Evening Psalms: "All Praise To Thee, My God, This Night”
"All Praise To Thee, My God, This Night" is also known as the "Evening Hymn." It is part of Thomas Ken (1637–1711) 's three-part hymn sung or recited during particular parts of the day. Apart from the "Evening Hymn," the two other parts of the triad hymn are the "Morning Hymn" and the "Midnight Hymn." In fact, "All Praise To Thee, My God, This Night" is the first line of the hymn rather than its title.
As mentioned, this hymn was one of Ken's masterpieces and appeared with the "Morning Hymn" in 1692. These two hymns appeared in a pamphlet titled A Morning and Evening Hymn Formerly Made by a Reverend Bishop, printed by Richard Smith and Henry Playford's Harmonia Sacra, or Divine Hymns and Dialogues (1693). This hymn was also published in Ken's A Manual of Prayers for the Use of the Scholars of Winchester College. The Evening Hymn has appeared 952 in hymnals. It uses the 8.8.8.8 meter.
The hymn has twelve stanzas with four lines each. In some versions, it can be as short as seven or four stanzas. It was inspired by Psalm 92:1. The tune was “Tallis' Canon”, created by Thomas Tallis (1505 – 1585), an English composer who lived in Tudor England. Tallis was a famous musician in the 16th century and a figure in English church music. People also credit him as one of England's most significant early composers. He has thirty-eight credited melodies to his name. Out of these thirty-eight melodies, Tallis' Canon is the most used and most recounted from this collection with 223 mentions. It was said that 1567 was the year when Tallis' Canon was created.
The Vesper Hymn is another tune used for this hymn. This tune was created by Asa B. Everett (1828-1875) in the Wesleyan Hymn and Tune Book The Vesper Hymn is a direct translation of the Evening Hymn as the word 'vesper' is another term for the evening.
