My original tune RASMUS was composed in honour of the Very Reverend John E. Rasmus, the (now retired, for several years) former Rector of St Paul's Church in Hudson, WI, an outstanding cleric, pastor, and dear friend with a marvelous baritone voice coupled with a deep appreciation for and support of good church music. We see each other from time to time when either he visits Hudson or I visit Madison where he now lives, and it is always a great joy.

The duple-meter original version of RASMUS was composed for the text "Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured" ... and it is one of my most popular works, on par with my original music setting of "Creator of the Stars of Night."

Here is my full setting of "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" ... but a few words are in order.

Ignaz Franz translated "Te Deum laudamus" from Latin into German in the 18th century, and the hymn tune we know as GROSSER GOTT (named for Franz's text "Grosser Gott, wir loben dich") is derived from the original melody to which the text was set. This setting became very popular, amongst both Catholics and Protestants. Because of the popularity of this German setting, Clarence Walworth adopted Franz's meter (78. 78. 77) to his own translation into English of the original Latin "Te Deum laudamus" resulting in "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name." Thus, as is often wrongly asserted, "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" is a NOT a translation into English of the German "Grosser Gott, wir loben dich" by Franz (which would make it a derived, or secondarily sourced, English translation of the Latin, via the German translation) but a direct English poetic translation from the Latin.

Often, Walworth's translation appears in hymnals with only the first four stanzas of his translation; indeed, sometimes only three stanzas are given. For those familiar with the Anglican chant setting in English ("We praise Thee, O God") from the Book of Common Prayer, which has three parts, the first and third parts are set to one chant whilst the middle part is set to a different (usually minor key) chant. The first four stanzas of Walworth's translation correspond roughly to the first part of the Anglican chant setting, the next two stanzas correspond roughly to the middle part, and the rest (including Hugh T. Henry's 7th stanza translation) correspond to the third part of the Anglican chant setting.

With this in mind, I have set the first four stanzas of HGWPTN to my tune RASMUS (reconfigured to triple meter from the original duple meter tune), the next two stanzas (5 & 6) to a new tune O'CONNELL in the dominant relative minor of RASMUS, and the final two stanzas (including Henry's 7th) again to RASMUS ... somewhat in parallel with the Anglican chant format. I hope that this setting pays appropriate and respectful homage to the Anglican chant setting, which I have often and for a very long time (since about 1961) sung to No. 613 (E.G. Monk) & No. 617 (W. Croft) in The Hymnal 1940.

Comments are welcome and encouraged. The first PDF has the SATB settings (without the descants) suitable for congregational use, the second has the SATB settings with the stanza 4 & 8 descant.

*sceptre (or American English scepter) not sceptor, I think that's a typo.