The composer Herbert Howells lost a son, Michael, in childhood, and a number of his compositions were deeply affected by that bereavement. However, no memorial from his hand stands more firmly than this tune that bears his son’s name. Robert Bridges based the words of the hymn on one by Joachim Neander. In it he leads us through the ‘changes and chances of this fleeting world’ towards the new things that God has in store for us, with a wonderful point of affirmation in the two short lines towards the end of each verse, picked up by the tune. This was written in about 1930, at the request of Dr Thomas Fielding, for use in the school chapel at Charterhouse. The composer said that he received the request by the morning post and wrote the tune over breakfast. It remained in public-school use only until it burst into popularity in the churches with its inclusion in 1969 in the supplements to
The Methodist Hymn Book and
Hymns Ancient and Modern.
from notes by Alan Luff © 1999
;)
