| Lo! He comes with clouds descending | |
| Genre: | Hymn |
| Text: | John Cennick, Charles Wesley |
| Written: | 1758 |
| Meter: | 8.7.8.7.4.7 |
| Melody: | "Helmsley" by Thomas Olivers, "Regent Square" by Henry Smart |
"Lo! He comes with clouds descending" is a Christian hymn by Charles Wesley (1707–1788), based on an earlier hymn, "Lo! He cometh, countless Trumpets" by John Cennick (1718–1755). Most commonly sung at Advent, the hymn derives its theological content from the Book of Revelation relating imagery of the Day of Judgment. Considered one of the "Great Four Anglican Hymns" in the 19th century, it is most commonly sung to the tune Helmsley, first published in 1763.
The text has its origins in a hymn "Lo! He cometh, countless Trumpets" by John Cennick published in his Collection of Sacred Hymns of 1752.[1] This was substantially revised by Charles Wesley for publication in Hymns of intercession for all mankind of 1758.[2] Some hymnals present a combination of the two texts.The content of the text and particularly the title are derived from Revelation chapter 1, verse 7, which tells of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.[3]
In the 19th century it was considered one of the "Great Four Anglican Hymns" on the basis of a survey Anglican Hymnology published by the Rev. James King in 1885. King surveyed 52 hymnals from the member churches of the Anglican Communion around the world and found that 51 of them included this hymn (alongside 'All Praise to Thee, my God, this Night', 'Hark! The Herald Angels Sing' and 'Rock of Ages').[4]
The tune Helmsley is usually attributed to Thomas Olivers, a Welsh Methodist preacher and hymn-writer.[5] Anecdotal stories about the tune's composition suggest Olivers heard the tune whistled in the street and derived his melody from that; the most likely source is an Irish concert song "Guardian angels, now protect me".[3] [5] George Arthur Crawford, in A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (1900), discusses the origin:[6]
The tune of "Guardian Angels" is as follows:[6]
The hymn-tune melody "Helmsley" derived from this tune first appeared in the second edition of Wesley's Select Hymns with Tunes annexed of 1765 under the name of "Olivers":[7]
Crawford disproves the suggestion that the tune is based on a hornpipe from the burlesque Golden Pippin of c.1771, noting the chronology makes it likely that the hornpipe was based on the hymn tune, or at least derived from the shared source "Guardian angels".[6] In some publications, the tune is attributed to Thomas Arne on account of a similarity to an air (possibly "Auspicious spirits guard my love") from Arne's chamber opera Thomas and Sally of 1760, but the resemblance is slight and the date of that opera make this unlikely.[3] [5]
By 1763, the text appeared in print paired with the text "Lo! He comes with clouds descending" in Martin Madan's Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes sung at Lock Hospital of 1763.[8] Madan's version is a combination mostly comprising Wesley's text, but substituting some of Cennick's verses.[3] This presents the tune in a familiar form with only a few stylistic variations compared to the modern tune:
The hymn is occasionally printed and sung with other tunes in hymnbooks including "St Thomas", "Regent Square", "Westminster Abbey", "Kensington New" and "Cum Nubibus".[9] The 1982 Lutheran Worship hymnal sets it to the considerably more sombre tune Picardy.[10]
Brooke Foss Westcott, Bishop of Durham, recalled in 1901 that Queen Victoria was displeased after an organist played a different tune at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and requested only Helmsley in future.[3] [11]