This is one of the most well known melodies in Western hymnody – also variously known by other titles: “The Doxology” (Thomas Ken, 1764) would be be perhaps the most recognizable in many churches, but
This is one of the most well known melodies in Western hymnody – also variously known by other titles: “The Doxology” (Thomas Ken, 1764) would be be perhaps the most recognizable in many churches, but there have been many other lyrics composed for this music from 1551, originally found in the 2nd edition of the Geneva Psalter, and usually attributed to Loys Bourgeois, who is also believed to be one of the many scholars involved in the translation of the Geneva bible into the English language.
The words are thought to have been written by William Kethe sometime before the first publication of the hymn in 1561. He was probably a Scotsman, fleeing to the continent to escape persecution from the hand of Queen Mary’s dominion.
The hymn appears as well in the Scottish psalter of 1564 and all subsequent English and Sottish Psalters.
