HENDON
HENDON was composed by Henri A. Cesar Malan (b. Geneva, Switzerland, 1787; d. Vandoeuvres, Switzerland, 1864) and included in a series of his own hymn texts and tunes that he began to publish in France in 1823, and which ultimately became his 432 DEDICATION AND OFFERING great hymnal Chants de Sion (1841). HENDON is thought to date from 1827. Lowell Mason brought the tune to North America and published it in his Carmina Sacra (1841); that version is the one published in the Psalter Hymnal. Hendon is a village in Middlesex, England. Because HENDON has five phrases, the text has to repeat its fourth line in each stanza to fit the music. Try singing in two units, grouping the first two phrases together and then the last three. Articulate the repeated tones clearly on the organ. Malan’s harmo nization is a good one for part singing by the entire congregation. Antiphonal perfor mance may be best when singing the entire six stanzas; stanza 3 is a perfect candidate for unaccompanied singing. Educated at the College of Geneva, Malan intended to become a businessman but instead was led to a ministerial career. In 1810 he was ordained in the National Reformed Church of Switzerland. A popular preacher at the Chapelle du Temoignage in Geneva, he attacked the formalism and liberalism of the national church and urged both a return to strict Calvinism and the need for conversion. When the church forbade him access to its pulpits, Malan had a church built in his garden and continued to prea Liturgical Use: Christian worship that emphasizes dedication, offering, or commitment—for example, after the sermon, as an offertory hymn, for ordination or commissioning, for profes sion of faith, for the dedication or anniversary of a church or congregation; fits well with many stewardship themes.
Stanza Arc
The narrative or theological arc traced by this tune's stanzas: Petition for peace → Appeal to God's mercy → Trust in divine faithfulness → Affirmation of God's supreme attributes