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A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns Selected from Various Authors by Richard Allen, African Minister (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1801). This collection, and its Second Edition published the same year with an additional ten hymns, mark the first known compilation by an African American for use in an African American congregation, the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. Richard Allen*, founder and pastor of the church, selected the texts that are included in the volume. No authorial...
A mighty fortress is our God. Martin Luther* (1483-1546), translated by Frederic Henry Hedge* (1805-1890).
This translation of Luther's version of Psalm 46 ('Ein' feste Burg ist unser Gott'*) is the one that is most commonly used in the USA. As expected it is found in Lutheran publications, but it appears in books of all denominations. Hedge's translation, entitled 'Luther's Psalm', was included in the last part ('Supplement') of Hymns for the Church of Christ (Boston, 1853) edited by Hedge...
A stable lamp was lighted. Richard Wilbur* (1921-2017).
According to The Hymnal 1982 Companion, this was written for a candlelight service on 7 December 1958 at Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, prefaced by a quotation from Luke 19: 40: 'I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the very stones would cry out'. It was used by the Wilbur family as its Christmas card in 1958 (Companion, Volume 3A, pp. 203-4, note to hymn 104).
Entitled 'A Christmas Hymn', this was published in...
HYDE, Abigail (née Bradley). b. Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 28 September 1799; d. Andover, Connecticut, 7 April 1872. She was educated at a school in Litchfield, Connecticut; in 1818 she married the Revd Lavius Hyde (1789-1865), a minister at Salisbury, Connecticut. Her husband was dismissed for holding ideas about slavery contrary to those of his congregation, and moved to Bolton, Connecticut. From there he moved to Ellington, Connecticut; Wayland and Beckett, Massachusetts; and then back to...
JONES, Abner. fl. 1830-1860. Around 1815 Jones seems to have lived in Carroll, a town in Chautauqua County, New York. In the 1830s he lived in New York City, near Murray Street Presbyterian Church which supported the founding of Union Seminary, and whose pastor, William D. Snodgrass (1796-1886), may have done some editing with him. Thomas McAuley (1778-1862) succeeded Snodgrass as pastor and became the first President of Union Seminary. Jones also knew Gardiner Spring who was a member of Brick...
While organized efforts to end slavery began in the Anglo-American world early in the 18th century, the abolitionist movement generally refers to the specific fight against slavery that started in the United States around 1830. This movement grew out of many economic, political and cultural changes, including the political struggles over new states and their status as slave or free, the general indifference of the churches to slavery, and the increased economic growth of the 1820s. With the...
TICE, Adam Merrill Longoria. b. Boynton, Pennsylvania, 11 October 1979. Adam Tice spent his growing up years in several states across the USA, ending up in the town of Goshen in northern Indiana. He is a graduate of Goshen College (B.A. in music, 2002), and the Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana (now Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary, AMBS), with an MA in Christian Formation (2006).
It was at AMBS that he wrote his first hymn text. This began a profound and...
POLLARD, Adelaide Addison. b. Bloomfield, Iowa, 27 November 1862; d. New York City, 20 December 1934. She was christened Sarah, but chose the name Adelaide for herself. She attended the Boston School of Oratory, and taught in several girls' schools in Chicago. Although she was brought up a Presbyterian, Pollard's spiritual journey extended to faith healers such as John Alexander Dowie (1847-1907), and preachers of the imminent coming of Christ including her contemporary Frank Sanford...
JUDSON, Adoniram. b. Maldon, Massachusetts, 9 August 1788; d. at sea on the Indian Ocean (Bay of Bengal), 12 April 1850. Judson, considered by many as the first American foreign missionary, spent almost forty years in Myanmar (Burma) where he translated the Bible into Burmese, published religious tracts in the indigenous language, completed a Burmese grammar, compiled a Burmese-English dictionary (published posthumously), established Baptist churches in Myanmar, and authored several...
YearDenomination and EditorsTitleComments
1801
African Methodist Episcopal ChurchRichard Allen*
A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns Selected From Various Authors, by Richard Allen, African Minister
54 Texts only (no music like other hymnals of this period; the authors of text were not included).
1801
African Methodist Episcopal ChurchRichard Allen
A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs from Various Authors, by Richard Allen, Minister of the African Methodist Episcopal...
Introduction
African American Spirituals are considered the first distinctive music genre of African people in the American diaspora. These unique folk songs, born out of the substance and experience of an oppressive sociological environment combined with the natural musical gifts of African peoples in the American diaspora, subsequently became the foundation of ALL African American music forms. Their continued existence and usage around the world attests to the spiritual depth of their roots...
HOMMERDING, Alan Joseph. b. Port Washington, Wisconsin, 19 November 1956. He earned graduate degrees in theology, liturgy and music from St Mary's Seminary in Baltimore and the University of Notre Dame. Additional studies in organ, accompanying and vocal/choral studies were taken at Princeton University, Westminster Choir College and the Peabody Conservatory.
In addition to serving as a church musician and a music advisor for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, Hommerding is Senior...
GOODSON, Albert A. b. Los Angeles, October 1933; d. Los Angeles, December 2003. Goodson was brought up in the Pentecostal church. At the age of twelve he joined St Paul Baptist Church where he apparently received his only formal musical training, and was introduced to gospel music by the church's director of music, J. Earle Hines (1916-60) and pianist Gwendolyn Cooper-Lightner (1925-1999), who in 1946 founded the church's Echoes of Eden Choir, and with others established St Paul's as a center...
RONANDER, Albert Carl. b. Worcester, Massachusetts, 15 December 1914; d. Hyannis, Massachusetts, 16 March 2007. A United Church of Christ pastor and hymnologist, Ronander attended Occidental College, Los Angeles, California, and the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (BA, 1938); he undertook further study at Chicago Theological Seminary, Chicago Illinois (BD, 1941), Union Theological Seminary, New York City (STM, 1950), with post-graduate studies at Harvard University, Cambridge,...
BRUMLEY, Albert Edward. b. near Spiro, Oklahoma, 29 October 1905; d. Powell, Missouri, 15 November 1977. Brumley was born on a cotton farm. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas notes: 'Music, both sacred and secular, formed an important part of Brumley's childhood. His parents were firmly committed Campbellite Protestants, [whose worship excluded instruments] but his father was also a noted fiddler, and his mother enjoyed singing parlor songs. Music was integral to the family's weekly church gatherings...
BAILEY, Albert Edward. b. North Scituate, Massachusetts, 11 March 1871; d. Worchester, Massachusetts, 31 October 1951. Bailey, a foremost author and authority on art and religion, attended Scituate High School, Worchester Academy, and Harvard (BA, 1894; MAEd, 1916). He taught classics, religious education, and English at the Worchester Academy (1891-1910); was head master of the Allen English and Classical School, West Newton, Massachusetts (1900-07); lectured on Eastern-Mediterranean...
MALOTTE, Albert Hay. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 19 May 1895; d. Hollywood, California, 16 November 1964. He is known primarily as the composer of 'The Lord's Prayer' (see Malotte's Lord's Prayer*), found in several hymnals with tune name MALOTTE.
The 1910 US Federal Census indicates that Malotte's father, Charles William Malotte (1874-1953), was the son of John B. Malott (without an e), born in France. Charles owned a bookbindery in Philadelphia; his name and company occur in...
WYTON, Alec (Alexander Francis). b. London, 3 August 1921; d. Danbury, Connecticut, 18 March 2007. After his parents separated, he received his early encouragement from an aunt in Northampton who suggested he learned the piano and organ. When war broke out in 1939, he joined the Royal Corps of Signals but was discharged early owing to a duodenal ulcer. He then went on to the Royal Academy of Music and, in 1943, he became organ scholar at Exeter College, Oxford (BA 1945) where he studied history...
CLARK, Alexander. b. near Steubenville, Ohio, 10 March 1834; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 6 July 1879. Clark was a Methodist Episcopal Church minister. He was at some time at Union Chapel, Cincinnati, Ohio. He is referred to as 'DD' in Sacred Songs and Solos, in which two of his hymns appeared:
Heavenly Father, bless me now*
Make room for Jesus! room, sad heart!
He edited The Methodist Reporter, published in Pittsburgh, from 1870 to 1879. Among his several books were The Old Log School House;...
SCHREINER, Christian Alexander Ferdinand. b. Steinbühl, a suburb of Nürnberg (Nuremberg), Bavaria, Germany, 31 July 1901; Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, 15 September 1987. Schreiner was associated with the Mormon Tabernacle as an organ recitalist for many years and was the Chief Organist from 1965 to 1987. As a member of the General Music Committee of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), he assisted in the preparation of the 1948 LDS hymnal, which includes 10 of his hymn...
ACKLEY, Alfred Henry. b. Spring Hill, Pennsylvania, 21 January 1887; d. Whittier, California, 3 July 1960. Ackley received his early musical training from his father, and later studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London and in New York City to become an accomplished cellist. He graduated from Westminster Theological Seminary, Westminster, Maryland, in 1914, and served Presbyterian churches in Wilkes-Barre and Elmhurst, Pennsylvania, and Escondido, California. Ackley claimed he wrote the...
HAAS, Alfred Burton. b. Shamokin, Pennsylvania, 21 July 1911; d. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, 19 July 1987. Haas attended Bucknell University, Lycoming, Pennsylvania (BA, 1933), and Drew Theological School, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1936; MA 1946 ). In 1938 he was ordained elder in the Central Pennsylvania Conference of the Methodist Church: he served parishes in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York City. Haas taught hymnody and worship at Drew from 1941-1968, attaining the rank of Associate...
SMITH, Alfred Morton. b. Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, 20 May 1879; d. Brigantine, New Jersey, 26 February 1971. Smith was educated at the University of Pennsylvania (BA 1901) and the Philadelphia Divinity School (BD 1905, STD 1911). He was ordained in the American Protestant Episcopal Church (deacon 1905, priest 1906), and served curacies at St Peter's, Philadelphia, and Long Beach, California. He was a priest at St Matthias', Los Angeles (1906-16), a chaplain to the United States army during the...
FEDAK, Alfred Victor. b. Elizabeth, New Jersey, 4 July 1953. Fedak was educated at the Pingry School and Hope College, Holland, Michigan. He graduated with degrees in organ performance and music history in 1975. An MA in organ performance was conferred in 1981 by Montclair State College (now Montclair State University, New Jersey). He undertook additional studies at Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey, The Eastman School of Music, New York, The Institute for European Studies,...
PARKER, Alice. b. Boston, 16 December 1925; d. Hawley, Massachusetts, 24 December 2023. Distinguished, widely celebrated composer, conductor, author and teacher, Parker began composing at the age of eight, and completed her first orchestral score in high school. She studied at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, majoring in music performance and composition (BA 1947), and the Juilliard School of Music, New York City (MS 1949), where her teachers included Robert Shaw (1916-1999), Julius...
All beautiful the march of days. Frances Whitmarsh Wile* (1878-1939).
According to Henry Wilder Foote, American Unitarian Hymn Writers and Hymns (Cambridge, Mass., 1959) (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53833/53833-h/53833-h.htm), this was written ca. 1907 in Rochester with the help of her pastor, William Channing Gannett*. It had three stanzas:
All beautiful the march of days, As seasons come and go; The hand that shaped the rose hath wrought The crystal of the snow; Hath sent the hoary...
All Nature's works his praise declare. Henry Ware, Jr.* (1794-1843).
This hymn is dated 9 November 1822 (JJ, p. 1233). This was during Ware's time as pastor of the Second Unitarian Church at Boston (later incorporated into First Church: see https://www.uuworld.org/articles/exploring-bostons-churches). It was entitled, with nice Unitarian plainness, 'On opening an Organ':
All nature's works his praise declare To whom they all belong; There is a voice in every star, In every breeze a...
All praise to thee, for thou, O King divine. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written in 1938 on Philippians 2: 5-11. It was written for the tune SINE NOMINE, by Ralph Vaughan Williams*, although set in H40 (for copyright reasons) to ENGELBERG, by Charles Villiers Stanford*. It has been frequently used in subsequent books: it is very popular in Britain, and is found in 100HfT and thus in A&MNS, NEH and A&MCP. A modernized version, to avoid 'thee' (but not wanting 'All praise to you...') is...
All the past we leave behind. Walt Whitman* (1819-1892).
This hymn is made up of lines from Whitman's poem 'Pioneers, O Pioneers!', from Leaves of Grass (1882 edition). The first instance that we have found of its use in a hymnbook was in 1925, when Percy Dearmer* included it in SofP. He commissioned Martin Shaw* to write a tune for the unusual metre, which he called PIONEERS.
Sranzas 4-6 of Whitman's poem are the basis of stanza 1 of the hymn:
All the past we leave behind:
We take up the task...
All things are thine: no gift have we. John Greenleaf Whittier* (1807-1892).
Written in 1872 for the opening of Plymouth Church, St Paul, Minnesota, presumably on request. It had five stanzas, with a graceful reference in stanza 3 to the geographical location:
No lack Thy perfect fullness knew;
For human needs and longings grew
This house of prayer, this home of rest,
In the fair garden of the West.
This local reference has led to the omission of this stanza in many hymnals. Without it, the...
All to Jesus I surrender. Judson W. Van De Venter* (1855-1939).
Van De Venter was torn between his ambition to be a great artist, and the call to be an evangelist. While supporting himself by teaching art in Pennsylvania, he resisted the encouragement of those who thought he should be an evangelist. The hymn was written 'in memory of the time, when, after a long struggle, I had surrendered and dedicated my life to active Christian service' (Reynolds, 1964, p. 13). The word 'in memory of a time'...
All who believe and are baptized. Thomas Hansen Kingo* (1634-1703), translated by George Alfred Taylor Rygh* (1860-1942).
Kingo's hymn began 'Enhver som tror og bliver døbt', in his Danmarks og Norges Kirkes forordnede Salmebog (1689) (Milgate, p. 158: this hymnal was not approved by the church authorities, but Kingo's hymn was found in the official book that succeeded it, Den forordnede ny Kirke-Psalme-Bog, 1699, 'The authorized hymn book'). It was translated from the Danish by Rygh as 'He...
All, yes, all I give to Jesus. Jonathan Burtch Atchinson* (1840-1882).
First published in Triumphant Songs No. 2 (Chicago: the Edwin O. Excell Co., 1889), with a tune by Edwin O. Excell* named ESCONDIDO. It was headed 'Dedicated to the “Deaconesses” of America' (Deaconesses were active in several churches and hospitals in the 1880s and 1890s). It had four stanzas:
All, yes, all I give to Jesus, It belongs to Him; All my heart I give to Jesus It belongs to Him; Evermore to be His dwelling,...
Alleluia, alleluia! Give thanks to the risen Lord. Don Fishel* (1950- ).
This popular Easter chant, with five stanzas and a refrain, was written by Fishel in 1971 when he was a student at the University of Michigan. The stanzas are of two unrhymed lines. Stanza 3 quotes Galatians 2: 20, which is an important text for this chant: it was written later than the other stanzas, added when Fishel was preparing for Baptism.
The chant was published in The Word of God (Michigan, 1973), and in Britain in...
See 'Alleluia, song of sweetness'*. The first line as above is that preferred by many books in Canada and the USA, and in H40 and H82 , although the Latin original, 'Alleluya, dulce carmen', is closer to 'sweetness' (dulce = sweet) than to 'gladness'. 'Alleluia, song of gladness' is also the first line in Cooke* and Denton*'s Church Hymnal* of 1853.
CARDEN, Allen Dickinson. b. Virginia or Tennessee, 13 October 1792; d. Franklin, Tennessee, 21 March 1859. Carden compiled Missouri Harmony, first published in 1820. According to a copy of the Carden family Bible in the Tennessee State Library and Archives, the family moved from Fincastle, Botetourt County, Virginia, to Williamsport, Maury County, Tennessee, situated about 50 miles southwest of Nashville. Although the year of the move is not given in the Bible, some accounts indicate that...
Almost persuaded now to believe. Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876)
According to Taylor (1989, p. 7) this was first published in The Charm: A Collection of Sunday School Music (Chicago, 1871). JJ, p. 150, quotes a source to the effect that it was inspired by a sermon from a Revd Brundage, who said, 'He who is almost persuaded is almost saved, but to be almost saved is to be entirely lost.'
The hymn is in three stanzas, sometimes printed with an abundance of quotation marks, which increases the drama....
Alone thou goest forth, O Lord. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written in 1938 and published in H40. It is a free translation of a hymn by Peter Abelard* on the Passion of our Lord, 'Solus ad victimam procedis, Domine'*, found in Abelard's Hymnarius Paraclitensis. Abelard's hymn was written for the nocturnal office on Good Friday at the Convent of the Paraclete where Heloise was abbess. In H82 it is found in the 'Holy Week' section, set to BANGOR, an 18th-century psalm tune. It has been...
HUSBERG, Amanda. b. Chicago, 7 December 1940; d. New York City, 15 February 2021. Amanda Husberg graduated from Concordia Teacher's College (Seward, Nebraska, B.S., 1962) where she studied education, and organ performance with Jan Bender*. Subsequently, she completed her study in early childhood education from Hunter College (New York City, M.S., 1971).
From July 1964 onwards she was the Director of Music at St John the Evangelist Lutheran Church in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Concurrent with her...
The American Guild of Organists (AGO) is an association comprised of organists, choir directors, and other interested people in the United States and abroad whose purpose, according to its mission statement, 'is to enrich lives through organ and choral music.' The Guild was founded in 1896 and currently has approximately 19,000 members. Leadership is by volunteers at the national, regional, and local levels, with a small staff of full-time employees headquartered in New York City. There are...
PILSBURY, Amos. b. Newbury, Massachusetts, 15 October 1772; d. Charleston, South Carolina, 19 October 1812. Pilsbury was a tunebook compiler, composer, and schoolmaster. He is known in hymnology primarily for his compilation The United States' Sacred Harmony (Boston: Isaiah Thomas and Ebenezer T. Andrews, 1799), the earliest tunebook known to include the tunes KEDRON and CHARLESTON. Pilsbury also published a collection of hymn texts, The Sacred Songster (Charleston: G. M. Bounetheau,...
GRANT, Amy. b. Augusta, Georgia, 25 November 1960. A prominent Christian song-writer and pop singer, Grant attended Furman University, Greenville, South Carolina (1978-80) and Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee (1980-81). She grew up in a conservative Church of Christ congregation that did not believe musical instruments were appropriate for worship. Influenced by charismatic theology and practice via Don Finto (1930-) and Nashville's independent Belmont Church, she began writing...
CHAPIN, Amzi. b. Springfield, Massachusetts, 2 March 1768; d. Northfield, Ohio, 19 February 1835. The name is pronounced Am'zeye Chay'pin. Hymn tunes attributed to Amzi in one collection often appear elsewhere attributed to one of his brothers, Lucius Chapin* or Aaron Chapin (1753-1838). In some cases, 'attributed to' should be taken to mean 'arranged by' or 'obtained from'. It was common for tunebook compilers to seek adaptations of existing tunes, and as a result, many tunes were assigned...
DAVISSON, Ananias. b. Shenandoah County, Virginia, 2 February 1780; d. Rockingham County Virginia, 21 October 1857. Davisson is best known as the compiler of the fasola tunebooks Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia, five editions), and A Supplement to the Kentucky Harmony (Harrisonburg, Virginia, three editions).
Little is known about Davisson prior to 1816. His successes beginning that year as a printer of tunebooks suggest that he may have been apprenticed to a printer. Only slightly...
VAN BURKALOW, Anastasia. b. Buchanan, New York, 16 March 1911; d. Wantage, New Jersey, 14 January 2004. She was a hymn writer, hymnologist, geologist, and physical geographer. Born into a family with church music and teaching in its DNA, Burkalow pursued both with passion and dedication throughout her life. Her father, James Turley Van Burkalow (d. 1959) of Salisbury, Maryland, a second-generation Methodist minister, served churches throughout the Hudson Valley area and, after earning a PhD at...
Ancient of Days, who sittest throned in glory. William Crosswell Doane* (1832-1913).
Written in 1886 by Doane, the local bishop, for the bicentenary of the charter for the city of Albany, New York, the first chartered city in America. Its original first stanza refers to the occasion:
Ancient of Days, who sittest, throned in glory,
To whom a thousand years are but a day;
First, on this day that crowns our City's story,
With its two hundred years, to Thee we pray.
This verse was amended...
And God will raise you up on eagle's wings. Jan Michael Joncas* (1951- ). According to the Handbook to the Baptist Hymnal [1991], this was written in 1978, when Joncas was visiting a friend. The friend received a telephone call to say that his father had had a heart attack, from which he died. Joncas sang this song to guitar accompaniment at the service before the funeral Eucharist. It began 'And he will raise you up...'.
It was published in Glory and Praise (Phoenix, Arizona, 1979), and has...
CROUCH, Andraé Edward. b. San Francisco, California, 1 July 1942; d. Los Angeles, California, 8 January 2015. Andraé Crouch began performing as a teenager in his church, directed a choir at a Teen Challenge drug rehabilitation center, and in 1960 formed a singing group, the COGICS, for his Church of God in Christ denomination (Holiness/Pentecostal). He studied at the L.I.F.E. Bible College and Valley Junior College in Los Angeles where in 1965 he founded the 'Andraé Crouch and the Disciples'...
TEICH, Andreas Hans. b. Krefeld, Germany, 5 October 1960. A parish pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Teich studied at Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania (AB, 1982), Christ Seminary-Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago, Illinois (MDiv, 1986). He was ordained in 1986. His pastorates at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Bellevue, Kentucky (1986-1990), and Messiah Lutheran Church, Bay City, Michigan (1994- ), are noted for employing the rich chorale tradition as well as...
ADGATE, Andrew. b. Norwich, Connecticut, 22 March 1762; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 30 September 1793. Adgate, a pupil of Andrew Law*, prominent singing teacher, conductor, and concert organizer, was the son of Daniel Adgate (1734-1764) and Phebe Waterman Adgate (1738-1766). Adgate, who fell victim to an illness that swept through Philadelphia, was described as 'one of the most curious people in all the city. He earned a living as a card maker, but he was Philadelphia's premier music...
LAW, Andrew. b. Milford, Connecticut, 21 March 1749; d. Cheshire, Connecticut, 13 July 1821. Law, a grandson of Jonathan Law (1674-1750), Governor of the Colony of Connecticut (1741-1750), was a tunebook compiler, clergyman, and composer. His Select Harmony: containing in a plain and concise manner, the rules of singing, together with a collection of psalm tunes, hymns and anthems (Cheshire, Connecticut, 1779) became a major influence among many subsequent collections used by singing masters...
WARNER, Anna Bartlett. b. New York, 31 August 1827; d. Constitution Island, 22 January 1915. Born at New York, she moved with her family in 1837 to a farmhouse on Constitution Island, on the Hudson River, after the failure of her father's real estate speculation. She and her sister, Susan Bogert Warner*, wrote many novels, Susan very successfully. Anna used the pseudonym 'Amy Lothrop'. She also wrote hymns for the Sunday school, and translated hymns from French and German. She edited Hymns of...
HOPPE, Anna Bernardine Dorothy. b. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 7 May 1889; d. Milwaukee, 2 August 1941. Hoppe, a Lutheran Wisconsin Synod member, penned around 600 original hymns and chorale translations that remained uncollected and unpublished until 75 years after her death. She was born to German-Lutheran immigrants Albert and Emilie Hoppe. Baptized and confirmed by pastor Johann Bading of St John's Evangelical Lutheran Church, she alone of her five siblings attended the parochial school there,...
BUCHANAN, Annabel Morris. b. Groesbeck, Texas, 22 October 1888; d. Paducah, Kentucky, 6 January 1983. Raised in Texas and Tennessee as the daughter and grand-daughter of Cumberland Presbyterian ministers, she was from earliest childhood familiar with the idiom of southern folk hymnody; she learned to read music from oblong shape-note tunebooks. After formal training and graduation with highest honors from the Landon Conservatory in Dallas, she taught music at colleges in Oklahoma and Virginia...
HERBERT, Annie (Annie Herbert Barker). b. Leon, New York State, 1844; d. San Rafael, California, 21 January 1932. She was born in a small town in Cattaraugus County on the western edge of New York State. She married her cousin, James Barker, Jr., but is more often known as a hymn writer by her maiden name. She was a teacher: she and her husband must have been courageous and intrepid young people, for they worked for a time with the pioneers in Meagher County in what was then the remote state...
HAWKS, Annie Sherwood. b. Hoosick, New York, 25 or 28 May 1835 or 1836; d. Bennington, Vermont, 3 January 1918. According to Taylor (1989) there is uncertainty about her date of birth. Annie Sherwood married Charles Hawks; for many years she was a member of the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, where her pastor, Robert Lowry*, encouraged her to write verse. After her husband's death in 1888, she lived with her daughter in Vermont, though she was buried beside her husband in...
SHOWALTER, Anthony Johnson. b. Rockingham County, Virginia,1 May 1858; d. Chattanooga, Tennessee, 14 or 15 September 1924. Showalter was perhaps the most prominent sacred-music publisher and music teacher in the southern United States ca. 1890-1920. A publisher of songbooks in seven-shape and standard notation, his companies surpassed The Ruebush-Kieffer Company* in sales and influence and were, in turn, surpassed by the James D. Vaughan* and Stamps-Baxter* companies. He also was known as an...
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go. Jessie Brown Pounds* (1861-1921).
One of Pounds' early hymns, written when she was still Jessie Brown, this was published in Hymns Old and New No 1, edited by Daniel B. Towner* (Chicago/New York, 1887). It had three stanzas:
Anywhere with Jesus I can safely go;Anywhere He leads me in this world below;Anywhere without Him dearest joys would fade;Anywhere with Jesus I am not afraid.
Anywhere with Jesus I am not alone;Other friends may fail me, He is still my...
'Are Ye Able', said the Master. Earl B. Marlatt* (1892-1976).
This hymn of self-dedication, entitled 'Challenge', was written for the 23 February 1926 consecration service of the School of Religious Education and Social Service at Boston University (it was relocated on Boston's Beacon Hill in 1921: http://www.bu.edu/sth-history/graduates/school-of-religious-education-and-social-service/). It was composed to an existing and familiar tune by Harry Mason (1881-1964), a student at the School, and...
Arise, your light is come. Ruth C. Duck* (1947-2024).
This was one of Ruth Duck's earliest hymns, published in Because We Are One People (Chicago: Ecumenical Women's Center, 1974). It was based on verses from Isaiah 60 and 61. She said that it was inspired by 'Lead on, O King eternal'* and 'Rise up, O men of God'*, presumably in the sense that these texts, the latter especially, offended her and caused her to write an inclusive text (see Wootton, 2010, p. 264). It was included by Erik...
DUBA, Arlo Dean. b. Platte, Brule County, South Dakota, 12 November 1929; d. Gunnison, Colorado, 27 June 2023. Duba was raised in a Bohemian Presbyterian farming family whose Hussite/Czech forebearers settled in the Dakotas in the 1880s. He attended the University of Dubuque, where he met his wife, Doreen. He majored in music and religion (BA 1952), and Princeton Theological Seminary (BD 1955, PhD 1960). His dissertation title was 'The Principles of Theological Language in the Writings of...
HAEUSSLER, Armin. b. Lewiston, Minnesota, 24 May 1891; d. Glenview, Indiana, 16 July 1967. Distinguished hymnologist and pastor, Haeussler is best known for The Story of Our Hymns, The Handbook to the Hymnal of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (St Louis, Missouri, 1952, Third Edition, 1954). He was first-born from the marriage of Rev Carl Herman (1862-1913), a German-born member of The German Evangelical Synod of North America, and Elizabeth Catherine (Scherer; 1871-1965). Armin attended...
JOHNSON, Artemas Nixon. b. Middlebury, Vermont, 22 June 1817; d. New Milford, Connecticut, 1 January 1892. A. N. Johnson and his brother James C. Johnson (1820-1895) were musicians, teachers, composers, and publishers of church music. A. N. Johnson's hymn tune MENDOTA (SPEAK GENTLY), with text by Frederick George Lee (1832-1902), appears in several 20th-century hymnals.
Johnson's parents, James Johnson, Sr. (nda) and Anna Ward Johnson (nda) attended the Congregational Church in Middlebury. ...
PATTEN, Arthur Bardwell. b. Bowdoinham, Maine, 26 March 1864; d. Claremont, California, 10 May 1952. He was educated at Colby University, Waterville, Maine (now Colby College, to indicate its status as an old-established Liberal Arts College). He graduated AB in 1890, and went on to Bangor Theological Seminary (graduated 1893). He became a minister in the Congregational Church, serving pastorates at Everett, Massachusetts (1895-97), South Hadley, Mass. (1897-1905), Sant Rosa, California...
COXE, (Arthur) Cleveland. b. Mendham, New York, 10 May 1818; d. Clifton Springs, NY, 20 July 1896. The son of a Presbyterian minister named Cox (according to Samuel Willoughby Duffield, 1886, p. 224, he added an 'e' as part of his rebellion against his father and his father's denomination), he lived as a young man in New York with his uncle, a doctor who was an active member of the Episcopal Church. Coxe became an Episcopalian himself, and after graduating from New York University he trained...
CLYDE, Arthur G. b. Bradford, Pennsylvania, 28 December 1940. A prominent United Church of Christ (UCC) musician and editor of The New Century Hymnal (Cleveland, 1995), Clyde attended Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania (BA, in Sociology, 1963), with additional studies at Boyer College of Music and Dance, Temple University, Philadelphia (1963-64, 75-77). He was an English language teacher in Japan under the missions program of the Lutheran Church in America (1965-1968), taught music...
MESSITER, Arthur Henry. b. Frome, Somerset, England, 1 April 1834; d. Manhattan, New York, 2 July 1916. Messiter is remembered for his career as organist and choirmaster of Trinity Church in New York City; for one of the music editions of the Episcopal Hymnal prior to the first authorized music edition; and for the hymn tune MARION.
Although the date of Messiter's birth is sometimes shown as 12 April 1834, an official record shows 1 April 1834 for his birth and 2 May 1834 for his baptism. ...
As a chalice cast of gold. Thomas Troeger* (1945-2022).
From Troeger's New Hymns for the Lectionary: to Glorify the Maker's Name (New York and Oxford, 1986), reprinted in Borrowed Light (1994). It is based on Mark 7: 1-8, 14-15, 21-23, with its contrast between the outward forms of worship and the inward self, and its reminder (verse 15) that 'there is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.'...
As a fire is meant for burning. Ruth C. Duck* (1947-2024).
Written in 1982 after visiting United Church of Christ Missions in Turkey, which is reflected in the first lines: 'As a fire is meant for burning/ with a bright and warming flame/ so the church is meant for mission/ giving glory to God's name'. It was published in her Dancing in the Universe (1992), and has since been included in a number of books, including the Canadian VU and the Scottish CH4. There is a Spanish translation by...
As men of old their first-fruits brought. Frank Von Christierson* (1900-1996).
Written in 1960, and submitted to a 'hymn search' of the Hymn Society of America together with the Department of Stewardship and Benevolence of the National Council of Churches in America. It was published in the Hymn Society's booklet, Ten New Stewardship Hymns (1961). Von Christierson wrote of this hymn:
As pastor of two new churches, with small memberships and great financial needs, I have been deeply concerned...
As the wind song through the trees. Shirley Erena Murray* (1931-2020).
Dated 2005, this hymn was the outcome of a partnership between New Zealander Shirley Erena Murray and Singaporean Lim, Swee Hong (林瑞峰)* (1963— ). It started with the music, not the text. The composer, Lim Swee Hong, completed the tune shortly before the season of Pentecost in 2004, marking a departure from his usual practice of creating tunes for existing words. He then sent this tune to his long-time friend Shirley...
As we gather at your table. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* (1944- ).
Written by request in 1989 for Eastern Shore Chapel (Episcopal), Virginia Beach, Virginia, which was celebrating the tricentenary of its founding in 1689. The motto for the occasion was 'Repeat the sounding joy' (from Isaac Watts*, 'Joy to the world, the Lord is come'*) which Daw has incorporated in the last line, the climax of this fine hymn of worship and service. The first line is simple and beautiful in its simplicity: it suggests...
NETTLETON, Asahel. b. North Killingworth, Connecticut, 21 April 1783; d, East Windsor,Connecticut, 16 May 1844. Nettleton was an itinerant revivalist of the conservative (Calvinistic) wing of the Congregational Church, and compiler of Village Hymns for Social Worship* (Hartford, Connecticut, 1824). He was converted when a teenager. Following the death of his father, he managed the family's farm and finances, and taught school. A local Presbyterian minister prepared him for entering Yale College...
Asian and Asian American hymns, USA
This essay updates a portion of Carlton R. Young*'s earlier study (1998) on the inclusion of ethnic congregational song in hymnals published 1942-95 by the Protestant Episcopal Church, The Evangelical Lutheran Church, The Christian Reformed Church, The United Methodist Church, The Presbyterian Church (USA), The Southern Baptist Church, The United Church of Christ, and the Disciples of Christ. His detailed work noted a distinct increase of ethnic minority...
Association of Lutheran Church Musicians (ALCM)
The Association of Lutheran Church Musicians nurtures and equips musicians to serve and lead the church's song. Music is a vital expression of Lutheran worship. By sharing the knowledge, experience, and passion that honor our heritage and inspire our future, ALCM nurtures and equips those who lead music in worship.
Approximately 140 church musicians from across the United States and Canada responded to an invitation to meet at Lutheran...
MIEIR, Audrey Mae (neé Wagner). b. Leechburg, Pennsylvania, 12 May 1916; d. Irvine, California, 5 November 1996. Audrey Wagner was educated at the L.I.F.E. Bible College (Meridian, Idaho). As a young woman, she moved to California where she was influenced by Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944), founder of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel. She married Charles Brooks Mieir (1911-1996), and was ordained to the Gospel ministry of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel in 1937.
She...
CRULL, August. b. Rostock, Mecklenburg, Germany, 27 January 1845; d. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 17 February 1923. August Crull was a German-American Lutheran theologian and educator who played an important role in 19th-century American Lutheranism as a hymnal editor and hymn translator. As a hymnal editor, he helped compile and edit the first English-language hymnals of the Missouri Synod branch of American Lutheranism, thus shaping its hymnic tradition as it began to transition from German to...
KJELLSTRAND, August W. b. Skoefde, Vastergötland, Sweden, 10 February 1864; d. 29 October 1930. His family emigrated to the USA in 1870, when August was a child. He was closely associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod of North America: he graduated from Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in 1885. He was appointed to Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, to teach Latin in 1886. After a further period of study, he returned to Bethany in 1893.
He graduated from Augustana...
NEWMAN, Augustus Sherman. b. Putnam County [?], New York, 21 July 1848; d. New York City, 11 December 1928. Augustus Sherman Newman was a businessman, avocational musician, collector of hymnals and hymnological materials, and a founder in 1922 of The Hymn Society (now the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*).
The eldest child of Allen G. and Sarah Church Tompkins Newman, Augustus completed his basic education in New York. He then toured Europe with his younger brother, Allen,...
LOVELACE, Austin C. b. Rutherford, North Carolina, 26 March 1919; d. Denver, Colorado, 25 April 2010. Lovelace spent his entire life in church music. At the age of 15 he began playing organ in a Baptist church in Forest City, North Carolina. He was educated at High Point College in North Carolina (BA 1939) and at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City, from which he received a masters degree (1941) and a doctor of sacred music degree (1950). While at Union Seminary he studied with T....
CHRISTIANSEN, Avis Burgeson. b. Chicago, 11 October 1895; d. 14 January 1985. She was a member of the Moody Church in Chicago, and married Ernest C. Christiansen, vice-president of the Moody Bible Institute. Her numerous hymns, the earliest in collaboration with Daniel B. Towner*, appeared in Tabernacle Praises (Chicago, 1916). They are characteristic of early 20th-century Gospel hymnody, with a concentration on the love of Jesus and the hope of heaven. She also wrote under pseudonyms: Avis...
Awake, awake, and greet the new morn. Marty Haugen* (1950- ). Written in 1983 as a Christmas hymn, and published in Haugen's Rejoice, Rejoice (Chicago, 1983). Haugen's tune, REJOICE, REJOICE, takes its name from the opening words of the last stanza. In verse 1 line 3 Haugen wrote 'for now he is born', which was changed by the editors of Worship - Third Edition (1986), of whom Haugen was one, to 'for soon he is born', which turns the hymn into one for Advent.
JRW
Awake, O sleeper, rise from death. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written originally as an anthem text for David N. Johnson, published by Augsburg Fortress Press (Minneapolis, 1980), this was revised and made metrically stable for H82. It is based on phrases from Ephesians chapters 3,4, and 5, beginning with Ephesians 5: 14 ('Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light'), itself 'a very ancient Christian hymn, probably' (Tucker, quoted in Young, 1993, p....
Away in a manger, no crib for a bed. USA, 19th century, author unknown.
Stanzas 1 and 2 of this Christmas hymn were published in Little Children's Book for Schools and Families (Philadelphia, 1885) published by the Lutheran Church in America. Verse 3, 'Be near me, Lord Jesus', was added in Gabriel's Vineyard Songs (Louisville, Kentucky, 1892), edited by the Lutheran pastor Charles Hutchinson Gabriel*.
For various reasons, summarized below, it has been attributed to Martin Luther*; but in the...
WHITE, Benjamin Franklin. b. near Cross Keys, Union County, South Carolina, 20 September 1800; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 5 December 1879. White was the principal compiler, along with Elisha J. King*, of The Sacred Harp*.
Benjamin White was the twelfth child of Robert White (1743?-1843) and Mildred White (1745?-1807). As a result of Mildred's death, Benjamin lived for about 11 years in the household of his brother, Robert White, Jr. (1784-1880). Evidence of family involvement with music is the...
Baptist hymnody, USA
17th and 18th Centuries
Baptist beginnings in the American colonies occurred with the establishment of churches at Providence (1639) and Newport (1644), Rhode Island. By the end of the 17th century there were 24 churches, all but one of them located in New England or the middle colonies.
These early congregations were principally formed by British immigrants and their song practices generally reflected those of Baptists in the Mother Country (see Baptist hymnody, British*)....
HAMM, Barbara Elizabeth. b. Sterling, Colorado, 25 September 1943. Barbara Hamm began piano study as a young girl, learning to improvise on gospel hymns in a small Baptist congregation in the Midwestern United States. She gained further experience while playing for a small church during her college study in Eastern Tennessee. This early involvement in worship led to a lifetime of music ministry.
A United Church of Christ (UCC) church musician, composer, and hymn writer, Barbara Hamm received...
MANLY, Basil [Junior]. b. Edgefield County, South Carolina, 19 December 1825; d. 31 January 1892. He was the son of Basil Manly, a Baptist minister, and Sarah Murray Rudolph Manly. His father became pastor of First Baptist Church, Charleston—the most prominent Baptist pulpit in the Deep South—and left that position to become the second president of the University of Alabama. The senior Manly promulgated a biblical defense of slavery, led in the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention, and...
The Bay Psalm Book (BPB), or—to use its actual title—The Whole Booke of Psalmes Faithfully Translated into English Metre ([Boston], 1640), is one of the most famous books ever printed in what is now the United States. Its press run was only 1700 copies. The dozen or so that still survive are almost beyond price today. Their value rests chiefly on the BPB's standing as the first book written and printed in English-speaking North America, and as a symbol of the country's beginnings. Much research...
Beams of heaven as I go ('Some Day'). Charles Albert Tindley* (1851-1933).
'Some Day' is an evocative and emotional title which connects with other hymns, such as 'We shall overcome'* of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s (a development of Tindley's 'I shall overcome someday'), and with many 'By and by'* hymns, including Tindley's 'We'll understand it better by and by'*. Early printings, such as the one in Soul Echoes (Philadelphia, 1909) mark the hymn as 'copyright, 1906'. The title is...
Beautiful Savior. German hymn, 17th century, translated by Joseph A. Seiss* (1823-1904).
In The Lutheran Hymnal (1941) this is the opening line of the translation of 'Schönster Herr Jesu'* from a Roman Catholic Münster Gesangbuch of 1677. Seiss, the translator, was a prominent Lutheran minister and prolific author. His translation was published in The Sunday School Book for the Use of Evangelical Lutheran Congregations (Philadelphia, 1873). It had four stanzas, the last of which returns to...
Because He lives. Gloria Gaither* (1942- ) and William J (Bill) Gaither* (1936- ).
This song is based on John 14:19c, 'because I live, you also will live,' a theme that is effectively supported by a soaring melody in the refrain. After the opening reference to the Incarnation ('God sent his son, hey called him Jesus'), the first stanza turns to to the empty grave on Easter Day and its significance. Stanza two is about hope, even in uncertain days, because of the singular significance of the...
Beloved, “it is well !”. George Washington Doane* (1799-1859).
In Songs by the Way: the poetical writings of the Right Rev. George Washington Doane, DD., LL.D., arranged and edited by his son, William Crosswell Doane (Third Edition, Albany, 1875) this hymn is dated 'March 2, 1833' (JJ has 'Mar. 12', in error, p. 304). It was entitled 'To my wife'. The text was as follows:
Beloved, “It is well! - ” God's ways are always right; And love is o'er them all, Though far above our sight.
...
BRODY, Benjamin. b. Portland, Oregon, 2 May 1975. Benjamin Brody, a composer, hymn writer, church musician, and educator, is son of Clark Brody and Barbara Brody (née Finsaas), and one of three siblings. The son of a music teacher and grandson of a pastor, his first experiences in music took place singing together with his family in the car or around the piano at home. He was nurtured in the charismatic tradition. He received his education at Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington, in Music...
CARR, Benjamin. b. London, 12 September 1768; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 24 May 1831. Born in London, Carr was descended from a family of musicians and music publishers from the late 17th century. He studied with his father, Joseph Carr (1739-1819), who operated a music repository in Middle Row, Holborn, and with the composers Samuel Arnold* and Charles Wesley (II)*. Carr was first taken into his father's business, then opened his own shop in London and embarked upon a career as a singer,...
CRAWFORD, Benjamin Franklin. b. Madison County, Ohio, 12 May 1881; d. Delaware, Ohio, 20 June 1976. Christened after the great American philosopher, Crawford taught school before attending Ohio Wesleyan University (BA, 1906); Boston University (STB, 1909); Dennison University (1917-18); and the University of Pittsburgh (PhD, 1937). Crawford's dissertation, 'Changing Conceptions and Motivations of Religion as Revealed in One Hundred Years of Methodist Hymnology, 1836-1935', was a study of the...
WINCHESTER, Benjamin Severance. b. Bridport, Vermont, 20 February 1868; d. Danbury, Connecticut, 29 April 1955. He was a pastor, educator, and administrator. His parents were Warren Weaver Winchester (1823–1889), a minister, and Catherine Mary Severance Winchester (1821–1915). He married Pearl Adair Gunn (1874–1971) in 1897, and they had five children, Margaret, Katharine, Pauline, Alice, and John Henry.
Winchester earned the BA degree from Williams College in 1889, after which he taught...
Benson Collection, Princeton Theological Seminary.The Louis F. Benson Hymnology Collection is one of the premier collections for the study of the history of Christian hymnody in North America. It consists of over 12,000 volumes of hymnals and printed materials related to the study of Christian hymnody. The collection was originally received by Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, in 1931 from the estate of Louis F. Benson*. Benson was the author of a number of works on...
ACKLEY, Bentley D. b. Bradford, Pennsylvania, 27 September 1872; d. Winona Lake, Indiana, 3 September 1958. Rising to prominence as pianist for the Billy Sunday and Homer A. Rodeheaver* revival meetings, B. D. Ackley became a prolific composer of gospel songs and editor of gospel hymnals. He was born into a family of musicians in Bradford, Pennsylvania, including his younger brother Alfred Ackley*, who also became a gospel song composer. Their father, Stanley Ackley, served as a Methodist...
PULKINGHAM, Betty Carr. b. Burlington, North Carolina, 25 August 1928; d. Austin,Texas, 9 May 2019. Her mother was a lifelong Baptist and her father had Scottish Presbyterian roots, but joined the Methodist Episcopal Church. She attributed her ecumenical approach to her early experience of both traditions.
She grew up with music around her at school and home. She learned the piano from the age of eight, and from the age of ten was playing for the hymns at her Sunday School. Later, she was one...
HOWARD, Beverly Ann. b. New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 22 February 1951. A professor in church music, researcher in hymnology, journal editor, member of hymnal committees, church musician, and organist, Howard received degrees from University of Oklahoma in organ performance (BM, 1973, MM, 1974) and the University of North Texas in organ performance, music theory, and harpsichord (DMA, 1986). She served as organist for forty years in two congregations in Riverside, California, First Christian...
Gaither, Bill (William James). b. Alexandria, Indiana, 28 March 1936. Gaither was one of four children of the marriage of George W. (1913-2005) and Lela (née Hartwell) (1914-2001). The farming family attended the Church of God in Alexandria, a restoration group with Wesleyan holiness roots headquartered in Anderson, Indiana, (not related to Pentecostal denominations with the same name). Early on Gaither studied piano and organ, 'performing wherever he could in recitals and as an accompanist'...
HEARN, Billy Ray. b. Honey Grove, Texas, 26 April 1929; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 15 April 2015. A visionary and innovator in the Christian music industry, Hearn was primarily known as the founder of Sparrow Records, currently a part of the Capitol Christian Music Group family of record labels and distributors owned by Universal Music Group, a subsidiary of media conglomerate Vivendi. He grew up in Beaumont, Texas, joined the US Navy after high school, and upon discharge in 1948 he studied...
Blest are they, the poor in spirit. David R. Haas* (1957-).
Blest are they, the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of God.
Blest are they, full of sorrow; they shall be consoled.
Rejoice and be glad!Blessed are you, holy are you.Rejoice and be glad!Yours is the kingdom of God.
© 1986 GIA Publications, Inc. www.giamusic.com. Used by permission.
This paraphrase of Matthew 5:3-16, 'The Beatitudes', maintains the two-part structure of scripture in each blessing—(1) 'Blest are they, the poor...
WIANT, Bliss Mitchell. b. Dalton, Ohio, 1 February 1895; d. Delaware, Ohio, 1 October 1975. Wiant [Chinese name Fan Tian-xian] was a Methodist Episcopal Church [MEC] missionary from 1923 to 1951. He was an authority on Chinese music, a choral director, composer and arranger, hymnal editor, pastor, and teacher. His widely acclaimed settings of newly written indigenous Chinese Christian hymns to traditional Chinese melodies are an abiding contribution to 20th-century contextualized Chinese...
BLUMHOFER, Edith Lydia (née Waldvogel). b. New York, 24 April 1950; d. Naperville, Illinois, 5 March 2020. A church historian, biographer, and researcher on the role of hymns in American religious culture and thought, Edith Blumhofer was born the oldest child of three to Edwin and Edith Waldvogel. She was raised in Woodhaven, New York, then a municipality of Queens. Her father was pastor of Ridgewood Pentecostal Church, Brooklyn. She married Edwin Blumhofer on 13 September 1975: they were the...
HURD, Bob (Robert L.). b. Lakewood, Ohio; August 9, 1950. Bob Hurd is a Catholic composer, teacher, liturgist, and author who is known for his many English-language and bilingual compositions in Spanish and English. He studied at St John's Seminary College (Camarillo, California; BA 1973) and De Paul University (Chicago; MA 1976; PhD 1980). Hurd has served in several academic and pastoral settings including Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles), the Franciscan School of Theology (Berkeley,...
See 'I was there to hear your borning cry'*.
As the oldest Methodist seminary in the United States (founded in 1839), Boston University School of Theology has always cultivated an appreciation of hymnody, but the current specialized hymnological collections did not have their genesis until the early 20th century. They began with the donation of the hymnological library of the prominent hymnologist Charles S. Nutter*, about the same time (1913) that he became a lecturer in Hymnology and Church Music at this institution. To this was...
Braille hymns and hymnals, USA. The St Gregory Hymnal and Catholic Choir Book (Philadelphia, 1922), compiled and edited by Nichola Montani (1880-1948, distinguished and controversial composer, conductor, and former liturgical music editor for G. Schirmer, New York) was published in 1926 as the first braille hymnal. Today, many Roman Catholic and mainline Protestant hymnals are available in two electronic platforms, Braille Ready Format (BRF) and American Standard Code for Information Exchange...
BROWN, Brenton. b. Port Elizabeth, South Africa, 1 July 1973. Raised in the southern suburbs of Cape Town, Brown attended South African College Schools, studied law at the University of Cape Town, and then received a Rhodes Scholarship to study PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) at the University of Oxford (1996-98), where he also received a one-year Postgraduate Diploma in Theology (1998-99).
Brown's involvement in worship leadership began during his time at the University of Cape Town,...
The Brethren Church is a denomination in the heritage of the Brethren movement that had its origins in Schwarzenau, Germany in 1708. This movement is not to be confused with the Plymouth Brethren or the Czech Brethren (Moravians). The Brethren movement developed from the Pietist and especially the Radical Pietist reform efforts in Germany, but also was heavily influenced by the Anabaptist movement. Most of the Brethren emigrated to North America by the 1730s. The Brethren Church formally...
Brightly beams our Father's mercy. Philip P. Bliss* (1838-1876).
First published in The Charm, a collection of Sunday School music (Cincinnati, 1871), with the heading 'Let the Lower Lights be Burning'. Like a number of Gospel hymns, this was based on an anecdote (cf. 'Ho! my comrades, see the signal'*). In this case it was told and moralised by Dwight L. Moody* and versified by Bliss. It concerned a ship attempting to make the harbor at Cleveland during a storm on Lake Erie:
'Are you sure...
Brother, hast thou wandered far. James Freeman Clarke* (1810-1888).
This hymn appeared in Service Book: for the use of the Church of the Disciples (1844), and then in The Disciples' Hymn Book (Boston, 1844). This hymn was credited as 'Anonymous'. It is not clear why the authorship should have been so designated, when a much more polemical hymn such as 'For all thy gifts we bless thee, Lord'* was clearly attributed to Clarke. The present hymn remained his best known hymn for many years. It was...
NESWICK, Bruce. b. Kennewick, Washington State, 20 October 1956. Neswick received degrees in organ performance from Pacific Lutheran University (BM,1978), and Yale University (MM, 1980). He has won three prizes in organ improvisation, and is a Fellow and active member of the American Guild of Organists*. He has directed music in prominent Episcopal churches including the Christ Church Cathedral, Lexington, Kentucky: St Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo, New York; Cathedral Church of St John the Divine,...
COBB, Buell Etheridge, Jr. b. Cullman, Alabama, 25 June 1944. He graduated from Alabama College, Montevallo, Alabama, (now University of Montevallo), 1966; Auburn University (MA in English, 1969). Cobb became closely acquainted with the early American shape-note singing tradition while on faculty at West Georgia College (now University of West Georgia), and authored The Sacred Harp: A Tradition and Its Music (Athens, Georgia, 1978), which has been favorably compared with the groundbreaking...
By all your saints still striving. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984) and Jerry D. Godwin (1944-).
This is a modern version of 'From all Thy saints in warfare'*, written by Tucker and revised by Godwin for H82. In addition to using the 'you' form, it has been described as 'an edited version of the Tucker revision that reflected concern for language that was both nonmilitaristic and inclusive, yet remained faithful to the lives of the saints as the Church has received them' (The H82 Companion).
Like...
'By and by'
The phrase 'by and by', meaning 'in a little while' or 'at some time in the future' has been common in American English parlance since the 19th century. In spite of its simplicity, it is a haunting phrase, much more powerful than any alternatives such as the two above.
'By and by' is the title given to an African American spiritual of unknown origin. It was printed in Folk Song of the American Negro (Nashville, Tennessee: Fisk University, 1907), an account written and edited by...
MILES, C. (Charles) Austin. b. Lakehurst, New Jersey, 7 January 1868; d. Pitman, New Jersey, 10 March 1946. Educated at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and the University of Pennsylvania, Miles ended his pharmaceutical career in 1892 and turned to writing gospel music. His first song 'List, 'tis Jesus' voice' was accepted by the Hall-Mack Publishing Company in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which led to his appointment as editor and manager, a post he continued after that company's merger in...
Woolston, C. Herbert. b. Camden, New Jersey, 7 April 1856; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 May 1927.A pastor, gospel song writer, and sleight-of-hand magician, Clarence Herbert Woolston claimed that he had 'addressed many more than 1,000,000 children' (The Philadelphia Inquirer, 1927, p. 4).
The son of Isaiah S. and Sarah B. Woolston, Herbert attended public schools in Camden, New Jersey, and the South Jersey Institute at Bridgeton. He entered the ministry under the influence of evangelist...
HAWN, (Charles) Michael. b. Cape Girardeau, Missouri, 22 September 1948. An eminent multi-cultural/global hymnologist, singer, teacher, and author, his scholarly articles and books on global music and worship, cross-cultural worship, and enlivening congregational song are premier resources. Hawn is noted for his engaging, hands-on style of teaching, the mentorship of former students, many of whom are now an international group of scholars, church musicians, ministers, professors, teachers, song...
DOUGLAS, Charles Winfred. b. Oswego, New York, 15 Feb 1867; d. Santa Rosa, California, 18 Jan 1944. Douglas was raised as a Presbyterian. His first contact with the Episcopal Church came in 1888 as a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, Syracuse, New York, while a student at Syracuse University (BM, 1901). He attended St. Andrew's Divinity School, Syracuse; and Matthews Hall, Denver, Colorado. He was ordained a deacon in the Episcopal Church 1893, priest 1899, serving as a minor Canon of St John's...
Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary, Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an interdisciplinary study and ministry center. It is dedicated to promoting academic teaching and learning about the history and theology of Christian liturgical practices in worshiping communities. Within this broad framework, Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) has pursued specific initiatives to strengthen congregational singing such as psalmody and...
LAUFER, Calvin Weiss. b. Brodheadsville, Pennsylvania, 6 April 1874; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 September 1938. Calvin Weiss Laufer was a minister, editor, writer of hymn texts and tunes, and a founder of The Hymn Society (now The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*). The eldest child of Nathan Laufer, a farmer and miller, and Angelina Weiss Laufer, he was baptized at Zion German Reformed Church in Brodheadsville. His parents settled in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood in...
Camp Meeting Hymns and Songs, USA
Since the publication of George Pullen Jackson*'s groundbreaking and provocative White Spirituals from the Southern Uplands (Chapel Hill, 1933), a considerable body of hymnological and musicological literature has accumulated on the folk hymnody of early America. In much of that secondary literature it is presupposed that a key component of this hymnic corpus is the camp-meeting 'chorus'. This sub-genre is typically constructed from wandering rhyme pairs or the...
DØVING, Carl. b. Norddalen, Sunnmøre, Norway, 1 March 1867; d. Chicago, Illinois, 2 October 1937. Døving left Norway as a young man and lived in South Africa (1883-90), where he taught at a mission school, the Schreuder Mission in Natal, founded by the Norwegian missionary Hans Schreuder (1817-1882). Døving emigrated to the USA in 1890 and attended Luther College, Decorah, Iowa (AB, 1893) and Luther Seminary of the Norwegian Synod, St Paul, Minnesota (CT [Candidatus theologiae], 1896). He was a...
PRICE, Carl Fowler. b. New Brunswick, New Jersey, 16 May 1881; d. New York City, 12 April 1948. Pioneering hymnologist, historian, author, prominent layperson in The Methodist Episcopal Church, Price attended Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut (BA music, 1902; MA, 1932), and worked as a general insurance broker in New York City from 1902 to 1946. He served as secretary of The National Board of the Epworth League, and historian of the Methodist Historical Society.
Price was a founder...
DAW, Carl Pickens, Jr. b. Louisville, Kentucky, 18 March 1944. Carl Daw was born into a Baptist preacher's family. He received degrees in English from Rice University, Houston, Texas (BA 1966), and the University of Virginia in Charlottesville (MA, PhD, 1970); he taught English at the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia (1970-78). In 1981 he received a divinity degree from the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee. After ordination in the Protestant Episcopal Church, he...
SCHALK, Carl Flentge. b. Des Plaines, Illinois, 26 September 1929; d. River Forest, Illinois, 24 January 2021. Schalk attended Concordia Teachers' College (now Concordia University) in River Forest, Illinois (BS, 1952), the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (MM, 1958) and Concordia Theological Seminary in St Louis, Missouri (MA, 1965).
After serving at Zion Lutheran Church in Wausau, Wisconsin (1952-1958), Schalk was a music director for the International Lutheran Hour (1958-1965),...
YOUNG, Carlton Raymond ('Sam'). b. Hamilton, Ohio, 25 April 1926; d. Nashville, Tennessee, 21 May 2023. He was the son of J. Otis Young , a pastor, and Mary Leibrook, an elementary school teacher. Following his mother's death he was raised by maternal grand parents, who started his piano lessons at age six. He attended Fairfield High School in Butler County, Ohio, where music was a requirement not an elective, and where he played brass instruments and string bass. He studied at Cincinnati...
OWENS, Carol. b. El Reno, Oklahoma, 30 October 1931. She was educated at San Jose State College in California. Her husband Jimmy* (they married in 1954) was a jazz band arranger who directed music in several churches in southern California. Beginning in the 'Jesus Movement' (see Christian popular music, USA*), the Owens were active in writing contemporary Christian musicals, performing and recording in various places in California, and doing musical missions for the Church of the Way in Los...
Carol, brothers, carol. William Augustus Muhlenberg* (1796-1877).
Written in 1840 for the boys of St Paul's College, Flushing, Long Island, the College that Muhlenberg had founded as the Flushing Institute in 1828. It was published in Muhlenberg's later collection, I Would not Live Alway, and Other Pieces in Verse by the same Author (New York, 1860), printed for the benefit of St Luke's Hospital. It received wider notice when it was printed in Christ in Song (New York, 1869), edited by Philip...
GILLETTE, Carolyn Winfrey. b. Harrisonburg, Virginia, 28 May 1961. Hymn writer and ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). She was raised, baptized, and confirmed in the United Methodist Church; she earned a bachelor's degree in religion from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, Pennsylvania before going on to receive her M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary (1985). She was ordained in 1986. Gillette has served at churches in New Jersey and Delaware, and as a hospital and...
Cast thy bread upon the waters (Anon).
This is a hymn with the same first line, and in the same metre, as 'Cast thy bread upon the waters'* by Phebe Ann Hanaford*. It is based, like hers, on Ecclesiastes 11: 1, but it is so different from her hymn that it requires a separate entry. It is found in many revival hymnals in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, such as Gospel Hymns 5 and 6 Combined (1892) and in editions of Sacred Songs and Solos, where (in both books) the tune is attributed to...
CAMERON, Catherine Bonnell Arnott Oskamp. b. St John, New Brunswick, Canada, 27 March 1927; d. Claremont, California, USA, 26 July 2019. She was born into a Presbyterian preacher's family, which immigrated to the United States in 1935, at which point she became an American citizen. She was educated at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario (BA in English, 1949); and at the University of Southern California (MA, 1970, PhD 1971, in Social Psychology). She married Robert Arnott, a minister, from...
Change my heart, O God. Eddie Espinosa* (1953– ).
Written in 1982, this is is Eddie Espinosa's best-known song. Espinosa tells the song's story:
The year was 1982. I had been a Christian since 1969, but I saw a lot of things in my life that needed to be discarded. I had slowly become very complacent. I acknowledged my complacency, and I prayed to the Lord, 'The only way that I can follow you is for you to change my appetite, the things that draw me away. You must change my heart! . ....
CONVERSE, Charles Crozat. b. Warren, Massachusetts, 7 October 1832; d. Highwood, New Jersey, 18 October 1918. He was educated at Elmira Free Academy, Chemung County, New York State, and showed early promise as a musician. He played the organ at the Broadway Tabernacle Church, and taught languages and music, earning enough to enable him to study music in Leipzig, Germany, from 1855 onwards. There he met Lizst and Spohr before returning to the USA to study law. He graduated from Albany Law...
GABRIEL, Charles Hutchinson. b. Wilton, Iowa, 18 August 1856; d. Hollywood, California, 14 September 1932. Following in his father's footsteps, Charles Gabriel became a singing school teacher at the age of 16, and after 1887 served as music director in the Grace Methodist Church in San Francisco. He settled in Chicago, the center for evangelical and revivalist publishing, in 1892, where he devoted the rest of his life to writing, composing, editing, and publishing. A list of his works includes...
HUTCHINS, Charles Lewis. b. Concord, New Hampshire, 5 August 1838; d. Concord, Massachusetts, 17 August 1920. Hutchins, an Episcopal priest, was editor of several music editions of 19th-century Episcopal hymnals and related materials. He was a son of George Hutchins (1797-1868) and Sarah Rolfe Tucker (1801-1868). Both parents were born to well-established New England families. Of particular note is Sarah's grandfather, the Rev Dr John Tucker (1719-1792), described in Shipton's New England...
ALEXANDER, Charles McCallon. b. Meadow, Tennessee, 24 October 1867; d. Birmingham, England, 13 October 1920. He was the son of John D. Alexander, a well-known musical leader, and Martha McCallon. A singing evangelist in the style of Ira D. Sankey*, young Alexander was influenced by his family's singing Gospel hymns around the fireside and by his mother's reading Dwight L. Moody*'s sermons to the family each night. Alexander attended Maryville Preparatory School and College, Maryville, Tennessee...
PARKIN, Charles. b. Felling on Tyne, England, 25 December 1884; d. Portland, Maine, 3 March 1981. Charles Parkin studied at Oxford University and served in the British Army during World War I. Following the War, he was secretary of the British Poetry Society. In 1922, Parkin moved to the United States and was ordained a minister in the Maine Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. From 1950 to 1952, Parkin was the superintendent of the Portland District of the Maine Conference, and then...
KRAUTH, Charles Porterfield. b. Martinsburg, Virginia, 17 March 1823; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2 January 1883. The son of a Lutheran minister, Charles Philip Krauth, Charles Porterfield Krauth was educated at Pennsylvania College (later Gettysburg College), of which his father was the first President, and at Gettysburg Theological Seminary, graduating in 1841. He served Lutheran churches in Canton, Baltimore (1841-42), the Second English Lutheran Church, Baltimore (1843-47); Winchester,...
NUTTER, Charles Sumner. b. Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, 19 September 1842; d. Melrose, Massachusetts, 2 August 1928. Charles Nutter and Wilber Fisk Tillett* (1854-1936) wrote The Hymns and Hymn Writers of The Church, an Annotated Edition of The Methodist Hymnal (New York and Cincinnati: The Methodist Book Concern, 1911). Nutter was an avid collector of hymnological materials, and his collection together with that of Frank Metcalf (1765-1945) total more than 2500 volumes, comprising the core of...
ROBINSON, Charles Seymour. b. Bennington, Vermont, 31 March 1829; d. New York, 1 February 1899. The son of General Henry Robinson (1778-1854) and Martha P. Haynes (1800-1857), Robinson studied theology at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts, Union Seminary, New York City, and graduated from Princeton Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. Following his ordination in 1855, he served as pastor of Park Presbyterian Church, Troy, New York. In 1858 he married Harriet Read Church (1835-1895),...
TILLMAN, Charles Davis. b. Tallassee, Alabama, 20 March 1861; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 2 September 1943. Charlie Tillman was a gospel songwriter and publisher. He was the youngest of five children born to James Lafayette Tillman (1829–1904), a Baptist preacher and evangelist, and Mary Fletcher Tillman (née Davis) (1827–1904), who was active in her husband's evangelistic efforts. He married Anna Tillman (née Killingsworth) (1869–1949) in 1889, and they had five children. As a child, he traveled with...
EVEREST, Charles William. b. East Windsor, Connecticut, 27 May 1814; d. Waterbury, Connecticut, 11 January 1877. Everest graduated from Washington College (now Trinity College), Hartford, Connecticut, in 1838. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1842, and served as rector of the Episcopal Church at Hamden, Connecticut, for the following thirty-one years. Among his publications were Vision of Death (Hartford, 1837), Babylon, a Poem (Hartford, 1838) and The poets of Connecticut: with...
Children of the Heavenly Father. Lina Sandell-Berg* (1832-1903), translated by Ernst W. Olson.
Many commentaries on this hymn state that Sandell-Berg wrote the original Swedish hymn 'Tryggare kan ingen vara' in 1858 as a result of her father's tragic death by drowning. Per Harling*, author of Sandell's most recent biography, Blott en dag: Lina Sandell og hennes sanger (Stockholm, 2004), drawing upon research by Swedish hymnologist Oscar Lövgren, suggests that Sandell wrote the hymn much...
Singing is a natural activity for children, and one of the most certain ways of passing on doctrine and history of faith is through hymn singing. Because of its ability to draw people into community while teaching doctrine, singing hymns strengthens the fostering of religious values. There is evidence that the teaching of hymnody happened with boys in monasteries as early as the fifth century, and after 1200 there is evidence of girls taking part in monastic liturgical singing. Though we may...
Choirs and Hymns, USA
The European settlers in what is now the USA brought with them their hymns, hymnals and Psalters, depending upon their European religious traditions and practices. In early America, hymn singing was an activity that often occurred outside of worship as well as during worship. There was not much to do during what little leisure time was available and in Puritan New England the singing school became a popular pastime. Often led by itinerant musicians, among whom William...
Choristers Guild
The Choristers Guild, Dallas, Texas, is a global, ecumenical and educational organization, and publisher, that serves more than 4000 directors of children's and youth choirs, worship leaders, teachers, and accompanists. The Guild describes itself as 'a Christian organization [which] enables leaders to nurture the spiritual and musical growth of children and youth through publication of choral music, hand bell music and educational resources, member benefits,...
Christ in Song (1869). This was the title of a major anthology by Philip Schaff*, published in New York in 1869, with the preface dated 5 October 1868. The full title was ΙΧΘΥΣ. Christ in Song. Hymns of Immanuel: Selected from all ages, with notes. Another page has the Chi/Rho symbol/ 'Christo Sacrum'/ Φριστòς τà πáντα εν πασιν ('Christ is all in all')/ a verse from F.W.H. Myers*' poem 'St Paul':
Thro' life and death, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning
Christ shall suffice me, for He hath...
Christ, when for us you were baptized. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written in 1973 at the request of an Australian theology student at Trinity College, Melbourne, Dirk van Dissel. It is interesting to note that at the same time van Dissel was writing to Fred Pratt Green*, the British Methodist hymn writer, with a similar request. He was asking these two great hymn writers for a hymn on the Baptism of Christ for the forthcoming Australian Hymn Book (WOV, 1977). However, neither hymn was used...
The Christian Harmony is a tunebook of hymn and psalm tunes, odes, and anthems, compiled by William Walker*, first published in 1867 by E. W. Miller (nda) in Philadelphia. Walker's earlier tunebooks, Southern Harmony and Southern and Western Pocket Harmonist (Philadelphia, 1846) used 4-shape notation, but Walker used 7-shape notation for Christian Harmony. The 7-shapes introduced by Jesse Bowman Aikin (1808-1900) in 1846 were patented, so that Walker devised three additional shapes on his own...
Christian popular music, USA
Introduction and antecedents
Christian popular music (hereafter CPM) is an umbrella category for a sonically diverse repertoire of late 20th- and early 21st-century evangelical Protestant commercial popular music. It encompasses several distinct subcategories based on musical genre, industrial context, or function, including, but not limited to, Jesus Music, Contemporary Christian Music (CCM), Praise & Worship music, and Christian rock. CPM is characterized by...
Hymnody and Hymnals of the Christian Reformed Church in North America. The Christian Reformed Church in North America (CRC) is an offshoot of the Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in the Netherlands, and the Reformed Church in America (RCA), which was established in North America about two centuries before the arrival of the Dutch who would form the core of the CRC. Whereas the RCA grew out of a 17th-century emigration at a time when the Dutch were engaged with the world, prosperous, and...
Christians, if your hearts be warm. John Leland* (1754–1841).
Leland probably composed this hymn in 1788, and it appeared in print two years later in Richard Broaddus and Andrew Broaddus, Collection of Sacred Ballads (unpaged, Caroline Co, Virginia, 1790). The first page scan in Hymnary.org is from Divine Hymns, or Spiritual Songs: for the use of religious assemblies and private Christians (Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 1794), where it was headed 'Admonition to Christian Duties':
Christians,...
WALKER, Christopher Dixon Harvey. b. London, 9 June 1947. Walker became a chorister at Bristol Cathedral and later studied composition at Bristol University and Trent Park College. On leaving university he became director of music at the (then newly opened) Roman Catholic Cathedral at Clifton in Bristol. He met members of (and subsequently joined) the St Thomas More Group* before emigrating to the USA in 1990, where he became a lecturer at Mount Saint Mary College and director of music at St...
Church Music Publishers Association (CMPA), Nashville, Tennessee, is an organization of North American and international publishers of Christian and other religious music that promotes worldwide copyright information, education, and protection. Founded in 1926, CMPA includes 52 member publishers, the majority of which publish hymnals and hymnal related products in a wide range of styles for denominational and general markets.
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Church of the Brethren hymnody
The roots of the Church of the Brethren lie with a small group of believers in Schwarzenau, Germany, who under the strong influences of Pietism sought to model their lives on the patterns of the church found in the New Testament and who were rebaptized in December, 1708. Under the leadership of Alexander Mack, Sr. (1679-1735), they rejected infant baptism, practiced footwashing as a church ordinance, claimed the Bible as sole authority in discerning matters of...
The Churches of Christ in the United States trace their beginnings to 1906 when they became generally recognized as a distinct Christian group of congregations. These congregations were previously associated with the Restoration Movement, also known as the Stone-Campbell Movement (Foster, p. 1779; see Disciples of Christ hymnody*). Because there are no national administrative offices, boards, publishing houses, or conferences, it is difficult to refer to them as a 'denomination'. Indeed, there...
MARTIN, Civilla Durfee (née Holden). b. Jordan, Nova Scotia, 21 August 1866; d. Atlanta, Georgia, 9 March 1948. Civilla Durfee was a village schoolteacher with some musical training. She wrote some gospel songs with her husband, Walter Stillman Martin (1862-1935), formerly a Baptist minister but later an itinerant evangelist, teacher, and pastor for the Disciples of Christ, based in Atlanta. She is best known for two very comforting gospel songs: 'Be not dismayed whate'er betide'* ('God will...
McAFEE, Cleland Boyd. b. Ashley, Missouri, 25 September 1866; d. Jaffrey, New Hampshire, 4 February 1944. Educated at Park College in Parkville, Missouri (founded in 1875 by his father) (BA, 1884; MA, 1888) and Union Theological Seminary in New York City (dipl. 1888), Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri (PhD, 1892). McAfee returned to Park College, served the campus church as Presbyterian preacher and led its choir while he taught philosophy there (1888-1901). Later, he was pastor of First...
GALE, Clement Rowland. b. Kew, Surrey, England, January 1860, d. New York City, 10 May 1934. Gale was a founding member of the American Guild of Organists* (1896), a member of the music faculty of General Theological Seminary in New York, and composer of several hymn tunes.
Several published accounts give Gale's date of birth as 12 March 1862, but official records show that he was born in January 1860 to William Frederick Gale (b. 1823?) and Elizabeth Gale (b. 1824?) and was baptized at St...
BARROWS, Clifford Burton. b. Ceres, California, 6 April 1923; d. Charlotte, North Carolina, 15 November 2016. 'Cliff' Barrows, longtime music and program director for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, majored in sacred music at Bob Jones University, Greenville, South Carolina (BA, 1944), and in 1944 was ordained by a Baptist congregation in his hometown of Ceres, California.
After serving as assistant pastor at Temple Baptist Church in St Paul, Minnesota for one year, he joined the...
The Colored Sacred Harp (Ozark, Alabama, 1934; Montgomery, Alabama, 2004) is a collection of 77 shape-note pieces. It was the result of the work of Judge Jackson (1883-1958) and members of a committee appointed by the Dale County Colored Musical Institute and the Alabama and Florida Union State Convention.
Sacred Harp singing had started with the publication of B. F. White* and Elisha J. King*'s The Sacred Harp (Philadelphia, 1844). Since the 1870s, African Americans had held singing...
Come and taste, along with me. John Leland* (1754–1841).
This hymn was entitled 'The Christian's Consolation'. It was probably first published in 1801, in at least three collections: Richard Allen*, A Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs: from various authors (Philadelphia: T. L. Plowman, 1801); Richard Allen, A Collection of Spiritual Songs and Hymns (Philadelphia: John Ormrod, 1801); and Josiah Goddard, A New and Beautiful Collection of Select Hymns and Spiritual Songs (Walpole, New...
Come into my heart, blessed Jesus ('Into my heart'). Harry D. Clarke* (1889–1957).
This hymn began as a short chorus, composed in 1924; Clarke expanded the chorus into a gospel hymn with four stanzas in 1927. The earliest publication is unclear, but the refrain without the stanzas appears in Homer A. Rodeheaver*'s Praise and Worship Hymns (Chicago, 1927), with the subtitle 'My Prayer', an inscription occasionally used in later publications. The entire hymn was included in several...
Come Sunday. Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington (1899-1974).
The music of this jazz spiritual is adapted from the similarly titled section of Ellington's instrumental suite, Black, Brown and Beige, premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York City, (January 23, 1943). Ellington introduced the work at the premier as 'a tone parallel to the history of the negro in America.'
The lyrics resulted from a two-year collaboration of Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972) and Ellington, as described by Irving Townsend in his...
Come with us, O blessed Jesus. John Henry Hopkins, Jr.* (1820-1891).
First published in the Second Edition, enlarged, of Hopkins's Carols, Hymns, and Songs (New York, 1872). It was entitled 'Retrocessional for Christmas Day'; it provides a fine conclusion to a service on that day.
After having been neglected for many years, the first stanza of this hymn was printed in H40, with a tune by Johann Schop*, sometimes called WERDE MUNTER, after the hymn by Johann Rist*, 'Werde munter, mein Gemüte'*,...
Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine. Adoniram Judson* (1788-1850).
'Come, Holy Spirit, Dove divine' is the most widely sung of three hymns written by Adoniram Judson. This four-stanza hymn is extracted from Judson's seven-stanza baptism hymn 'Our Savior bowed beneath the wave'*. The original hymn, written ca. 1829 and first printed in Thomas Ripley's A Selection of Hymns, for Conference & Prayer Meetings, and Other Occasions, Second Edition (1831), appeared under the title 'Hymn written by Mr....
Come, join the dance of Trinity. Richard Leach* (1953- ).
This is Richard Leach's most published hymn. The author states that he desires to write hymn texts that are 'biblically and theologically accurate and sound' (Leach, 2007, p. 7). He accomplishes this goal in in this this by engaging the singer in an imaginative, multi-sensory celebration of the Trinity.
Leach notes that 'Dancing has a very long association with the Trinity, going back to the eighth-century theologians who used the word...
Come, sinner, to the gospel feast. Nineteenth century, author unknown.
This hymn is annotated under Charles Wesley*'s 'Come, sinners, to the Gospel feast'* in JJ, p. 251. It is attributed in some books, such as Henry Ward Beecher*'s Plymouth Collection*, to 'Huntingdon' (see 'Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon'*). There were many variants of hymns in editions of the Countess of Huntingdon's hymnals, and the first line obviously derives from Wesley's hymn: but this hymn is exceptional in...
Come, though we can truly sing. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This is one of five hymns by Murray, all first published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Songs, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by the English Universalist James Relly* and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth...
Congregational Christian Church and United Church of Christ hymnody, USA
The United Church of Christ (UCC) was formed by a 1957 merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Congregational Christian Church, and has a present membership of 1.1 million with 5100 churches in the United States. The diversity of theology among local congregations is great, from liberal to conservative and all points in between, with individual congregations enjoying 'local church autonomy'—a remnant of the...
The Consultation on Common Texts (CCT) is a North American ecumenical consultation which produces English-language liturgical texts and lectionaries. Members of CCT include representatives from over twenty church bodies across North America. The CCT was responsible for compiling the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL) and, as a member body of the international group English Language Liturgical Consultation* (ELLC), helped to produce Praying Together (a collection of common liturgical texts).
The...
MATHER, Cotton. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 February 1663; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 February 1728. Mather, one of the leading Puritan ministers of the American colonies, was instrumental in introducing the hymns of Isaac Watts* to North America. He was born into one of the prominent Puritan families of Colonial America. His father, Increase Mather (1639-1723), was minister of the prestigious Old North Church in Boston, and president of Harvard College (now Harvard University) from 1692...
Creating God, your fingers trace. Jeffery Rowthorn* (1934- ).
This is a metrical version of Psalm 148, 'Praise the Lord from the heavens; praise him in the heights above.' It was written in 1974 and submitted in 1979 for a competition set by the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada* to find 'New Psalms for Today'. It was printed in The Hymn (April 1979).
It has four stanzas, beginning 'Creating God...', 'Sustaining God...', 'Redeeming God...' and 'Indwelling God...'. It was printed in...
TRUEBLOOD, David Elton. b. Pleasantville, Marion County, Iowa, 12 December 1900; d. Meadowood Retirement Community, near Lansdale, Pennsylvania, 20 December 1994. Some records indicate that Elton was born 'near Indianola', but he writes that 'On rare occasions we drove sixteen miles to either Indianola or Knoxville…' (While It Is Day, p. 10). Other records state that he was born at the family farm (near Waveland, in Warren County); he himself, however, states that he was born at Pleasantville...
BAYLEY, Daniel. b. Rowley, Massachusetts, 27 June 1729; d. Newburyport, Massachusetts, 29 February 1792. Bayley was a compiler and publisher of tunebooks. While active, possibly as clerk and possibly as a chorister, in St. Paul's Anglican (Episcopal after the Revolution) Church in Newburyport, as well as a printer, potter, and shopkeeper, he became one of the most productive early publishers of American church music. His tunebooks are of particular interest for reasons of 'piracy' – prior to...
DAMON, Daniel Charles. b. Rapid City, South Dakota, 2 July 1955. Damon was educated at Greenville College in Illinois and at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California. After serving parishes in Sutter, Meridian, Modesto, and Richmond, all in California, he is currently retired as an Elder in the United Methodist Church in 2020. He also teaches church music at the Pacific School of Religion on an adjunct basis, plays in jazz clubs, and leads jazz vespers for the students at the...
ROBERTS, Daniel Crane. b. Bridgehampton, Long Island, New York, 5 November 1841; d. Concord, New Hampshire, 31 October 1907. He was educated at Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio. During the Civil War he served as a private in the 84th Ohio volunteers. Immediately after the war he was ordained into the Episcopal Church of America (deacon 1865, priest 1866). He served in parishes at Montpelier, Vermont; Lowell, Massachusetts; Brandon, Vermont; in 1878 he was appointed to St Paul's, Concord, New...
MANSFIELD, Daniel Hale. b. probably Bangor, Maine, 23 June 1810; d. probably Augusta, Maine, 25 February 1855. Mansfield is primarily known as the compiler of a popular oblong tunebook, The American Vocalist (Boston, 1848, Rev. 1849). His ancestors, arriving in the American colony of Massachusetts around 1638, reflected seven generations of English Puritan heritage. They prospered as farmers and were gentlemen and owners of enslaved people in the New World. During the second half of the 18th...
IVERSON, Daniel. b. Brunswick, Georgia, 26 September 1890; d. Asheville, North Carolina, 3 January 1977. Iverson studied at the University of Georgia, the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, Columbia Theological Seminary in New York City, and the University of South Carolina. Ordained in the Presbyterian Church in 1914, he initially served congregations in Georgia and North and South Carolina, and then founded and pastored the Shenandoah Presbyterian Church in Miami, Florida (1927-51). An...
MARCH, Daniel. b. Milbury, Massachusetts, 21 July 1816; d. Woburn, Massachusetts, 2 March 1909. March was educated at Amherst College (1834-36), and Yale University (BA, 1840). After serving as principal of Fairfield Academy in Connecticut, he returned to Yale for his theological studies. He was ordained into the Presbyterian ministry in 1845, but later changed to Congregationalism, and served churches in Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania, and twice in Woburn, Massachusetts (1856-64,...
READ, Daniel. b. Attleboro, Massachusetts, 16 November 1757; d. New Haven, Connecticut, 4 December 1836. Daniel Read spent his early years working on the family farm. He had only a few months of formal education in common school. His musical training came in singing schools (class lessons in musical rudiments and choral singing) and it is likely that one of his teachers was William Billings*. After service in the Massachusetts militia during the Revolutionary War, Read settled in New Haven,...
SCHUTTE, Daniel L. b. Neenah, Wisconsin, 28 December 1947. Schutte was educated at St Louis University, St Louis, Missouri (BS, 1972). After three years teaching Oglala Sioux high school students at Red Cloud Indian School at Pine Ridge, South Dakota (1973-76), he went to the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California (1976-80, MDiv 1980) to complete his formal theological training in preparation for priestly ordination. He also holds an MTh degree from the Graduate Theological Union,...
WHITTLE, Daniel Webster. b. Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, 22 November 1840; d. Northfield, Massachusetts, 4 March 1901. Whittle was given the name of the great lexicographer, Daniel Webster, which suggests a respect for learning on the part of his parents, who moved to Chicago in his teenage years. He worked as a Wells Fargo Bank cashier in Chicago before serving in the Civil War. In 1861 he joined the 72nd Illinois infantry regiment: he took part in Sherman's march through Georgia from...
Bjorlin, David Donald. b. Duluth, Minnesota, 8 March 1984. David Bjorlin is a minister in the Evangelical Covenant Church, a liturgy professor, and a hymn writer. He is the son of Dean and Marijo Bjorlin, one of four children. He was raised in Hermantown, near Duluth, where he graduated from high school. His musical interests began as a part of a children's choir, Hermantown (now Lake Superior) Youth Chorus, and were honed as a violinist in his Pentecostal church's orchestra and as a piano and...
CHERWIEN, David Mark. b. West Union, Iowa, 1 July 1957. Cherwien, organist, conductor and composer, studied at Augsburg College, Minneapolis, (BM 1979) and the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis (MM 1995, DMA 2001). Additional studies in conducting, composition and organ were taken at the Berliner Kirchenmusikschule, Spandau, Germany. He has held positions as organist at the American Church (LCA) in Berlin; director of music at the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach (ELCA) Shoreline,...
CREAMER, David. b. Baltimore, Maryland, 20 November 1812; d. Baltimore, 8 April 1887. David Creamer was one of eleven children born to Joshua Creamer (nda) and Margaret Smith (nda). Creamer was educated in private schools in Baltimore until the age of 17. He was a partner in his father's lumber business until 1858 and served in several small government positions after that time. He was a devout Methodist who developed a strong interest in the hymnody of the church, and who became the first...
EICHER, David Eugene. b. Harrisonburg, Virginia; 11 June 1954. An organist, church musician, music educator, denominational administrator, and hymnal editor, David Eicher's ecclesial roots were in the Church of the Brethren. He was born to the Rev. William C. Eicher (1923–2008) and Elsie Williard Eicher (1927–2011), the second of two children. His father served churches in Southern Virginia until he was called to Springfield, Ohio when Eicher entered the tenth grade.
Showing a great interest...
GAMBRELL, David. b. Raleigh, North Carolina; 4 December 1972. David Patrick Gambrell is ordained to ministry in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), a liturgical scholar, and a hymn writer. His love for hymn singing was cultivated at a young age in the Presbyterian congregations where he was raised.In addition to singing in church choirs, he sang in coffee houses most weekends, reflecting the influence of folk music by Pete Seeger, 'whose passion for music, pursuit of justice, and care for...
McCORMICK, David Wilfred. b. Lehighton, Pennsylvania, 6 May 1928; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 September 2019. The son of a printer and volunteer church organist, he received his bachelor's degree (1949) and his master's degree (1950) from Westminster Choir College, Princeton, New Jersey. He began his church ministry at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, Texas where he established a life-long friendship with composer Jane Manton Marshall*. His service at Highland Park was...
WILLIAMS, David McKinley. b. Caernarvonshire, Wales, 20 February 1887; d. Oakland, California, 13 March 1978. One of the most dynamic 20th-century leaders of American church music, he is often identified with the music of St Bartholomew's Church in New York City, where he was organist and choirmaster from 1920 to 1947. Williams served on the Joint Commission on Church Music of the Episcopal Church and the Joint Commission on Revision of the Hymnal (H40). He composed hymn tunes and descants,...
HAAS, David Robert. b. Saginaw, Michigan, 4 May 1957. Haas studied at Central Michigan University and achieved proficiency in voice, keyboard, guitar and trumpet. His studies at the (College) University of St. Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota centered on theology and liturgical music. He was later appointed composer in residence at the university's St Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He also served as composer in residence at Benilde-St Margaret High School in St Louis Park, Minnesota, and he is...
MUSIC, David Wayne. b. Ardmore, Oklahoma, 28 January 1949. Music was educated at California Baptist College (BA in music, 1970), and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (MCM 1973, DMA 1977). From 1977 to 1980 he served as a full-time minister of music in Tennessee. At California Baptist College in Riverside (1980-1990) he directed the Chamber Singers, Concert Choir, and College Singers, and was a member of the faculty Baroque ensemble. He taught at Southwestern Baptist Theological...
David's Companion (1808). James Evans*, a British Methodist who arrived in New York City in 1806, compiled and published David's Companion Being a Choice Selection of Hymn and Psalm tunes being adapted to the words and measures of the Methodist Pocket Hymn-Book containing a variety of tunes to all the metres that are now in use in the different churches: with many new tunes principally from Dr. Miller, Leach and other composers (New York, 1808). The title page dedicates the volume to 'the Rev....
Day of Arising. Susan Palo Cherwien* (1953– )
This hymn was commissioned for the 1996 annual assembly of the Minneapolis Area Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The opening line recalls Christ's encounter with those traveling on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24: 13–35) on the afternoon of Easter Day. Carl P. Daw, Jr.* comments:
Because our liturgical calendar has traditionally separated the reading of this story from the other Resurrection narratives, we usually do not hear about...
LOFTIS, Deborah Carlton. b. Richmond, Virginia, 7 November 1951. Loftis grew up in a family that sang together. Although neither of her parents had formal musical training, she learned her first songs on the piano from her father. Once in school, she took piano lessons and sang in school and church choirs. While reared in the Southern Baptist church and ordained as a Southern Baptist minister in 1983, when that denomination underwent changes in the last decades of the 20th century, her...
DUFNER, Delores (OSB). b. near Buxton, North Dakota, 20 February 1939. Born in the family farmhouse during a winter blizzard, Dufner's elementary education was in a one-room country school; she was later educated by the Benedictine Sisters in Crookston, Minnesota. She entered St Joseph's Benedictine Monastery in St Joseph, Minnesota, and was awarded graduate degrees in Liturgical Music (1973) and Liturgical Studies (1990) from St Joseph's College in Rensselaer, Indiana, and the University of...
HUNTINGTON, DeWitt Clinton. b. Townshend, Windham, Vermont, 27 April 1830; d. Lincoln, Nebraska, 8 February 1912. One of a family of nine children, he was the son of Ebenezer Huntington (1780-1866) and Lydia Peck (1786-1857). He was educated at Syracuse University, New York, after which he was ordained as a Methodist Episcopal Church minister in 1853. He was the pastor of churches in New York State and Pennsylvania: Rochester (1861-71); Syracuse (1873-76); Rochester again (1876-79); Bradford,...
The Dictionary of North American Hymnology (DNAH) was conceived in the early 1950s by the Hymn Society of America (in 1991 renamed Hymn Society in the United States and Canada*, HSUSC) and Henry Wilder Foote (II)* (1875-1964) as an American version of John Julian*'s Dictionary of Hymnology (1892, 1907). Originally titled the Dictionary of American Hymnology, its primary goal soon focused on indexing every hymnal published in the Americas. In 1952, the editorship fell to Leonard W. Ellinwood*...
One way to describe the Disciples is as a 19th-century religious experiment planted on North American soil from Scots-Irish and United States Presbyterian roots sprinkled with Baptist and Congregationalist waters. Three of the four acknowledged founders of this religious experiment were first generation immigrants to the United States. Only Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844) was born on US soil, near Port Tobacco, Maryland. Thomas Campbell (1763-1854) and his son Alexander (1788-1866) arrived in...
FISHEL, Donald Emry. b. Hart, Michigan, 1 November 1950. Fishel, a flautist, attended the University of Michigan, studying under Nelson Hauenstein and Michael Stoune (BM, 1972). Brought up a Methodist, he turned to Roman Catholicism in 1969, and worked for the charismatic Roman Catholic 'Word of God Community' in Ann Arbor, Michigan, as publications editor of their Servant Music and as director of the parish orchestra, until 1981. He was principal flautist with Dexter Community Orchestra and...
SALIERS, Don E. b. Fostoria, Ohio, 11 August, 1937. Don Saliers is an eminent ecumenical liturgical scholar, author, teacher, composer and keyboardist, and ordained elder in the United Methodist Church. He grew up in Ohio where he began the study of piano at age eight, played clarinet and violin, and sang in many high school ensembles. His father, Harold A. ('Red') Saliers, (1898 – 1981), was a classical violinist who also played jazz in New York and later formed a dance band in Ohio. Other...
Dove Awards. These are awards given annually by the Gospel Music Association (GMA)* for outstanding achievement in the Christian music industry: i.e., that part of the commercial music industry that markets electronic and print mass-mediated products in popular musical styles to English-speaking Protestants worldwide, but especially in North America.
Modeled on the Emmy, the Oscar, and the Grammy, the Dove was established by GMA ca. 1969. The earliest awards ceremonies were held in Memphis,...
Draw us in the spirit's tether. Percy Dearmer* (1867-1936).
First published in SofPE (1931). It was Part II of a hymn of five stanzas, the first two of which were from the hymn by George Hugh Bourne* (1840-1925) beginning 'Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendour'*. Five stanzas of this hymn, which - it is believed - was longer, were printed in the Supplement (1889) to the Second Edition of A&M, and in many later books such as EH.
Dearmer printed three stanzas of Bourne's hymn in SofP (1925)....
Drew University Hymnological Collection
The hymnological collection at Drew University, Madison New Jersey, contains over 6000 volumes of significant range and depth. Included are 3000 Methodist hymnals and related works from more than 25 Methodist denominations, and over 2600 non-Methodist volumes. Three hundred volumes were printed before 1800, the earliest being The Whole Booke of Psalmes (London: Printed by John Windet, 1603). While many of these do not circulate, approximately 400...
The Center for Studies in the Wesleyan Tradition was established by the Divinity School at Duke University in 1979, under the direction of Frank Baker*. It is dedicated to four intertwined tasks:
staffing, supervising and enriching curricular and extracurricular offerings in Methodist and Wesleyan Studies at the Divinity School;
providing educational outreach programs to United Methodist constituencies and beyond;
developing research resources for students and scholars of the broad Wesleyan...
MARLATT, Earl Bowman. b. Columbus, Indiana, 24 May 1892; d. Winchester, Indiana, 13 June 1976. His father was a Methodist Episcopal minister. He and his twin brother, Ernest F. Marlatt, were the youngest of eight brothers and sisters, all of whom graduated from DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana (a Methodist foundation, originally Indiana Asbury University). Earl Bowman graduated in 1912 and then studied at Harvard and Boston Universities, and at Oxford and Berlin. He taught school in...
HARPER, Earl Enyeart. b. Coffey, Missouri, 28 March 1895; d. St Petersburg, Florida, 1 March 1967. Pastor, hymnist, educator, author, director of hymn festivals, arts curator, Harper attended Nebraska Wesleyan University, Lincoln, Nebraska (BA, 1918) and Boston University School of Theology, Boston, Massachusetts (STB, 1921), with additional study at Harvard and the University of Chicago. Harper began his professional career as the pastor of Centenary Methodist Episcopal Church, Auburndale,...
Easter people, raise your voices. William Marcus James* (1915-2013).
Following in the tradition of many pastors who write hymns, James wrote 'Easter people, raise your voices' for his congregation at Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church in New York City in 1979. In 2005 James told the present writer 'I wrote hymns for my congregation whenever I needed one. “Easter People” is not the greatest hymn I have, but it took better than the others. Most of my hymns have themes around the...
Eat this bread. Robert Batastini* (1942– ) and Jacques Berthier* (1923–1994).
John 6:35, one of the 'I AM' sayings of Jesus, provides the basis for the text of 'Eat this bread': 'Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”' (NIV):
Eat this bread, drink this cup, come to me and never be hungry.Eat this bread, drink this cup, trust in me and you will not thirst.
©1984 Ateliers et Presses de Taizé,...
TOURJÉE, Eben. b. Warwick, Rhode Island, 1 June 1834; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 12 April 1891. Tourjée was an influential music educator, teacher, organist, hymnal editor, and entrepreneur. He worked in cotton mills while attending school at the East Greenwich Seminary, Providence, Rhode Island. He trained as an organist and taught music in public schools. By the age of 20 Tourjée had opened a music school based on the European conservatory model of the conservatory in Fall River,...
Ecumenical Praise, Carlton R. Young*, executive editor (Agape: Carol Stream, Illinois, 1977).
The hymn explosion in Britain lit by the Dunblane Music Consultations of the 1960s (see Dunblane Praises*) produced a plethora of hymnal supplements to the new and existing denominational hymnals in Great Britain and the United States. Contemporary hymnal committees were reluctant to include the rapidly expanding number of hymns that did not meet the traditional interpretation of hymnody.
Austin C....
STITES, Edgar Page. b. Cape May, New Jersey, 22 March 1836; d. Cape May, 9 January 1921. Stites lived in Cape May for most of his life, apart from a period in Philadelphia during the Civil War, where he worked in the provisions department of the Union army, and another period when he was a missionary in Dakota. He was a pilot on the Delaware River and a lifelong Methodist, a member of the Cape May chapel for sixty years. He was the cousin of Eliza E. Hewitt* of Pennsylvania, whom he would have...
SEARS, Edmund Hamilton. b. Sandisfield, Massachusetts, 6 April 1810; d. Weston, Mass., 16 January 1876. Sears was educated at Union College in Schenectady, New York (1834), and Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge (MA 1837). He was ordained as a Unitarian minister in 1839, but believed in the divinity of Christ, and had an interest in Swedenborgianism. He served churches in Wayland, Lancaster, and Weston, all in Massachusetts.
Among his many very successful books were Regeneration (1854, Ninth...
BOATNER, Edward Hammond. b. New Orleans, Louisiana, 13 November 1898; d. New York City, 16 June 1981. Edward Boatner was a multi-talented musician recognized as a composer, choral conductor, and singer as well as author of plays, stories, and music education materials. He was especially noted for essays in African American history and his concertized arrangements of African American spirituals*.
He was the son of an itinerant Methodist minister Dr. Daniel Webster Boatner (?1854— ). His surname...
HODGES, Edward. b. Bristol, England, 20 July 1796; d. Clifton, Bristol, 1 September 1867. Hodges was an organist, composer, and father of Faustina H. Hodges* and John Sebastian Bach Hodges*. Many hymnals include Edward Hodges's tune HYMN TO JOY, arranged from a melody in the finale of Beethoven's 9th symphony [Opus 125, 1824] as the setting for Henry van Dyke*'s 'Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee'*.
Edward's father, Archelaus Hodges (1767-1811), and mother, Elizabeth (Stephens) Hodges...
PRUDEN, Edward Hughes. b. Chase City, Virginia, 30 August 1903; d. Richmond, Virginia, 1987. After school in Chase City, Pruden was educated at the University of Richmond, Virginia, a Baptist school attended by pre-ministerial students (graduated 1925), followed by the Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (MDiv). Further graduate study followed at Yale, and Edinburgh, Scotland (PhD). He was awarded a DD at the age of 29 from the University of Richmond (the youngest person ever to...
CHAPIN, Edwin Hubbell. b. Union Village, New York, 29 December 1814; d. Pigeon Cove, Massachusetts, 26 December 1880. Chapin was a Universalist minister, author, orator, social reformer, and writer of hymns. With John Greenleaf Adams (1810-1897) he compiled Hymns for Christian Devotion.
Edwin Chapin was a descendant of Samuel Chapin (1598-1675), born in Devon, England, who became a prominent settler at Springfield, Massachusetts. Among other descendants of Samuel Chapin were hymn tune...
BALL, Eli, b. Marlborough, Vermont, 2 November 1786; d. Richmond, Virginia, 21 July 1853. He was the son of Samuel H. Ball and Phebe Taylor Ball, the younger brother of Amos Ball, and the twin of Pheobe Ball. Following limited former education, he was tutored in Boston by Daniel Stafford in classics and by Caleb Blood in ministerial studies. He served congregations in Malden and Wilmington, Massachusetts; Lansingburg, New York; and Middletown, Connecticut, before moving to Virginia in...
MANN, Elias. b. Stoughton, Massachusetts, 8 May 1750; d. Northampton, Massachusetts, 12 May 1825. Mann was a carpenter, musician, singing teacher, and tunebook compiler, born in the northwest part of Stoughton, in a section of the city now called Canton. He was the seventh of twelve children born to Theodore Mann (nda) and Abigail Day Mann (nda). Although little is known about his childhood and musical training, it is speculated that he grew up in Dedham and Walpole, southwest of nearby...
ESLINGER, Elise Shoemaker (née Matheny). b. Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 2 December 1942. Elise Matheny's musical education began in early childhood with her aunt and continued with piano lessons at age 5 and organ lessons at age 14. Following graduation from high school in Meridian, Mississippi (1960), she pursued her undergraduate education at Millsaps College, Jackson, Mississippi (BA in Organ, Minor in English, Magna cum laude, 1963). She continued graduate studies in music literature at the...
HEWITT, Eliza Edmunds. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 June 1851; d. Philadelphia, 24 April 1920. Eliza Hewitt spent her entire life in the city of her birth. She taught school there, after being educated at the Girls' Normal School, until she was incapacitated by a spinal injury for some time. Initially active in Olivet Presbyterian Church, Hewitt worked at the Northern Home for Friendless Children, and later as a Sunday-school superintendent at Calvin Presbyterian Church. Publishing various...
PRENTISS, Elizabeth (née Payson). b. Portland, Maine, 26 October 1818; d. Dorset, Vermont, 13 August 1878. She became a teacher before marrying (1845) George Lewis Prentiss (1816-1903), a Congregational (later Presbyterian) minister and well known author. They lived at New Bedford, Massachusetts (1845-51) and then in New York, with a period in Europe (1858-60). Her husband became Professor of Pastoral Theology at Union Theological Seminary, New York. She died at their summer residence at...
SCOTT, Elizabeth (Elizabeth Scott Williams Smith). b. Hitchin, Hertfordshire, 17 October 1708; d. Wethersfield, Connecticut Colony, 13 June 1776. She was the writer of several hymns that were widely published in England and New England during the 18th and 19th centuries, all of which are included in a manuscript volume identified by a label on its binding (but not inside) by the words 'Hymns and Poems by Elizabeth Scott', preserved in the Beinecke Library of Yale University. It contains 90...
DARE, Elkanah Kelsay. b. Salem, Salem County, New Jersey, 15 January 1782; d. Colerain Township, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, 26 August 1826. Dare is best known for his contributions to John Wyeth*'s shape-note Wyeth's Repository of Sacred Music*, Part Second. Dare married Mary Shallcross Phillips (1785-1841) in 1804. A list of their ten children with dates and places of birth, along with other records, indicates that Dare had moved to Wilmington, Delaware before the end of 1809, and to...
Andrews, Emily Snider. b. Athens, Alabama, 20 February 1986. Andrews, an ordained Baptist minister and pastoral musician, has taught courses in music and worship at Azusa Pacific University, Azusa, California, and the Townsend-McAfee Institute for Graduate Church Music Studies, Mercer University, Mercer University, Macon, Georgia (2014-). Andrews is a graduate of Samford University Birmingham, Alabama (BM in Church Music), and Baylor University, Waco, Texas (MM. Church Music, and MDiv. 2012)....
The English and American Hymnody Collection of The Pitts Theology Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Introduction
This entry is provides a basic understanding of the development of Emory University's English and American Hymnody Collection and introduces its great potential for research.Two of the three largest institutional hymnal collections in North America are heavily indebted to one or more private collectors (Schneider, 2003; see Hymnal collections, USA*). The third, The...
Of all the German sectarian groups in colonial Pennsylvania, perhaps one of the most widely known was the Ephrata Cloister. It was founded in 1732 by George Conrad Beissel (b. Eberbach, Germany, 1691, died Ephrata, 1768). The full blossoming of the Cloister occurred in the 1740s and 1750s, when its population consisted of about 80 celibates and some 200 householders. It was waning as Beissel died in 1768, and it ceased to exist in 1814.
Beissel's skills and talents were manifold, but he is best...
Episcopal Church Hymnody, USA
The Introduction is by Raymond F. Glover. The historical survey is by Robin Knowles Wallace.
Introduction
Among the vast number of persons who came as settlers beginning in 1607 to what is now known as the United States of America were many who brought with them a pattern of worship consistent with the liturgies of the Book of Common Prayer, the singing of metrical Psalms from the 'Old Version'* of Thomas Sternhold* and John Hopkins*, perhaps a few hymns of human...
WERNER, Eric. b. Lundenburg, (Břeclav), 40 miles north of Vienna, Austria-Hungary, 1 August 1901; d. New York City, 28 July 1988. Werner was a distinguished and controversial musicologist, ethnomusicologist, and liturgiologist whose life-long goal, as stated in his The Sacred Bridge (Werner 2:x-xii), was to correct the errors and misrepresentations of European scholars, especially of those who were anti-Semitic. Werner's parents (his father was a scholar of Greek) nurtured him in classical...
ROUTLEY, Erik Reginald. b. Brighton, Sussex, 31 October 1917; d. Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 8 October 1982. He was the only child of John, a businessman and town councillor who was Mayor of Brighton in 1936-37, and Eleanor, a homemaker and musician. He attended Fonthill Preparatory School, 1925-31 and Lancing College, 1931-36. He read Literae Humaniores (nicknamed 'Mods' and 'Greats': classics/ ancient history and philosophy) at Magdalen College, Oxford (BA 1940, MA 1943). He became an...
RYDEN, Ernest Edwin. b. Kansas City, Missouri, 12 September 1886; d. Providence, Rhode Island, 1 January 1981. Born into a Swedish family, Ryden attended the Manual Training School in Kansas City, worked for a newspaper published by the Kansas City Railway, and was a telegraph editor for a newspaper in Moline, Illinois. He attended Augustana College, Rock Island, Illinois, in 1910 (BA, honorary DD, 1930; he was later President of the Board); and Augustana Theological Seminary, Rock Island (BD,...
EMURIAN, Ernest K. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 20 February 1912; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 23 January 2004. A hymn writer, author, hymn enthusiast, and a fourth-generation preacher, Emurian was the son of a composer, hymn writer, and publisher. He earned a BA (1931) from Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina, a BD from Union Theological Seminary, Richmond, Virginia, and a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree...
SHURTLEFF, Ernest Warburton. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 4 April 1862; d. Paris, France, August 1917. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard University, with a further period of study at the New Church (Swedenborgian) Theological Seminary. He trained for the Congregational ministry at Andover Theological College, graduating in 1888. For the graduation ceremony he wrote the hymn by which he is still known, 'Lead on, O King eternal'*. He subsequently served as a minister at...
German Reformed
Immigration and Organization
German Reformed immigrants came to America largely from the Palatinate in south-west Germany on the Rhine River. There, in 1562 at Heidelberg University, Caspar Olevianus (1536-1587) and Zacharias Ursinus (1534-1583) prepared the Heidelberg Catechism and the Palatinate Liturgy. This area received the Reformation about the time of Luther's death (1546), became a seedbed of religious rivalry, and especially after the beginning of the Thirty Years' War...
The Evangelical Covenant Church today consists of about 850 congregations in North America and Canada. While non-creedal, it bases its beliefs firmly in scripture, and explains its applied doctrine by means of six affirmations that connect it to the larger evangelical Protestant community:
We affirm the centrality of the word of God.
We affirm the necessity of the new birth.
We affirm a commitment to the whole mission of the church.
We affirm the church as a fellowship of believers.
We...
The Evangelical Lutheran Hymn-Book (ELHB 1912) was the first, official English-language hymnal of the Missouri Synod branch of American Lutheranism. It was published at a time when the Missouri Synod was slowly, and reluctantly, making the transition from German to English in its worship forms and ecclesial culture. As such, ELHB 1912 assisted in a far-reaching transformation of this immigrant, Lutheran church body by bringing a large portion of its German hymnody into English, while at the...
BASH, Ewald Joseph (Joe). b. Portland, Indiana, 4 November 1924; d. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 17 July 1994. Bash graduated from Trinity Lutheran Seminary in Columbus, Ohio (1948), and served Lutheran parishes in New Lexington and Eagleport, Ohio (1948-53), and Cleveland, Ohio (1953-56). After being a campus pastor at Ohio State University (1956-60), he was appointed Associate Youth Director of the American Lutheran Church. Later he taught extension courses for Augsburg and other schools in the...
TUCKER, Francis Bland. b. Norfolk, Virginia, 6 January 1895; d. Savannah, Georgia, 1 January 1984. The son of an Episcopalian Church bishop, he was educated at school in Lynchburg, Virginia, and the University of Virginia, Charlottesville (BA 1914). After service with the Medical Corps in World War I, he trained for the priesthood at Virginia Theological Seminary, Alexandria (BD, 1920, h. c. DD, 1942). He was ordained (deacon 1918, priest 1920), serving parishes at Brunswick County, Virginia...
HAMILTON, Fayette Montgomery ('F.M.'). b. Washington, Arkansas, 3 September 1858; d. Sparta, Georgia, 10 November 1912. The life of this hymnodist, composer, arranger, and editor is most accurately told within the context of the early history of the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church (in 1954 the name was changed to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church). It was first organized on 16 December 1870 as The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, an ecclesial body of mostly African...
Fairest Lord Jesus. German, 17th century, translated by several hands.
Three stanzas of this German hymn, 'Schönster Herr Jesu'*, are taken from the version published by Richard Storrs Willis (1819-1900), in his Church Chorals and Choir Studies (New York, 1850), which printed the English and German texts:
Fairest Lord Jesus! Ruler of all nature! O Thou of God and Man the Son! Thee will I cherish, Thee will I honor, Thou! my soul's glory, joy, and crown.
Fair are the...
Faith of our Mothers, living yet. Arthur Bardwell Patten* (1864-1952).
This is a praiseworthy attempt to assert the rights of women in opposition to the gender-exclusive language of 'Faith of our fathers! living still'* the famous hymn by Frederick William Faber* of 1849 (each stanza of Patten's hymn ends, as Faber's does, with the stirring 'We will be true to thee till death'). The earliest page scans in Hymnary.org print 'living yet', which suggests that Patten was attempting to make his...
Father! Thy wonders do not singly stand. Jones Very* (1813-1880).
The first eight lines of this hymn come from Very's Essays and Poems (1839), a volume that was published with the encouragement of Ralph Waldo Emerson*. It was entitled 'The Spirit Land', and was a poem of fourteen lines, one of a series of poems in that form and in that metre:
Father! Thy wonders do not singly stand, Nor far removed where feet have seldom strayed; Around us ever lies the enchanted land In marvels rich to thine...
Father, behold us here. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This is the third of five hymns, all first published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Songs, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by English Universalist James Relly and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth (Brewster, pp....
Father, to Thee we look in all our sorrow. Frederick Lucian Hosmer* (1840- 1929).
According to JJ, p. 1650, this was written in 1881 to mark the death of a member of Hosmer's congregation. This must have been during his pastorate at Cleveland, Ohio (1878-92). It was published in The Thought of God in Hymns and Poems, First Series (Boston, 1885), edited by Hosmer with William Channing Gannett*. It had four stanzas:
Father, we look to Thee in all our sorrow, Thou art the fountain whence our...
Father, we thank thee who hast planted. F. Bland Tucker* (1895-1984).
Written in 1939, and published in H40, this hymn has been published throughout the world. It is a paraphrase of the Didache*, consisting of the supposed teaching of the twelve apostles: it provides 'rules for baptism, fasting, prayer, visiting teachers and apostles, and the Lord's Supper, and containing the fine prayers which F. Bland Tucker has effectively paraphrased' (Young, 1993, p 332).
Stanza 1 corresponds to 10: 2 of...
HODGES, Faustina Hasse. b. Malmesbury, Wiltshire, England, 7 August 1823; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 4 February 1895. Daughter of Edward Hodges* and sister of John Sebastian Bach Hodges*, Faustina Hodges was a composer of church music, including hymn tunes, as well as secular songs.
Named after opera singer Faustina Bordoni (1697-1781) and her husband, the composer Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783), Faustina Hodges was baptized 5 September 1823 in the Moravian Church, East Tytherton, about...
Fellowship of American Baptist Musicians
The Fellowship of American Baptist Musicians (FABM) is a volunteer organization for church musicians with denominational affiliation to the American Baptist Churches, USA. The Fellowship was officially formed in February 1964 when Dr Jet Turner and several other interested persons met in Cincinnati, Ohio with Dr Kenneth L. Cober*, who was at that time Executive Director for the Division of Christian Education for the American Baptist Convention. At that...
The Fellowship of United Methodists in Music and Worship Arts (now the Fellowship of Worship Artists)
The Fellowship is in part the successor to the National Fellowship of Methodist Musicians (NaFOMM), whose founding in the mid 1950s was prompted by that denomination's educational leaders' and curriculum editors' articulation of the theological discrepancies and inadequacies, the pedagogical practices of children's choir directors, and the texts of songs in the denomination's Sunday school...
First New England School. This label refers to the first group of native-born composers and tune compilers active in New England between about 1770 and 1810. William Billings*, who was deemed the unofficial leader of the school, published his ground-breaking tune collection The New-England Psalm-Singer (Boston, 1770). In addition to being the first collection of tunes composed by a single American composer, this book considerably influenced American compositional activity in the decades to...
The original Jubilee Singers was a choral group of students sponsored by Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee (founded 1866), and sponsored by the American Missionary Association (see Anderson 2010). From Oct. 1872 until June 1878 the singers toured the northern U.S. and England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland, Switzerland, and Germany singing a repertory of hymns, parlor songs, and most significantly, spirituals. They were responsible for popularizing spirituals in mainstream white society and...
Flor y Canto (flower and song) is a hymnal that represents the diversity of Latino/a cultures in the United States. Published by Oregon Catholic Press in four editions (1989, 2001, 2011, 2023), the title indicates the symbolism of flower and song found in Aztec culture and the experiences of indigenous peoples in Hispanic cultures. Unlike earlier Spanish-language Protestant hymnals, this Catholic publication includes a limited number of hymns in Spanish translation from traditional Western...
For all the faithful women. Herman G. Stuempfle* (1923–2007).
Several recent hymn writers have contributed hymns that acknowledge the role of women in the biblical narrative and their contribution to the history of Christianity. These include, among others, 'For ages women hoped and prayed' (1986) by Jane Parker Huber* (1926–2008), 'Woman, weeping in the garden' (1991) and 'God, we praise you for the women' (2006) by Daniel C. Damon* (b. 1955), 'Of women, and of women's hopes we sing' (1988) by...
For all thy gifts we praise thee, Lord. James Freeman Clarke* (1810-1888).
Published in Service Book: for the use of the Church of the Disciples of Christ (1844), and then in The Disciples' Hymn Book (Boston, 1844), where it was entitled 'Feast of the Reformation'. The word 'Feast' in the title suggests that Clarke was attempting to create a new Feast Day, in opposition to the traditional calendar of Saints' Days and other days in the church calendar. It had eight stanzas, and was given as by...
WILE, Frances Whitmarsh. b. Bristol Centre, New York, 2 December 1878; d. Rochester, New York, 31 July 1939 (places and dates from Henry Wilder Foote, American Unitarian Hymn Writers and Hymns, compiled for the Hymn Society of America, Cambridge, Mass., 1959), http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53833/53833-h/53833-h.htm). She was an active member of the First Unitarian Church in Rochester, of which William Channing Gannett* was the pastor from 1889 to 1908. According to Ronander and Porter (1966,...
BOTTOME, Francis ('Frank'). b. Belper, Derbyshire, 26 May 1823; d. Tavistock, Devon, 29 June 1894. As a young man he was greatly influenced by the Methodists in his native town, and was called upon to preach to them. After training under Thomas Jackson and obtaining a local preacher's license, serving the Belper Circuit, he went to Guelph, Canada, as a missionary to the Native Americans. His health broke down, and he went to New York en route for England. In New York he recovered in the hands...
ROWLEY, Francis Harold. b. Hilton, New York, 25 July 1854; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 14 February 1952. Born in upper New York State, he was educated at the University of Rochester (BA 1875) and Rochester Theological Seminary (BD 1878). He became a Baptist minister, serving at Titusville, Pennsylvania (1879-84), North Adams, Massachusetts (1884-92), Oak Park, Illinois (1892-96), Fall River, Mass. (1896-1900), and First Baptist Church, Boston, Mass. (1900-1910).
On taking early retirement in...
HOPKINSON, Francis. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 21 September 1737; d. Philadelphia, 9 May 1791. He was the son of Thomas Hopkinson and Mary Johnson, and entered the College of Philadelphia (now the University of Pennsylvania) with its first class in 1751, receiving a Baccalaureate degree in 1757, and a Master's in 1760. He was a lawyer and politician, holding various Colonial and US posts in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and being most noted as a member of the Second Continental...
BAKER, Frank. b. Kingston upon Hull, UK, 15 April 1910; d. Durham, North Carolina, 11 October 1999. In a fine tribute by John E. Vickers in the Second Edition of Baker's John Wesley and the Church of England (Peterborough, 2000), we read that Frank gave his life to Jesus Christ during the 'Humberside Crusade' in the winter of 1924. This led to his becoming a local preacher and then answering the call to full-time ministry in the Primitive Methodist Church. Because of what seems today to have...
HOSMER, Frederick Lucian. b. Framingham, Massachusetts, 16 October 1840; d. Berkeley, California, 7 June 1929. Following graduation from Harvard (BA, 1862) he served for two years as headmaster of Houghton School, Bolton, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard Divinity School (BD 1869), and in the same year he was ordained into the Unitarian ministry. He served the First Congregational Church at Northboro, Massachusetts (1870-72), and the Second Congregational Church, Quincy, Illinois (1872-77);...
Friends of the English Liturgy was founded in Chicago in 1963 in the midst of the Second Vatican Council. Dennis J. Fitzpatrick (nda) began the firm to sell his own 'Demonstration Mass in English'. Within a few years he had signed a contract with songwriter Ray Repp and published Hymnal for Young Christians, subtitled 'A supplement to adult Hymnals', and one of the first hymnals intended for guitar accompaniment. The music of Repp and many other composers in the collection became widely...
Full Salvation! Full Salvation! Francis Bottome* (1823-1894).
According to JJ, p. 164, this hymn was first published in 'a collection by Dr Cullis of Boston, 1873', but this has not been verified. JJ was referring to Charles Cullis (1833-1892), a physician who specialized in faith healing. Cullis's Faith Hymns appeared in a number of editions published by the Willard Tract Repository, Boston, from 1870 onwards (Bottome's hymn was not in the 1870 edition, but was certainly in one of 1887;...
SIMONS, George Albert. b. LaPorte, Indiana, 19 March 1874; d. Brooklyn, New York, 2 August 1952. Son of a Methodist pastor, George Henry Simons and his wife Ottilie Schulz, Simons attended Adelphi Academy, Brooklyn, New York; German-Wallace College (now Baldwin-Wallace College), Berea, Ohio (AB, 1899; DD, 1908); New York University (AB, 1903); the Theological School of Drew University, Madison, New Jersey (BD, 1905). In 1899, after finishing theological studies, he was ordained in the Methodist...
ASKINS, George. b. Ireland, date and place unknown; d. Frederick, Maryland, 28 February 1816. Little is known about Askins save his birth country, Ireland, and that he had made his way to the United States by 1801 as an adult Methodist, where he was given a charge as a trial itinerate preacher in the Montgomery circuit of the Baltimore Annual Conference. Still on trial, he was assigned to the Ohio circuit of the Pittsburgh Annual Conference in 1802 and then to the Shenango circuit of the same...
KNIGHT, George Litch. b. Rockford, Illinois, 2 January 1925; d. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 6 October 1995. Hymnologist, historian and clergyman, Knight attended Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana, the University of Chicago, Centre College, Danville, Kentucky (BA, 1947), and Union Theological Seminary, New York City (BD, 1951).
Ordained by the Freeport Presbytery (Illinois) in 1951, Knight served the West Side Presbyterian Church of Englewood, New Jersey, first as assistant minister (1951-1956),...
WARREN George William. b. Albany, New York State, 17 August 1828; d. New York City, 17 March 1902. Warren was educated at Racine College, Wisconsin, and was primarily self-taught as a musician. He served Episcopal parishes in Albany, New York (1846-1860), Holy Trinity, Brooklyn, New York (1860-1870), and St Thomas Church, New York City (1870-1900). Warren composed service music, anthems, and hymns. His sacred music was published by William A. Pond, Union Square, New York, and by 1888...
CARTFORD, Gerhard M. b. Madagascar, 21 March, 1923; d. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 8 February 2016. He was the son of missionary parents. He studied at St Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota (BM, 1948), The School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York (MSM, 1950), Luther Northwestern Seminary (now Luther Seminary*) St Paul, Minnesota (1954-1955), St John's University, St Cloud, Minnesota (1955), and the University of Minnesota (PhD in musicology, 1961). As a Fulbright scholar, he...
HANCOCK, Gerre. b. Lubbock, Texas, 21 February 1934; d. Austin, Texas, 21 January 2012. He was an organist, professor, choir trainer, and composer, known especially for his book Improvising: How to Master the Art, which is largely based on hymn tunes.
His father, Edward Ervin Hancock (1902-1965) was Lubbock County Superintendent of Schools, and his mother, Flake (née Steger) Hancock, was a pianist for several churches. Gerre began playing the piano at age four and took lessons from his mother....
GIA Publications Inc. The Gregorian Institute of America, later renamed GIA Publications, Inc., was founded on December 8, 1941 by Clifford A. Bennett (1904-1987) at Sacred Heart Church in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Shortly after establishing the company, Bennett moved the firm to Toledo, Ohio. The Gregorian Institute of America became known for its Catholic Choirmasters' Correspondence Course; by 1950, nearly 1000 musicians had completed the coursework through home study and national...
OSTDIEK, Gilbert. b. Lawrence, Nebraska, 20 March 1933. Ostdiek is a pre-eminent liturgical scholar and educator, a member of the Franciscan Order, an ordained presbyter in the Roman Catholic Church. He is one of ten children born to Henry Stephen and Dora Rita (née Rempe) Ostdiek. Ostdiek attended the minor seminary and junior college of the Franciscan Province of the Sacred Heart, Mayslake, near Westmont, Illinois, Quincy College (now Quincy University) (AB 1957), St Joseph Seminary,...
Give me a clean heart. Margaret Pleasant Douroux* (1941- ).
This was Douroux's first song, written in 1970. It caught on after Thurston G. Frazier (1930-1974), founder of the 'Voices of Hope' choir, who was Douroux's mentor and predecessor at the Mount Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, Los Angeles, introduced it at a national gospel convention (Gordon, 2006).
Douroux composed the song when encouraged by her grandmother to pray for the people of Mount Mariah Baptist Church, where her father...
Give of your best to the Master. Howard B. Grose*(1851-1939).
This was published in The Endeavor Hymnal (New York, 1902). It had three stanzas with a refrain:
Give of your best to the Master, Give of the strength of your youth, Throw your soul's fresh, glowing ardor Into the battle for truth. Jesus has set the example, Dauntless was He, young and brave: Give Him your loyal devotion, Give Him the best that you have.
Refrain:
Give of your best to the Master, Give of the strength of...
God calling yet. Gerhard Tersteegen* (1697-1769), translated by Sarah Laurie Findlater* (1823-1907), altered by Lowell Mason* (1792-1872) and co-editors.
This translation of Tersteegen's 'Gott rufet noch. Sollt ich nicht endlich hören'* was first published in the Second Series of Hymns from the Land of Luther (1855). The hymns in that book were translated by both Findlater and her older sister, Jane Laurie Borthwick*, but there is no doubt of the authorship of the present hymn because...
God, who art the Lord of Harvest (Prayer for a Labor Force). D. Elton Trueblood* (1900-1994).
This hymn is also known by its title, 'Prayer for a Labor Force'. For more than eleven years, Trueblood wrote a monthly column entitled 'Plain Speech' for Quaker Life. In the column 'Hymns for Today', (April 1968, vol/series 8, issue 4, p. 118), he notes that 'The period when Quakers refused to sing ended a hundred years ago… It must have been hard for our ancestors to neglect “And when they had...
Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894) (New York: Biglow & Main Company; and Cincinnati: John Church & Company): Gospel Hymns and Sacred Solos by P. P. Bliss and Ira D. Sankey as used by them in Gospel Meetings [No. 1] (1875), No. 2 (1876), No. 3 (1878), No. 4 (1883), No. 5 (1887), No. 6 (1891), Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (1894).
Beginning with the first Great Awakening ca.1730-60 (see Great Awakenings, USA*), the colonies, and subsequently the USA, have periodically...
Gospel Music Association (GMA). This is an industry organization created in 1964 and based in Nashville, Tennessee. It promotes the commercial interests and mass-media products of mostly English-speaking, North American, Protestant musicians and those making up the industry that supports them. That industry is centered around Nashville and includes persons employed by electronic mass-media companies such as record companies and radio and television stations; producers; concert promoters;...
Gospel Pearls (1921)
Published in 1921 by the Sunday School Publishing Board of the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A., Gospel Pearls is recognized as the first hymnal for African American congregations with 'gospel' in the title. It cast a profound influence on the African American worship tradition, and became known for its blend of traditional hymnody, gospel songs, spirituals, and songs by a new generation of black composers.
The need for a new hymnal developed after a 1915 dispute over...
The gospel song or gospel hymn is a genre of Christian worship-song that developed in revivals held in Great Britain and the USA, 1865-74. Its primary antecedents were camp meeting songs which joined personal witness and freedom of expression. and the widely popular Sunday school song. Start-up music publishers (see Publishing and publishers, USA*), exploited the product of pittance-paid, albeit talented songwriters and composers, and banded with organizers, preachers and song leaders of white...
BROWN, Grayson Warren.b. Brooklyn, New York, 21 March 1948; d. Jacksonville, Florida, 2 July 2023.
Grayson Warren Brown was a pioneer in the development of the Black gospel Mass in the late 1960s. Authentic, spirit-filled worship liturgies characterized his work in a small inner-city multicultural parish in New York. Brown's creative works mixed the genres of Black gospel music with the Western classical tradition, illustrating his sensitivity to both the Catholic tradition and the...
Great Awakenings, USA
The Great Awakenings is the name given to periods of religious revival that occurred in colonial British North America and the United States in the early to mid-18th century, in the early national period to the middle of the 19th century, and in the Reconstruction era to about 1910. These awakenings profoundly changed the course of American religious history, and to a lesser degree that of other countries. By the middle of the 19th century, the dominant character of...
Hark! the herald angels sing (Jesus the light of the world). Arranged by George D. Elderkin (1845–1928).
Gospel musical traditions in the United States have enlivened the 18th-century hymns for over 150 years. Those by Isaac Watts*, Charles Wesley*, and John Newton* were among those heard by those influenced by the Second Great Awakening (c. 1795–1835), during which rural whites and enslaved Africans reinvented and reinterpreted hymns from England for their own situation. The enlivening of...
Hark, 'tis the Saviour of Mankind. John Murray* (ca. 1740-1815).
This is the last of five hymns, all first published in the 1782 edition of Christian Hymns, Poems and Sacred Sons, Sacred to the Praise of God, Our Saviour, compiled by English Universalist James Relly* and his brother John Relly. The book was first published in London in 1754, and the 1782 edition was published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for Noah Parker (1734-1787), a convert of Murray's and preacher in Portsmouth (Brewster,...
FRIEDELL, Harold William. b. Jamaica, Queens, New York, 11 May 1905; d. Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, 17 February 1958. Friedell was an organist, choirmaster, teacher, and composer of over 100 choral, organ and instrumental works. A 'Profile' in the Hudson Dispatch (New York), 16 September 1936, compared Friedell's anthems, in 'artistic temperament to the school of English composers who are writing a new chapter in the music on the ancient “modes” as opposed to the schools which are...
HARP (as a title). As early as 1795, hymn collections with Harp or Harfe in the title were published in the USA, without music, and thereafter, a number of tunebooks were published with 'Harp' in the title.
The most widely-known Harp, as a collection of hymns, is The Sacred Harp*, by B. F. White* and Elisha J. King*. This usage of Harp probably started in connection with the Psalms of David, as in Dauids harpe ful of moost delectable armony, newely stringed and set in tune, by Theadore...
McKEEVER, Harriet Burn. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 28 August 1807; d. Chester, Pennsylvania, 7 February 1886 or 1887. A member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, McKeever taught for 36 years in a girls' school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She was also a successful author of novels, mainly on religious themes and for young women, several of which are still available in digital/printed form. An example is Edith's Ministry (Philadelphia, 1860), which traces the life of the eldest daughter...
SPAETH, Harriet Reynolds Krauth (Harriet Krauth). b. Baltimore, Maryland, 21 September 1845; d. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 5 May 1925. Spaeth was an author and translator of hymn texts and composer of hymn tunes, and a music editor. Her best known translations are 'As each happy Christmas' and verses 3 and 4 of 'Lo, how a rose e'er blooming' (see 'Es ist ein' Ros entsprungen'*). She was the daughter of Charles Porterfield Krauth (1823-1883) and Susan Reynolds Krauth (1821-1853). C. P. Krauth,...
COOPERSMITH, Harry. b. Russia, 2 December 1902; d. Santa Barbara, California, 31 December 1975. Coopersmith was a pioneer in the dissemination of Jewish music in America. The hymn tune YISRAEL V'ORAITA (TORAH SONG)*, introduced by Coopersmith, is one of the most widely sung Jewish melodies published in Christian hymnals.
Harry Coopersmith immigrated with his parents, Max Coopersmith (1868? - ?) and Pauline (Liptzen) Coopersmith (1878? - ?) in 1911, and settled in New York, where Harry...
FOSDICK, Harry Emerson. b. Buffalo, New York, 24 May 1878; d. Bronxville, New York, 5 Oct 1969. Fosdick was educated at Colgate College, Hamilton, New York (BA, 1900); Union Theological Seminary (BD, 1904), and Columbia University (MA, 1908)., the latter two in New York City. Following Baptist ordination in 1903, he was pastor of the First Baptist Church in Montclair, New Jersey (1904-15), and then taught homiletics and practical theology at Union Theological Seminary in 1915, interrupted by a...
Hath not thy heart within thee burned. Stephen Greenleaf Bulfinch* (1809-1870).
From Bulfinch's Contemplations of the Saviour: a series of extracts from the Gospel history, with reflections and original and selected hymns (Boston, 1832). For the structure and arrangement of this book, see the entry on 'Hail to the Sabbath day'*. This hymn comes from Part VIII, 'To the Ascension of Jesus': section xlviii (the sections are numbered independently) is entitled 'Jesus appears to his disciples'. It...
BURTON, Henry. b. Swannington, Leicestershire, 26 November 1840; d. West Kirby, Hoylake, Cheshire, 27 April 1930. As a young man Burton went with his family when they emigrated to the USA in 1856. They settled in Wisconsin, and Henry studied at Beloit College, then fairly new (founded 1846). He became a local preacher in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and was in charge of a church at Monroe, Wisconsin, for a short time. He then returned to Britain: he was ordained into the Wesleyan Methodist...
DEXTER, Henry Martyn. b. Plympton, Massachusetts, 13 August 1821; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 November 1890. He was educated at Yale (graduated 1840) and Andover Theological Seminary (1844). He served as a Congregational Church Minister at Manchester, New Hampshire (1844-49), and Boston, Massachusetts (1849-67). He resigned his pastorate in order to edit the Congregationalist and Recorder. He was a prolific writer: in addition to his many sermons and discourses, he published Congregationalism:...
MUHLENBERG, Henry Melchior ('Melchior Heinrich Mühlenberg' was his given name which he reversed, and the anglicized versions of 'Henry' and 'Muhlenberg' with no umlaut on the 'u' are normally used today). b. Einbeck, (southern Lower Saxony), Germany, 6 September 1711; d. Trappe, Pennsylvania, 7 October 1787.
Known as 'the Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America', Muhlenberg was the seventh child in a poor family of nine. His parents were Nicolaus Melchior Muhlenberg (1660/66-1723/29) and...
MILLS, Henry. b. Morriston, New Jersey, 12 March 1786; d. Auburn, New York, 10 June 1867. He was educated at the College of New Jersey, Princeton, graduating in 1802. According to the Revd. F. M. Bird in JJ, p. 736, he held the degree of DD, which he presumably acquired in the years that followed, when he was also a teacher. In 1816 he was ordained Pastor of the Presbyterian Church, Woodbridge, New Jersey. In 1821 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Oriental Languages at Auburn...
MORLEY, Henry (L.). b. Bishopsgate, London, probably 1 October 1834; d. date and place unknown. Morley was a music teacher, and organist of St Paul's, Herne Hill, south-east London, until 1883. He is believed to have emigrated to the USA at some time after that date (Handbook to the Church Hymnary, 1927). He is identified as the composer of the tune NEWCASTLE on the evidence of a letter from Edwin Moss, editor of the London Tune Book (1875, not 1877 as is sometimes stated), to Carey Bonner*...
McFADYEN, Henry Richard. b. Bladen County, near Elizabethtown, North Carolina, 1 February 1877; d. High Point, North Carolina, 22 June 1964. The son of Rev. Archibald McFadyen (1836–1911) and Miriam Eliza McFadyen (née Cromartie; 1844–1907), he was one of eight children. He married Myrtle Louise Angle (1884–1976) in 1907, and they had two children. Henry's father was a Lieutenant in the North Carolina Cavalry for the Confederate cause in the Civil War, studying for the ministry while a...
CUTLER, Henry Stephen. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 October 1825; d. Swampscott, Massachusetts, 5 December 1902. Cutler was an organist, choirmaster, and composer, known especially for his hymn tune, ALL SAINTS (also called ALL SAINTS NEW). The place of Cutler's death is sometimes given as Boston; however, he died at home in Swampscott, about 12 miles north of the city. Cutler's parents were Roland Cutler (1798-1873) and Martha Richardson Cutler (1803-?) (see Josiah Adams, The Genealogy of...
VAN DYKE, Henry Jackson. b. Germantown, Pennsylvania, 10 November 1852; d. Princeton, New Jersey, 10 April 1933. The son of a Presbyterian minister, he was at school at Brooklyn, New York before studying at Princeton University (BA 1873, MA 1876). After a further period of study at Princeton Theological Seminary (1876-77) and in Berlin, he was ordained to the ministry, serving at a Congregational Church at Newport, Rhode Island (1878-82) and Brick Presbyterian Church, New York (1882-99). During...
BEECHER, Henry Ward. b. Litchfield, Connecticut, 24 June 1813; d. New York, 8 March 1887. He was the son of Lyman Beecher, a celebrated Presbyterian minister; one of his sisters was Harriet Beecher Stowe*, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. Henry was educated at Amherst College, Massachusetts (graduating in 1834), and Lane Theological Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio, where his father had become Principal. In 1837 he was ordained to First Presbyterian Church in the small town of Lawrenceburg, Indiana,...
WARE, Henry, Jr. b. Hingham, Massachusetts, 21 April 1794; d. Framingham, Massachusetts, 25 September 1843. Ware, a teacher, influential Unitarian minister, writer, and author of hymns (see Unitarian-Universalist hymnody, USA*), was born of the marriage of Henry Ware (1757-1845) and Mary Clarke Ware (1752-1805). His father was a Minister of First Parish (originally Puritan, then Unitarian-Universalist), Hingham, Massachusetts, 1787-1805, and Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard College,...
FOOTE, Henry Wilder (II). b. Boston, Massachusetts, 2 February 1875; d. Southwest Harbor, Maine, 27 August 1964. Highly respected author, scholar, and hymnologist, Foote was a Unitarian minister, teacher, and progressive figure whose ministry highlighted music, poetry, and art. Born to Frances Anne Eliot (1838-1896) and Henry Wilder Foote (1838-1889), the younger Foote had strong connections with Unitarianism and Harvard University. His grandfather, Samuel Atkins Eliot (1798-1862) was mayor of...
Heralds of Christ. Laura L. Copenhaver* (1868-1940).
Laura Copenhaver was scheduled to speak for a conference in Northfield, Massachusetts in the summer of 1894. For personal reasons she could not attend. She wrote the poem 'The King's Highway' and sent it to the conference asking, according to her daughter Eleanor Copenhaver Sherwood, that it be 'accepted in my place' (Reynolds, 1964, p. 66).
Robert Guy McCutchan*, Methodist hymnologist and pastor, cited the author's own account of...
Ho! ye that rest beneath the rock. Edmund Hamilton Sears* (1810-1876).
This hymn was published in Hymns of the Spirit (Boston, 1864), an important Unitarian collection edited by Samuel Johnson* and Samuel Longfellow* (JJ, p. 1036), and this is sometimes taken as its first appearance. However, Hymnary,org has identified at least two earlier printings, in Children's Praise: a book of prayers and hymns for the children of the church (Boston, 1858) and the Second Edition of A Book of Hymns and...
Holiness hymnody refers to a body of song associated with the Holiness Movement that grew out of American Methodism in the late 1830s, associated with Phoebe Worrall Palmer and Walter C. Palmer (nda), Sarah Lankford (1806-96 ), Thomas Upham (1799-1872), William Boardman (1810-86), Hannah Tatum Whitehall Smith (1832-1911) and her husband, Robert Pearsall Smith (1827-98). Their collective teachings emphasized a second work of grace by the Holy Spirit in the believer's life to cleanse from sin and...
Holy Spirit, breathe on me. Baylus B. McKinney* (1886-1952).
This hymn was copyrighted by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention and published in Songs of Victory (of which McKinney was the music editor) in 1937. It was published in The Broadman Hymnal (Nashville, 1940: McKinney was again music editor). It is a rewriting, with a refrain, of 'Breathe on me, breath of God'* by Edwin Hatch*, dated 1878. In The Broadman Hymnal it was attributed to Hatch; McKinney was named as...
BALLOU, Hosea. b. Richmond, New Hampshire, 30 April 1771; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 6 June 1852. The eleventh child of Maturin (1720-1804) a Calvinist Baptist preacher, and Lydia (née) Harris Ballou (1728-73), Hosea converted to Universalism in 1789. He spent several years as an itinerant preacher before taking his first congregation in Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1809. He subsequently received a call to serve the Second Universalist Society of Boston in 1815. Hosea Ballou made a notable...
How beauteous were the marks divine. Arthur Cleveland Coxe* (1818-1896).
These stanzas were identified in JJ, p. 267, as coming from Coxe's 'Hymn to the Redeemer', a poem of seven 8-line stanzas, written ca. 1840 and published in Halloween (Hartford, 1845) as one of the 'Lays, Meditative and Devotional' that followed 'Halloween' itself. It is uncertain when the selection of stanzas that became so popular was made, or by whom: it may have been by Henry Ward Beecher* for the Plymouth...
How can I say that I love the Lord ('Koinonia'). V. Michael McKay* (1952— ).
In the context of Christian worship, this worship song functions as a song of greeting near the beginning of worship or at the passing of the peace—a time of reconciliation before receiving communion when God's love for us in Christ is visible in a shared meal at the table. This intimate family meal is an expression of the fellowship, sharing, and participation of the Body of Christ.
The text is as follows:
How can...
How lovely on the mountains. Leonard E. Smith, Jr.* (1942- ).
The full first line is 'How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him'. Based on Isaiah 52: 7-10, this worship song was written at Riverton, New Jersey in 1973. With its refrain ('Our God reigns') it was first sung in the New Covenant Community Church, where Smith was a worship leader. Copyrighted in 1974, three further stanzas were added in 1978.
The song became widely known through its use by evangelists. Its effect comes from...
GROSE, Howard Benjamin. b. Millerton, New York, 5 September 1851; d. Ballston Spa, New York, 19 May 1939. Educated at the University of Chicago (BA) and the University of Rochester, New York State (MA), he worked as a journalist before becoming a Baptist minister in 1883. He pastored congregations in Poughkeepsie, New York (1883-87) and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1888-90) before turning to academic life. He had spoken at a memorial service for a classmate, Edward Olson, President of the...
ROBBINS, Howard Chandler. b. Philadelphia, 11 December 1876; d. Washington, DC, 20 March 1952. Educated at Yale (BA 1899) and the Episcopal Theological Seminary (BD 1903). He was ordained (deacon 1903, priest 1904), serving a curacy at St Peter's, Morristown, New Jersey (1903-05). He was rector of St Paul's Church, Englewood, New Jersey (1905-11), rector of the Church of the Incarnation, New York City (1911-17), and Dean of the Cathedral of St John the Divine, New York (1917-29). He became...
OLSON, Howard. b. St Paul, Minnesota, 18 July 1922; d. Sun City Center, Florida, 1 July 2010. Howard Olson has a well-deserved reputation for his African hymns, such as 'Christ has arisen, Alleluia (Mfurahini, Haleluya)*, 'Neno lake Mungu' ('Listen, God Is Calling'), and 'Njoo kwetu, Roho mwema' ('Gracious Spirit, Heed Our Pleading'). They have have found their way into hymnals around the globe. Olson's Tumshangilie Mungu: Nyimbo za Kikristo za Kiafrika has gone through six successive...
McELRATH, Hugh Thomas. b. Murray, Kentucky, USA, 13 November 1921; d. Penney Farms, Florida, USA, 8 May 2008. McElrath was a renowned Southern Baptist hymnologist, seminary professor, church musician, and music missionary who combined high intellectual achievement and skilled musicianship with a devout Christian faith rooted in Baptist tradition. He attended Murray State College [today Murray State University], Murray, Kentucky (BA, 1943), and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary...
KERR, Hugh Thomson. b. Elora, Ontario, Canada, 11 February 1871; d. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 27 June 1950. Kerr was educated at the University of Toronto, and at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. After being ordained a Presbyterian minister in 1897, he was pastor of congregations in Kansas and Illinois before having a distinguished and lengthy ministry through two world wars at Shadyside Presbyterian Church, Pittsburgh (1913-46). He was Moderator of the General Assembly of the...
The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada (HSUSC) is comprised of poets, composers, publishers, teachers and scholars, institutional and public libraries, church musicians, clergy, and laypersons, and is uniquely devoted to encourage, promote, and enliven congregational song. Throughout its history of more than a century, The Hymn Society has worked steadily and creatively to promote congregational singing, encourage the creation of new and excellent texts and tunes, and support...
There are more than 300 hymnal collections in the United States ranging from personal collections, those held by independent institutions such as museums, historical associations, or public libraries, and collections owned by academic institutions. While nearly every collection includes items from a number of traditions, some have unique holdings.
The largest hymnal collection in the United States is that held by The Pitts Theological Library, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, with...
Hymnary.org
Hymnary.org is an online hymn and worship music database for worship leaders, hymnologists, and amateur hymn lovers. The site allows users to search or browse hymns by title, tune, meter, key, scripture reference, as well as advanced specialized queries.
In partnership with The Hymn Society in the United States and Canada* Hymnary.org houses the Dictionary of North American Hymnology*, adding over one million first lines of hymns, collected and organized by Leonard W. Ellinwood*...
The study of hymns has been approached in many ways in the USA. The initial development of hymnology as a field of study with rigorous standards took place in the second half of the 19th century as the scientific method of inquiry was incorporated into university education. This application of these standards and of increasingly exacting means of studying textual, musical, and historical aspects of the literature can be traced through extant publications. Influential books constitute the...
Hymnology Archive (https://www.hymnologyarchive.com/).
Hymnology Archive is an encyclopedic website for the study of hymns, spirituals, and carols, founded in April 2018 and edited by Chris Fenner*, Digital Archivist at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary* (SBTS), Louisville, KY. The site generally features histories for individual hymns and bio-bibliography pages for authors and composers. Additional pages include indexes (authors/composers, texts, tunes, Scriptures, and church year)...
Hymns of the Spirit (1864). This was the title of a major anthology edited by the Unitarian ministers Samuel Longfellow* and Samuel Johnson*, published at Boston, Massachusetts, in 1864. It contained 717 hymns, arranged in two principal sections: 1. Worship; 2. God and His Manifestations.
The first was divided into:
Usual Public Worship
Special Occasions.
The second was divided as follows:
God in Himself;
God in Nature;
God in the Soul;
God in the Life;
God in Humanity.
The subdivisions of...
Hymntune Index and Related Hymn Materials is a three-volume compilation by D. DeWitt Wasson*, published in 1998, and on CD-ROM in 2001 (Studies in Liturgical Musicology, no. 6, Michael Fry, technical advisor of the CR-ROM version, by Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland). Most of the tunes indexed were first published after 1810, so that there is relatively little overlap with Nicholas Temperley*'s Hymn Tune Index*.
Volume I includes a Foreword by Robin A. Leaver*, and a Compiler's Preface...
I give my heart to Thee. Ray Palmer* (1808-1887).
This is a translation of a Latin text, 'Cor meum tibi dedo, Jesu dulcissime', of unknown authorship. It was printed in Psalteriolum cantionum Catholicarum (Cologne, 1722). Palmer took his text from Hermann Adalbert Daniel*, Thesaurus Hymnologicus II. 370. His translation was made in August 1868, and published in Christ in Song (New York, 1869), edited by Philip Schaff*. Schaff's note on this 'charming Latin poem…freely and happily reproduced by...
I greet Thee, who my sure Redeemer art. French, possibly by Jean Calvin* (1509-1564), translated by Elizabeth Lee Smith* (1817-1898).
This translation was published in Philip Schaff*'s Christ in Song (New York, 1869). It is a translation of the French text, 'Je Te salue, mon certain Rédempteur'*.
Smith's translation follows the original metre. It is in eight stanzas, beginning, after stanza 1:
Thou art the King of mercy and of grace
Thou art the Life by which alone we live
Thou art the true...
I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow* (1807-1882).
A version of this hymn, 'Christmas Bells', was written in 1863 during the Civil War, as a response to the news that his son, Charles Appleton Longfellow, had been wounded fighting for the Union side (Longfellow himself was a strong supporter of abolition). It was published in February 1865 in Our Young Folks, a magazine for young people published by Ticknor and Fields in Boston, and then in Longfellow's Flower-de-Luce...
I set myself against the Lord. John Leland* (1754–1841).
This hymn was probably first printed in two books published in 1793: Eleazar Clay, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, selected from Several Approved Authors, Recommended by the Baptist General Committee of Virginia (Richmond, Virginia: John Dixon), and John Peak, A New Collection of Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Third Edition (Vermont: Alden Spooner, 1793). It had ten stanzas in the meter of 8.8.6.8.8.6:
I set myself against the Lord,Despised his...
I will come to you in the silence ('You are mine'). David Robert Haas* (1957- ).
In 2017 The National Association of Pastoral Musicians (USA)* (NPM) conducted a hymn survey in which 3,000 participants ranked hymns. Known popularly by its title, David Haas' 'You Are Mine' was number four on the list. The hymn first appeared in the composer's collection Who Calls You by Name: Music for Christian Initiation (Chicago, 1988-1991).
The words are based on texts from Psalm 46: 10, 'Be still and...
Indelible Grace Music
Indelible Grace Music (IGM) is a musical movement and website founded by Kevin Twit*, Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) minister and musician in Nashville. Their website is www.igracemusic.com, but they also maintain Indelible Grace Hymnbook site (https://ighymns.herokuapp.com/), a compilation of more than 170 retuned hymns and over 50 traditional tune hymns. 'Retuned hymns' are primarily 18th- and 19th-century texts set to new melodies, as Twit says, 'We want to...
Index to Anglo-American Psalmody
The Index to Anglo-American Psalmody in Modern Critical Edition was compiled by Karl Kroeger* and his wife Marie. It covers 2087 tunes, categorized by type (plain tune, extended tune, Fuging tune*, anthem, Set-piece*, canon), meter, composer, first line of text, modern collections in which the tune is found, and sources of texts. The Index is published as Recent Researches in American Music, volume 40 (Middleton, Wisconsin: A-R Editions, 2000).
CLARK...
Infinite Spirit, who art round us ever. James Freeman Clarke* (1810-1888).
See 'Father, to us, Thy children, humbly kneeling'*.
Higginson, J. Vincent. b. Irvington, New Jersey, 17 May 1896; d. Albuquerque, New Mexico, 11 April 1994. Joseph Vincent Edward Higginson was the son of George and Anna A. Higginson. He married Lillian Rendelman (1906–1987), August 17, 1939, in New York City. Higginson received his education at Manhattan College, Julliard School, Pius X School of Liturgical Music, and at New York University (BMus 1929; MA 1938). He taught at Pius X School of Liturgical Music and lectured at New York University,...
JONES, Jacque Browning. b. Texas City, Texas, 20 October 1950. A hymnwriter with a varied career in business and government service, she attended Baylor University (1968-1970) and The University of Texas at Austin (1970-1973) (BFA in Theater, with an emphasis in directing and choreography). Raised a Presbyterian, Jones has been a member of Plymouth Church in Brooklyn, New York, since 1987. Her career included working for the government, for an accounting firm, and for a bank in data processing...
LYON, James. b. Newark, New Jersey, 1 July 1735; d. Machias, Maine, 12 October 1794. Lyon was a Presbyterian minister, patriot, tunebook compiler, and composer. He is known primarily for compiling the tunebook Urania.
Lyon was the son of Zopher Lyon (1717-1744) and Mary Wood Lyon (1716-1746). Little is known of his childhood and musical training. He attended the College of New Jersey, then known as Nassau Hall, a large building completed in 1756 (now Princeton University). The 1759...
BENDER, Jan Oskar. b. in Haarlem, Holland, 3 February 1909; d. Hanerau, Germany, 29 December 1994. Jan Bender was a distinguished church musician, organist, educator, and composer, for whom hymnody was very important. His mother, Margarette Schindler (1874-1951), was German. His Dutch father, Hermann Bender (1870-1908), a piano dealer, died the year in which Jan was born. In 1922 his mother moved back to her native town, Lübeck, Germany, where Jan studied organ, and began to compose at the...
JONCAS, Jan Michael. b. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 20 December 1951. Michael Joncas, pre-eminent liturgical scholar, teacher and composer, majored in English at the College of St Thomas, St Paul, Minnesota (BA, 1975); liturgical studies at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana (MA, 1978), and liturgical theology at the Pontifical Liturgical Institute in Rome (SLL,1989 SLD, 1991). In 1980 he was ordained a Roman Catholic presbyter for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis,...
Jazz is a unique type of 20th-century music created by African Americans characterized by melodic variation, the use of 'blue notes', syncopated rhythms, extended and altered harmonies, improvisation by the performers, and an open-sounding timbre. Initially, jazz was the music of the dance hall and club, but it gradually gained acceptance in the church. Jazz used in worship now includes keyboard, instrumental, and choral music, as well as accompaniments of sung liturgies and congregational...
Jesu, thou joy of loving hearts. Ray Palmer* (1808-1887). This fine translation of 'Iesu dulcedo cordium', part of 'Iesu dulcis memoria'*, was made in 1858, and published in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the Service of Song in the House of the Lord (New York and Boston, 1858), edited by Lowell Mason*, Edwards Amasa Park, and Austin Phelps. It rapidly became popular, and it has retained its place in most mainstream English language hymnbooks.
JRW
Jesus, we love to meet. Elizabeth Parson* (1812-1873)
This hymn exists in several forms. It was written in the 'Thou' and 'Thee' form: 'Jesus, we love to meet/ On this, Thy holy day'. It has been modernized in some books to the 'you' form, 'On this, your holy day', as in the Psalter Hymnal (1987). It had three stanzas, and appeared in many books in the USA.
A version is found in Methodist US hymnals (MH66, UMH). This is by the Nigerian musician and writer Olajida Olude*, translated by Biodun...
This essay examines Jewish hymnals, primarily English language ones, published in the United States and represents to a large extent the Reform tradition and only to a lesser extend the Conservative branch of Judaism. Traditional Jewish hymnody is covered in two articles: Hebrew hymnody* (piyyut) and Jewish Sabbath hymns*.
19th century
Although Jewish communities existed in the United States as early as 1654, the early settlers were primarily Portuguese (Sephardic) and hymnody beyond the...
OWENS, Jimmy Lloyd. b. Clarksdale, Mississippi, 9 December 1930. After school at Jackson, Mississippi, he attended Millsaps College, and was a jazz band arranger; after a conversion he directed music in several churches in southern California. He married Carol Owens* in 1954. Beginning in the 'Jesus Movement', the Owens were active in writing contemporary Christian musicals, performing and recording in various places in California, and doing musical missions for the Church of the Way in Los...
WISE, Joseph Edward, Jr. b. Louisville, Kentucky, 19 August 1939. Wise attended St. Mary's Seminary/University in Baltimore, Maryland (BA 1961, STB 1963); Spalding College in Louisville (M Ed. 1965); and the Catholic University of America, Washington, DC (MA, 1969). Wise was one of the most performed and influential composers of liturgical music in what became known as the 'folk Mass movement' after the Second Vatican Council. Other representative composers from this era include Ray Repp, Jack...
PETER, Johann Friedrich (John Frederick). b. Herrendijk, the Netherlands, 19 May 1746; d. Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 13 July 1813. Born into a Moravian Church community where his father was minister, Peter was educated at the Moravian Boys' Schools in Haarlem and Zeist, with further study at the church's academy in Niesky, Germany. In 1765, he entered the seminary at Barby, Germany, for theological training, completing his studies in 1769. In 1770, he was sent by the church to Bethlehem,...
HERBST, Johannes. b. Kempten, Swabia, 23 July 1735; d. Salem, North Carolina, USA, 15 January 1812. Herbst was educated at the Moravian Church school in Herrnhut, Saxony. He served the church in various non-ministerial capacities in the Moravian communities of Gnadenfrey, Gnadenberg, and Kleinwelke (in Germany) and Fulneck (in England). After his ordination as a minister in the Moravian Church in 1774, he was superintendent of the communities of Neudietendorf and Gnadenfrey. In 1786 Herbst and...
ANTES, John (Johann). b. Frederick, Pennsylvania, 24 March 1740; d. Bristol, England, 17 December 1811. Born near the Moravian Church community of Bethlehem, Antes was educated at the Moravian Boys' School in Bethlehem, where his talent in music was encouraged. During the early 1760s, he established an instrument-making atelier in Bethlehem where he crafted violins, violas, and violoncellos (he is known to have made at least seven instruments, of which two are still extant). Feeling the call of...
PARK, John Edgar. b. Belfast, Northern Ireland, 7 March 1879; d. Cambridge, Massachusetts, 4 March 1956. Park was educated at the Queen's University of Belfast (then Queen's College), and thereafter at Universities of Dublin, Edinburgh, Leipzig, Munich, Oxford and Princeton. His time at Princeton was followed by permanent residence in the USA: he became a Presbyterian minister, serving in the lumber camps of the Adirondack Mountains in upper New York State. He then became a Congregational...
HOLMES, John Haynes. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 29 November 1879; d. New York City, 3 April 1964. Pastor, hymn writer and social activist, Holmes attended Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (BA 1901) and Harvard Divinity School, (STB 1904). Following ordination by the American Unitarian Association, he served as minister to the Third Religious Society of Dorchester, Mass. (1904-1907), and then accepted the pastorate at the Unitarian Church of the Messiah, New York City (after 1919...
HOPKINS, John Henry, Jr. b. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 28 October 1820; d. Hudson, New York, 14 August 1891. The son of John Henry Hopkins (1792-1868), an Episcopal Church priest who became the first Bishop of Vermont, he was educated at the University of Vermont (AB, 1839, MA, 1845). He moved to New York City to work as a reporter, intending to prepare for a law career, but changed his mind and entered the General Theological Seminary in New York (BD, 1850). He became the first instructor of...
MURRAY, John. b. Alton, Hampshire, England, ca. 1740; d. Boston, Massachusetts, 3 September 1815. Murray is regarded as the founder of the Universalist denomination in America (see Unitarian-Universalist hymnody, USA*). He contributed five hymn texts to James Relly* and John Relly's Christian Hymns, Poems, and Sacred Songs: Sacred to the Praise of God Our Saviour (Portsmouth, Massachusetts, 1782). His wife, Judith Murray*, became an important American literary figure and Universalist...
TUFTS, John. b. Medford, Massachusetts, 26 February 1689; d. Amesbury, Massachusetts, 17 August 1750. Tufts was a minister, merchant, probably a singing teacher, and possibly a composer. He compiled An Introduction to the Art of Singing Psalm-Tunes (1721?), considered the first American music textbook.
John Tufts was the third son of Captain Peter Tufts (1648-1721) and Mercy Cotton Tufts (1666-1715). He graduated from Harvard College (AB, 1708), and was ordained on 30 June 1714 in connection...
A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (CPH, 1737) was the first Anglican hymnal published in Colonial America for use in private and public worship (Evans, no. 4207). It was compiled and published in 1737 at Charles-town [now Charleston], South Carolina, by the missionary-priest, John Wesley*, for use in his ministry to English settlers and others who attended his religious societies in Savannah and Frederica, in the Georgia colony.
The Collection is patterned after resources used by Anglican...
ZUNDEL, John. b. Hochdorf (south of Ulm), Germany, 10 December 1815; d. Cannstadt, Germany, July 1882. He was educated in Germany. His first major appointment was in Russia, as organist of St Anne's Lutheran Church, St Petersburg. He emigrated to the USA in 1847, and became organist of First Unitarian Church, Brooklyn, St George's Church, New York, and finally of the celebrated Plymouth Congregational Church, New York. The minister of Plymouth Church was Henry Ward Beecher*, brother of the...
SPALDING, Joshua. b. Killingly, Connecticut, 14 December 1760; d. Newburgh, New York State, 26 September 1825. According to the Douglas Family Records (see below) Spalding, whose name is sometimes spelt 'Spaulding', studied theology with the Rev Mr Bradford, of Rowley, Massachusetts. In 1785 he was ordained 'over the church and society' of the Tabernacle church, Salem, Massachusetts, where he was remembered as 'an energetic pastor', so that 'the drooping interests of the church and society...
MURRAY, Judith Sargent. b. Gloucester, Massachusetts, 1 May 1751; d. Natchez, Mississippi, 9 June 1820. She was an essayist, writer for women's rights, poet, and playwright. Possibly she was the first American-born woman to have a hymn published in a hymnal.
Judith's parents were Winthrop Sargent (1727-1793) and Judith Sanders Sargent (1731-1793). The Sargent family had been well established in Gloucester for several generations. 'In spite of his activity in introducing Universalism [cf.,...
HOWE, Julia Ward (née Ward). b. New York, 27 May 1819; d. Portsmouth, Rhode Island, 17 October 1910. She was the daughter of a wealthy and respected New York banker. In 1843 she married Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876), founder of the Perkins School for the Blind at Watertown, Boston, Massachusetts. Howe, who was much older than Julia, had old-fashioned views about the place of women in marriage, and she was repressed and unhappy, partly because her husband was bisexual and unfaithful. Her...
FALCKNER, Justus. b. Langenreinsdorf, near Zwickau, Saxony, 22 Nov 1672; d. probably in America, ca. 1723. The son of a Lutheran pastor, he studied at Halle under August Hermann Francke (I)*. The intense and demanding Pietism of Halle made him feel inadequate to be a minister, and he became a lawyer in Rotterdam; but he responded to a call from a Swedish pastor, Andrew Rudmann, for help for the Lutherans in America, where he agreed to be ordained (1703). He ministered to a Dutch congregation...
DAVIS, Katherine Kennicott. b. St Joseph, Missouri, 25 June 1892; d. Concord, Massachusetts, 20 April 1980. After education at St Joseph's High School, Davis studied at Wellesley College (BA, 1914), where she won the Billings Prize for Composition. After additional studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, she returned to her alma mater to teach piano and music theory. At some point she studied for one month with Nadia Boulanger in Paris. Davis taught singing and piano at...
The Kathryn Sullivan Bowld Music Library, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas, USA was completed in 1992. It has provided valuable research materials for faculty, students and visiting patrons. Acknowledged as one of the largest music libraries on a seminary campus, it houses almost 16,000 recordings in various formats, approximately 40,000 books, and over 230,000 scores. These materials are used to meet the needs of students studying church music, but contain resources...
Kentucky Harmony, and A Supplement to Kentucky Harmony. These two books of fasola tunes were compiled and printed by Ananias Davisson* in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Davisson published Kentucky Harmony in five editions (1816, 1817, 1819, 1821, 1826) and Supplement in three (1820-1826). The success of these books and their influence on later Southern tunebook compilers stemmed largely from Davisson's insightful selection of tunes. Of the 143 tunes in Kentucky Harmony, 32 were counted by Rachel...
Kum ba yah, my Lord. African American spiritual*, of Gullah origin.
The origins of this song are unknown. It was recorded in the 1920s; the recording is found in the American Folklife Center Archive of the Library of Congress. There is a detailed account of various possible histories in the Archive's Folklife Center News, 32, Nos. 3-4 (Summer/Fall, 2010) available on-line (see below). The article suggests that it was known 'fairly early throughout the American south, including Texas, Alabama,...
Latin American hymnody
A new Christian hymnology has risen in Latin America and in many communities in the US, among Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. It has roots in Latin folk and popular music, and most of the time reflects the social realities of the southern continent, owing much to the secular movement called the 'newsong.' This new song is rooted in Latin folk and popular music of the 20th century which express the people's happiness (Raquel Gutiérrez-Achón*, in González, 1996,...
Let us be bread (I am the bread of life, broken for all). Tom Porter* (1958– ).
This song was written in 1987 for the author/composer's wedding. It was initially published as an anthem with GIA Publications, Inc.* (Chicago, 1990), this song first appeared in congregational form in Gather Comprehensive (Chicago, 1994). 'Let us be bread' reflects post-Vatican II liturgical theology and practice. This refrain style liturgical song weaves together themes of Eucharist, Paschal Mystery and mission....
Living Spirit, holy fire. Ruth C. Duck* (1947–2024).
This hymn was written in 2003. It first appeared in Duck's collection Welcome God's Tomorrow (Chicago, 2005). The hymn then appeared in three collections in the United States in the same year, Gather,Third Edition (Chicago, 2011), Worship, Fourth Edition (Chicago, 2011), and Worship and Song (Nashville, 2011).
Duck had been conducting research at Pilgrim Congregational Church, Oak Park, Illinois, a United Church of Christ (UCC)...
Longing for light, we wait in darkness ('Christ, be our light'). Bernadette Farrell* (1957- ).
This hymn is frequently known as 'Christ, be our light', from the first line of the refrain. It was published in 1993 by the Oregon Catholic Press (OCP) in Portland, Oregon. Since its first publication, with Farrell's own tune, it has become widely known and much loved in many countries. It has appeared in subsequent OCP books, including Journeysongs (2003), Glory and Praise (2015) and One in Faith...
Lord, whose Love through humble service. Albert Bayly* (1901-1984).
Bayly composed this four-stanza hymn in response to an invitation for hymns on social concerns extended by the Hymn Society of America (HSUSC) and the Department of Social Welfare of the National Council of Churches in Christ in the United States. It was published, set to HYFRYDOL, in the society's Seven New Social Welfare Hymns (19610, described in the Preface as hymns to express 'the interrelationship of worship and service...
Founded in 1890 by E.S. Lorenz* in Dayton, Ohio, the company has been under the management of his descendants since that time. In the 1970s and 1980s the company changed its name to Lorenz Industries, and then The Lorenz Corporation. The mainstay of the company for half a century was the gospel hymn and its elaborations in vocal, choral, and keyboard arrangements appearing in subscriptions services and separately published. Under the leadership of Karl K. Lorenz (c.1880-1965) the company...
STEAD, Louisa M.R. b. Dover, England, 1 February 1846; d. Penkridge (now Mutare), near Umtali, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), 18 January 1917. Louisa immigrated to the United States as a young woman, ca. 1871, where she resided with friends in Cincinnati, Ohio. At a camp meeting revival in Urbana, Ohio, Louisa committed herself to missionary service, but was unable to fulfill her vow owing to poor health. After marrying George Stead in 1873, she gave birth to their only child, Louise...
Luther Seminary in St Paul, Minnesota began with a cluster of Norwegian schools which became part of the American Lutheran Church (ALC): Augsburg Seminary, Augustana Seminary, Luther Seminary, Red Wing Seminary, and the United Church Seminary. The earliest of these was founded in 1869. In 1917 Luther Seminary was created from the former Luther Seminary, Red Wing Seminary, and the United Church Seminary. Augsburg Seminary joined it in 1963. In 1967 Northwestern Seminary moved next to Luther...
Lutheran Book of Worship (LBW). LBW was published by Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis in 1978. It is the service book and hymnal edition of the larger project with the same title developed by the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship. The hymnal was published in pew and accompaniment editions. Eugene L. Brand (1931- ) served as project director and Leonard R. Flachman (1936-2013) as managing editor. The compilers describe their task as working 'for an equitable balance among hymns of the...
Immigration and Organization
Danish Lutherans came to Hudson Bay in 1619 with Rasmus Jensen (d. 1620) and probably Den danske Psalmebog (Copenhagen, 1569) of Hans Thomissøn (1532-73) (see Danish hymnody*). Within a year they died or returned home. Lutherans from the Netherlands came to New York City in 1623. In 1657 when Johannes Gutwasser (fl. 1650s) led services, he was arrested by the Reformed authorities and in 1659 sent home. Swedish Lutherans came in 1638 to the Delaware River with...
The Society was formed in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1958, the result of discussions and recommendations from a meeting in Des Moines, Iowa the previous year attended by distinguished musicians, including Walter E. Buszin*, Daniel T. Moe (1926–2012), and Gerhard Cartford*. That group visioned an organization of a national, inter-synodical body of Lutherans interested in the promotion of Christian worship, music, ecclesiastical architecture, art, and literature within the Lutheran church. The...
Make me a channel of your peace.
This is from a prayer sometimes attributed to Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), arranged by Sebastian Temple* (1928-1997). This text is often said to be by St Francis, but there is no evidence for this. It was first printed in French on 12 December 1912 in a religious magazine, La Clochette ('The Little Bell'), published by La Ligue de Sainte-Messe ('The Society of the Holy Mass'). It was entitled 'Belle prière à faire pendant la Messe' ('A good prayer to be said...
Many and great, O God, are thy works. Joseph Renville* (1779-1846), translated by Philip Frazier* and others.
Renville's hymn is probably the best known Native American hymn to have entered general use in translation. The first stanza is as follows:
This hymn in seven stanzas was published in the 1846 supplement 'Dakota dowanpi kin', to the first Dakotan hymnal, a words-only book, Dakota Odowan ('Dakota Hymns') (Boston, 1842), with 'Mr. R' following stanza seven. It appeared with the...
HATCHETT, Marion Josiah. b. Monroe, South Carolina, 19 July 1927: d. Sewanee, Tennessee, 7 August 2009. Son of a United Methodist Church minister, he was confirmed as a member of the Episcopal Church while a student at Wofford College, Spartanburg, South Carolina (AB 1947). He continued his studies at The School of Theology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee (BD, 1951, STM, 1967), and General Theological Seminary, New York City (THD, 1972).
Ordained in the Episcopal Church (deacon...
NYSTROM, Martin J. b. Seattle, Washington State, 1956. Following his graduation from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, Oklahoma (BME, 1979) he became an evangelist and musician in New York with the 'Christ for the Nations' movement, and for Hosanna! Music, Mobile, Alabama, for whom he produced five Praise-Worship albums. He has composed over 250 songs, mostly one-stanza worship songs such as: 'Times of refreshing, here in your presence', 'Jesus I am thirsty' (with Don Harris), 'I will come and...
HAMILTON, Mary C. D. (née Stobart). b. Edinburgh 1850; d. Worthing, Sussex, 10 June 1943. The daughter of John Hamilton and Kathryn Barbara Stobart, Mary was born into a family whose ancestral home was Sundrum Castle in South Ayrshire, Scotland. By 1889, she had moved to Rustington in Sussex, where she lived until the second decade of the 20th century. By 1939 she was living in Worthing, where she died in 1943.
Hamilton gained fame for one hymn text, which earned popularity during World...
Melodies of Praise (1957, 1985).
This the title of the hymnal of the churches known as Assembly of God churches. The denomination dates from 1914, when a group of evangelical and Pentecostal ministers meeting at Hot Springs, Arkansas, formed the 'Assemblies of God (USA)'. It is now part of a world-wide organisation, the World Assemblies of God Fellowship. Its headquarters are in Springfield, Missouri, although each church has its independent governance. Its non-negotiable 'Statement of...
The Cluster of Spiritual Songs, Divine Hymns, and Sacred Poems ('Mercer's Cluster'). Compiled by Jesse Mercer* (1769-1841).
Mercer's Cluster, or 'The Cluster', as it is often called, is a collection of text-only verse compiled by Jesse Mercer. The collection was especially important as a source of texts for William Walker*'s Southern Harmony* and other collections in the development of Shape-note hymnody* and Baptist hymnody in America (see Baptist hymnody, USA*).
The first two editions were...
Methodist Hymnody, USA
Hymns were used within the Methodist movement for teaching of doctrine, for evangelism (of the unsaved and to revive those who faith was lagging), for praise and confession. Important doctrines for the Wesleyan movement are Arminianism, the understanding that Christ died for everyone, not just the elect; the Christian journey as the way of salvation, on a continuum of God's prevenient grace (which comes before one is awakened to God's call), justifying and...
Methodist Sunday-school hymnals and songbooks, USA
A list of collections with or without music published by or for the Methodist Episcopal Church (1784-1939), the Methodist Protestant Church (1830-1939), the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1845-1939) and the Methodist Church (1939-1968). Many collections were issued for general use, e.g. The Cokesbury Hymnal (MEC,S 1923+), The Abingdon Hymnal (MEC 1928+), Abingdon Song Book (MEC 1938+) and Upper Room Hymns (MC 1942+).
Methodist Episcopal...
Mille voix pour Te chanter/ A Thousand Tongues to Sing to You (2006)
This hymnal was the first French-language hymnal for United Methodists in Europe and Africa. It was edited by S T Kimbrough Jr.*, with Carlton R. Young* as music editor. They were assisted by Jane-Marie Nussbaumer, Claire-Lise Meissner-Schmidt, Abraham Arpellet, Nkemba Ndjungu, and Wesley Macgruder. It was published in the USA by the General Board of Global Ministries, New York, and in France in La Bégarde de Mazenc,...
Drury, Miriam (née Leyrer). b. Santa Ana, California, 1900; d. Pasadena, California,1985. Drury served as an organist in her Congregational church in her youth, and attended the University of California. In 1922 she married Clifford M. Drury, a Presbyterian ministerand professor of church history at San Francisco Theological Seminary (San Anselmo,California); after marriage, she continued her musical interests and education in the locations where his positions took them, including Edinburgh,...
WINTER, Miriam Therese. b. Passaic, New Jersey, 14 June 1938. Gloria Frances Winter joined the Medical Mission Sisters at age 17, and acquired her new name, Miriam Therese. She studied music at the Catholic University in Washington, DC, (BM 1964), religious education at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Canada, (MRE 1976), and liturgical studies at Princeton Theological Seminary (PhD 1983). Implementing the changes that the Second Vatican Council had permitted in Roman Catholic worship,...
Mission hymnody, USA
Beginnings
The beginnings of American churches' missions can be traced to the efforts of John Eliot (1604-1690) to gather 'Praying Indians' into towns for worship, preaching, language instruction and Bible study; the churches and day schools established by John Sargent (1710-1749) in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and Eleazar Wheelock (1711-1779) in Connecticut; and the organization of the Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge among 'Indians' in North America in...
The Missouri Harmony (St Louis, Missouri: published by Allen Carden*, printed in Cincinnati, Ohio: Morgan, Lodge, & Co., 1820) was a 'Choice Collection of Psalm Tunes, Hymns, and Anthems, selected from the most eminent authors and well adapted to all Christian Churches, singing schools, and private societies. Together with an Introduction to grounds of music, the rudiments of music, and plain rules for beginners'. Carden compiled Missouri Harmony, a four shape-note collection similar in...
Montreat Conferences on Worship and Music. The forming of the Montreat Conferences began in 1952 with James R. Sydnor*'s letter to the General Council of the Presbyterian Church, US, (PCUS) which in part reads:
we have not thus far as a denomination made any serious effort to discover the exact state of music in our Church, or to outline some sensible goals, or to map out a practical strategy for church-wide development of this important phase of the Church's life. Almost every other...
My soul cries out with a joyful shout ('Canticle of the Turning'). Rory Cooney* (1952- ).
Carl P. Daw, Jr.* correctly notes: 'From the very beginning it is evident that this is no tame paraphrase of the Song of Mary (Luke 1:46-55). . . [This setting of the Magnificat*] identifies with, and draws energy from, the deeply revolutionary implications of what it means for the mighty to be put down from their thrones and the lowly to be lifted up' (Daw, 2016, p. 100). First published as the...
The National Association of Pastoral Musicians (NPM) was organized in 1976 by Father Virgil Funk for those interested in musical liturgy, including choir directors, organists, guitarists, pianists, instrumentalists of all kinds, priests, cantors, and pastoral liturgists. The national office is in Silver Spring, Maryland. The National Association of Pastoral Musicians fosters the art of musical liturgy. The members of NPM serve the Catholic Church in the United States as musicians, clergy,...
[Note: The terms most commonly used for North American aboriginal peoples are 'Native Americans' in the USA and 'First Nations' in Canada. Anthropologists and ethnologists tend to prefer language group designations, which often are not necessarily appropriately designated by national borders][1]
In North American hymnody there is no Christian tradition or denominational heritage that embodies the volume of productivity of hymns and hymnbooks that exists in Native American languages. The...
Net Hymnal is a free, private site, easily searched via Google that features MIDI files, scores, the full texts of over 10,000 hymns and gospel songs, and often outdated biographical and historical information. The site also includes indexes of texts, tunes, scripture references, and topics. A synthesized instrumental setting of each hymn tune automatically begins to play when the associated text is selected. Unidentified works of art are often displayed with hymn texts without crediting...
The New Church Hymnal was a Protestant non-denominational book published in New York and London in 1937. The Editor was H. Augustine Smith*, assisted by three Associate Editors, Edward Shippen Barnes*, Howard Chandler Robbins*, and James Dalton Morrison.
The Foreword was a reflection of a certain optimism at the time:
The reviving interest in worship that is evident in Protestantism is consonant with a revival of spiritual living. The need of quickening through worship the inner life, the...
COKE-JEPHCOTT, Norman. b. Coventry, Warwickshire, England, 17 March 1893; d. New York City, 14 March 1962. Coke-Jephcott was an organist, choral director, and composer. His main contribution to hymnic bibliography is The Saint Thomas Church Descant Book.
Norman Coke-Jephcott's parents were Edwin Coke Jephcott (1857-1927) and Annie May (Clarke) Jephcott (1855-1922). Edwin was a music teacher and organist in Coventry, where, in Holy Trinity Church, Norman was baptized on 20 April 1893. On 29...
The North American Academy of Liturgy (NAAL) describes itself as 'an ecumenical and inter-religious association of liturgical scholars who collaborate in research concerning public worship.' The stated purpose of the Academy is 'to promote liturgical scholarship among its members and to extend the benefits of that scholarship to the worshiping communities to which its members belong.'
NAAL traces its beginnings to December 1973, when Jesuits John Gallen (1932-2011) and Walter Burghardt...
O bread to pilgrims given. Ray Palmer* (1808-1887). This is a translation of 'O esca viatorum'*, one of many translations of the hymn at one time thought to be by Thomas Aquinas*. It appeared in The Sabbath Hymn Book: for the Service of Song in the House of the Lord (New York and Boston, 1858), edited by Lowell Mason*, Edwards Amasa Park, and Austin Phelps. It has been included in many books: in Britain it has been set to PASSION CHORALE, by Hans Leo Hassler*.
JRW
O radiant light, O Sun divine. Greek, perhaps Third Century, translated by William George Storey* (1923-2014).
This translation of 'Phos hilaron'* is given a copyright date of 1979. It began:
O radiant light, O Sun divine, of God the Father's deathless face, O image of the Light divine that fills the heavenly dwelling-place.
Information on the recent use of this hymn is found in Hymnary.org., to which the following is much indebted. It was included in The Presbyterian Hymnal: hymns, psalms,...
O sacred head! now wounded. Paul Gerhardt* (1607-1676), translated by James Waddell Alexander* (1804-1859).
This free translation was first published in eight stanzas in The Christian Lyre, edited by Joshua Leavitt (New York, 1830). Later it was extended to ten stanzas. It was the second hymn in Alexander's The Breaking Crucible; and other translations from German hymns (New York, 1861), published after his death in 1859. It was entitled 'O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden. A Passion Hymn by Paul...
O sleep now, holy baby. Mexican carol, translated by John Donald Robb (1892-1989).
This carol, 'Duérmete, Niño lindo', was translated by Robb, a lawyer who changed career to become Professor of Music at the University of New Mexico, and printed in Hispanic Songs of New Mexico (Albuquerque, New Mexico, 1954). It is one of many 'lullaby carols'. It was used in a folk play, Los Pastores, sung in villages in New Mexico during the Christmas season. Originally from Mexico, it tells of sorrows to...
O the bitter shame and sorrow. Théodore Monod* (1836-1921).
This hymn was entitled 'The Altered Motto', referring to its transition from 'All of self, and none of Thee' (stanza 1) to 'None of self, and all of Thee' (stanza 4). Written during one of Monod's many evangelising visits to England in 1874 for a 'consecration meeting' at Broadlands, Hampshire, it was given to Lord Mount-Temple, who took it to another meeting at Oxford in the same year:
O the bitter shame and sorrow, That a time could...
O young and fearless Prophet. Samuel Ralph Harlow* (1885-1972).
To appreciate this prophetic text more fully, it is helpful to explore the writings of S. Ralph Harlow, a tireless advocate for social justice, world peace, race relations, and human rights in the context of his day. He was a pedagogical revolutionary in his biblical courses with young people, insisting that the Bible should speak directly to the realities of his current age:
The only religion with which [young people] seem...
HUCKEL, Oliver. b. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 11 January 1864; d. Orlando, Florida, 3 February 1940. He was a Congregationalist minister, lecturer, author, translator, poet, and hymn writer. Broadly educated and widely traveled, he was influential in denominational and ecumenical circles, and a Mason. His parents were William Samuel Huckel (1835–1898), a businessman, and Ruth Ann Sprowles Huckel (1837–1915). His brother, William Samuel Huckel, Jr., (1858–1917) was a well-known architect in...
WESTENDORF, Omer Evers. b. Cincinnati, Ohio, 24 February1916; d. Cincinnati, 22 October 1997. Educated at the College of Music of Cincinnati (Certificate in Piano, 1947; BM, 1948, MM, 1950), Westendorf served for forty years as organist and choirmaster of St Bonaventure [Roman Catholic] Church in the South Fairmount neighborhood (1936-76). His tenure was interrupted by military service during the Second World War in Europe, where in the Netherlands he heard and obtained copies of a wide range...
The development of the organ as the primary vehicle for leading congregational song in churches of the USA proceeded initially from established English trajectories, although in subsequent centuries the organ's ecclesiastical role would parallel the development of the USA's musical, social, and liturgical priorities. The Anglican Church had maintained a complex and tenuous relationship with church music, its Calvinist concerns frequently commandeering the journey down the via media. Its noted...
Our Growing Years, a hymnal
This hymnal was published by GIA Publications, Inc., in 1998. From the title, it would appear at first glance to be a children's book; but the title comes from a hymn by David Mowbray*, 'Lord of our growing years'*. It was a book designed for elderly people in retirement homes. The title is therefore both a clever surprise and a determined attempt to assert the right of the elderly to grow in the faith: 'by singing and reading hymns, we can share spiritual insights...
Pan de vida (Bread of life). Bob Hurd* (1950– ) and Pia Moriarty (1948– ).
This eucharistic hymn is the best-known composition by Bob Hurd and his wife Pia Moriarty. Composed in 1988, it appeared initially in the first edition of Flor y Canto* (Portland, Oregon, 1989) and subsequently in most Catholic hymnals published in the United States.
The song, one of the first bilingual worship songs, was composed while Bob Hurd was living in Guatemala. During this time, he was searching for songs that...
MOISE, Penina. b. Charleston, South Carolina, 23 April 1797; d. Charleston, SC, 13 September 1880. Penina was the sixth of nine children born to the union of Abraham (1736-1809) and Sarah (1762-1840) Moise (Moïse). She left school at the age of 12 upon her father's death but continued to study on her own. She suffered from poverty throughout her life; she suffered severe attacks of neuralgia and lost her eyesight completely by 1865. Her first published volume, Fancy's Sketch Book, appeared in...
Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University.
The School of Theology (now known as Perkins School of Theology) [PST], was one of the three original schools of Southern Methodist University (SMU), founded in 1911 as a nonsectarian institution of higher education by what is now the United Methodist Church in partnership with Dallas civic leaders. After large gifts from Joe L. and Lois Craddock Perkins of Wichita Falls, Texas, beginning in 1945, the name of the School of Theology was...
LUTKIN, Peter Christian. b. Thompsonville, Wisconsin, 27 March 1858; d. Chicago, Illinois, 27 December 1931. Peter Lutkin, composer, conductor, organist, and educator, received much of his early musical education by singing as a chorister in the choir at St Peter and St Paul's Episcopal Church in Chicago, where he began studying the organ at age 12. He was exposed to the new wave of Anglican music that prevailed in Episcopal churches in America. He spent the years from 1881 to 1884 studying in...
SCHOLTES, Peter Raymond. b. Evanston, Ilinois 20 November 1938; d. Madison, Wisconsin, 1 July 2009. Scholtes attended Roman Catholic elementary and high schools, and studied for the Roman Catholic priesthood at Quigley and St. Mary of the Lake-Mundelein Seminary. Ordained in 1965, he served in an inter-racial parish, St. Brendan's, in Chicago's south side, and quickly became involved in the civil rights movement. Leaving the priesthood he studied adult education and organizational development...
BLYCKER, Philip Walter. b. Chicago, Illinois, 22 March 1939; d. Roseburg, Oregon, 11 June 2023. Philip Blycker (also known as Felipe Blycker J. in Spanish publications), was a missionary, hymn writer, composer, and hymnal editor. He was raised in the evangelical tradition as a Baptist. Taking piano and trumpet lessons during his youth, he received degrees from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina (B.M.E., 1960) and VanderCook College of Music in Chicago (MMus Ed., 1966). He...
SCHAFF, Philip. b. Chur, Switzerland, 1 January 1819; d. New York, 20 October 1893. He was an illegitimate child from a poor family. His father died before Philip was one year old, and he had a disturbed and unhappy childhood in an orphanage from which he was rescued by a local minister, who arranged for the clever child to be educated at a Lutheran school at Kornthal, Württemberg, and then at the Gymnasium at Stuttgart, and at the Universities of Tübingen, Halle, and Berlin. After working as a...
BROOKS, Phillips. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 13 December 1835; d. Boston, 23 January 1893. He came from a prosperous and religious family, who left the First Church of Boston, where Phillips had been baptized, when it became Unitarian. The family then worshipped at St Paul's Episcopal Church, and Phillips became an Episcopalian. He was educated at the Boston Latin School and Harvard College (AB 1855). After a failed attempt at teaching at his old school, he went to Virginia Theological Seminary...
BROWN, Phoebe Hinsdale (née Hinsdale). b. Canaan, New York State, 1 May 1783; d. Henry, Marshall County, Illinois, 10 October 1861. Hinsdale's parents died when she was a child, her father when she was less than a year old, and her mother when she was eight. She was brought up for a year by her grandmother, who taught her reading and instructed her in religion; but she was then sent to live with her married sister and cruel husband at Claverack, New Jersey, who treated her as a household slave...
The Plymouth Collection of Hymns and Tunes; for the Use of Christian Congregations (New York, 1855).
The Plymouth Collection was edited by Henry Ward Beecher*, then minister of Plymouth Congregational Church, New York. He delegated responsibility for the tunes to John Zundel* and to his brother, the Revd Charles Beecher (1815-1900). They provided 367 tunes, set to 1374 texts. Each tune was printed with the texts beneath: sometimes, but rarely, with a single text; more often, with several texts...
The Presbyterian Association of Musicians (PAM) was founded in 1970 in the wake of the announcement the previous year that the Board of Christian Education of the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) would not longer sponsor the Presbyterian Conference on Church Music (see Montreat Conferences on Worship and Music*). An ad hoc group of leaders, Jerry Black, chair (1938-), David W. McCormick* (1928-2019), James R. Sydnor*, Richard Peek (1927-2005), Herbert Archer (1922-2005), William...
Presbyterian hymnody and hymnals, USA
The Calvinist settlers who came from Scotland, and the Scots who came by way of Ireland (Scotch-Irish) in the 17th and early 18th centuries were firstly Puritans who leaned toward either the Presbyterian or the Congregational form of church organization. New England Puritans tended more toward the Congregational model, those in Pennsylvania and New York toward the Presbyterian. Doctrinally, however, the differences were not sufficient to keep Presbyterian...
CARMICHAEL, Ralph. b. Quincy, Illinois, 28 May 1927; d. Carmillo, California, 18 October 2021. A pioneer in the Contemporary Christian Music industry, Carmichael is a prolific composer of Christian songs, whose experiments in popular musical styles have garnered him recognition by some as the 'Father of Contemporary Christian Music'. Carmichael, fostered by musician parents, early on took violin, trumpet, and piano lessons. He attended Southern California Bible College (now Vanguard University,...
GLOVER, Raymond F. b. Buffalo, New York, 23 May 1928; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 15 December 2017. Ray Glover, distinguished hymnist and church musician, was a boy chorister at St Paul's Cathedral, Buffalo. He studied with Healey Willan* at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada (BM, 1952), and Robert Baker (1916-2005) at the School of Sacred Music, Union Theological Seminary, New York City (MSM, 1954). Returning to Buffalo he served as organist and choirmaster, St Paul's Cathedral...
Hymnody and Hymnals of the Reformed Church in America. The Reformed Church in America (RCA) is an offshoot of the Dutch Reformed Church, or Nederlandse Hervormde Kerk. It dates itself from the founding of a congregation in New Amsterdam (now New York City) by Jonas Michaelius (1577-1638) in April of 1628. Now with approximately 1,000 congregations in the United States and Canada, the RCA claims the oldest continuous Protestant ministry in North America, as well as the oldest theological...
Ring shout is a sacred 'dance' practiced commonly during slavery times, and arguably the most significant African musical retention in the United States of America. It is performed in call and response fashion between a song leader (customarily a man) and a group of 'dancers' (often called 'shouters'). The leader--often referred to as a 'songster'—intones the opening phrase(s) and then alternates with the chorus (of singers and 'dancers') in a call and response manner. The leader sets the...
DUFFORD, Robert J. b. Chicago, Illinois, 1943. A member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), Dufford has served as a pastor in Iowa, campus minister at Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, and retreat master in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was a member of a group of composers that included John B. Foley*, Tim Manion (1951-), Roc O'Connor (1949-), and Daniel Schutte*, known as the St Louis Jesuits. Based out of St Louis University, St Louis, Missouri, a Jesuit institution, the group released a...
CULL, Robert Marcus. b. Los Angeles, California, 24 May 1949. He was encouraged by his parents to begin piano study at age six. He soon began playing music in his church, learning more than a dozen instruments. He attended Southern California College (now Vanguard University of Southern California), Costa Mesa, an Assemblies of God institution, and joined the Accents, a singing group recorded by Maranatha! Music. He attended campus concerts featuring song writers and performers in the emerging...
WALLACE, Robin Knowles. b. Toledo, Ohio, 6 January 1952. Wallace is a hymnological scholar, editor, teacher of congregational song, and ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Her timely and influential published works are characterized by usability for scholars and practitioners, attention to language for inclusion and justice, and the centrality of congregational song in worship as a spiritual and theological formational practice.
Robin attended the University of Cincinnati, Ohio...
SMITH, Rodney ('Gipsy' Smith). b. Epping Forest, near London, 31 March 1860; d. at sea 4 August 1947). He was born in a Romany tent, the fourth of six children of Cornelius Smith (1831-1922) and Mary Welch (ca. 1831-1865). His family made a living selling baskets, clothes pegs, tinware, and through horse-dealing; neither of his parents could read. He grew up 'as wild as the birds, frolicsome as the lambs, and as difficult to catch as the rabbits' (Smith, 1901, Chapter 1). His mother died of...
Post-Colonial Era
Both the body of hymnody from and the publication of hymnals for the Roman Catholic Church in the United States at its founding and in the decades immediately following are quite small. The cause of this is two-fold: the inherited status of Roman Catholics under British governance and the role of the congregation at the Catholic Mass.
Until the Catholic Relief Act of 1778, Catholics in the colonies lived under the same rules of suppression as they did in England. Public...
ARNATT, Ronald Kent. b. Wandsworth, London, 12 January 1930; d. Fredericksburg, Virginia, 23 August 2018. Arnatt was an organist, composer, conductor, and editor. He composed several hymn tunes and organ pieces based on hymn tunes.
His parents were Josiah Henry Arnatt (1891-1958) and Elizabeth Christina (Kent) Arnatt (1903-1986). As early as 1937, Ronald's name appeared in lists of prize winners for singing and playing piano. In 1938 he was featured as 'Boy Musical Prodigy'. 'The remarkable...
DUCK, Ruth Carolyn. b. Washington, DC, 21 November 1947; d. Claremont, California, 26 December 2024. Ruth Duck graduated from Southwestern-at-Memphis University (now Rhodes College), Tennessee (BA, 1969). She attended Chicago Theological Seminary (MDiv, 1973); University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana (MA, 1987); and Boston University School of Theology (ThD, 1989). The Chicago Theological Seminary awarded her a Doctor of Divinity degree in 1983. She was ordained in the United Church of...
HARLOW, Samuel Ralph. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 20 July 1885; d. Northampton, Massachusetts, 21 August 1972. Harlow was ordained in the Congregational Church. He received his education at Harvard (BA) and Columbia (M.A.) Universities as well as Hartford Theological Seminary (PhD). Early in his career, Harlow served as a teacher and chaplain at the International College, Smyrna, Turkey. During World War I he was the religious director of the YMCA in France as a part of the American Expeditionary...
In 1834 anti-abolitionist riots ripped into New York City. In 1837 the Old School and New School Presbyterians split. In 1836, between those uproars, the New School founded Union Seminary, with two unusual moves: 1) an ecumenical commitment, and 2) in New York rather than in a smaller, more remote place.
The Board made another unusual move. On 12 April 1837, Abner Jones [fl. 1830-60] (this is not the 'Elder' Abner Jones [1772-1841] who organized 'Christian' churches) offered to raise $25,000...
TEMPLE, Sebastian. b. Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa, 12 February 1928; d. Tucson, Arizona, 16 December 1997. He was raised by his grandparents. At the age of 16 he wrote a romantic novel, and using its royalties moved to Italy. In 1951 he moved to London and prepared BBC news broadcasts relating to South Africa. Temple went to the United States in 1958, lived in Washington DC, was a Scientologist for ten years, converted to Catholicism and became a Secular Franciscan.
He was a student of...
Set-Piece
A set piece (or set-piece) is, loosely speaking, a choral setting of sacred or secular metrical poetry performed with or without accompaniment, sometimes with the congregation, usually but not necessarily non-strophic—that is, usually but not necessarily through-composed. As it is not practical to formulate a precise definition based directly on musical and textual characteristics, in this article 'set-piece' is defined as a piece that has been designated a set piece by a composer,...
The shakers, or 'Shaking Quakers' (in worship they were 'taken with a mighty trembling' or 'a mighty shaking') were a dissident group of Quakers who emigrated from Manchester, England to the USA in 1774, led by Ann Lee (1736-1784), known as 'Mother Ann'. The full title of this body was 'The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing'; it was one of many millenarian sects that flourished at this time, but it was more interesting and successful, and more creative, than many of the...
Shape-note hymnody
This is a tradition of rural American sacred music using unorthodox notations, associated with community singing schools and singings. Although the shape-note singing tradition of the 19th century flourished particularly in the South and Midwest, it spread to practically every section of the United States in the closing decades of the 20th century. Shape-note tunebooks contain introductory rudiments for reading the notation plus up to several hundred hymn tunes, fuging...
Shepherd of tender youth. Clement of Alexandria (Titus Flavius Clemens), ca. 150-ca. 220), translated by Henry Martyn Dexter* (1821-1890).
This hymn, entitled 'Hymn of the Saviour Christ', is one of the earliest (if not the earliest) Christian hymns. It was appended to the end of Book III of Paidagogos ('The Tutor'), a treatise by Clement, who taught philosophy and religion in the school at Alexandria. It was translated by Dexter during his time as a minister at Manchester, New Hampshire, and...
Silent Night! holy Night! Joseph Mohr* (1792-1848), translated by various authors.
There have been very many translations of 'Stille Nacht! heilige Nacht!'*, the much loved Austrian carol by Joseph Mohr* with music by Franz Xaver Gruber*.
The first one into English was probably that by Emily Elizabeth Steele Elliott*, ca. 1858, for the choir of St Mark's Church, Kemptown, Brighton ('Stilly night, holy the night'). Other English translations of the 19th century include those by Jane Montgomery...
Singers Glen, Virginia, is a hamlet in the Shenandoah Valley about eight miles north-northwest of Harrisonburg. It was originally named Mountain Valley by its German-speaking Mennonite settler, Joseph Funk*, who is buried in Singers Glen. It was renamed Singers Glen in 1860 when a post office was established there, and after Funk's music business had become successful.
Its significance is twofold: (1) it was the original base of the music-publishing business (known variously as Joseph Funk...
CHÁVEZ-MELO, Skinner. b. Mexico City, 17 November 1944; d. New York City 25 January 1992. Chávez-Melo attended Eastern Nazarene College in Quincy, Massachusetts (BM, 1968), Union Theological Seminary, New York City, New York (MSM, 1971) [later serving there as choirmaster] with additional study at the Juilliard School of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music. From 1972-1985 he held faculty and administrative positions at the Manhattan School of Music and The Mannes College of Music in New...
"Sleepers, wake!" A voice astounds us. Philipp Nicolai* (1556-1608), translated by Carl P. Daw, Jr.* (1944- ).
This translation of 'Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme'* was made for H82. Like earlier translations it follows the metre of the original German, and is sung to the traditional tune. It includes occasional phrases from earlier English versions, but, in Daw's words, 'it tries to convey more of the vigor and narrative urgency of the German original' (A Year of Grace, Carol Stream, 1990, p....
Social Gospel Hymnody, USA
The 'Social Gospel' is a North American Christian movement, with roots in the Third Great Awakening (See Great Awakenings, USA*), which flourished from about 1890 to 1940, most prominently in the early 1900s. The main idea of the movement was application of Christian principles to bring about the transformation of society. At the end of the 19th century, mainline Protestant theology viewed individuals as fallen and in need of redemption; the Social Gospel extended...
Somos uno en Cristo ('We are one in Christ Jesus'). Author unknown.
This anonymous Spanish-language scripture chorus (corito) focuses on Ephesians 4:4–6. It was undoubtedly transmitted via oral/aural tradition before being included in Celebremos su gloria (Dallas, 1992), a collection produced by an association of evangelical churches in Central America. Philip Blycker* (1939-2023), the music editor of the collection, arranged the music under his Spanish name Felipe Blycker J. Most collections...
In 1944 Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky (founded in 1859) instituted a program leading to a degree in church music. President Ellis A. Fuller (1891-1950) was officially head of the program, but it was guided by Donald E. Winters (1910-1989) and Frances Weaver Winters (1908-1993), who included hymnology in its curriculum. In a reorganization of the seminary in 1953, a School of Church Music was established. Its name was changed in 1998 to School of Church Music and...
General
Southern Gospel is one of the multiple vernacular Christian music traditions that developed within American (and to some extent British) Protestant cultures during the 19th and 20th centuries, and part of the gospel music phenomenon that has flourished in Anglophone Christendom since the 1870s. It is also part of the Christian, but especially Protestant, practice of recreational musicking with vernacular songs and hymns.
'Southern Gospel' refers to a music tradition that dates arguably...
DAUERMANN, Stuart. b. Brooklyn, New York, 1944. Stuart Dauermann is a Messianic Jewish Rabbi. His education includes BA and MM degrees in music theory and music education, and MA and PhD degrees in Intercultural Studies. He has published several books on interreligious relations between Jews and Christians. He is Director of Interfaithfulness, an organisation dedicated to advancing interreligious relationships between Jews and Christians, and serves as Rabbi of Ahavat Zion Messianic Synagogue,...
Sunday schools were founded in the UK and the USA in the late 18th century to teach reading, and the Bible to children, and others who worked six days a week. The American version of the Sunday school had a significant impact on many aspects of American society, not the least the school's distinctive song, which was an important laboratory for public and church music education, a leading participant in the dynamic growth, visibility and popularity of music during the century of expansion, and...
MONOD, Théodore. b. Paris, 6 November 1836; d. Paris, 26 February 1921. The son of a pastor in the French Reformed Church, he was educated at the University of Paris, where he studied law (1855-58). In order to train as a Protestant minister, he went to the USA, to Western Theological Seminary, Pennsylvania. He became a pastor to a French Canadian congregation at Kankakee, Illinois, south of Chicago (1861-63). During these years he published Regardant Jésus (1862, translated as Looking unto...
TROEGER, Thomas Henry. b. Suffern, New York State, 30 January 1945; d. Falmouth, Maine, 3 April 2022. Troeger was educated at Yale University (BA 1967) and Colgate-Rochester Divinity School (BD 1970). He was associate minister of New Hartford Presbyterian Church, New York (1970-77). He then taught homiletics at the Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall/Crozier Theological Seminary, Rochester, New York (1977-91); he was Norma E. Peck Professor of Preaching and Communication at Iliff School of Theology,...
Thou, whose purpose is to kindle. D. Elton Trueblood* (1900-1994).
This hymn is also known by its title, 'Baptism by Fire'. In the Preface to The Incendiary Fellowship, dated Labor Day, 1966, Trueblood comments that it was written 'because of the conviction that the message of this book may be expressed more succinctly in poetry than in prose.' He writes of his admiration for the hymn 'God of grace and God of glory'* by Harry Emerson Fosdick*, and of 'the Biblical basis for his own hymn: ...
'Tis the gift to be simple. Shaker spiritual, 19th century, probably by Joseph Brackett, Jr. (1797-1882).
This is a Shaker song, described by them as a 'Gift Song from Mother's work' (referring to Ann Lee, known as 'Mother Ann'. See 'Shaker hymnody'*). David Holbrook*, who printed it in the Cambridge Hymnal* (1967), dated it from between 1837 and 1847. The Hymnal 1982 Companion agreed, noting that this was 'a period of renewed spiritual dedication' among the Shakers. Various theories are...
FETTKE, Thomas Eugene, b. Bronx, New York, 24 February 1941. Composer, arranger, and music producer, Fettke attended Oakland City College (AA [Associate of Arts] 1962) California State University at Hayward (BA 1966). He was a secondary school teacher for more than three decades, teaching voice and directing both public and private school ensembles, including Redwood Christian School system (1978-84), a K-12 interdenominational school system located in the San Francisco East Bay area, where he...
COOMES, Tommy. b. Long Beach, California, 19 May 1946. Singer/songwriter, producer, worship leader and music executive, Coomes played a key role in 'Jesus Music' in the 1960s and 1970s and development of worship music repertoire for the church in the late 20th century. Raised in Lakewood, California, he played trumpet and guitar in high school, studied music at California State University, Long Beach, and enlisted in the US Army. A year after leaving the army in 1969 he met a nucleus of hippie...
Psalmody in the 17th and 18th Centuries
The early settlers of the British North American colonies—including the Anglicans of Jamestown, the Pilgrims and Puritans of Plymouth and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and the French and Dutch of New Amsterdam—generally relied upon Genevan and/or English psalm tunes for the musical settings of their congregational singing. These tunes were mostly sung from memory, aided by the lining-out process (see Scottish Psalter* and Lining out* for a description of...
Church Music Seminar
Organized in 1944 under the slogan 'the musical heritage of the church', the main objective of the Valparaiso University Church Music Seminar was 'to propagate a type of music that would have as its basis Christian faith and spiritual life' (brochure copy). Professor Theodore Hoelty-Nickel (1894–1986) founded the Seminar and directed it for over twenty-five years.
The Church Music Seminar brought together organists, conductors, singers, pastors, and interested lay people...
Vatican II and hymns
When the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was convened, most Protestant hymn collections contained few Roman Catholic hymns. The reform of the liturgical life of the Roman Catholic Church in the 'Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy' ('Sacrosanctum Concilium', 1963) made an immediate ecumenical impact on most mainline Protestant traditions. A deeper theology of Baptism and Eucharist, the recovery of Scripture, the revision of the church year and the appearance of a...
BOWIE, (Walter) Russell. b. Richmond, Virginia, 8 October 1882; d. Alexandria, Virginia, 23 April 1969. Bowie was educated at Harvard University (BA 1904, MA, 1905), and Virginia Theological Seminary (BD 1909, DD 1919). He was ordained an Episcopal priest in 1909 and served Emmanuel Church, Greenwood, Virginia (1909-11); St Paul's Church, Richmond, Virginia (1911-23, with hospital chaplaincy in France during World War I); and Grace Church, New York City (1923-39). He became Professor of...
GILBERT, Walter Bond. b. Exeter, 21 April 1829; d. Oxford, 2 March 1910. The son of Samuel Thomas Gilbert, he studied music, and as a young man played the organ at St Thomas's Church, Exeter. He was further taught by the Exeter Cathedral organist, Samuel Sebastian Wesley* (organist 1835-42). Gilbert was organist of several notable Churches from 1847 onwards: Topsham, Devon (1847-49); Bideford, Devon (1849-54); Tonbridge, Kent (1854-59); Maidstone, Kent (1859-66); Lee, Kent (1866-68); and...
When Christmas morn is dawning. Abel Burckhardt (1805–1882); formerly attributed to Betty Ehrenborg-Posse (1818–1880); translated by. Joel L. Lundeen (1918–1990).
This Swedish Christmas children's hymn captures the moment of Jesus' birth when the shepherds followed the directions of the angel, heard the angel hosts singing, 'Glory to God', and 'found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger' (Luke 2: 16, NIV).
Nothing is known of the author of the hymn text. The hymn first...
DOANE, William Crosswell. b. Boston, Massachusetts, 2 March 1832; d. New York City, 17 May 1913. He was the son of George Washington Doane*, born when his father was minister of Trinity Church, Boston. The family moved to Burlington when his father was consecrated Bishop of New Jersey in the year of his birth. He was educated at Burlington College (founded by his father), graduating in 1850. He was ordained deacon in 1853, serving as an assistant to his father, and priest in 1856. He founded St...
ROCKWELL, William Walker. b. Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 4 October 1874; d. New York City, 30 May 1958. Church historian and librarian, Rockwell attended Harvard College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (BA, 1895), the Andover Theological Seminary, Andover, Massachusetts (STB, 1900) and the University of Marburg, Germany (PhD, 1903). He was ordained by the Congregational Church at the seminary church in Andover on 5 June 1905.
Rockwell was an instructor at Andover Theological Seminary (1904), and...
YISRAEL V'ORAITA (TORAH SONG)
The earliest appearance in a hymnal of the tune YISRAEL V'ORAITA is probably as 'Song of Good News' in Orlando Schmidt's (1924-2002) Sing and Rejoice! (Scottsdale, Pennsylvania and Kitchener, Ontario, 1979), with copyright 1967 by Willard F. Jabusch*. Probably the copyright covers not only Jabusch's hymn ('Open your ears, O Christian people, Open your ears and hear good news!') but also the combination of the hymn and tune, which is printed as melody-only with...