Hymn request from Joshua: Jesus! What a Friend for Sinners! It’s the Welsh hymn, Hyfrydol, with yet another set of lyrics, this one acquired in 1910. I wish I knew who this was, singing it, so I could say thank you. But we can still thank God the Father for his background sets. How beautiful are the works of your hands, O Lord!
This Welsh melody, “Hyfrydol,” is one of my very favorites, with several different sets of lyrics to go with it. Requested by Joshua, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus; performed by Maranatha!
I don’t know how many different sets of lyrics there are for “Hyfrydol.” It seems each denomination has its own. Here we have it as Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus, by Charles Wesley: sung by Fernando Ortega.
This was a record-setting year, here, with over 120,000 views. And the top view-getter was a Welsh hymn, Hyfrydol, by the Black Mountain Choir, with a total of 576 views.
The day I posted it, Feb. 26, was the all-time record-setter with 849 views, including 396 views just for Hyfrydol–just in one day! I wish I knew what it was that made Feb. 26’s blog such a hit with viewers: then I could do it on purpose. Be that as it may, it’s a gorgeous, glorious hymn, and one of my very chief favorites, even if I don’t understand a word of it. I don’t think you have to!
The most successful new prose post of the year was “Bell Mountain Movie Contest, Take Two,” with 234 views. The contest itself turned out to be a bust: a very few readers played enthusiastically, but everybody else just liked to read about it. At one point it was a contest entered only by half a dozen people.
WordPress used to do all the end-of-year wrap-ups for us, but hasn’t done so in several years. I’d love to know what were the most-viewed reader comments. There are always so many good ones, I’d never be able to guess.
Thank you to all of you who tuned in and made this blog grow! Can we grow it some more in 2020?
Requested by Laura: words by Charles Wesley, sung by Fernando Ortega, to the glorious Welsh melody we also know as “Hyfrydol”–Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus. Honestly, does it get any better than that!
You don’t have to be Welsh to love this hymn. The melody’s always the same, but every denomination’s hymnal has a different set of lyrics.
Hyfrydol–here performed, Welsh, by Bryn Terfel.
I love this hymn, and though I don’t speak Welsh, Hyfrydol speaks to me.
Performed by the Hong Kong Welsh Male Voice Choir at St. John’s Cathedral, Hong Kong.
How often do you get to go to Hong Kong to hear a hymn from Wales?
A Welsh men’s choir, Bryn Terfel, sings Hyfrydol–in Welsh, so don’t ask me for the lyrics. It’s one of my very favorite hymns, and it uplifts me even though I don’t understand the words. The name of the melody, “Hyfrydol,” means “Delightful.” I think there’s a set of lyrics for every denomination, but the melody remains the same: delightful.
Looking for a hymn to post, I came upon Our Great Savior. Ah, a new one–haven’t heard it before. Only it turns out that I have. Often! I’m beginning to think each and every denomination has its own set of lyrics for the Welsh melody, Hyfrydol. And each and every one of them makes a joyful noise unto the Lord.
Sung by the choir and congregation at Temple Baptist Church in Powell, Tennessee.
While we enjoy Bert Kaempfert’s 1960s classic, Afrikaan Beat, I can wonder what’s going on with this blog today. As I write this, we have 585 views–585!–and 327 referrals from Facebook, well over the daily average of, oh, 13 or 14. The record is 644 views on Nov. 7, 2016; and today we’re making a run at breaking it.
Does anybody out there know a lot about blogging? If so, can you clue me in? Like, we’ve got some 350 views Hyfrydol, a Welsh hymn I posted… a couple of years ago. Why is it so hot today? What factors might have come into play, to pump up the viewership? If I could only understand it, maybe I could learn how to do it on purpose.
Well, I’ve got to tear myself away to write my weekly Newswithviews column. I’ll check our stats again after I’ve finished.
Someone out there must know more about blogging than I do. I am merely dazzled by it all.
(And now it’s 590–wahoo!)
