Difference between revisions of "Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound"

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As a common-meter lyric ([[8 6 8 6]], Amazing Grace can be sung to literally thousands of extant tunes. While for over a century ''New Britain'' has been overwhelmingly the most popular choice, inextricably linked with the hymn in the minds of John Doe and Jane Q. Public, it is not the only tune to which the text has been sung.
 
As a common-meter lyric ([[8 6 8 6]], Amazing Grace can be sung to literally thousands of extant tunes. While for over a century ''New Britain'' has been overwhelmingly the most popular choice, inextricably linked with the hymn in the minds of John Doe and Jane Q. Public, it is not the only tune to which the text has been sung.
  
*[[New Britain]] by [[James P. Carrell]] (1787 - 1854) and [[David Little Clayton]] (1801 - 1854), 1831
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*[[New Britain]] by [[James P. Carrell]] (1787 - 1854) and [[David S. Clayton]], 1831
 
*[[Land of Rest]]
 
*[[Land of Rest]]
 
*[[Amazing Grace (Ritchie)]] (see [http://www.geocities.com/cigneto/thctxt/en/amazinggr1.html this page at TTT-Himnaro Cigneta])
 
*[[Amazing Grace (Ritchie)]] (see [http://www.geocities.com/cigneto/thctxt/en/amazinggr1.html this page at TTT-Himnaro Cigneta])

Revision as of 02:36, 28 July 2007

Amazing Grace is the customary title of one of the best-known hymns, written (as usually sung, all but the last stanza) by John Newton, who originally entitled it Faith's Review and Expectation when he published it in his Olney Hymns in 1779. Its customary tune is New Britain. The stanza beginning "When we've been there ten thousand years", often sung as the last stanza of "Amazing Grace", is not part of the hymn as written by John Newton, but is by an unknown poet, published as early as 1829.

Sheet Music

Tunes

As a common-meter lyric (8 6 8 6, Amazing Grace can be sung to literally thousands of extant tunes. While for over a century New Britain has been overwhelmingly the most popular choice, inextricably linked with the hymn in the minds of John Doe and Jane Q. Public, it is not the only tune to which the text has been sung.

It can be an interesting and amusing exercise - and with discipline, a worshipful one - to try singing a text as well known as this to an unexpected (yet 8 6 8 6) tune. For example, Amazing Grace can be sung well to "House of the Rising Sun" as well as to the theme song of the TV show Gilligan's Island.

Lyrics

External Lyrics