Wayland Rogers: Hush, My Babe SATB & harp

A setting of the poem by the prolific 17th century English hymn writer, Isaac Watts (1674-1748) for solo soprano, mixed choir (SATB) and harp (or piano). The poem is the last of forty-six poems to be found in his collection, "Divine and Moral Songs". These poems, published in 1715, were expressly written for the moral education of children and were intended to be sung by them to the familiar psalm tunes of the day. Through the years the poem, which originally had 14 verses, has been set to many hymn tunes. The composer of "Restoration", this haunting pentatonic melody, is unknown. Like most early American hymn tunes it was probably an Anglo-Saxon secular song newly fitted with sacred words. It first apears in "Southern Harmony" an important shape-note hymnal published in 1835 by William Walker.