R. F. Smith: carols and hymn tunes for the church year

About Rev. R. F. Smith

Robert Frederick Smith was born in Sheffield in 1833 and studied at Lincoln College, Oxford. He took orders and became vicar of Edingley-cum-Halam in Nottinghamshire, a country parish not far from Southwell, and he was made a canon of Southwell Minster. He died in 1905.

His music belongs to the Victorian parish revival and to the carol collections that fed it. He wrote tunes for Richard R. Chope's Carols for Use in Church, printed in London in 1894, where his setting carries the name CLYNE and serves the text "The blasts of chill December". He also appears in Carols Old and Carols New, the 1916 compilation, as the composer of "Blithely from the moated churchyard" and "As Mary walked in the garden green". The tunes are modest in compass and built for choirs with little rehearsal, which is why they survive in carol books rather than in anthem collections.

The best-known title in the catalogue is not his text: "The Son of God goes forth to war" is Reginald Heber's hymn of 1812, and the score presents a tune under Smith's name. The rest of the twenty are strophic carols and hymns, mostly four-part and mostly under a minute each, with subjects that run from Advent and Christmas to the boy Christ in the temple and the wedding at Cana.

Listening and playing notes

These are strophic pieces, so the words set the tempo: keep the verse moving and let the last line broaden rather than slowing bar by bar. The harmony is conventional four-part writing, and it thins quickly if the tenor is pushed; aim for a blended, reedy tone with the melody clear on top. In the bell carol, mark the repeated notes lightly so the ringing figure does not turn into a thump, and pronounce the text plainly, since the narrative is the point.

Selected scores

1. The Son of God Goes Forth to War

   The most-viewed entry. The words are Reginald Heber's, written in 1812 for St Stephen's Day; the catalogue files a tune setting under Smith.

2. Hark! The Herald Angels Singing

   A Christmas carol on the angelic announcement, using the older "Singing" form of the title rather than Charles Wesley's "Hark! how all the welkin rings".

3. One Night in Dark December

   A nativity carol that sets the birth in the middle of winter, a common Victorian device for framing the shepherds' watch.

4. Take Me in Thine Arms

   A short devotional piece rather than a seasonal one, in the language of refuge and adoption.

5. The Blasts of Chill December

   Set to Smith's tune CLYNE and printed in Chope's Carols for Use in Church in 1894.

6. Blithely from the Moated Churchyard

   A bell carol: the churchyard bells ring out across a winter landscape. It appears as number 14 in Chope's 1894 collection.

7. In the Midst of the Doctors

   A carol on the twelve-year-old Christ among the teachers in the temple, a subject Victorian children's collections liked.

8. In Cana's Town of Galilee

   A Epiphany-season piece on the wedding at Cana, where the first sign is worked.

9. Look Up to Heaven

   A short hymn of aspiration, the sort of two-verse item that filled the back pages of parish collections.