Hope of all the earth

When it comes to Protestant hymns, it’s hard to do better than the Wesley boys. Charles Wesley wrote some of the most stirring worship songs around, which were put to use in the early Methodist church days (which brother John founded with him and George Whitefield), when preachers needed to rouse the congregants to fervent worship. Wesley’s opus numbers in the thousands; today we’re having one for Advent, “Come Thou, Long Expected Jesus”.

This one has been set to several melodies; I’ll give you two versions. First up, the one set to the tune Stuttgart, written by a contemporary of Wesley’s, Christian Witt (sadly, after a long trawl through YouTube, this was the best example I could find; where are the Methodist choirs ready to belt this one out?):

I’ve also heard it set to the Welsh tune “Hyfrydol”:

Each has its fine points; each does the text proud.