Sounding ChildhoodMain Menu30 Selections from the Top Ranking Hymns for ChildrenAlphabetical Index of Hymn TitlesScoresRecordingsTimelineCredits, 2015 Recording & WebsiteCredits, Permissions and CopyrightWorks CitedRehearsal VideosPart 2--Songs for School and PlayPart 3--Bands of Mercy SongsAlisa Clapp-ItnyreAlisa Clapp-Itnyre ea81b58f96dc50ac6f0312cb8dfd4bbc7d5bfddcSOUNDING VICTORIAN Project 2016
There is a happy land
12017-06-23T17:37:12+00:00Donal Hegartyd91ac6951fc09687a65f62d6a62eb9d3c37c260311Recording: Children’s Choir, June 2015, in two parts.plain2017-06-23T17:37:12+00:00Donal Hegartyd91ac6951fc09687a65f62d6a62eb9d3c37c2603
12017-06-23T18:44:12+00:00There is a happy land4plain2017-07-13T16:46:00+00:00“There is a happy land” was written by Andrew Young (1843), a teacher in Scotland, who based it on a rhythmic “Indian air” called “Happy Land” which he happened to hear played on the piano by a friend. His hymn was to be used in his own Edinburgh school, but he then allowed Rev. James Gall to publish it in Sacred Song Book (1843). According to hymnologist John Julian, it was “heard in Sunday Schools all over the world,” having been translated by various missionary organizations (A Dictionary of Hymnology 1161). In dactylic dimeter and a 6.4.6.4.6.7.6.4 hymn meter, its rhythm carries the lines, as do the unusual rhyme scheme (ABABCCCB) and refrains that punch the meaning. The second stanza especially invokes the reader to “Come to this happy land” and questions “Why will ye doubting stand?” The third stanza reminds the singer, “Bright is that happy land […] Love cannot die.” By the conclusion, the narrator encourages his readers through the rhetoric of a competitive race: “On, then, to glory run,/ Be a crown and kingdom won” (v. 3). The tune (labelled “Happy Land”) may be the most appealing aspect of this hymn, created by its use of two simple, repeated, yet invigorating melodic phrases.
More discussion of this hymn can be found in Chapter 6 in British Hymn Books for Children.
