- Style
- Bluegrass
- Tradition
- American hymn (New Britain)
- Form
- Hymn
- Key
- G
- Level
- 1
- Played on
- Voice
In the public domain. Source
Music
80bpm
Click any note to start from there
Chord chart
History
John Newton, a former slave trader turned Church of England curate, wrote the words for a New Year's Day sermon at Olney in 1773, and they were printed in Olney Hymns in 1779 with no music. For decades the verses were sung to more than twenty different tunes.
The melody now used, "New Britain," was put together from two anonymous tunes, "Gallaher" and "St. Mary," first printed in the Columbian Harmony in Cincinnati in 1829. William Walker joined it to Newton's words in his shape note book Southern Harmony in 1835, and Edwin Othello Excell's hymnals of the early 1900s made that pairing the standard one in American churches.
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound) That sav'd a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, Was blind, but now I see.