We Three Kings Of Orient Are
John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
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Browse piano sheets by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. on Zen Virtual Piano. John Henry Hopkins, Jr. became an ecclesiologist after his birth in Pittsburgh, where he had 12 siblings. His father, an Episcopal bishop of Vermont, had also been an ironmaster, a school teacher, a lawyer and a priest. When that father founded the Vermont Episcopal Institute, he picked his son as a tutor and disciplinarian there. The younger Hopkins played the flute and bugle in the school orchestra and taught Sunday school. A school founded by his father, beside a Sunday school class Hopkins taught himself, may suggest teaching ran through his early years. After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1839, Hopkins returned to help his father with the school, which had to close that year when a financial crisis hit. He worked as a reporter in New York City while studying law. A throat ailment took him south, and from 1842 to 1844 he tutored the children of Episcopal Bishop Elliott of Savannah, Georgia. His Sunday school class and his tutoring of Bishop Elliott's children both cast Hopkins in the role of teacher. Hopkins graduated from General Theological Seminary in 1850 and was ordained a deacon, serving as the first instructor in church music there. From 1853 to 1868 he founded and edited the Church Journal. A priest from 1872, he served as rector at Trinity Church in Plattsburg, New York, for four years, and then led Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport until 1887. In 1885 he delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S Grant. The music post of 1850, beside the funeral eulogy of 1885 for a President, may point to a public role that stretched across several decades of his life. Hopkins wrote both the words and the music of the carol We Three Kings of Orient Are, based on the journey of the magi in Matthew 2:1-12. Contemporary carol composers usually wrote either the lyrics or the music but not both. According to UMC Discipleship, he wrote it around 1857 and it was first published in his Carols, Hymns, and Songs in 1863, though the Hymnology Archive says the carol was probably not written or first sung until 1858. In his printings Hopkins indicated that a male trio sings the outer stanzas in parts, with the three interior stanzas sung as solos, and the music is set in the G clef to suit children. If Hopkins wrote both words and music for the carol, then his post as first instructor in church music and his years editing the Church Journal may show him working with both music and the written word. According to Hymnary.org, Hopkins was a great developer of hymnody in the Episcopal Church in the mid-19th century. Interested in New York's Ecclesiological Society, he showed artistic talent in designing stained-glass windows, episcopal seals and other church ornaments. Do the flute and bugle he played in the school orchestra, set beside the windows and seals he designed, show music and visual design both figuring in his life?
Browse piano sheets by John Henry Hopkins, Jr. on Zen Virtual Piano.
John Henry Hopkins, Jr. became an ecclesiologist after his birth in Pittsburgh, where he had 12 siblings. His father, an Episcopal bishop of Vermont, had also been an ironmaster, a school teacher, a lawyer and a priest. When that father founded the Vermont Episcopal Institute, he picked his son as a tutor and disciplinarian there. The younger Hopkins played the flute and bugle in the school orchestra and taught Sunday school. A school founded by his father, beside a Sunday school class Hopkins taught himself, may suggest teaching ran through his early years.
After graduating from the University of Vermont in 1839, Hopkins returned to help his father with the school, which had to close that year when a financial crisis hit. He worked as a reporter in New York City while studying law. A throat ailment took him south, and from 1842 to 1844 he tutored the children of Episcopal Bishop Elliott of Savannah, Georgia. His Sunday school class and his tutoring of Bishop Elliott's children both cast Hopkins in the role of teacher.
Hopkins graduated from General Theological Seminary in 1850 and was ordained a deacon, serving as the first instructor in church music there. From 1853 to 1868 he founded and edited the Church Journal. A priest from 1872, he served as rector at Trinity Church in Plattsburg, New York, for four years, and then led Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport until 1887. In 1885 he delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S Grant. The music post of 1850, beside the funeral eulogy of 1885 for a President, may point to a public role that stretched across several decades of his life.
Hopkins wrote both the words and the music of the carol We Three Kings of Orient Are, based on the journey of the magi in Matthew 2:1-12. Contemporary carol composers usually wrote either the lyrics or the music but not both. According to UMC Discipleship, he wrote it around 1857 and it was first published in his Carols, Hymns, and Songs in 1863, though the Hymnology Archive says the carol was probably not written or first sung until 1858. In his printings Hopkins indicated that a male trio sings the outer stanzas in parts, with the three interior stanzas sung as solos, and the music is set in the G clef to suit children. If Hopkins wrote both words and music for the carol, then his post as first instructor in church music and his years editing the Church Journal may show him working with both music and the written word.
According to Hymnary.org, Hopkins was a great developer of hymnody in the Episcopal Church in the mid-19th century. Interested in New York's Ecclesiological Society, he showed artistic talent in designing stained-glass windows, episcopal seals and other church ornaments. Do the flute and bugle he played in the school orchestra, set beside the windows and seals he designed, show music and visual design both figuring in his life?
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John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
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John Henry Hopkins, Jr. became an ecclesiologist after his birth in Pittsburgh, and he wrote both the words and the music of We Three Kings of Orient Are.
Hopkins was ordained a deacon after graduating in 1850, founded and edited the Church Journal from 1853 to 1868, and was ordained a priest in 1872.
The carol appeared in his Carols, Hymns, and Songs in 1863. UMC Discipleship dates the writing around 1857, while the Hymnology Archive says it was probably not written until 1858.
Hopkins showed artistic talent in designing stained-glass windows, episcopal seals and other church ornaments.