Oh For a thousand tongues to sing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O9kw3cILpg

We recently sang this in church—but to a more familiar tune by C.G. Glaser (1828).  Since Charles Wesley wrote it in 1739, I wondered what music had been used in the intervening 90 years.  Perhaps this one, but the YouTube didn’t give information on the music. Additional information from the web:

“ Lowell Mason’s (1792-1872) arrangement of the Carl G. Gläser (1784-1829) tune AZMON is used with “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” in the UM Hymnal. Gläser was a German composer and contemporary of Beethoven. Though Charles Wesley’s text has been sung to a number of tunes through the years, AZMON is the dominant choice throughout the hymnody of the mainline denominations.” https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-o-for-a-thousand-tongues-to-sing

“If I had a thousand tongues, I would praise Christ with them all.” So said Peter Böhler to Charles Wesley, inspiring the first line of the classic hymn, “Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing, my great Redeemer’s praise” (Psalter Hymnal Handbook.) Written to celebrate the one year anniversary of Charles’ conversion to Christianity, this declaration of Christ’s power and victory in his own life, rich in Biblical imagery of the Kingdom of God, becomes our own hymn of praise. We stand with the angels before the throne of God, lifting our voices as one church to glorify the one who “bids our sorrows cease.”

And yet, we also sing in the knowledge that the Kingdom of God is not yet fully realized. We proclaim Christ’s victory as a declaration of hope that we will see Christ reign over all. We stand with the voiceless, the lame, the prisoner, and the sorrowing, and lift our song of expectation. (Bulletin blurb, https://hymnary.org/text/o_for_a_thousand_tongues_to_sing_my#authority_media_flexscores)

The original hymn had 18 stanzas. The seventh stanza became the first stanza of the hymn that we now know.  We sang four.