Cyril Argentine Alington (1872-1955), who wrote the words of this hymn, was born in Ipswich, the son of a school inspector who was also a C of E priest.  Educated at Marlborough College (founded for the sons of C of E clergy) and at Trinity College, Oxford, he was elected to a Fellowship of All Souls in 1896.  In that year he became a Master at Marlborough, and three years later he became a Master at Eton College.  He was ordained to the priesthood in 1901.  In 1908 Alington became Headmaster of Shrewsbury School and in 1917 he returned to Eton as Headmaster; in that year he also received the degree of Doctor of Divinity from Oxford.  He left Eton in 1933, on being appointed Dean of Durham Cathedral, where he served until 1951.  (He had earlier refused the Deanship of Canterbury.)  From 1921 to 1933 he was a Chaplain in Ordinary to King George V.  In addition to a handful of hymns (another that we sing is “Ye who know the Lord is gracious”), Alington wrote 50 books on religious subjects and other non-fiction, as well as fiction, including a series of detective novels and an opera. He died in St Weonards in Herefordshire.

The text first appeared in 1933 in Alington’s Eton Faces, a volume of essays on his leaving the school. It was then published with music (Walter Parratt’s “Obiit”) in the Eton College Hymn Book in 1937.  But the hymn was later published in various hymn books with several different tunes.  (A&M uses Harwood’s “St Audrey.”)  We sing a French tune from the 19th century or earlier, published in Le Recueil noté, Lyon, 1871 and in Chants ordinaires de l’office divin, Paris, 1881, as the setting for Tantum ergo, and  in some hymn books the tune is called “Tantum ergo (French).”  The same tune is also called “Grafton,” a name used first in the 1925 Songs of Praise, edited by Vaughan Williams, Percy Dearmer and Martin Shaw.  There, it is said to be a “traditional French melody.”  The title “Grafton” is a bit of a mystery; there are some conflicting statements about it, and some that are simply false!  There is also a shape-note tune from the U.S. called Grafton.  Stay tuned.

 

Join us on Sunday, October 20 as we sing!