François-Hippolyte Barthélemon
1741 - 1808
Biography
François-Hippolyte Barthélemon (1741–1808) was a French-born violinist, composer, teacher, and orchestral leader who spent much of his career in England. He worked in the London theatrical world and wrote music for the stage as well as ballets, masques, songs, concertos, and symphonies.
Hymnals later adapted or associated some of Barthélemon’s melodies with congregational texts. AUTUMN, commonly linked in hymnological sources with a melody from his 1797 ballad “Durandarte and Belerma,” became an 8.7.8.7 D hymn tune and was used with “Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus” in twentieth-century collections. The tune’s transmission and attribution have a more complicated history than a newly composed congregational melody, so it is best described as a later hymn-tune adaptation associated with Barthélemon rather than as music originally written for Bakewell’s text.
Hymnals later adapted or associated some of Barthélemon’s melodies with congregational texts. AUTUMN, commonly linked in hymnological sources with a melody from his 1797 ballad “Durandarte and Belerma,” became an 8.7.8.7 D hymn tune and was used with “Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus” in twentieth-century collections. The tune’s transmission and attribution have a more complicated history than a newly composed congregational melody, so it is best described as a later hymn-tune adaptation associated with Barthélemon rather than as music originally written for Bakewell’s text.
Hymns by François-Hippolyte Barthélemon
Hail, Thou Once Despised Jesus
Role: Composer