All Things Bright and Beautiful

About this arrangement

The children’s hymn, with William Henry Monk’s tune of 1887, written out as refrain, verse and refrain. The refrain opens with a leap: “All” is the C above middle C and “things” drops to E, and later “crea-tures” leaps back up from D to B. The right hand stays between middle C and the C above, so the hand moves within the phrase. The verse, “Each lit-tle flower that o-pens”, moves into G major, with an F sharp in most bars and a G sharp on “he” in bar 12. The left hand plays a bass note and a chord on each half bar, through C, F, A minor, G7, E minor, D7 and, under the G sharp in bar 12, E7.

Practice tip: Mark the F sharps in bars 9 to 15 before you start. In bar 2, count the dotted crotchet, “beau”, as one and a half beats so “ti” comes in late.

The words

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all. Each little flower that opens, each little bird that sings, he made their glowing colours, he made their tiny wings. All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

A short history

The words are by Cecil Frances Alexander (1818 to 1895), and were first published in 1848 in her Hymns for Little Children, a book written to explain the Apostles’ Creed to children. This hymn takes the line about God as “maker of heaven and earth” and fills it with flowers, birds, mountains and rivers. Several places in Wales, Ireland and England claim to be the “purple-headed mountain” and “the river running by”.

The tune used here was written for the words in 1887 by William Henry Monk (1823 to 1889), an English organist who was music editor of Hymns Ancient and Modern and also wrote the tune for “Abide with Me”. Another tune, adapted from an old English folk melody, is often sung in British schools.

Only the refrain and the first verse are given here.

Quick facts

Tune

William Henry Monk, 1887

Words

Cecil Frances Alexander, 1848

Key

C major

Time signature

4/4

Length

24 bars

Tempo

Joyfully, crotchet = 100

Difficulty

Level 6: Moving on (piece 185 of 201)

Type

Hymn

Hands

Both: melody in the right hand, chords in the left

Copyright

Public domain tune; arrangement by Digital Greenhouse, free for personal and classroom use

Questions and answers