Said to be a "Greek Air," CALCUTTA was one of the popular national tunes used by Dublin's Thomas Moore (1779-1852) in his Sacred Songs (1816). Arthur S. Sullivan (PHH 46) adapted it for congregational singing and published it in his Church Hymns with Tunes (1874). The tune is named CALCUTTA because of its association with "From Greenland's Icy Mountains," a text by Reginald Heber (PHH 249), who was the Anglican bishop of Calcutta at the time of his death.

CALCUTTA is a bar form (AAB) with a harmonization that invites part singing.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook