A morning hymn, Z 198 (Henry Purcell)

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(Posted 2013-07-26) CPDL #29716:

Editor: Oliver Doyle (submitted 2013-07-26). Score information: A4, 3 pages, 59 kB Copyright: CPDL

Edition notes: In the original key, as appears in Harmonia Sacrae, Vol. I (1714), though probably best performed at 392. (a tone lower).

General Information

Title: A Morning Hymn

Composer: Henry Purcell

Number of voices: 1v Voicing: S
Genre: Sacred, Sacred song

Language: English
Instruments: Basso continuo

First published: 1714
Description: Sacred Song for solo voice, published posthumously.

External websites:

Original text and translations

English text

Thou wakeful shepherd, that does Israel keep,
Rais’d by thy goodness from the bed of sleep,
To thee I offer up this hymn
As my best morning sacrifice;
May it be gracious in thine eyes
To raise me from the bed of sin.
And do I live to see another day,
I vow, my God, henceforth to walk thy ways,
And sing thy praise
All those few days
Thou shalt allow.
Could I redeem the time I have mis-spent
In sinful merriment?
Could I untread
Those paths I led?
I would so expiate each past offence
That ev’n from thence
The innocent should wish themselves like me
When with such crimes they such repentance see.
With joy I’d sing away my breath,
Yet who can die so to receive his death?