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We Three Kings

KDM Story Continued …

John junior was ordained a deacon and served as first instructor in

church music at the Seminary, and he founded and edited the “Church

Journal” from 1853 to 1868. His interest in New York’s Ecclesiological

Society allowed him to use his artistic talents in designing stained-glass

windows, episcopal seals, and a variety of other church ornaments. At

the same time, his musical talents led him to compose a number of

hymns and tunes of which “We Three Kings” was one of them in 1857.

John junior was known as “controvertialist musician,” and he combined

old world influences into his compositions. He wrote the basic part of

“We Three Kings” for a children’s Christmas play, and it became part of

his “Church Journal” from 1853 to 1868. The tune and song of “We

Three Kings” (also later known as “We Three Kings of Orient Are”) was

in his book, “Great Hymns of the Church” which he edited in 1887.

Oddly enough the melody was not well known until after his death, and

it only became popular in the early 1900s with many folk musicians

adding variations to it.

John junior never married, but was remembered as a down-to-earth

man with many accomplishments as a scholar, writer, preacher,

musician, poet, and artist. John junior was well known and respected

and even delivered the eulogy at the funeral of President Ulysses S.

Grant in 1885. He died at Hudson, N.Y. in 1891.

“Shaun,

That KelticDead Guy”

Patrick O. Young,

KelticDead Music

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Made public image of painting by Bartolome Esteban

Murillo. “Adoration of the Magi.”

KelticDead Music