Lyrics:

1. The Lord my pasture will prepare
And feed me with a shepherd’s care.
His presence will my wants supply,
And guard me with a watchful eye.
My noonday walks he will attend
And all my silent midnight hours defend.

2. When in the sultry glebe I faint,
Or on the thirsty mountain pant,
To fertile vales and dewy meads
My weary, wand’ring steps he leads,
Where peaceful rivers, soft and slow,
Amid the cooling verdant landscape flow.

Text: Joseph Addison, 1672-1719
Music: Dmitri Bortniansky, 1751-1825

-History: (Source: Wikipedia)

Written By: Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 – 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine.

Music By: Dmitri Bortniansky

Dmitry Stepanovich Bortniansky (Ukrainian: Дмитро Степанович Бортнянський, Dmytro Stepanovych Bortnians’kyi; Russian: Дмитрий Степанович Бортнянский, Dmitrij Stepanovič Bortnjanskij; also referred to as Dmitry or Dmitri Bortnyansky; 28 October 1751 – 10 October[O.S. 28 September] 1825)^[1] was a Ukrainian composer, who became famous in Imperial Russia.^[2] He was one of the “Golden Three” of his era, along with Artemy Vedel and Maksym Berezovsky. Bortniansky composed in many different musical styles, including choral compositions inFrench, Italian, Latin, German, Old Church Slavonic and Russian.

In 1882, Pyotr Tchaikovsky edited the liturgical works of Bortniansky, which were published in ten volumes. While Dmitry Bortniansky wrote operas and instrumental compositions, it is his sacred choral works that are performed most often today. This vast body of work remains central not only to understanding 18th-century Orthodox sacred music, but also served as inspiration to his fellow Ukrainian composers in the 19th century.

The tune he wrote for the Latin hymn Tantum Ergo eventually became known in Slavic lands as Коль славен (Kol slaven), in which form it is still sung as a Christmas carol today. The tune was also popular with freemasons. It travelled to English speaking countries and came to be known by the names Russia, St. Petersburg or Wells; in Germany, the song was paired with a text by Gerhard Tersteegen, and became a well-known chorale and traditional closing piece to the military ritual Großer Zapfenstreich (the Ceremonial Tattoo). Prior to the October revolution in 1917, the tune was played by the Moscow Kremlin carillon every day at midday.

James Blish, who novelized many episodes of the original series of Star Trek, noted in one story, Whom Gods Destroy, that Bortniansky’s Ich bete an die Macht der Liebe was the theme “to which all Starfleet Academy classes marched to their graduation.”

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