Abyssinia (Jacob French)

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(Posted 2018-01-20) CPDL #48495:

Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2018-01-20). Score information: Letter, 1 page, 54 kB Copyright: Public Domain

Edition notes: Oval note edition. Some measures transposed, to make Counter part singable by Altos. Three more stanzas included from Relly's hymn.

(Posted 2018-01-20) CPDL #48494:

Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2018-01-20). Score information: 7 x 10 inches (landscape), 1 page, 68 kB Copyright: Public Domain

Edition notes: Note shapes added (4-shape). Some measures transposed, to make Counter part singable by Altos. Three more stanzas included from Relly's hymn.

General Information

Title: Abyssinia
First Line: Greatly beloved
Composer: Jacob French
Lyricist: James Relly

Number of voices: 5vv Voicing: SSATB
Genre: Sacred Meter: 44. 468. 44. 46

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1789 in The New American Melody, pp. 34-35, for five voices: Two Trebles, Counter, Tenor, and Bass
Description: Spelling "Abysina" in original. Words by James Relly, 1776, with eight stanzas.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

1. Greatly beloved,
Of God approved;
Ere time began,
Jehovah's darling man
Possessed his nature, love, above;
There man is known,
While angels own,
Above them far,
This bright and morning-star.

2. When all beheld,
With wonder filled,
The glorious grace
Sparkle in Jesus' face;
We, worms, as wholly blind in mind,
Could not discern
What did concern
Our hearts alone,
That orb in which we shone.

3. But God would show,
To us below,
His grace and choice,
While we in heart rejoice;
And this revealed by blood, when God
Became a man;
And then began
In love to cure
Our nature, blind, impure.

4. The Work was great,
It made him sweat,
Blood-rivers flowed,
He groaned and cried aloud;
While sorrows rent his heart with smart
Unspeakable:
The pains of Hell,
Infernal wrath,
Encompassed him in death.

5. With many tears,
And unknown fears,
Heart-breaking sighs,
Infinite agonies,
Wounds, blood, and bruises fresh, his flesh
All over fill;
In anguish, still,
He yields his breath
To the accursed death.

6. Fail nature's laws;
The sun withdraws;
With dreadful crack,
The rocks asunder break;
Convulsed creation shakes, earth quakes;
All old things die,
Non-entity,
Passed over all
That lived by Adam's Fall.

7. Hence came the hour,
When God, with power,
Raised from the dead
The members, and the head;
In that one perfect man, the plan
Of grace we fee,
Where Christ and we
Were named in one,
The Father's only Son.

8. His joy fulfilled
In every child:
We, in that grace,
Behold the Father's face
In that exalted man, we can
Forever view,
That love, so true,
Which did us raise
To never-ceasing praise.