You might not quickly recognize this as the traditional hymn, O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing–because this is the way it was sung 300 years ago.
Thanks to reader “Fiat Lux,” I now know that the lead singer here, Maddy Prior, is also the woman who sang that wonderful rendition of To Be a Pilgrim, which I posted yesterday. She is an English folk singer with a career that started way back in the 1960s. Oh, what a voice!
Thank you so much, Lee. I dearly love this hymn. In fact, you have posted it at my request. Maddy does have a wonderful voice.
How beautiful! I have actually heard this tune, though not to this hymn. Our family sings and listens to the Metrical Psalms: all the Psalms put into rhyming meter. So Psalm 23 begins:
The Lord’s my shepherd, I’ll not want;
He makes me down to lie
in pastures green He leadeth me
the quiet waters by.
Anyways, I’ve heard this tune put to one of the Psalms (which one I can’t recall) and it’s lovely to hear it again. And this lady’s voice is wonderful. I really enjoy that style of singing.
This reminds me of when I sang in our high school’s madrigal group (waaaay back in the early 1950s); we wore costumes from the period abd won 1st place at the Illinois music championships — great fun and lovely music.