Aberystwyth (hymn tune)

"Aberystwyth" is a hymn tune composed by Joseph Parry, written in 1876 and first published in 1879 in Edward Stephen's Ail Lyfr Tonau ac Emynau (Welsh for "Second Book of Tunes and Hymns").[1][2] Parry was at the time the first professor and head of the new department of music at the recently founded University College Wales, Aberystwyth, now called Aberystwyth University.

History

The tune "Aberystwyth" has been the most popular setting for Charles Wesley's hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul".[3]

Legacy

In 1897 Enoch Sontonga composed the hymn Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika ("Lord Bless Africa" in Xhosa), setting it to a melody based on the music of Aberystwyth.[4] The song became a pan-African liberation anthem and the tune is currently the setting of the national anthems of Tanzania and Zambia and since 1994, a portion of the national anthem of South Africa.

Music
  • A plaque to commemorate the 1st performance of the hymn tune Aberystwyth on Aberystwyth town's former English Congregational church, now a medical surgery
  • The Church Surgery, Aberystwyth, formally the English Congregationalist Church

References
  1. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music
  2. Let the People Sing: Hymn Tunes in Perspective, Paul Westermeyer, page 217
  3. Hymnary.org
  4. "An Anthem To Ignorance – The Case of Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika". The Anton Mostert Chair of Intellectual Property [Stellenbosch University]. 18 June 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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