Hymn of the Week No. 6 - AUSTRIAN HYMN - Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken

It is once again time for the next, long-overdue hymn of the week. With school starting up, much of my free time has been taken up practicing repertoire, and I made a sort of executive decision to put this series on hold and record as I could. So, my uploads may not be very regular during the school year, but I will still put out videos (especially for this series) as I am able. Yesterday, I was practicing at the church I will be playing at this week, so I decided to make a quick and dirty recording setup for a quick and dirty recording, just to get something out there. This week's hymn is a very famous tune, originally titled "Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser" in German. It was composed by Franz Joseph Haydn in 1797 as a patriotic hymn for Francis II, the last Kaiser of the Holy Roman Empire, which Austria (Haydn's native country) was a part of at the time. The hymn has since been adapted for many uses, sacred and secular, and is the tune used for the national anthem of Germany, "Deutschland über Alles." Unfortunately, its use by the Nazis during the era of the Third Reich has left a black mark on the history of this music, and to this day some institutions may hesitate to use it owing to this negative connotation. However, it is a beautiful hymn tune with a rich history which ought to be reclaimed, and over the years such has been the case that its use has become more and more widespread again. In the United States, the tune (called AUSTRIAN HYMN or simply AUSTRIA) is most regularly paired with the text "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken," though a large selection of other popular texts exists, including "We Are Called to Be God's People," "God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens," "Word of God Across the Ages," and others. Recorded at First Presbyterian Church, DeLand, on Wednesday, September 9.