Come Thou Long Expected Jesus: A Song History

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Charles Wesley's Advent favourite first appeared in his pamphlet Hymns for the Nativity of Our Lord, as two eight-line stanzas printed without a heading or a tune[1]. The date is often muddled. Wesley prepared the eighteen hymns of the collection for Christmas 1745, and the Duke Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition dates the first London printing to 17 December of that year, with this text as Hymn X[2]; the Hymnology Archive gives the same date[1]. Hymnary.org and some other references nevertheless date the hymn 1744[3][4]. The little book proved popular: by the Duke edition's count it went through at least 25 British printings before Wesley's death[2].

Hans Memling painting of the angel Gabriel greeting Mary, who is supported by two angels in a bedchamber

Hans Memling, The Annunciation, oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 1480–89. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public domain (CC0). Shown for its Advent theme; it has no direct connection to the hymn.

Although written for a Christmas collection, the hymn has settled into the weeks before Christmas. Writing for Discipleship Ministries, C. Michael Hawn observes that it now belongs mainly to Advent and, for a great many Christians, marks the season's start; he also points out that it reached an American Methodist hymnal in 1847, decades before a British Methodist one[4]. Hymnal lectionary indexes recommend it for several Advent Sundays[3], and the Hymnology Archive calls it "best suited for the season of Advent"[1].

The words have travelled with several tunes. The earliest setting, a tune called NATIVITY HYMN in Harmonia-Sacra (1767), is known from that book alone[1]. Today the most common partner is STUTTGART, which comes from Christian Friedrich Witt's Psalmodia Sacra of 1715; according to the Hymnology Archive, the pairing seems to begin with J. Ireland Tucker's Hymnal with Tunes, Old and New (New York, 1872), and the tune HYFRYDOL by Rowland Prichard has been sung to the text since at least 1912[1]. The Presbyterian Glory to God (2013) prints the text to both tunes[5], while the Lutheran Evangelical Lutheran Worship (2006) sets it to JEFFERSON, a minor-key tune from Walker's Southern Harmony (1835)[6]. In the sources consulted here, none says which of these tunes folk or dulcimer players usually mean by the title.

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Sources

  1. Hymnology Archive (Chris Fenner): "Come, thou long-expected Jesus".
  2. Duke Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition: "Nativity Hymns (1745)".
  3. Hymnary.org: "Come, Thou long expected Jesus".
  4. Discipleship Ministries (C. Michael Hawn): "History of Hymns: Hymn expresses longing for arrival of our Savior".
  5. Hymnary.org: "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" (Glory to God, 2013, No. 82).
  6. Hymnary.org: "Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus" (Evangelical Lutheran Worship, 2006, No. 254).