Descants

Originally marked by its author as The Hymn of the Incarnation, "Sing, ye faithful, sing with gladness" has had a checkered history in some hymnals. In the Episcopal Church for example, four verses of the original nine were dropped (and a refrain) from the 1892 book, the hymn itself was dropped in the 1940, and reappeared in the 1982, but in four-verse array, having lost the doxology....but magnificently paired with Christopher Dearnley's 1966 composition, Finnian, which Dearnley wrote while organist at St. Paul's Cathedral, London, and named after a 6th century saint. The tune was originally used with "Sing to him in whom creation." Dearnley was an enthusiastic and cheerful promoter of traditional church music, and of the pipe organ; he left this earth in 2000. Sing to him in whom creation, a Whitsunday processional by the Rev. Michael Hewlett, underwent some alterations for the Hymnal 1982 with the collaboration of the poet, the result being a hymn for Pentecost, Praise the Spirit in Creation. A text comparison can be found on the eHymn website.