Awake, my soul, and with the sun

Author: Thomas Ken in Man­u­al of Pray­ers for the Use of the Schol­ars of Win­ches­ter Col­lege, 1674.

Ken wrote this hymn at a time when the es­tab­lished church be­lieved on­ly Script­ure should be sung as hymns—with an em­pha­sis on the Psalms. Some con­sid­ered it sin­ful and blas­phe­mous to write new lyr­ics for church mu­sic, akin to ad­ding to the Script­ures. In that at­mo­sphere, Ken wrote this and sev­er­al other hymns for the boys at Win­chest­er Col­lege, with strict in­struct­ions that they use them on­ly in their rooms, for pri­vate de­vo­tions. Iron­ic­al­ly, the last stan­za has come into wide­spread use as the Dox­ol­o­gy, per­haps the most fr­equent­ly used piece of mu­sic in pub­lic wor­ship. At Ken’s request, the hymn was sung at his fun­er­al, fit­tingly held at sun­rise.



Music:

Tune 1:  MAINZER
Composer:  Joseph Mainzer, c. 1845.

Tune 2:  DAWN
Composer:  Joseph Funk, in A Com­pil­a­tion of Gen­u­ine Church Mu­sic, 4th edition, 1847.

Tune 3:  MORNING HYMN
Composer:  François Hippolyte Bar­thé­lé­mon, 1845.

Bar­thé­lé­mon wrote this mu­sic for these words, at the re­quest of an or­phan­age chap­lain in Lon­don; it was first pub­lished in A Sup­ple­ment to the Hymns and Psalms Used at the Asy­lum or House of Ref­uge for Fe­male Or­phans, print­ed for Wil­liam Gaw­ler, or­gan­ist to the Asy­lum (Lon­don: cir­ca 1785).


Tune 4:  THE MORNING WATCH
Composer:  Carl F. Price, 1913.


Tune 5:  OLD HUNDREDTH
(Particularly for the final verse, sung as the Dox­ol­o­gy in many churches.)

Composer:  Attributed to Louis Bourgeois, Genevan Psalter, 1551.
(no picture)

Born:  Circa 1510, Paris, France.
Died:  1561, Paris, France.

Bourgeois fol­lowed John Cal­vin to Ge­ne­va, Swit­zer­land, in 1541. He be­came a can­tor at the Church of St. Pierre, and ed­it­ed the Ge­nev­an Psalt­er. At one point, he was jailed for mo­di­fy­ing some well known tunes. For­tun­ate­ly, hym­nists do not face such strict pen­al­ties to­day. Bour­geois re­port­ed­ly left Ge­ne­va in 1557.


Tune 6:  TALLIS' CANON
(CS preferred; used in Methodist Hymnal)

Composer:  Thomas Tallis, in The Whole Psal­ter Trans­lat­ed in­to Eng­lish Me­tre, by Mat­thew Park­er, 1560.  See also Tunes for Archbishop Parker's Psalter.


The following text is from Hymns Ancient and Modern (1869).  Cyberhymnal.org and Hymns.me.uk give a slightly different version.

            "I myself will awake right early."

 1.   AWAKE, my soul, and with the sun
       Thy daily stage of duty run;
       Shake off dull sloth, and early rise
       To pay thy morning sacrifice.

 2.   Redeem thy mis-spent time that's past.
       And live this day as if thy last;
       Improve thy talent with due care.
       For the great day thyself prepare.

 3.   Let all thy converse be sincere.
       Thy conscience as the noon-day clear;
       Think how all-seeing God thy ways
       And all thy secret thoughts surveys.

 4.   By influence of the Light divine
       Let thy own light in good works shine
       Reflect all heaven's propitious rays
       In ardent love and cheerful praise.

 5.   Wake and lift up thyself, my heart,
       And with the angels bear thy part,
       Who all night long unwearied sing
       Glory to the Eternal King.

6.   I wake, I wake, ye heavenly choir,
       May your devotion me inspire,
       That I like you my age may spend,
       Like you may on my God attend.

 7.   May I like you in God delight,
       Have all day long my God in sight,
       Perform like you my Maker's will,
       O may I never more do ill.

 8.   Had I your wings to heaven I'd fly,
       But God shall that defect supply,
       And my soul, winged with warm desire,
       Shall all day long to heaven aspire.

 9.   Glory to Thee Who safe hast kept
       And hast refreshed me while I slept;
       Grant, Lord, when I from death shall wake,
       I may of endless light partake.

10.  I would not wake, nor rise again,
       E'en heaven itself I would disdain,
       Wert Thou not there to be enjoyed,
       And I in hymns to be employed.

11.  Heaven is, dear Lord, where'er Thou art,
       O never then from me depart;
       For to my soul 'tis hell to be
       But for one moment without Thee.

12.  Lord, I my vows to Thee renew,
       Scatter my sins as morning dew;
       Guard my first springs of thought and will,
       And with Thyself my spirit fill.

13.  Direct, control, suggest this day
       All I design, or do, or say;
       That all my powers with all their might
       In Thy sole glory may unite.

14.  Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
       Praise Him, all creatures here below;
       Praise Him above, angelic host;
       Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.