Virtual accompanist
Play “The Christian Child”
Free same-meter accompaniment for The Christian Child (Reginald Heber): organ, piano or guitar playing the tune ST. ANNE (William Croft) in four-part harmony, 6 verses, with the words on screen. Choose the key and speed, add an introduction, project the words on a TV, or practice your own choir part. Made for churches and home groups without a musician.
Sung here to ST. ANNE (William Croft), a Common Meter (8.6.8.6) tune — not necessarily the tune usually paired with this text. Any tune in the same meter fits the words.
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- 1By cool Siloam’s shady rill,
- How fair the lily grows;
- How sweet the breath beneath the hill
- Of Sharon’s dewy rose:
- 2And such the child whose early feet
- The paths of peace have trod,
- Whose secret heart, with influence sweet,
- Is upward drawn to God.
- 3By cool Siloam’s shady rill
- The lily must decay;
- The rose that blooms beneath the hill
- Must shortly fade away;
- 4And soon, too soon, the wintry hour
- Of man’s maturer age
- May shake the soul with sorrow’s power
- And stormy passion’s rage.
- 5O Thou, whose infancy was found
- With heavenly rays to shine,
- Whose years, with changeless virtue crowned,
- Were all alike divine,--
- 6Dependent on Thy bounteous breath,
- We seek Thy grace alone,
- In childhood, manhood, and in death,
- To keep us still Thine own.
About this music
ST. ANNE — William Croft. Setting: composite found in "The Lutheran Hymnary", 1913.. The score is from the Open Hymnal Project, copied from 'The Lutheran Hymnary', 1913, Hymn 261. Arrangement is composite, first half from "Hymns Ancient and Modern", 1869, Hymn 231. ed William Henry Monk Second half is from "The Hymnal Companion to the Book of Common Prayer", 1890, Hymn 279. ed. Charles Vincent, D.J. Wood, John Stainer; music and setting are in the public domain. The words above are from the hymnal cited on the The Christian Child page.
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