That Day Of Wrath, That Dreadful Day

For Second Advent

Words: Dies iræ, dies illa, Thomas of Celano, Order of Friars Minor, Thirteenth Century.
Translation:  Sir Walter Scott, 1805

Music: Numerous tunes have been created for this text.
Meter: LM

Source: Walter Scott, The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme; Edinburgh: A Constable and Co., 1805; Printer: James Ballantyne, Edinburgh.), Canto VI, XXXII, pp. 192-193.

HYMN FOR THE DEAD.

1. That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?

2. When, shrivelling like a parched scroll,
The flaming heavens together roll;
When louder yet, and yet more dread,
Swells the high trump that wakes the dead!

3. O! on that day, that wrathful day,
When man to judgment wakes from clay,
Be Thou the trembling sinner's stay,
Though heaven and earth shall pass away!

Notes:

In the first publication of 1805, the words "Be Thou" were in small caps.

This section is XXXII, and not XXXI as commonly seen.

At Hymntime, a number of tunes were suggested for this text including:

• "St. Cross," John B. Dykes, in Hymns Ancient and Modern, 1861
• "Abbotsford," Catholische Geistliche Gesänge (Andernach, Germany: 1608)
• "Adwell," Lowell Mason, Carmina Sacra (Boston, Massachusetts: John H. Wilkins & Richard B. Carter, 1844), page 40
• "Irae," Joseph Barnby (1838-1896)
• "Llef," Griffith H. Jones, 1890
• "Preserve Us, Lord," medieval melody
• "Shepherds," anonymous, in Hymnal and Canticles of the Protestant Episcopal Church with Music, by Walter B. Gilbert & Alfred B. Goodrich (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1883), number 3
• "Zephyr," William B. Bradbury, 1844

All have associated an MIDI file, a score in Adobe PDF format, and a score in NoteWorthy Composer format. See: That Day of Wrath. http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/t/h/a/thatdayo.htm

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