Recognize this old melody?
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 684
    Does anyone recognize the following melody?
    Grateful Notes to Heaven Ascending, if you scroll down to page 319, for the hymn "Holy Patron Thee Saluting" it points back to this melody. I've searched the internet for information but I haven't had any luck.
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,942
    Scroll down: https://hymnary.org/text/grateful_notes_to_heaven_ascending
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 684
    Yes, I saw this but it is not the right melody. Follow the link I provided and compare the two.
  • Felicia
    Posts: 110
    J. Vincent Higginson lists three melodies for this text (one of which is a variant, "Grateful songs to heaven ascending") in his Handbook for American Catholic Hymnals (nos. 826, 843, and 853). However, this melody is not one of them.

    In fact, only one of the melodies in hymnary.org) that Liam linked to (the second one in D major and triple meter) appears in the Handbook as no. 853. HIgginson was familiar with the hymnals from which these tunes were derived, because he discussed them in his other book, History of American Catholic Hymnals, so why he did not index these melodies in his Handbook is anyone's guess.

    It's unfortunate that Catholics are behind our non-Catholic friends in our studies of vernacular hymnody.
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
  • Felicia
    Posts: 110
    Higginson does say that Rev. James Hoerner arranged most of the tunes in his collection, and even composed some of them, but he didn't mention this hymn in particular. I suppose you could cite the source of the melody as "James Hoerner's Manual of Catholic Melodies, Baltimore, 1843", as some modern hymnal editors do with unattributed tunes.
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
  • Don9of11Don9of11
    Posts: 684
    Felicia, thank you.

    I have both of Mr. Higginson's books which is how I found the "Manual of Catholic Melodies." I thought perhaps because the melody was for a St. Patrick's hymn it might jog someone's memory. If you scroll down a little from the link I gave there is a hymn "Holy Patron thee Saluting" and it points back to the St. Patrick's hymn. The melody was used in St. Basil's. The Standard Catholic Hymnal and a collection of hymns to St. Joseph by Theodore Marier for the hymn "Holy Patron thee Saluting."
    Thanked by 1Felicia
  • Felicia
    Posts: 110
    Don9of11,

    Sorry, I didn't know you had consulted Higginson already. I need to remember that folks on this forum are more knowledgeable about Catholic hymnody than most people.

    I have a 1935 edition of St. Basil's and see the melody there. Interesting that Theodore Marier included it in one of his collections. Thanks for the information.
    Thanked by 1Don9of11
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