Faith of our fathers, mothers, brothers,…

My goodness, that was a rabbit hole I fell down and no mistake! I’m referring here to the post I did on the hymn ‘O bread of heaven’. I was trying to find information about the tune that we use, including information about the composer H F Hemy.

H F Hemy

Born in 1818 and died in Hartlepool in 1888 . He emigrated to Australia but returned to live in the North-East of England, mainly in around Tyneside. Henri Fredrick Hemy was organist at St Andrew’s Church in Worsick Street, Newcastle. He also taught music at Ushaw at one point though I’m not really sure what this meant in practice. I have seen him described as ‘professor of music’ and also as ‘director of music’.

Hemy seems to have been involved in more than just church music, composing dance music amongst other things. He appears to have played in bands and orchestras as well as being a singer. It has to be said that some of the information I have found online appears to be contradictory and perhaps confuses H F Hemy with his Father who shared the name Henry. It is sure, however, that H F Hemy was responsible for compiling the ‘Crown of Jesus’ hymn book. I managed to see a scan of this online and was interested to see that he includes more than one tune to many of the items. He uses his own compositions as well as those he often attributes to people like Mozart. Other sources give different composers for the same music.

St Catherine/Tynemouth

The tune that we use for ‘O bread of heaven’ is by H F Hemy. Interestingly it has two names and, though I have searched, I am unable to find out why. Hemy seems to have used North-East place names for many of his tunes but they are not always the names that are given in the hymn books and on websites like hymnary.org. Many of Hemy’s tunes seem to have more than one name. The tune of ‘O Bread of Heaven’ is called ‘St Catherine’ but is also known as ‘Tynemouth’. CFE has both names but Laudate doesn’t.

Researching this tune was really where the rabbit hole began.

Faith of our fathers

First, a little of the background to this hymn. Written by F W Faber, it refers to the martyrs of England and Wales from the time of the Reformation. He also wrote a longer version for Ireland. Often sung in the UK on the feast of Sts Peter and Paul though only the first couple of verses could really be said to apply to them. The hymn has been adapted to enable it to be sung in Protestant churches. It has also been adapted for use in America where it seems to have taken on a whole new life and meaning.

In the UK ‘Faith of our Fathers’ is inextricably linked to the tune ‘Sawston’ but in America they use ‘St Catherine’. This is the tune we most associate with ‘O Bread of Heaven’ and I find it almost impossible to sing ‘Faith of our Fathers’ to it. It’s like a really difficult round of ‘one song to the tune of another’. Listeners of ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue’ will understand this reference! In my opinion, it also changes the feel of the hymn from something stirring and almost militaristic to something much quieter.

Amongst the things I found was this little gem.

• ‘Faith of our Fathers’, to the tune ‘St Catherine’ was recorded by Bing Crosby and appears on his album ‘Merry Christmas’.

I mentioned that the hymn had been adapted for various circumstances but it has been adapted in other ways as well.

The ehymnbook gives the hymn ‘Faith of our brothers’. This is a comparatively recent composition and appears to be a mishmash of new words and the original hymn. Quite who it is aimed at or to what it refers I do not know. The tune given is ‘St Catherine’ so presumably it is from America.

A search on hymnary.org yielded the hymn ‘Faith of our mothers’. A search online for the composer suggests that it was probably written in the early 20^th century.

But this wasn’t the end of the rabbit hole! Believe it or not, there is a second hymn with the same title. This is more contemporary, rather less twee and has at least some of it rooted in scripture. The author has detailed the thought behind his writing and I found this an interesting read as it also talks about the American use of ‘Faith of our Fathers’. Read the story behind ‘Faith of our mothers’ here.

In case you are wondering, no, I couldn’t find a hymn ‘Faith of our sisters’!

I’m off for a lie down!