CAPETOWN was originally composed by Friedrich Filitz (b. Arnstadt, Thuringia, Germany, 1804; d. Munich, Germany, 1876) as a setting for the text "Morgenglanz der Ewigkeit"; that text and tune were included in Vierstimmiges Choralbuch (1847), a hymnal compiled by Baron Christian von Bunsen and published by Filitz. After earning a doctorate of philosophy, Filitz became active in music editing and publishing in Berlin, where he lived from 1843 to 1847, and in Munich, where he lived from 1848 to 1876. He also published a collection of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century hymns, Vierstimmige Choralsätze ( 1845) .

CAPETOWN was soon published in England; Peter Maurice arranged it for publication in his Choral Harmony (1854) as a setting for Reginald Heber's litany "Lord of Mercy and of Might." CAPETOWN is presumably named after the legislative capital of South Africa. It is a simple but elegant tune in an unusual meter. Sing stanzas 1 through 4 in parts, reserving stanza 5 for a stately unison finale with an additional bright stop on the organ. This tune needs to move on a half-note pulse and slightly slower on stanza 5.

--Psalter Hymnal Handbook