Monday 10 January 2022
Tune of the Day: The Vesper Hymn
arranged for three flutes
This tune first appeared in John A. Stevenson's Selection of Popular National Airs (1818) as a setting for Thomas Moore's “Hark! The Vesper Hymn is Stealing”. A footnote in that hymnal explained that Stevenson had added what is now the first line of the retrain to a “Russian Air”. Some later hymnals attributed the tune to Russian-Ukrainian composer Dimitri Bortniansky, but no tune resembling this one has been found in his published works. For that reason, Stevenson is sometimes recognized as the composer of the tune.
The present arrangement for three flutes is taken from Blake's Young Flutist's Magazine, published in 1833.