This tune [EVAN], "the popularity of which in Scotland, America, and the Colonies is quite unprecedented" (Tonic Sol Fa Reporter, May 15, 1870), consists of the 1st, 2nd, 7th, and 8th strains of "O Thou dread Power" a sacred song by the Rev. W.H. Havergal, the melody being unaltered. EVAN II is the entire melody of the same song, harmonized by the author as a C.M.D. about the year 1867. The following note, written upon a copy of EVAN, given as autograph at the request of a friend, supplies his own account of its origin:
"EVAN, framed by Dr. Lowell Mason of New York, from a sacred song, 'O thou dread Power,' by W.H. Havergal, M.A., original air first published in 1847. The beautiful words of the sacred song were written by Burns for the family of Dr. Lawrie. The music to them is in triple time, and in the key of A-flat. The tune EVAN comprises only part of the original melody. As the American arrangement was a sad estrangement, I have reconstructed the tune after a more correct form. Why it was called EVAN I know not. Still I do not approve the tune. Leamington, March 19th, 1870. W.H. Havergal."
—Havergal’s Psalmody and Century of Chants (London: R. Cocks, 1871), p. xix.
Havergal, William Henry, M.A, son of William Havergal, was born at High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, 1793, and was educated at St. Edmund's Hall, Oxford (B.A. 1815, M.A. 1819). On taking Holy Orders he became in 1829 Rector of Astley, Worcestershire; in 1842, Rector of St. Nicholas, Worcester; and in 1860, Rector of Shareshill, near Wolverhampton. He was also Hon. Canon in Worcester Cathedral from 1845. He died April 18, 1870. His hymns, about 100 in all, were in many instances written for special services in his own church, and printed as leaflets. Several were included in W. Carus Wilson's Book of General Psalmody, 1840 (2nd ed., 1842); and in Metrical Psalms & Hymns for Singing in Churches, Worcester, Deighton, 1849, commonly known as the W… Go to person page >
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