In 7esu, Fount of Pleasure, there is very little borrowed, though the ideas are substantially the same.
Similar remarks might be made of several others. Some of them, however, have no connection with any German original. But in each case the words have been written expressly for that one particular mel ody, and each verse has been fitted to that melody while it was in the act of composition. The only way to test a Hymn, is, not merely to read it silently, or even aloud, but to sing it, over and over again, to its own tune. There is nothing in this little book that has not been abundantly subjected to this test before being offered to the public. The fact, that in part of my work I have written words for other people's music, in another part have written music for other people's words, while in the rest I furnish both words and music myself, is some evidence that I have bestowed equal care and labor upon bot/z the things which are essential to good Hymnody. The reason why we have so much of unsatisfactory material thrust upon the Church, is that, for the most part, the writers of the words have known little about music, and the writers of music have had little taste or power in the poetic field, and therefore there was no felt organic connection betwixt the two.
In the arrangement of yesu, Fount of Pleasure, I have ventured to harmonize it in the Dorian mode, instead of the usual D minor, which hardly seems to suit the character of the words as well.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.