by Roy Kehl, is an adaption of music by the nineteenth century English composer, pianist, and writer, Elizabeth Poston. A graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, Poston is mostly remembered for her hymns and carols, as well as scoring television and radio productions such as the BBC's 1970 production of Howards End. It is believed that Poston was also a war agent and secretly used gramophone records to send coded messages to allies in Europe. The result of work by two people with extraordinary lives allows us now sing Wilt Thou Forgive That Sin.1. Wilt thou forgive that sin, where I begun,

which is my sin, though it were done before?

Wilt thou forgive those sins through which I run,

and do run still, though still I do deplore?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

for I have more.

2. Wilt thou forgive that sin, by which I won

others to sin, and made my sin their door?

Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun

a year or two, but wallowed in a score?

When thou hast done, thou hast not done,

for I have more.

3. I have a sin of fear that when I've spun

my last thread, I shall perish on the shore;

swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son

shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore.

And having done that, thou hast done,

I fear no more.

Permission to podcast/stream this music is obtained from One License with license #A-701187. All rights reserved.

Some images from this video taken by Daniel Cooper, Associate for Audio-Visual Technology

Production, music, and photography by Tyrone Whiting, Director of Music at Episcopal Church of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 8000 St. Martin's Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19118. 215.247.7466. https://www.StMartinEC.org