We end the First Round with a matchup between two musicians, Isaac Watts and Catherine Winkworth. Naturally, we're calling this the Battle of the Bands. Watts was a prolific Anglican hymn writer whose greatest hits catalogue would be well known to church goers. Winkworth, also a Brit, is credited with bringing the German chorale tradition to the English-speaking world.
Yesterday, Martin de Porres trounced John of Beverley 84% to 16% and will face Dymphna in the next round.
It's hard to believe, but the Saintly Sixteen begins tomorrow! Vote today and stay tuned. Our Lenten journey continues...
Isaac Watts
Isaac Watts, famously thought of as the father of English hymnody, was born in Southampton, England, on July 17, 1674. Whereas many English people were members of the Church of England, Isaac’s identity as a Nonconformist shaped his vocation and ministry. He received a classical education in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and demonstrated a proclivity to rhyme at an early age. As he grew older and progressed in his studies, he was offered a scholarship to study at Oxford or Cambridge as a candidate for ordination in the Church of England. He refused this opportunity and chose to study at the Dissenting Academy at Stoke Newington. He was ordained as a Nonconformist minister in 1702 and served a congregation in London for ten years.
Isaac is credited with writing between 600 and 750 hymns, a quarter of which are still in popular use. Many of his hymns were metrical adaptations of the psalms for use in English-speaking congregations. His hymn-writing was said to flow from his own personal faith, described as “gentle, quiet, sturdy, and deeply devout.” The Hymnal 1982 contains seventeen of Isaac’s hymns including “Joy to the world,” “From all that dwell below the skies,” and “When I survey the wondrous cross.”
In addition to hymns, Isaac wrote a textbook called Logic. The full name of the book likely did not fit on the cover: Logic, or The Right Use of Reason in the Enquiry After Truth With a Variety of Rules to Guard Against Error in the Affairs of Religion and Human Life, as well as in the Sciences. The book defined logic as a practical art and became a standard text in universities and among philosophers.
Isaac spent the last few decades of his life largely out of the public eye because of health complications. He continued writing sermons and hymns as well as writing on less religious topics such as the English language and logic. He died in 1748.
Collect for Isaac Watts
God of truth and grace, you gave Isaac Watts singular gifts to present your praise in verse, that he might write psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs for your Church: Give us grace joyfully to sing your praises now and in the life to come; through Jesus Christ our Savior, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Catherine Winkworth
Born in 1827, Catherine Winkworth had a way with words. When Catherine was a sixteen-year-old British school girl, General Charles James Napier conquered the Indian province of Sindh. The conquest was unauthorized and brutal. When Catherine heard about it, she told her teacher that Napier’s dispatch should have read “Peccavi,” Latin for “I have sinned.” It was a dark twist on what the dispatch presumably was,“I have Sindh.”
The pun was sent to the humor magazine, Punch, and became a meme that traveled through history.
Catherine’s cleverness continued to serve her well in her calling. She translated hundreds of German hymns into English and introduced English audiences to the German chorale tradition. She labored to make sure that the translated songs retained the poetry, rhythm, and meaning of the originals.
In 1852, Catherine began to work among the poor in the Sunday School and District Visiting Society. This society gathered volunteer teams to visit poor people in their homes to provide help and comfort. Long after she left this work, Catherine received letters from the people she met and helped. Her compassion was evident in her translation of biographies of founders of sisterhoods for the poor and sick: Life of Pastor Fliedner and Life of Amelia Sieveking. Winkworth not only served people who lived in poverty, but she also had a passion for women’s rights and advocated for higher education for women and girls.
In 1878, Catherine went to care for her nephew, who was disabled. Soon after, she had a pain in her heart and died within an hour.
Collect for Catherine Winkworth
Comfort your people, O God of peace, and prepare a way for us in the desert, that, like your poet and translator Catherine Winkworth, we may preserve the spiritual treasures of your saints of former years and sing our thanks to you with hearts and hands and voices, eternal triune God whom earth and heaven adore; for you live and reign for ever and ever. Amen.
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202 comments on “Isaac Watts vs. Catherine Winkworth”
Having been raised by church musician parents and being one myself for over 60 years, this was a difficult choice. In hymnody, I lean heavily on Watts and Wesley, but was pleased to learn more about Catherin Winkworth and voted for her in hopes that more will learn of her and all her works.
I voted for Isaac Watts. During the Battle of Springfield (NJ, my home town), part of the Revolutionary War, the American soldiers ran out of ammunition. They were ordered, "Give 'em Watts, boys." The soldiers tore pages from the hymnals, rolled them up, stuck them in their guns, and shot them. Not that this did any good, but.... (Your fun, historical fact for the day! And, it's a statement I quoted just last month at a music class I was teaching in Phoenix.)
Thanks for that, Lucille. I'm a history lover from Freehold where St. Peter's got shots in the steeple for being Anglican.
A tough choice! Even though I adore puns, I voted for Isaac Watts because of my shared enjoyment of music and logic. This was a very difficult vote today, SEC!
Took me three hours to decide, but I'm going with Isaac. Both Isaac and Catherine devoted their lives to worthwhile work. However, Isaac stands far above most of his fellow hymn-composers; "Joy To the World" does seem inspired. He was ahead of his time in advocating for education for poor children and for women (thank you, Kim, for that info in your comment). His text on logic was a strong and good influence on other thinkers. And even in his last years, when his health was bad, he continued to compose hymns and write.
Catherine's work with the poor, opposition to colonialism, and authorship of biographies are commendable, but she was one of many and doesn't stand out among her peers as Isaac does. She did valuable work translating hymns, but on balance I think Isaac's contributions merit advancement to the Saintly Sixteen.
As of 8:12 Pacific Standard Time, Catherine was ahead.
I still can't decide between them. They are both impressive, and I will cheer for whichever wins.
Also, today's winner will go up against Eglantyne Jebb in the next round. A good bit of Catherine Winkworth's support today has been for her work with the poor, but I predict that Jebb's work in founding Save the Children will trump that. A match between Jebb and Isaac Watts would be fascinating -- kind of a body versus soul contest.
I distrust a "proclivity to rhyme," but I also object to calling a pun in Latin a "meme." This one is really a coin toss. I voted for Catherine because of her work with the poor. I was more moved by the fact that they wrote her letters than by her translations of German songs. I am struck in today's match-up by the importance of literacy and universal education. May we take education seriously in this country and provide a quality, safe education for all students. Peccavimus.
Some people do have a rhyming proclivity.
It surfaces unbidden in our daily activity.
It’s no great blessing, much more like a curse:
The search for a rhyme makes it hard to be terse
When that’s what’s required; and still more worse
It ruins our grammar and makes our discourse silly,
But rhyme we must, willy-nilly, nilly-willy.
rhyme on oh Silly Ones.
To rhyme in time
is not a crime
To speak in verse
not such a curse.
"Like"
I so enjoy your comments.
Watts has my vote. 15 hymns in our UMC hymnal all original including Joy To The World.
Winkworth's hymns (only 14) in our UMC were all translations.
Watts was a nonconformist by correct reason and logic. What more can be said.
I delight in puns, and know that good translating is difficult and important work. But when I survey the wondrous breadth of his work -- especially that most moving hymn -- the lyric theologian gets my vote. And these days, we are also sorely in need of all the logic we can get!
I am no fan of old hymns - it’s the archaic musicality that sets my hair on fire mostly. When faced with having to sing a hymn in church (I stick to the contemporary service), I look down at the credits and think, “surely there is something more relevant to today than something written in 1750....” However, I do love the hymns as spiritual poetry.
In light of that, I have had the most fun with Catherine’s collection and have found many a great line to end a note to a friend.
Having voted, I must buzz and hit all those flowers and make today’s honey.
"Winkworth not only served people who lived in poverty, but she also had a passion for women’s rights and advocated for higher education for women and girls."
And with that my vote was decided.
I was already inclined to vote for Isaac Watts because in this year’s Lent Madness “just” making intellectual contributions is getting seriously slammed. Also because I actually sing more of his hymns than Winkworth’s. And then I Googled him, and learned what a revolutionary he was.
Just as one example, from this article https://www.songsandhymns.org/people/detail/Isaac-Watts: “The popularity of Isaac Watts' hymns caused a tempest in his day. In his day, English congregations predominately sang Psalms, so singing verses that were of ‘human composure’ (such as ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross’) caused great controversy….In America, in May 1789, Rev. Adam Rankin told the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, meeting in Philadelphia: ‘I have ridden horseback all the way from my home in Kentucky to ask this body to refuse the great and pernicious error of adopting the use of Isaac Watts' hymns in public worship in preference to the Psalms of David.’”
Watts on his philosophy: “"Where the Psalmist describes religion by the fear of God, I have often joined faith and love to it. Where he speaks of the pardon of sin through the mercies of God, I rather choose to mention the sacrifice of Christ, the Lamb of God. Where He promises abundance of wealth, honor, and long life, I have changed some of these typical blessings for grace, glory and life eternal, which are brought to light by the gospel, and promised in the New Testament."
He was troubled all his adult life by physical and psychiatric illness. Yet he hung in there, and as well as a being a scholar and path-breaking author, he was a faithful pastor and charismatic preacher. And apparently also a really sweet guy.
We couldn’t have had Catherine’s hymns without Isaac’s. He has my vote.
This is incredibly interesting. I wish I had read this before casting my vote. Thank you.
You're welcome! That's the joy of Lent Madness. I wouldn't have been moved to learn more about Isaac without it.
Thank you THANK you. What a wonderful support of my vote.
When Catherine heard about it, she told her teacher that Napier’s dispatch should have read “Peccavi,” Latin for “I have sinned.” It was a dark twist on what the dispatch presumably was,“I have Sindh.”
This sealed the deal for me. I wish I had that sort of wit.
Brilliant pun did it for me, too!
And also with me.
Kappa Waugh I have to agree with you. Diane Waugh. Ps. Could we be related? So few Waugh's out there!
Thank you.
When you sing, you pray twice.
This was another tough one. But since Phoebe the Deacon was defeated, much to my heartbreak, I had to go with Catherine, for her writing about Theodor Fliedner, the founder of the deaconess movement in Germany (which spread to many countries and continues in the lay deaconess/home missioner order in the United Methodist Church).
Catherine. I was named after my mother's twin. Five of us have been named after her. Even her grandchildren named their children after her. She sang in the choir for something like 50 years. And my granddaughter is named after her. She adored each one of us. In her later years she said to me one day that it made her feel better when I was in town, just because I was there. All of us miss her.
This is third time I've gotten a message that I've already posted or something that means that. I'm done commenting.
Only for today, I hope.
Isaac. He was in the lead right from Isaac vs. Catherine because hanging on the wall of my office (by way of the "Keep Calm and Carry On Page-a-Day Calendar) is a quote from Isaac: "What's amiss I'll strive to mend, And endure what can't be mended." Added to all the hymns I like and his scholarship, and it was easy to vote for him. Kudos to Catherine for her good works and translations.
While 'Joy to the World' is a joy to the world, as a disability advocate with a twisted sense of humor, I felt the need to support Catherine.
I looked up some of the hymns Catherine translated. Turns out “Decl thyself my soul with gladness” is among them, one of my favorite hymns. Swayed my vote over to Catherine.
Four words: Joy to the World. [mic drop]
I own quite a few hymnals (the "newest" dating back to over 30 years ago). When I look in the indices, all of them have more hymns written/translated by 3 people whose last names start with "w" than any others: Watts, Winkworth, and (Charles) Wesley. The later has his Golden Halo! Let's get the second this year...and then the third! Today, I'm on Isaac.
"I have Sindh" is making my head hurt as I try to figure out if it really was opposition to colonialism or simply clever. As Napier has often been credited for the comment, I wondered if there really was criticism behind it or not. Anyone know more?
I'm with Isaac. And I wish I had a degree from the Dissenting Academy on my resume.
Yes, that would be a great addition to my resume also.
Joy to the World and the Right Use of Reason (which we could use more of, int he church and outside it). A quiet revolutionary battling ill health, and supportive of education for all. My vote goes to Isaac Watts.
First I was going to vote for Watts, then I was being swayed by Catherine's work for others. In modern times though, I think Watts' _Logic_ is badly needed, so I'm going back to him.
This was a really hard one for me to choose. I love so many of Watts' hymns, embedded so deeply in my heart, but Catherine's work along with her hymnody is a wonderful example of what God calls us to be.
Last year on my Christmas cards, I wrote a couple of verses of a Christmas hymn by Martin Luther (From Heaven unto Earth I Come), kind of in honor of his 500th anniversary (still can't believe he didn't get the 2017 Golden Halo). One of the recipients jokingly responded, "I didn't know Martin Luther could write that well in English." Well, that hymn had been translated by Catherine Winkworth! Just another little nudge for me -- I was going to vote for her anyway based on today's write-ups.
“She labored to make sure that the translated songs retained the poetry, rhythm, and meaning of the originals.” I love the German language and have loved Catherine for many years for that reason. The translations, written in an unforced, spontaneous English idiom, are exquisite in their sensitivity to every nuance of the German text.
It was in large measure through Catherine’s work that we Anglicans received the priceless gift of Lutheran hymnody and made it so our own that many, I suspect, would be surprised to learn that a favorite hymn sprang from a Teutonic source. Not merely the hymns and their often magnificent settings, but also the peculiar (as in “peculiar honors”) spirituality which they embody, have incalculably enriched us.
Oh when the saints in come marching . . .
Silent night, holy night, all 'round yon virgin mother and child is calm . . .
Joy to the world, let earth her king receive, let every heart him room prepare . . .
God ye merry gentlemen rest . . .
Yes, the German very catchy is. I have the syntax well gecaught and eager am my translations to begin.
This one was tough. I was drawn to the nonconformist in Isaac, but Catherine's dedication to the poor is what garnered my vote for her.
Have to go with Issac. I used to sing When I Survey the Wondrous Cross to my kids at night for a lullaby.
(Subliminal indoctrination?) 5 verses and they were asleep!