Music Notes

Hymn of the Day: ELW 667, “Take Up Your Cross, the Savior Said”
Text: Charles W. Everest (1814-1877)
Tune: BOURBON, Freeman Lewis (1780-1859)

Charles W. Everest, born in Connecticut,1814, graduated at Trinity College, Hartford, 1838, and took Holy Orders in 1842. He was rector at Hamden, Connecticut, from 1842 to 1873, and also agent for the Society for the Increase of the Ministry. He died at Waterbury, Connecticut,1877. In 1833 he published Visions of Death, and Other Poems. This popular hymn is taken from this work.

The original text of this hymn differs very materially from that which is usually found in the hymn-books. The most widely known form of the text is that in Hymns Ancient & Modern, where it appeared in 1861. It was copied by the compilers from another collection, but by whom the alterations were made is unknown. The nearest approach to the original is in Horder's Congregational Hymn Book, 1884. Original text can be found in Biggs's English Hymnology, 1873, p. 24.

Freeman Lewis, a sur­vey­or and school teach­er, wrote mu­sic on the side. In 1816, he acc­omp­a­nied Si­mon Ber­nard, a former French gen­er­al and en­gin­eer of Na­pol­e­on I, in one of his ear­ly ex­pe­di­tions in Amer­i­ca. Lewis al­so served as Coun­ty Surveyor of Fay­ette Coun­ty, Penn­sylvan­ia (1828-36), and helped Jon­a­than Knight su­rvey the Ches­a­peake and Ohio Ca­nal.

Musical Meditation: “Shall We Gather at the River,” Dale Wood (1934-2003)

This hymn tune and text was written by Robert Lowry in the summer of 1864 in Brooklyn, New York. The text came out of Lowry's thoughts on the metaphor of the river in Christian thoughts about death. He wrote, “I began to wonder why the hymn-writers has said so much about the 'river of death' and so little about 'the pure water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.’” It was first published as “Beautiful River” in Happy Voices in 1865.

The tune was written for the words in 1864. It was named HANSON PLACE after Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York, where Lowry was serving as pastor.

Dale Wood was a renowned composer, organist, and choral director best known for his church music compositions. He began writing compositions at a young age. When he was 13 years old, he won a national hymn-writing contest for the American Lutheran Church.

Anthem: “I’m So Glad”, R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943)

Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in Ontario, Canada. His ancestors were among the slaves who escaped to the North and settled in that slave-founded town. In 1901, Dett began studying piano with Oliver Willis Halstead in nearby Lockport. Three years later he was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory, where he majored in piano and composition. In 1908, Dett received his B.M. degree, winning Phi Beta Kappa honors. Dett's later education included studies at Harvard University under Arthur Foote (1920-21), and the American Conservatory in Fountainebleau with Nadia Boulanger. In 1932, he completed a Master of Music degree at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York.

Dett's most important work began in 1913 at the Hampton Institute in Hampton, Virginia. He trained the choir at that traditionally African-American school to a new level of musical excellence. His 40-voice Hampton Singers performed at Carnegie Hall in January 1914. Dett rose to the position of director of the Music Department at Hampton in 1926, the first black to hold that job. That same year, Oberlin Conservatory awarded Dett an honorary Doctor of Music degree, another first for an African American. On December 17, 1926, the 80-voice Hampton Choir assumed national prominence as it performed by invitation at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. The unaccompanied program contained Dett's trademark mix of repertoire--early English music, works from the Russian liturgy, Christmas carols, and arrangements of spirituals.

In 1930 the choir achieved another milestone as it embarked on a European tour under the auspices of George Foster Peabody, a philanthropic patron of the arts and Hampton Institute trustee. En route to New York, the group sang for President Herbert Hoover on the White House lawn. The choir of 40 select voices went on to impress audiences during its six-week tour of seven countries.

After earning his master's degree in 1932, Dett resigned from Hampton and moved to Rochester, New York. He died in 1943 while serving as choral advisor for the United Services Organization and touring with a women's choir in Battle Creek, Michigan. In 1973 his piano works were collected and published as a volume.

Dett published some 100 compositions, principally piano, vocal, and choral works. His major works for chorus include Chariot Jubilee, an extended motet, and The Ordering of Moses, an oratorio. Both use African-American spirituals as thematic material. The oratorio served as his master's thesis