Carl Boberg

Carl Gustav Boberg (August 16, 1859 – January 07, 1940) was a Swedish poet, writer, and elected official, best known for writing the Swedish language poem of "O Store Gud" (O great God) from which the English language hymn "How Great Thou Art" is derived.

Biographical details

Born in Mönsterås, Kalmar County in Småland, Boberg was a carpenter’s son, worked briefly as a sailor, and served as a lay minister in the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden. He was the editor of a weekly Christian newspaper, Sanningsvittnet (Witness of the Truth), from 1890 until 1916. Boberg served in the Swedish Parliament for 20 years from 1912 to 1931. He published more than 60 poems, hymns and gospel songs,^[1] including a collaboration with Swedish hymnist Lina Sandell.^[2]

↑ Technically a gospel song differs from a hymn in that the gospel song invariably has a refrain and customarily (though not always) uses a less stately cadence. The gospel song, as a musical form, spread widely in Protestantism during the 19th century and to a lesser extent in Roman Catholicism; Eastern Orthodox churches largely continue to adhere to chants in the worship per se. Unless altered considerably, O STORE GUD and "How Great Thou Art" form a gospel song. "Amazing Grace" (when sung to its own familiar tune, which lacks a refrain) is a hymn.
↑ These and other facts are detailed by Forrest Mason McCann (1997), Hymns & History: An Annotated Survey of Sources (Abilene, TX: ACU Press), ISBN 0-89112-058-0 , pp. 224-225, 360, 584.