From Hall, page 154 William James Kirkpatrick (1838-1921) was one of the most important composers of gospel songs in the history of the genre. Just how important can be seen first in his prodigious number of songs. From a download of individual song data listed in Hymnary.org, some 97,000 songs in all, I consolidate the various names under which a composer might be identified (William J. Kirkpatrick, Wm. J. Kirkpatrick, W. J. Kirkpatrick, etc.) and ranked the top composers by number of songs. The results are available here. To be sure, this is an imperfect measure, beca ..read more

 Praise for the Lord #156 Words: Eliza E. Hewitt, 1890 Music: William J. Kirkpatrick, 1890 Eliza Edmunds Hewitt photo from Cyber Hymnal The May 1923 celebration of "Music Week" in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania must have been an amazing time--churches, schools, factories, and clubs went all out to put on programs, three different bands played an hour each in one night, and a mass choir concert directed by famed music educator Hollis Dann exclusively featured music by Pennsylvania composers. Newspaper coverage also mentioned several Pennsylvania notables in sacred music to be featured ..read more

Praise for the Lord #155 Words: William Walsham How, 1864 Music: SINE NOMINE, Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906 Bishop How, c. 1870 Obviously, William Walsham How (1823-1897) was a gifted and energetic man. By the age of 24 he had graduated Wadham College, Oxford with an M.A. in classics, completed theological studies at Durham University, and had served as a deacon, curate, and been ordained a priest in the Church of England. No doubt he could have done many things and gone many other places, but he also had that admirable trait of committing his talents to service where he felt he was ne ..read more

 Praise for the Lord #154 Words: Priscilla J. Owens, 1883 Music: Edmund S. Lorenz, 1883 Priscilla Jane Owens (1829-1907) is best remembered today for her songs "We have heard the joyful sound (Jesus saves!)" and "Will your anchor hold?", both set to stirring music by William J. Kirkpatrick and published in 1882. These are remarkably successful examples of gospel song and hold up well (as does the song under consideration here), but her name has otherwise faded from memory. It is worthwhile to note, then, that an editorial in a Methodist journal in 1911 mentioned “Priscilla J. Ow ..read more

From Songs of Devotion for Christian Associations (New York: Biglow & Main, 1871) In the cross, in the cross, be my glory ever; till my raptured soul shall find rest beyond the river. -- Fanny Crosby, "Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross" (1869) This popular old hymn is sung very widely among Churches of Christ, and as far as I have ever heard, the only widespread controversy about it is over the exact notes to be sung in the last phrase of the melody (let the reader understand). But I must thank my sister Laura for setting me puzzling again about another question that has occur ..read more

Praise for the Lord #138 Words: Warren's Select Hymns for Christian Worship, 1911 Music: Stamps's & Baxter's Starlit Crown, 1937, arr. J.R. Baxter Jr. "Farther along" is an interesting example of just how easily a published song can work its way into oral tradition. It has been a popular song for many years, obviously, and is part of the fabric of America's gospel, folk, and country music genres. When a song is this popular, it can become "folk music" even after publication, sometimes even during the life of its author, propagated by word of mouth and stored in the collect ..read more

 Praise for the Lord #153 Words: Mary B. C. Slade, 1871 Music: Asa Brooks Everett, 1871 The author and composer of this hymn having been covered at length in two earlier posts, I will add just a little more here about the history and reception of this song, variously titled "Footsteps of Jesus" or "Footprints of Jesus" (the latter is the phrase actually used in the refrain, but the former is more commonly used as the title). Statistics from the Hymnary.org page for this text show that it has actually increased in average popularity over the years, appearing in 25% of the indexed ..read more

N.B. The following account discusses drug abuse and possible suicide. In an earlier post I examined the gospel songs of Mary Bridges Canedy Slade, many of which were set to music by the relatively obscure composer Dr. Asa Brooks Everett. I had originally thought to look at both lyricist and composer together, but the difficulty of researching Everett’s history led to putting his story off for a post of its own. For example, in a post a few years ago on the Slade-Everett song “Beyond this land of parting”, I suggested that Everett’s honorific “Dr.” might have been the customary title assumed b ..read more

In 1889 the Gospel Advocate magazine of Nashville, Tennessee released its first hymnal under the title Christian Hymns. It was a small book containing 276 songs, but it can be claimed as the first hymnal intentionally for the use of the Churches of Christ, as the conservative, non-instrumental wing of the Restoration Movement in the United States was beginning to be identified. And though much of its content would fall by the wayside in coming years, we can identify at least one cluster of songs introduced by this hymnal that are still widely used today--five memorable lyrics by Mary B.C. Sla ..read more

 The following video is a recording of a presentation I gave at the 2020 meeting of the Mountain Plains Music Library Association, as part of my day job ..read more