The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #169274 Message #4217442
Posted By: GUEST,henryp
18-Feb-25 - 12:18 AM
Thread Name: Any February Songs?
Subject: RE: Any February Songs?
On 18 February 1678, John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress was published. TO BE A PILGRIM (also commonly known as "He would Valiant be") is the only hymn John Bunyan is credited with writing but is indelibly associated with him. It first appeared in Part 2 of Pilgrim's Progress, written in 1684 while he was serving a twelve-year sentence in Bedford Gaol on a charge of preaching without a licence. The words were modified by Percy Dearmer for the 1906 The English Hymnal. Vaughan Williams collected the tune he used for 'He Who Would Valiant Be' with the song 'Our Captain Calls All Hands'. Transcribed on 22 December 1904 by Ralph Vaughan Williams from the singing of Mrs. Harriet Verrall, of Monks Gate, Sussex, included in the Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. 2, no.8 (1906) and in The English Hymnal (1906). /mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=168839 https://hymnary.org/tune/monks_gate_english https://hymnary.org/tune/monks_gate_english Recordings of To be a Pilgrim / He Who Would Valiant Be, on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=TO+BE+A+PILGRIM+song