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He was a hymn and spiritual writer, author and
clergyman born the eldest of eight children in Southampton, England, whose
father was a twice-imprisoned religious Nonconformist. He studied the classical languages,
i.e. Hebrew, Latin and Greek, at the King Edward VI School in Southampton, which
now has a house named in his honour, and then a Dissenting Academy in Stoke
Newington, London, where he would also join an Independent congregation in
1693. After leaving education
when he was 20 he returned to Southampton and over a period of two years wrote
many of the works that would be sung in the Southampton Chapel and eventually
appear in his Hymns and Spiritual Songs of 1707-1709. He became a tutor in Stoke
Newington, employed by John Hartopp, who was an acclaimed Puritan, and he would
spend the next six years teaching his son and in personal study, moulding
his own philosophies and theological views. Becoming a
preacher he gave his first sermon when he was 24 and by the time he was 28,
in 1702, he was ordained a pastor of an Independent Chapel in Stoke
Newington. Ill health began to
plague him and after suffering a debilitating fever in 1712 he was invited
to stay with Sir Thomas Abney and his wife at their home in Cheshunt,
Hertfordshire. The University
of Edinburgh awarded him a degree as Doctor of Divinity in 1728 and he
would return to Stoke Newington with the widow and daughter of Sir Thomas
Abney around 1735, where he would stay until his death at age 74. His publications included The
Divine and Moral Songs for the Use of Children and The Psalms of
David in the Language of the New Testament and of his 750 hymns and
spirituals we will see such titles as "Behold What Wondrous Grace", "Come,
Let Us Lift Our Joyful Eyes", "Great is the Lord Our God", "Come Ye That
Love the Lord" and his ever popular "Joy to the World". His poem "Against Idleness and
Mischief" was parodied as "How Doth the Little Crocodile" in Alice in
Wonderland and his book Logic was used as a text at Yale,
Harvard and Oxford for over a century, even though he could not enter into
Oxford for his religious beliefs. Much of his work is contained at Yale University after
being presented to it due to its founding by Independents and he is
commemorated on 25th November by the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod in their Calendar of Saints.
Joy
to the World recordings (Isaac Watts/Lowell Mason/George Frideric
Handel)
Black Dyke Mills Band
Chandos 4541 (CD: A Christmas Fantasy)
Boston Pops
Philips 416 287 - 2 (CD: We Wish You a Merry Christmas)
Conductor - John
Williams
DG 419 414-2 (CD: White Christmas)
Conductor - Arthur
Fiedler
RCA 09026-61685-2 (CD: Pops Christmas Party)
Conductor - Arthur
Fiedler
Sony SK 48232 (CD: Joy to the World)
Conductor - John
Williams
Tanglewood Festival Chorus
Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Naxos 8.990005 (CD: Joy to the World)
Conductor - Richard Hayman
Rochester Pops Orchestra
Koch CHD 1531 (CD: Joy to the World - Carols for
Orchestra and Chorus)
St Louis
Philharmonic Orchestra
Sonari records - 7 55724 00272 3 (CD: Christmas with
the Philharmonic)
Conductor - Robert
Hart Baker
Sources:
- http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/w/a/t/watts_i.htm
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Watts
- http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Heritage/isaac.htm
- http://www.urc.org.uk/documents/isaac_watts/watts_index.htm
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