February Carillon Tune

Goddard Chapel’s carillon presently features the tune “St. Columba.”  The melody is presumed to be an ancient Irish church melody, and received its name from a beloved 6^th-century Irish saint credited with spreading Christianity in present-day Scotland. Sir Henry Baker (1821-77) crafted the text often associated with this tune (“The King of Love My Shepherd Is”) not merely by paraphrasing Psalm 23, but by going a step farther and substituting distinctly Christian imagery for key phrases.  Thus, “Lord” becomes “The King of Love,” and the psalm’s “still waters” are changed into “streams of living water.”  Another phrase refers to the Eucharistic banquet.  An Anglican priest, Baker was a member of the committee which prepared Hymns Ancient and Modern, a ground-breaking 1861 publication of great hymns of the English-speaking churches.