For the Beauty of the Earth

DESCRIPTION: "For the beauty of the earth ...of each hour ... the joy of ear and eye ... of human love ... thy church ... thy self ... Lord of all to thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise"
AUTHOR: Words: Folliott S. Pierpont (1835-1917), Music: Conrad Kocher, "abridged" by William Henry Monk (source: McKim; it has also been sung to a Bach chorale)
EARLIEST DATE: 1864 (Orby Shipley, _Lyra Eucharistica_, second edition, according to McKim)
KEYWORDS: nonballad religious beauty
FOUND IN: US(SE)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 68, ("For the joy of ear and eye") (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, p. 331, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (notes only)
Tobitt-TheDittyBag, pp. 150-151, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Tobitt-YoursForASong, pp. 41-42, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsNThings, p. 105, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
Zander/Klusmann-CampSongsPopularEdition, p. 55, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 50, "For the Beauty of the Earth" (1 text, 1 tune)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "God Who Touches Earth with Beauty" (theme)
NOTES [253 words]: GarrityBlake-FishFactory, p. 68: "hymn sung at Reedville's 'Blessing of the [menhaden] Fleet'". - BS
According to McKim, Folliott S. Pierpont was born at Bath, England and earned a degree from Queen's College, Cambridge. He taught for a few years, then inherited enough money to travel and write. This is his best-known piece, written as a communion hymn. When it was published in 1864, it was called "The Sacrifice of Praise," which was the text used in the final line: "Christ, our God, to thee we raise This our sacrifice of praise." Pierpont wrote it to enliven otherwise joyless worship services.
Rudin, p. 58, says it was written for "Flower Services" as well as communion.
Rudin, p. 59, says the common tune for this, "Dix," predates the text; it gained its name because it was used for William Dix's "As With Gladness Men of Old," but had been written in 1838 by Conrad Kocher (1786-1872).
"Dix" is certainly the tune I learned with the hymn, and hymnary.org says that the substantial majority of hymnals that contain it use "Dix," but Nettel, p. 32 says it is sung to the tune "Shirley," by Frederick Arthur Challinor (1866-1952). I wonder if that might not be the more common tune in Britain, with "Dix" used in America.
Challinor is somewhat ironic as an author, as he came from one of the "pottery towns" of England (Nettel, p. 31), where he had originally worked as a pit boy. Surely someone involved in the pottery industry would have an especial affinity for beautiful things made of earth (clay). - RBW
Bibliography

McKim: LindaJo H. McKim, Presbyterian Hymnal Companion, Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993
Nettel: R. Nettel, Music in the Five Towns 1840-1914: A Study on the Social Influence of Music in an Industrial District, Oxford University Press, 1944
Rudin: Cecilia Margaret Rudin, Stories of Hymns We Love, John Rudin & Company, 1934 (I use the fourteenth printing of 1951)

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