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Thaxted (tune)

{{Short description|English hymn tune by Gustav Holst}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2020}}

File:Cmglee Thaxted The Manse.jpg, where Gustav Holst lived from 1917 to 1925]]

"Thaxted" is a hymn tune by the English composer Gustav Holst, based on the stately theme from the middle section of the Jupiter movement of his orchestral suite The Planets and named after Thaxted, the English village where he lived much of his life. He adapted the theme in 1921 to fit the patriotic poem "I Vow to Thee, My Country" by Cecil Spring Rice but that was as a unison song with orchestra.{{cite book |last=Holst |first=Imogen |title=A Thematic Catalogue of Gustav Holst's Music |publisher=Faber |date=1974 |page=145 |isbn=978-0571100040}} It did not appear as a hymn-tune called "Thaxted" until his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams included it in Songs of Praise in 1926.{{cite book |editor-last1=Vaughan Williams |editor-first1=Ralph |editor-link1=Ralph Vaughan Williams |editor-last2=Shaw |editor-first2=Martin |editor-link2=Martin Shaw (composer) |editor-last3=Dearmer |editor-first3=Percy |editor-link3=Percy Dearmer |title=Songs of Praise |year=1926 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}

The tune

\relative f' { \time 3/4 \key c \major \partial 4 e8( g) a4. c8 b8. g16 c8( d) c4 b a8 b a4 g e2 e8( g) a4. c8 b8. g16 c8( d) e4 e e8( d) c4 d c2}

Hymns written to the tune

Many Christian hymns have been written to the tune. Notable ones include:

{{Listen

| image = 50px

| help = no

| filename = HWW I Vow to Thee.ogg

| alt = a young Gustav Holst

| title = The tune "Thaxted"

| description = Thaxted, based on Gustav Holst's "Jupiter" theme from The Planets (Duration: 2 min 39 s)

}}

{{listen |filename=Thaxted-pipe-organ.mp3 |title=Hymn version of "I vow to thee, my country" |description=Played on pipe organ by uploader, RD Wolff Duration: 1 min 34 s }}

  • "I Vow to Thee, My Country" – Cecil Spring Rice, 1921. This setting was sung at the wedding of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales in 1981 and again at the latter's funeral in 1997, and the funeral of Margaret Thatcher in 2013.{{cite web | url= https://www.stpauls.co.uk/news-press/latest-news/the-order-of-service-for-the-funeral-of-baroness-thatcher | title= The order of service for the funeral of Baroness Thatcher | accessdate=24 September 2018}} It was furthermore played both at the Funeral of Elizabeth II{{Cite web |title=The Queen's Funeral: what music was played at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II? |url=https://www.classical-music.com/articles/the-queen-funeral-what-music-was-played-at-the-funeral-of-queen-elizabeth-ii |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=www.classical-music.com |language=en}} in 2022 and the following year at the Coronation of Charles III.{{Cite web |title=King Charles III Coronation Order of Service |url=https://www.classical-music.com/articles/king-charles-iii-coronation-order-of-service |access-date=2024-06-08 |website=www.classical-music.com |language=en}}
  • "O God Beyond All Praising" – Michael Perry, 1982.{{cite web

| url=http://www.hymnsite.com/fws/hymn.cgi?2009

| title=O God Beyond All Praising

| accessdate=1 July 2008

}}

| title=We Praise You and Acknowledge You, O God|work=Starke, Stephen P.

| url=http://church.polarhaven.net/dblh/searchdisplay.php?q=report&rt=newlsb

| accessdate=30 March 2011}}

  • "The Answer" – song with lyrics by Corrinne May, which appears on her fourth album, The Gift.
  • "For the Splendor of Creation" – a hymn sung at Harvard University commencement ceremonies.{{cite web |title=A New Hymnal for Colleges and Schools 425. For the splendor of creation {{!}} Hymnary.org |url=https://hymnary.org/hymn/ANewHCaS/425 |website=hymnary.org |access-date=26 May 2023 |language=en}}
  • "Building the Kingdom" – a recessional hymn sung at St Aloysius College.
  • "O Spirit All-Embracing" – Delores Dufner, 1995.{{cite web |title=Reproducible Congregation Page, O Spirit All-Embracing |url=https://www.ecspublishing.com/pdf/60-5010-OSpirit_Congregation.pdf |website=ECS Publishing Group |access-date=10 July 2023}}

Other uses

The tune has been played at various major events:

Secular songs written to the tune include:

|url = http://www.lawrence.edu/about/trads/lyrics.shtml

|title = Lawrence University: College Songs of Past and Present

|accessdate = 1 July 2008

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20010306075049/http://www.lawrence.edu/about/trads/lyrics.shtml

|archivedate = 6 March 2001

}}

| url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/lionhearts-mw0000787714

| title=Lionhearts track listing at allmusic.com

| website=AllMusic

| accessdate=19 November 2015

}}

Other uses of the melody include:

  • The credits theme for the 2001 Sega video game Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force.{{Cite web|title=Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force soundtrack credits|url=https://vgmdb.net/album/4485}}{{Cite web|title=Kentaro Kobayashi's Jupiter arrangement from Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Force| website=YouTube |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAH6LueMapM |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211214/QAH6LueMapM |archive-date=2021-12-14|url-status=live}}{{cbignore}}
  • The Civilization V soundtrack as the theme of the English civilization.
  • The children's show Bluey used the tune in a second season episode named "Sleepytime".

A literary reference appears in "The Adventure of the Lost World",originally published 2004 online in BBCi Cult Sherlock Holmes Magazine, and reprinted in The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, ed. John Joseph Adams. San Francisco: Night Shade Books ({{ISBN|978-1597801607}}), 2009. a Sherlock Holmes pastiche written by Dominic Green, where the tune is a major plot element, though the story contains a chronological error in that its Autumn 1918 setting would pre-date the publishing of the tune under the name "Thaxted".

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [http://www.mutopiaproject.org/ftp/HolstGT/Thaxted/Thaxted-let.pdf Thaxted sheet music] (PDF)
  • {{YouTube|Y3shwA1DdVw|Orchestral Performance of Thaxted}}.

{{Gustav Holst}}

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Category:Choral compositions by Gustav Holst

Category:Hymn tunes

Category:1921 songs

Category:The Planets