Tune: NATIVITY (Lahee)

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NATIVITY (Lahee)

Composer: Henry Lahee (1855)
Published in 136 hymnals

Printable scores: PDF, MusicXML
Audio files: MIDI, Recording

Piano/Organ
	Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs A F…

Choral
	Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs

Instrumental
	Holy Light - A Candlelight Service of Ca…

Composer: Henry Lahee

Born: April 11, 1826, Chelsea, London, England. Died: April 29, 1912, London, England. Lahee studied under John Goss and William Sterndale Bennett. He played the organ at several churches, including Holy Trinity Church, Brompton (1847-74). He won prizes for his compositions in Bristol, Manchester, Glasgow, and London, and set to music poems by Edgar Allen Poe ("The Bells"), Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Building of the Ship") and Alfred Tennyson ("Sleeping Beauty"). His works include: Metrical Psalter, with William Irons, 1855 Famous Singers of Today and Yesterday, 1898 One Hundred Hymn Tunes Sources: Frost, p. 680 CS Concordance, pp. 246-47 Nutter, p. 460 --www.hymntime.com/tch Go to person page >

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Tune Information

Title:	NATIVITY (Lahee)
Composer:	Henry Lahee (1855)
Meter:	8.6.8.6
Incipit:	33355 11321 66217
Key:	B♭ Major
Copyright:	Public Domain

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Texts

Come, Let Us Join Our Cheerful Songs

All texts published with NATIVITY (Lahee)^ top

Alternative Tunes

More tunes with meter 8.6.8.6 ^ top

Notes

Henry Lahee (b. Chelsea, London, England, 1826; d. Croydon, London, 1912) composed NATIVITY, which was first published in 1855 and set to a nativity hymn (thus the tune's title), "High let us swell our tuneful notes," by Philip Doddridge (PsH 335). Because NATIVITY was published with Isaac Watts' (PsH 155) "Come let us join our cheerful songs" in the 1875 edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern, it has often been set to that text. NATIVITY is the only Lahee tune still in common use.

After studying music privately, Lahee became organist at several churches. His most prominent position was at Holy Trinity Church, Brompton, England, where he was organist from 1847-1874. While in that position he joined his vicar, W. J. Irons, in producing The Metrical Psalter (1855); NATIVITY was included in an appendix to that collection. A composer of cantatas and many madrigals and glees, Lahee also compiled One Hundred Hymn Tunes (1857) for use with a collection of hymn texts edited by Irons.

A cheerful tune, NATIVITY is distinguished both by its brevity and by its opening dramatic "rocket" figure. Sing in two long lines with stanzas 1 and 5 in unison and stanzas 24 in harmony. The fanfare-like opening and royal character of this psalm invite brass accompaniment.

For the final stanza, add the fine descant by Florence Mary Spencer Palmer ("Peggy"; b. Thornbury, Gloucestershire, England, 1900; d. Bristol, England, 1987) from the Anglican Hymn Book, 1965. Palmer studied piano and composition in her youth and later taught those disciplines, both privately and at various schools in the Bristol area. In addition to her many hymn tunes she composed music for piano, cello, and voice.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook

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Timeline

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Harmonizations, Introductions, Descants, Intonations

Hymn Tunes in Lower Keys: The Book to Grab When the Congregation Complains that the Hymns are Too High!
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (2011) pp. 176
200 Last Verses: Completely Revised to Complement the Keys in Major Hymn Books
Composer/Editor Noel Rawsthorne
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (2009) pp. 109
The Really Big Descant Book - Full Music Edition: 250 Settings to Raise the Roof by the World's Finest Church Music Composers
Composer/Editor Judith Bailey
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (2009) pp. 142
Restrained Last Verses: Varied Accompaniments for Popular Hymns
Composer/Editor Richard Lloyd
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (2003) pp. 91
Last Verse Extravaganza for Organ: 200 Fabulous Arrangements
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (2001) pp. 106
The Ultimate Finishing Touch: Last-verse Arrangements of Well-loved Hymn Tunes
Composer/Editor Harrison Oxley
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (2000) pp. 90
More Hymns for Occasions: One Hundred Special Arrangements
Composer/Editor Colin Mawby
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (1997) pp. 55
Finishing Touch: One Hundred Last Verse Arrangements of Well-Known Hymn Tunes - New and Enlarged Edition
Composer/Editor Harrison Oxley
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (1996) pp. 35
After the Last Verse: 200 Hymn Improvisations
Composer/Editor Malcolm Archer
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (1995) pp. 109
Accompaniments for Unison Hymn-Singing
Composer/Editors Gerald H. Knight; John Bertalot
Published By: The Royal School of Church Music (1981) pp. 30
Hymns for Choirs
Composer/Editor David Willcocks
Published By: Oxford University Press (1976) pp. 30

Organ Solo

Organ Miniatures: 200 Short Improvisations on Familiar Hymn Tunes
Composer/Editor June Nixon
Published By: Kevin Mayhew Ltd. (1999) pp. 108
PedalPoint Volume 7 Number 3 April May June 1988: Church Music and Study Helps for Pianists and Organists
Composer/Editors Sharron Lyon; Anna Laura Page
Published By: The Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention (1988) pp. 8
113 Variations on Hymn Tunes for Organ
Composer/Editor George Thalben-Ball
Published By: Novello and Company Limited (1969) pp. 67