"Picardy" is a hymn tune

Hymn tune

A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm , and no refrain or chorus....

 used in Christian

Christian

A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...

 churches, based on a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 carol

Carol (music)

A carol is a festive song, generally religious but not necessarily connected with church worship, and often with a dance-like or popular character....

; it is in a minor key and its meter

Meter (hymn)

A hymn meter or metre indicates the number of syllables for the lines in each stanza of a hymn. This provides a means of marrying the hymn's text with an appropriate hymn tune for singing.-Hymn and poetic meter:...

 is 8.7.8.7.8.7. Its name comes from the province of France

Picardy

This article is about the historical French province. For other uses, see Picardy .Picardy is a historical province of France, in the north of France...

 from where it is thought to originate. The tune dates back at least to the 17th century, and was originally used for the folk song "Jesus Christ s'habille en pauvre". First published in the 1848 collection Chansons popularies des provences de France, "Picardy" was most famously arranged by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1906 for the hymn "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence

Let all mortal flesh keep silence is an ancient chant of Eucharistic devotion based on the verses taken from Habakkuk 2:20 "Let all the earth keep silence before Him"taken from one of the books of the 12 minor prophets of Bible...

", in The English Hymnal, the words of which are taken from the Byzantine Greek Liturgy of St. James translated by Gerard Moultrie

Gerard Moultrie

Gerald Moultrie was a Victorian public schoolmaster and Anglican hymnographer born in England September 16, 1829, at Rugby Rectory, England. His father, John Moultrie was also a hymn writer. He was educated at Rugby and Exeter College...

 a third master and chaplain at Shrewsbury School

Shrewsbury School

Shrewsbury School is a co-educational independent school for pupils aged 13 to 18, founded by Royal Charter in 1552. The present campus to which the school moved in 1882 is located on the banks of the River Severn in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England...

.

In addition, Gustav Holst

Gustav Holst

Gustav Theodore Holst was an English composer. He is most famous for his orchestral suite The Planets....

 used the hymn in his "3 Festival Choruses" Op. 36a.

External links

• Hear tune to lyrics of the Gerard Moultrie hymn "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
  Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
  Let all mortal flesh keep silence is an ancient chant of Eucharistic devotion based on the verses taken from Habakkuk 2:20 "Let all the earth keep silence before Him"taken from one of the books of the 12 minor prophets of Bible...
  
  " at Center for Church Music Song and Hymns page
• French melody Picardy entry at Center for Church Music
• Picardy download score and electronic MIDI annotation file at CyberHymnal
• Preview image of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence from Gather Comprehensive, a Roman Catholic hymnal published online by GIA Hymnprint.Net
• "3 Festival Choruses" download score from IMSLP.ORG