Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty

with NICAEA

I. Text: Origins

Reginald Heber (1783–1826) was an Anglican clergyman who served in England (1807–1823) and India (1823–1826). Heber wished to create a set of hymns suitable for each Sunday of the liturgical church year. “Holy, holy, holy” was written for Trinity Sunday, the first Sunday after Pentecost, when Heber was vicar of Hodnet. It is said to have been first printed in the third edition of A Selection of Psalms and Hymns of the Parish Church of Banbury (1826), but this collection is apparently lost. It was included in Heber’s posthumous Hymns Written and Adapted to the Weekly Church Service of the Year (London, 1827 | Fig. 1), without music, in four stanzas of four lines.

For more background behind Heber’s attempt to produce his own collection of hymns, see “Ride on, ride on in majesty.”

A manuscript copy of Heber’s Hymns is held in the British Library (Add MS 25704). It includes a small difference at the end of stanza 2, line 4: “and ever art to be” (Fig. 2). Inside the front cover of the manuscript book, it says, “The original copies of Bishop Heber’s hymns in his own hand-writing, sent to his friend H.H. Milman.” Based on correspondence between Heber and Milman, the manuscript can be dated ca. 1820–1821. Milman donated the manuscript to the British Library in 1864.

II. Text: Analysis

Heber’s hymn draws largely from Revelation 4:1–11, part of John’s heavenly vision of angelic worship, which relates closely to Isaiah’s vision in Isaiah 6. It contains the glorious “Holy, holy, holy,” known throughout history as the kedusha, trisagion, tersanctus (or simply Sanctus), or thrice-holy.

And before the throne there was, as it were, a sea of glass, like crystal. And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,
    who was and is and is to come!” (Rev. 4:6–8, ESV)

One unique feature of Heber’s text is the persistent rhyme of the same sound (y/ee) at the end of all sixteen lines. Although Heber’s text is still often printed without alteration, some versions of the hymn include sensible revisions. The phrase “Early in the morning,” for example, is sometimes changed to reflect usage of the hymn at other hours of the day (or night). The most archaic phrase, “Which wert and art and evermore shalt be,” is frequently subjected to revision.

Literary scholar Madeleine Forell Marshall observed:

While the hymn is intended for Trinity Sunday, it is immediately apparent that Heber doesn’t feel that his singers need any special help with the doctrine of the Trinity. The hymn is rather more a worship formula than instruction in devotional response familiar from the hymns of Watts and Wesley and Newton. This suggests a new understanding of what hymns are and how they work. As they were part of a liturgy, their autonomy as texts, their self-sufficiency, was less compelling. I think that this hymn also marks a fresh attempt to express praise. Rather than explaining why we should, telling us how we should, or provoking us to praise, Heber looks for words that seem to capture and articulate the act itself.[1]

III. Tune

The most common tune setting, practically inseparable from Heber’s text, NICAEA, was written by John Bacchus Dykes (1823–1876) and submitted for the first edition of Hymns Ancient and Modern (London: Novello, 1861 | Fig. 3). Initially, Dykes had not been invited to participate in this hymnal project, but after hearing about its preparation was encouraged by friends to interject. He sent a letter to William Henry Monk, the musical editor, 12 October 1860:

I am sorry that I knew nothing of the musical arrangement of the work till just now. I should have felt so happy if I could have, either in the way of suggestion, or otherwise, rendered any little aid whatever to the musical committee. I understand that you are now in an advanced state of progress. However, I just send up these slight contributions, in case they may be of any service. The “Dies Irae” has given me much anxious thought. . . . The other tunes I have at different times written, finding myself unable to discover suitable music for the hymns. Some of them are sung in the Galilee of Durham Cathedral and are very popular.[2]

Dykes’ tune is named after the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), which officially affirmed and defined the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. The opening triad of Dykes’ melody is sometimes seen as a musical homage to the Trinity.

Erik Routley lauded this tune: “It is the noblest of Dykes’s tunes, and on the strength of it alone Dykes earns immortality in the annals of hymnody. . . . His other tunes may be indispensable and beyond price, but they are ‘of their age’ in a sense in which this is not.”[3] Archibald Jacob’s perspective was more measured: “The tune shows less weakness than is often found in Dykes’s tunes; its celebrity places it beyond the reach of useful comment.”[4]

NICAEA is sometimes compared to other tunes, especially WACHET AUF by Philipp Nicolai (1556–1608), with its rising triad and other structural features. Hymnologist Carl Daw has noted an important difference: “Unlike Nicolai, Dykes never returns all the way to the tonic at the conclusion of a structural unit and thus is able to keep up the forward motion of his tune.”[5] NICAEA has also been compared to TRINITY by John Hopkins (1820–1891).

For a detailed argument of how NICAEA might have been based on the tune ADORATION by Lowell Mason, see Robin A. Leaver, “Dykes’ NICAEA: An original hymn tune, or the re-working of another?” The Hymn, vol. 38, no. 2 (April 1987), pp. 21-24 (HathiTrust).

by CHRIS FENNER
for Hymnology Archive
6 July 2018
rev. 2 June 2020

Footnotes:

1. Madeleine Forell Marshall, “Holy, holy, holy,” Common Hymnsense (1995), p. 104.

2. J.T. Fowler, Life and Letters of John Bacchus Dykes (1897), pp. 71–72: Archive.org

3. Erik Routley, “Nicaea,” Companion to Congregational Praise (1953), p. 125.

4. Archibald Jacob, “NICAEA,” Songs of Praise Discussed (1933), p. 115.

5. Carl P. Daw Jr. “Holy, holy, holy,” Glory to God: A Companion (2016), p. 2.

Related Resources:

John Julian, “Holy, holy, holy,” A Dictionary of Hymnology (London, 1892), pp. 530–531: Google Books

“Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!” Hymns Ancient & Modern, Historical Edition (London: William Clowes & Sons, 1909), pp. 425–426.

Charles Nutter & Wilbur F. Tillett, “Holy, holy, holy,” The Hymns and Hymn Writers of the Church (NY: Eaton & Mains, 1911), pp. 44–45: Archive.org

Percy Dearmer & Archibald Jacob, “Holy holy, holy! Lord God Almighty!” Songs of Praise Discussed (Oxford: University Press, 1933), p. 115.

K.L. Parry & Erik Routley, “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty,” Companion to Congregational Praise (London: Independent Press, 1953), p. 125.

Erik Routley, “Holy, holy, holy,” Hymns and the Faith (Greenwich, CT: Seabury Press, 1956), pp. 69–78.

Frank Colquhoun, “Holy, holy, holy,” Hymns that Live (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1980), pp. 146–153.

Robin A. Leaver, “Dykes’ NICEA: An original hymn tune, or the re-working of another?” The Hymn, vol. 38, no. 2 (April 1987), pp. 21–24: HathiTrust

Carol A. Doran & Robin A. Leaver, “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty,” The Hymnal 1982 Companion, vol. 3A (NY: Church Hymnal Corp., 1994), 667–671.

Madeleine Forell Marshall, “Holy, holy, holy,” Common Hymnsense (Chicago: GIA, 1995), pp. 102–107.

Edward Darling & Donald Davison, “Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty,” Companion to Church Hymnal (Dublin: Columba Press, 2005), pp. 447–449.

Paul Westermeyer, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty!” Companion to Evangelical Lutheran Worship (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2010), pp. 232–234.

Carl P. Daw Jr. “Holy, holy, holy,” Glory to God: A Companion (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2016), pp. 1–3.

Graham Cory, The Life, Works, and Enduring Significance of the Rev. John Bacchus Dykes MA, Mus. Doc.: A Critical Re-appraisal, dissertation (Durham, 2016), pp. 242–245: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/11701/

Leland Ryken, “Holy, holy, holy,” 40 Favorite Hymns on the Christian Life (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R, 2019), pp. 15–17: Amazon

Martin V. Clarke, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” Sing with Understanding, 3rd ed., edited by C. Michael Hawn (Chicago: GIA, 2022), pp. 285–287.

“Holy, holy, holy,” Hymnary.org:
https://hymnary.org/text/holy_holy_holy_lord_god_almighty_early

J.R. Watson, “Holy, holy, holy,” Canterbury Dictionary of Hymnology:
https://hymnology.hymnsam.co.uk/h/holy,-holy,-holy!-lord-god-almighty