Southern Harmony Revisited—in the pew and on the organ bench

James McCray, Professor of Music at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, retired after more than 40 years of teaching. He taught for 25 of them at CSU, and for 10 years he was the Chairman of Music, Theatre, and Dance Department. He has published 25 scholarly articles in various national and international journals such as The American Organist, Music Educator’s Journal, The Choral Journal, and several others. He served a two-year term as the head editor for The Choral Journal. For over 30 years he has written a monthly column on choral music for The Diapason. He is the author of three books; a fourth will be published sometime next year. As a composer, Dr. McCray has published over 100 choral works. He has had commissions from Yale University, Florida All-State Choirs, Texas Music Educators’ Association, and many other colleges, public and private schools, and churches throughout the U.S. He has received the Professor of the Year award from two separate universities (in Virginia and Florida). Dr. McCray was one of 11 Americans designated for the 1992–93 Outstanding Music Educator Award, and in 1992 he received the Orpheus Award, the highest award given by Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. The award read “For significant and lasting contributions to the cause of music in America.”

How did choral music start in the United States?

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear.
—Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass1

Prologue

Unlike political history, American choral music did not immediately burst forth with significant people and events. Choral music certainly existed in America since the Colonial Period, but it was not until the twentieth century that its impact was significant. The last half of the twentieth century saw an explosion of interest in choral music unprecedented in the history of the country. American choral music came of age on a truly national level, and through the expansion of music education, technology, professional organizations, and available materials, the interest in choral singing escalated dramatically.
It is possible to trace the history of American choral music from its two most basic perspectives:
1. Music that had a functional purpose (sacred)
2. Music created for artistic purposes (secular)
In the early days of America, issues such as food, shelter, and clothing were foremost in the minds of the people. As America became more affluent, the need for greater diversions increased. Music’s purposes reached beyond the amateur, and geographical tastes dictated ever-changing styles and requirements.
Of course the true native Americans were American Indians, but their music remained localized. As an oral tradition, preservation through notation was not a major factor. They and their culture became a minority, and, in many regrettable ways, an unfortunate footnote in American music history. For a detailed account of this true American music see Daniel Kingman, American Music: A Panorama,2 and “Native Pioneers” in Gilbert Chase’s American Music.3 Their influence on the development of American choral music is negligible, although twentieth-century composers have employed some of its characteristics in selected works.
The veritable seeds of American music can be found in the religious traditions carried to the new world by transplanted Europeans. The settlers came seeking religious freedom, but, in so doing, they helped create a narrowly focused view of choral music, which took many years to nurture and broaden. In a penetrating study, The Anthem in England and America by Elwyn A. Wienandt and Robert H. Young, the authors point out:

Austerity also characterized Puritan religious musical expression. While it is true that Puritans have been unjustly accused of a general negative attitude toward the arts, it nevertheless remains that their practice of church music could be sung in unison without accompaniment, and nothing more.4

The early pioneers who came to this country brought with them two types of music: religious and folk. Both played major roles in the musical milieu, but the functional need for church music helped promote choral works. Nearly forgotten are the Huguenot settlements in Florida, which occurred almost fifty years before the landing of the Pilgrims; their music was transplanted and certainly not an original American style. The Puritans in seventeenth-century New England imported the Psalm-singing traditions of the Reformation. Since religion dominated their lives and the lives of everyone in the community even if they were not members of the church, religious music naturally took precedence over that of the secular world. Percy Scholes, in The Puritans and Music in England and New England, corrected the unfortunate stereotype of the Puritans as being universally opposed to music and the fine arts in general.5 Folk music was used on special occasions, but church music was always present. The folk music that survived continued to be transformed throughout succeeding generations, and American folk art prospered and changed during the growth and expansion of the new civilization.

Overview: the 18th century

As the eighteenth century progressed, New England established a more solid, humanized social identity, and it is here where the true “art music” had its foundations. European thinking continued to dominate the music, but because American amateurs were the creators and re-creators, a less professional posture evolved. These stalwart American composers began to create a new personality that represented their culture.
Some of these “native” American musicians are familiar to today’s choral directors, not because of the compelling quality of their music, but more often as an historical contrast to the sophisticated European music of that time. It is highly doubtful that most conductors who program early American choral music do so because they and their audiences are attracted to the beauty and ingenuity of the music, but then that is true with many types of concert music. A high quality level of this music should not be expected—these composers were “Yankee tunesmiths”,6 as labeled by H. Wiley Hitchcock, because they did not have the cultural development and training of their professional European counterparts.
Some of the early American composers whose music remains modestly present in today’s choral repertoire include:
Supply Belcher (1751–1836)
William Billings (1746–1800)
Elkanah Kelsay Dare (1782–1826)
Jacob French (1754–1817)
Christian Gregor (1723–1801)
Uri K. Hill (1802–1875)
Oliver Holden (1765–1844)
Jeremiah Ingalls (1764–1838)
Stephen Jenks (1772–1856)
Justin Morgan (1747–1798)
Timothy Olmstead (1759–1848)
Daniel Read (1757–1856), and
Timothy Swan (1758–1842).
They had professions other than music. For example, Supply Belcher was a tavern keeper; William Billings, a tanner; Oliver Holden, a carpenter; Justin Morgan, a horse breeder; and Daniel Read, a comb maker. Their music is available in performing editions because of the research and effort of musicians in the last half of the twentieth century such as Leonard Van Camp,7 Irving Lowens,8 Lawrence Bennett,9 Kurt Stone,10 and others.
Today it is William Billings whose music receives the greatest frequency of performance, and he has become a standard representative for music of this period. The year 2000 was the 200th anniversary of his death, and choral works such as Chester, A Virgin Unspotted, David’s Lamentation, Kittery, I Am the Rose of Sharon, and The Lord Is Ris’n Indeed received numerous performances in concerts by church, school, community, and professional choirs. Billings generally is acknowledged to be the most gifted of the “singing school” composers of eighteenth-century America. His style, somewhat typical of the period, employs fuguing tunes, unorthodox voice leading, open-fifth cadences, melodic writing in each of the parts, and some surprising harmonies.11 By 1787 his music was widely known across America.
Billings was an interesting personality as well. Because out-of-tune singing was a serious problem, he added a ’cello to double the lowest part.12 He had a “church choir,” but that policy met resistance from aging deacons, although by 1779 a gallery was placed in the church for “the singers”. It was Billings who proclaimed:

He who finds himself gifted with a tunable voice, and yet neglects to cultivate it, not only hides in the earth a talent of the highest value, but robs himself of that peculiar pleasure, of which they only are conscious who exercise that faculty.13
It would seem that problems often faced by today’s church choir directors were also present in the eighteenth century.
Extensive research in the music of this period has provided contemporary conductors with understanding of the style, and background for performance. Two important studies are Alan C. Buechner, Yankee Singing School and the Golden Age of Choral Music in New England, 1760-1800,14 and Dickson D. Bruce, And They All Sang Hallelujah: Plain-Folk Camp-Meeting Religion, 1800–1845.15

Overview: the 19th century

In the late nineteenth century, a group of composers came to be known as “The Second New England School.” They included George W. Chadwick (1854–1931), Arthur Foote (1853–1937), Mrs. H.H.A. Beach (1867–1944), and Horatio Parker (1863–1937). Parker, professor of music at Yale from 1894–1919, was possibly the most important American choral composer of the century. He, like many Americans, had been trained in Europe (Munich). His oratorio, Hora Novissima (1891), is a major work that established his place in the history of American music. After its 1893 performances in New York, Boston, and Cincinnati, in 1899 it became the first work by an American to be performed at the famous Three Choirs Festival in Worcester, England. This resulted in commissions for prestigious English choir festivals and the acceptance of an American compositional school by the international community.
Parker’s music is rarely performed today and exhibits Teutonic rather than American tendencies, yet his influence through his teaching of such noted composers as Douglas Moore (1892–1969), Quincy Porter (1897–1966), and the quixotic Charles Ives (1874–1954), indirectly makes him the father of twentieth-century American choral music. Parker, and to a somewhat lesser degree Dudley Buck (1839–1909), serve as transitional figures from the rudimentary choral music that preceded them, to the more solid styles and schools that came after them. In teaching Charles Ives, Parker’s conservatism proved to be more negative than positive, and Ives eventually abandoned the Romantic spirit and style of Parker to become America’s first great composer.16
Parker, a dedicated musician, wrote in a variety of genres, including orchestral and operatic; however, it is in church music where his contributions seem to be most recognized. Erik Routley boldly states that Parker’s Mount Zion is “probably one of the best hymn tunes of its age.”17 His musical style, prudent and old-fashioned, still represented an elevation in the quality level of American choral music at the end of that century. He had developed a solid craft that gave his music more depth than others of his generation or before. His ability to write in larger forms raised the appreciation of the American composer in the international forum.
The only other truly significant American choral composer between Billings and Parker was Dudley Buck. Typical of many nineteenth-century American composers, Buck studied in Europe. As with Horatio Parker, Buck wrote useful, yet conservative, anthems employing solo quartets in alternation with the full chorus. Before 1870 it was customary to write anthems for solo quartet without the choir, and Buck had a “concern for the differing characteristics of quartet and choral music.”18 He composed in all musical forms and was highly regarded in his lifetime. Wienandt and Young suggest that:

Although Dudley Buck was not a threat to the superiority of European composition, he was the best that America could then bring to the field of church music. . . . The American examples of this period are shabby at best. 19
There were, however, productive and relatively important nineteenth-century composers in other fields of music. Men such as Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829–1869), Stephen Foster (1825–1894) and Edward MacDowell (1861–1908) were successful in their areas of interest. Gottschalk’s music is considered to be among the best of the century. As a piano virtuoso, he toured Europe extensively. His adaptation of Creole melodies brought elements of the New World into the salons and concert halls of Europe and South America. This paved the way for the acceptance of an American style, which, even today, is very elusive.20
Undoubtedly, the most prominent choral musician of this middle period was Lowell Mason (1792–1872), although his primary compositional contributions were in hymns and singing books. He helped fashion a more refined style of American hymnody, different from the popular camp meeting songs of the time. His vital gift, however, was in the development and advancement of music education. His career reached a pinnacle in 1838 when he became the Boston Superintendent of Public School Music, which was the first such position in the United States.21
For choral music, though, it was the church that continued to provide the backbone for growth. Protestant Church Music in America, by Robert Stevenson, is a brief but very thorough survey of people and movements from 1564 to the present. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, there was a steady rise in denominations and numbers of churches in America. Each had its own perspective on what was needed musically for their services of worship. Some of the more active denominations producing music of merit were the Methodists, the Episcopalians, and the Presbyterians. Men such as James Lyon (1735–1794) and William Tuckey (1708–1781) helped develop church music through composition, but their choral contributions were not particularly important. The use of organs in churches was mildly controversial in some denominations, but eventually that came to be common practice for most. Part of the problem was finding someone who could play the organ. According to Irving Lowens,

As late as 1714, when after much discussion an organ imported three years earlier by Thomas Brattle was installed in Boston’s King’s Chapel, an organist had to be brought from England to Play skillfully thereon with a loud noise.22
As in the preceding century, Protestant church music was the primary vehicle for choral music in America during the nineteenth century. Much of the music was developed through music collections, and often these publications contained European music, which helped to make them more commercially profitable. Of the composers not previously mentioned, some of the most important were William B. Bradbury (1816–1868), George Kingsley (1811–1884), Joseph P. Holbrook (1822–1888), Thomas Hastings (1784–1872), and George K. Jackson (1745–1823).
In the first half of the century, European music dominated concert halls and other professional musical venues, but American church music flourished. Anthem collections by American composers steadily increased. However, as the sophistication levels rose, particularly in the North, there was a need to have more refined music than that in the standard “native” American repertory. Stevenson explains:

Already by 1850 the American denominations had so drawn their social lines that some ministered to the wealthy and elite in big cities, while others served the common folk on farms and frontiers. Speaking of one ‘elite’ denomination in a course of historical lectures given at Berlin in 1854, Philip Schaff claimed that the Protestant Episcopal Church had addressed itself ‘heretofore almost exclusively to the higher classes of society, and had rather discouraged the poor man from joining it.’ With such a constituency, the music published for use in Episcopal churches at mid-century sounded quite a different note from that prevailing in publications for frontier churches, or even for middle-class urban churches.23

Church repertoire
Arguments persisted regarding the function of a church choir. Some felt that it should be to assist congregational singing, while others wanted a group that had its own identity and quality. These opinions on choir function have not ceased, and even at the beginning of the twenty-first century, impassioned cries of support or lack-of-support can be heard from some denominations and/or members within them. After 1865 churches developed their own hymnals, so that styles of music associated with certain denominations became even more established. Congregational singing always was important, but stylistic differences at this time were not limited to the Protestant churches, and in the late twentieth century, even the Roman Catholic hymnals moved toward a more folk-like or gospel-style inclusion.
In most American churches today, the anthem serves as the standard vehicle for choir performances. As traced by Wienandt and Young,24 its history has been long and varied. It is not an American invention, but its development and use was an important factor in the spread of choral music. The anthem is an English derivative of the Latin motet, and as such was more musically complex than simple hymns sung by the congregation; therefore, more accomplished singers and preparations were needed for use in the service, and that concept has been in existence since ancient times.

The word may be followed back to various forms of Antiphon, a term denoting the category of plainsong sung before and after psalms and canticles. It was the function of antiphons to amplify the text of scriptural material to which they were attached. They were numerous because such scriptural sections were used several times each day. References to the antiphon have been traced from as early as the beginning of the Christian era, but the various spellings, forms and meanings in English begin much later, perhaps not until around the eleventh century.25
Of special musicological interest is the word “antine,” which was used in American music in the early years. Kingman states:

There is no such word in English usage. Baring-Gould, collector of the first versions using it, postulates that it is a corruption of the French antienne, which means “antiphon.” Since an antiphon is a piece of liturgical music, the image of every grove ringing ‘with a merry antine’ is a plausible and indeed a rather happy one.26
As stated earlier, the concept of the anthem was brought to this country. In the 1760s the publication of American anthems by “native” composers (Francis Hopkinson [1737–91] and James Lyon [1735–94]) led the way to an ever-expanding market of this genre. In most churches today, the anthem serves as the standard presentation of choir performance. It became a work of several pages’ duration based on a scriptural or poetic text that may or may not be accompanied and almost always is in English.
In European Catholic churches, complete musical Masses were at one time very common, but today they are rare and generally found only in large and very musically active churches; even then, they may only be used on special occasions. Catholic churches throughout America most often celebrate Mass with brief musical intonations by a priest and congregational singing. Those choirs may prepare special music, such as an anthem, but their primary function is to help with congregational singing.
In many Protestant denominations choral singing is used in other places in the service (introits, responses, etc.). Some do not employ the term anthem, but, even if called special music or some other term, its function is that of an anthem. Often ministers and church choir directors differ on the function of the choir. For many ministers, church choirs are, above all, a help for congregational singing, and the preparation of an anthem is a bonus; for most church choir conductors, the opposite may be true. Regardless of their intended function, church choirs that have been successful serve in both capacities, and, for most people, the blending of these functions has been beneficial.
The rise of choral music in America owes much to congregational singing. Congregational response has long been a part of liturgy. Group singing in worship has been a vital part in the development of choral music, especially in America.
The prevailing aspect of congregational singing can be found in hymnody. Briefly, hymnody was an outgrowth of plainsong and originally a monastic technique. Musical hymns were melodies that were, at first, associated with the daily offices; they most often were Psalms, but other Scriptural texts were used as well. Their use continued to expand throughout the early centuries of Christianity, and in the hands of Martin Luther (1483–1546) congregational hymnody became a major segment of worship services in the Reformation. Melodies popular with the people thrived, and it is in this context that American hymnody took shape.27
Erik Routley, in The Music of Christian Hymns, states:

The American tradition of hymnody falls into clearly defined streams which before 1900 were culturally separate, and which during the 20th century began to influence each other . . . We classify these streams as (1) the New England Style (2) the Southern Folk Hymnody (3) the Black Spiritual and (4) the Gospel Song. 28
The New England tradition of hymnody was an outgrowth of Psalm singing, especially linked to the Scottish Psalter and the Ainsworth Psalter. America’s first printed book, the 1640 Bay Psalm Book, attempted to replace those psalters, and did so for many generations. An important feature of the New England tradition was the establishment of singing schools. The intent was to improve congregational singing, but they also can be seen as an endemic factor in the development of choral music in America, because as singing improved, so did the need for music other than simple hymns. In many ways, the interest in the singing schools led the way for church choirs. For example, through diligent rehearsals in the meeting houses, congregational members grew musically proficient and sought special recognition; eventually, people with training sat and performed together in the church’s “gallery,” today called the choir loft.

Musical literacy influences

Two important early writers were Thomas Walter (1696–1725) and John Tufts (1689–1750). Walter’s pioneer book of instruction, The Grounds and Rules of Musick Explained (1721), tried to provide rules and methods for sight-reading tunes. Tufts’ An Introduction to the Singing of Psalm-Tunes in a Plain and Easy Method was also available in 1721, and he tried to instruct through letters instead of notes.29
Throughout the eighteenth century, singing schools and singing school teachers brought music to interested people. Emphasis remained on sacred music; however, the inclusion of secular tunes became more common. William Billings, the most famous of the singing teachers, produced six tune books containing the robust, energetic musical style found in his anthems. Other later significant musical missionaries who contributed to the spread of musical education were Lowell Mason (1792–1872), Thomas Hastings (1784–1872), and Virgil C. Taylor (1817–1891).

Black spirituals, white spirituals, and gospel song

In the South, hymnody progressed in different directions. Folk hymnody was a rural development that heavily relied on the shape-note tradition; this focused on assisting uneducated people to learn how to sing. George Pullen Jackson has been a leader in tracing the history of folk hymnody; he has authored three books dealing with the music and style associated with this genre.30 The white spiritual was a term sometimes used for the hymnody of white settlers in southern states. Music books for this hymnody often use “shape note” characters to assist in reading the music. There were many publications of music which helped spread the shape-note concept. Some of those that merit attention include John Wyeth, Repository of Sacred Music (1810),31 Ananias Davisson, Kentucky Harmony (1816),32 William Walker, Southern Harmony,33 B.F. White and E.J. King, Sacred Harp.34
Black spirituals were transmitted through oral tradition. The first black college, Fisk University, began in 1866. A group of student singers known as The Jubilee Singers toured America, England, and other European countries. They were responsible for spreading the knowledge and interest in Negro spirituals.35
The gospel song was, as Routley indicates:

Hymnody reduced to its simplest terms, it is cast in the form either of a solo song, or of a solo song with refrain, and this it has in common with the Black Spiritual.36

This style of hymnody grew out of the revivals that were particularly popular in the South in the nineteenth century. Evangelistic music existed in the 1730s and is associated with Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758), but the true gospel songs became a formidable style around 1859. Typically, they sustain one chord for an entire measure and remain restricted to the three basic triads of tonic, subdominant, and dominant. This permitted strong rhythmic fluctuations and improvisation, which helped generate and intensify the emotional drive, a primary feature of evangelistic denominations. Whereas the other three streams of hymnody (New England style, Southern folk hymnody, and Black spiritual) have roots in foreign cultures, gospel music seems to be an American contribution.
One of many religious groups that came to America and developed a music for their denomination was the Shakers, although this folk-like music was unison, not harmonized, and unaccompanied, and not pure choral music. Possibly the most important may have been the Moravian tradition, which dates from the fifteenth century and is rich in a choral heritage. These people settled in Pennsylvania before 1740 and established communities such as Bethlehem, Lititz, and Nazareth; by 1783 they had expanded south to North Carolina. Donald M. McCorkle, director and editor-in-chief of the Moravian Music Foundation suggests that:
Most of the early Moravian composers were clergymen who wrote music apparently as easily as they did sermons. . . . The anthems and songs created by the Moravians were influenced primarily by contemporary musical trends of Central Europe. Since most of the choral and vocal music by American Moravians is conceived for mixed voices accompanied by instruments, it is quite different both in structure and content from other sacred music written in 18th-century America.37

Their musical past has been preserved and made available through definitive editions released under the title Moramus Editions. Three of the more significant American composers were John Antes (1740–1811), Johann Friedrich Peter (1746–1813), and Johannes Herbst (1735–1812). Peter, perhaps the most outstanding of the Moravian composers, wrote over 100 anthems and arias, as well as six string quintets in 1789, which may be the earliest extant examples of American chamber music. Antes composed twenty-five sacred anthems and twelve chorales, and possibly made the earliest violin in America in 1759.

New secular directions

Less dominant influences on the growth of choral music in America may be seen in the development of secular organizations and events. A product of the singing schools, for example, was the formation of music clubs. Organizations such as the Stoughton Musical Society developed by 1786 and Boston’s Handel and Haydn Society, which began in 1815, did much to stimulate interest in choral singing. Often competitions between organizations were held, which encouraged improvements in quality.
In the nineteenth century, conventions and fairs were held, and they helped promote choral singing in America. Patrick Sarsfield Gilmore (1829–1892), through his Peace Jubilees, promoted gigantic mass performances by choirs of 10,000! These festivals involved enormous bands and orchestras; a structure was built to house an audience of 50,000. Villages and towns throughout New England filled their quotas of singers, and each had a local leader who had been instructed in the tempos so that everyone was well prepared when they met together to perform.
There were world’s fairs held in Philadelphia in 1876 and Chicago in 1893, and singing played an important part at these international events. For the centennial, new choral works were commissioned from John Knowles Paine (A Centennial Hymn, text by John Greenleaf Whittier) and Dudley Buck (The Centennial Meditation of Columbia, text by Sidney Lanier). Chicago’s 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition (which presented 36 choral concerts) featured music performed by some of the younger American composers, including G.W. Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, and Arthur Foote. Female composers were represented in a concert heralding the opening of the Woman’s Building, including music by Mrs. H.H.A. Beach.38
Another important development that fostered choral singing in America was the establishment of music schools and conservatories. Oberlin College had a Chair of Sacred Music in 1835. The first music courses at America’s oldest institution, Harvard College, were not offered until 1862. Other beginnings of note were: 1865, Oberlin Music Conservatory; 1867, New England Conservatory of Music; 1867, Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the Chicago Musical College. These American schools did not eliminate the continuing process of seeking a European musical education, but as they grew in quality and numbers, they made a musical education more accessible.39
Social amusements were the initial reasons for the development of singing on college campuses. Glee clubs were formed, which performed local concerts for friends, and later they toured to sing for alumni. Eventually, more sophisticated groups developed; they performed the standard European favorites by Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and others. Probably the earliest official ensemble was the University Choral Union of the University of Michigan in 1879. Northwestern University, in 1906, was the first school to have an “a cappella” choir—Peter Lutkin, dean of the music school at Northwestern University, founded the Northwestern A Cappella Choir.40
Availability of music was an important factor in helping to encourage music in America. Some noteworthy landmarks in the publishing of music included the 1698 ninth edition of the Bay Psalm Book, which contained the first music printed in New England, and the 1761 James Lyon collection Urania, which was the first published setting of Psalms and hymns by a native-born American. Lyon was also active in the establishment of the first public subscription concerts in Philadelphia, and in other early musical ventures.
John S. Dwight (1813–1893) was not a composer, but his work in advancing standards of excellence was important. He was America’s first music critic and editor of the first significant music journal, Dwight’s Journal of Music (1852–1881).
Opera and instrumental music also influenced the growth of choral music in America. While these genres did not have the benefit of the church to encourage their evolution and maturation, they were able to secure ongoing support from individual citizens. Most of the music before the middle of the nineteenth century was European; orchestras had been formed, but they performed repertoire by continental composers. By 1876 subscription concerts had begun in Philadelphia. It was common for orchestras (and opera singers) from Europe to tour in this country, and they too, perpetuated the standard works by recognized European composers.
Theodore Thomas (1835–1905) was an avid young conductor who did much to advance the professional American orchestra. His Theodore Thomas Orchestra, founded in 1862, toured for many years; in Chicago, Thomas’s orchestra gained a permanent home and evolved into today’s Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His pioneering helped encourage the formation of major professional orchestras, and before 1900 there were ensembles in St. Louis, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other large cities. Most relied heavily on benefactors who subsidized them financially. Wealthy families such as the Vanderbilts, the Rockefellers, and the Morgans were vital to the development of professional orchestras needed to provide opportunities for the performance of large-scale choral works.41
Opera also depended on the contributions of rich patrons. The public in the nineteenth century had come to opera from a background in minstrelsy, so cultivation of understanding was slow. Even today opera remains a genre that has less universal appeal than many other musical forms. By the end of the nineteenth century, however, there were major opera houses in operation. They brought European performers to the States, which helped develop an established audience. In comparison with other major musical genres such as orchestral, choral, or chamber music, the number of composers who write in this medium remains limited. Cost, technical requirements, and available performances are restrictive factors that have not successfully encouraged a corresponding growth to this vocal art form, yet it did have a modicum of influence on the growth of choral singing.

Summary
The commentary above is a brief examination of some of the events involved in the establishment and evolution of American choral music. There certainly were many other elements that could be pursued in a discussion of this type, but space does not permit a more detailed survey. America is a blend of heterogeneous cultures, and throughout the entire history of the country, people from other places have continued to come to her shores; they brought with them religious, artistic, and social elements of their past, but the most significant factor in any study on the evolution of American choral music must be the influence of the church.
Clearly, choral music began primarily because it was needed in religious ceremonies. In essence, the history of American choral music can be traced through the expansion of musical settings of liturgical words into the secular arena. The twentieth century saw a profound growth of choral singing.
The church, which was the overriding force in the development of choral singing, is now somewhat less influential. In today’s society, one of the controversial issues in the choral field is whether to include sacred music as part of the repertoire of public school ensembles; this is a reflection of that secular expansion, even though a vast majority of quality choral works are based on sacred texts. This change of attitude is a reversal of the past. Singing schools were formed to help people learn to sing religious music, but beginning in the middle of the twentieth century some school systems or administrations began forcefully working to keep music with religious texts from being performed.
Nevertheless, the church remains an important advocate for music, especially choral, yet its interest in styles has seen a rapid shift during the past few decades. That shift has reduced the quality and amount of choral singing, as may be seen in the number of people in church congregations and ultimately church choirs. The church gave impetus to choral singing in this country, and today still is responsible for a large portion of choral performances, as well as the creation of new music. The difference is that it is not the primary leader in the proliferation of choral music, only an equal partner at best.
America was founded on the need and search for freedom in both religious and secular arenas. The church continues to evolve in society, and therefore its music, which has always been an important element, will also evolve. The same may be said for the secular side of society in which music is a vital component. The confluence of the two main forces (sacred/secular) will continue to be a major factor in the development of choral music in the twenty-first century, but the swing away from significant sacred choral music probably will increase just as it did in the twentieth century. 

A recording of William Billings' David's Lamentation

Other choral items of interest:

The Cathedral of St. John Celebrates Ten Years of Cathedral Commissions

Fela Sowande: The Legacy of a Nigerian Music Legend

The Carol and Its Context in Twentieth-century England

American choral music available online from Library of Congress

Church Music in the United States, 1760–1901: Essays by David W. Music and Paul Westermeyer. St. Louis: MorningStar Music Publishers in partnership with the Center for Church Music, Concordia University, Chicago, 2014. ISBN 978-0-944529-63-8. 311 + xv pp. Bibliography and index; musical specimens. Softbound, $24.95;
www.morningstarmusic.com.

This is an important book. It started out in 1996 as an ambitious project designed to involve multiple writers contributing to a comprehensive history of church music on the North American continent. Noted Bach scholar Robin Leaver was to be editor. As sometimes happens in such schemes, a series of minor catastrophes seemed to undermine its progress: the scope of the project expanded into a multi-volume work requiring more contributors, more writing, and more rewriting and editing, just as funding was discontinued and some of the original writers slipped away. A decision was reached to abort the grand scheme and publish without delay the excellent essays already in hand. The two remaining author/editors clarify: “What you have before you does not purport to be in any sense a comprehensive history of church music . . . It is a set of essays, brief glimpses into some music and its background on a portion of the history
. . . ” They express the hope that the book “will add detail to the historical account, shed additional light on the subject, and stimulate others to pursue further study.” What we actually have before us is a stupendous achievement, a masterly treatment of an unwieldy subject, efficiently and attractively handled by two recognized scholars who are reliable experts. This book will prove indispensable to anyone involved with making music in an American church. 

Organization

The book falls into two divisions of six essays each. Part I: 1760–1861, is the work of David W. Music of Baylor University in Texas. Part II: 1861–1901 (Civil War and aftermath) is by Paul Westermeyer, professor emeritus of Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota. The essays are models of clarity and are easy to read, uncluttered with non-essentials. Coming from quite different denominational backgrounds, the authors provide some new and interesting data. 

Part I

The titles display the unfolding narrative. Essay 1, “American Psalmody in the Northeastern States and Canada,” shows how British Elaborate Psalmody came into the Colonies and was adapted and developed. The essay describes the original work of William Billings (1746–1800) and discusses church music practices in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia. Two famous 18th-century Moravian organ builders are saluted: Johann G. Klemm and David Tannenberg built excellent instruments for many churches that otherwise would have had to import organs from abroad. The music of the Moravians is hailed for its unique quality and high standard, both instrumental and vocal. However, its insularity (Bethlehem, Lititz, and Nazareth in Pennsylvania, and Salem in North Carolina) limited its influence. Few other churches followed their lead. 

Essay 2 moves the story south. “American Psalmody in the Southeastern States” introduces shape-note hymnody (“buckwheat” notes) with William Walker’s 1835 Southern Harmony and folk traditions in Virginia, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Georgia. Wealthy Charleston is singled out for the active presence of organist Theodore Pachelbel, son of German composer Johann Pachelbel, at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church between 1740 and 1750. The first organ in the South was installed there in 1728. In 1768, neighboring St. Michael’s Church imported an organ by famous English builder Johann Snetzler. The instrument remained in service until the 20th century. 

Essay 3 takes up camp meeting hymnody, a response to early 19th-century revivalism during the Great Awakening, which had reached rural areas with few established churches (Kentucky, Tennessee, parts of Ohio, and places further west and south). Examples of the rich hymnody are provided: Promised Land, Shouting Song, and Sweet Canaan. Music of the Shakers (“Shaking Quakers”), Mormons, and Adventists is described before moving on to Urban Revivalism. The Second Great Awakening seems to have begun at Yale College in 1802 with the preaching of Timothy Dwight, Nathaniel Taylor, Lyman Beecher, and Asahel Nettleton. Influenced by the Age of Reason, these divines countered strict Calvinism’s rigid separation of “saved” (elect) from “damned” by allowing for a measure of human free will in response to divine will. This theological distinction is ably explained. Characterized by “protracted meetings” and restrained revival preaching (as exemplified by Charles Finney), usually held in town churches, it contrasted with rural evangelistic efforts. The proliferation of printed songbooks is described with actual proper titles, compilers’ names, and pertinent dates (normally frustratingly elusive). The Sunday School movement generated its own hymnody for children, an analysis of which concludes the chapter. 

Essay 4 deals with the important struggle for reform in the quality of music performed in American churches. Dr. Music lays out in clear detail the need for reform: the music of ill-trained American composers was “rough and uncouth” by European standards, essentially secular in nature, utilizing “vigorous dance-like rhythms that were entertaining but hardly promoted a devotional frame of mind” (pp. 90–91). Two great names emerge: Thomas Hastings of New York and Lowell Mason of Boston. In Boston the Handel and Haydn Society was formed in 1815 to put in practice high ideals of church music. These ideals are succinctly stated in six cardinal points by Mason in an 1826 public lecture:

(1) Church music must be simple, chaste, correct, and free of ostentation; (2) The text must be handled with as much care as the music, each must enhance the other; (3) Congregational singing must be promoted; (4) Capable choirs and judiciously used instruments, particularly the organ, are indispensable aids to services; (5) A solid music education for all children is the only means of genuine reform in church music; and (6) Musicianship per se is subordinate to facilitating worship. (p. 98) 

Do these 200-year-old principles seem now irrelevant, worn-out, and false? Who would dare to mention them at our denominational church music conferences and commercially driven workshops of the last half-century? 

Essay 5, “Antebellum Catholic Sacred Music,” reveals that at the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, Roman Catholics were concentrated in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The French Revolution (1789) had diverted many French clergy to America, giving a decidedly Anglo-French, upper-class cast to American Catholicism. But by mid-century that changed with successive waves of Irish Catholic immigrants escaping famine. In sum, “the relatively small numbers of Roman Catholics in the early years, the variety of nationalities and languages represented, the indigence of many immigrants, and ignorance of the Catholic heritage of church music combined to inhibit the development of comprehensive Catholic church music programs before the Civil War” (p. 110). English native William C. Peters (1805–66) is identified as a significant composer and publisher of Catholic church music at the time in Cincinnati.

Essay 6, “Choral, Solo, and Organ Music of the Period,” surveys antebellum categories of choral music, namely psalm and hymn tunes, fuging tunes, and anthems/set-pieces (American composers avoided the larger forms such as cantata and oratorio). The contribution of Moravian anthem composers is stressed as standing apart from Northeastern psalmodists and Southeastern shape-note composers. The Moravian anthem was a three- to five-minute choral work accompanied by strings and organ, consisting of two choral sections separated by an orchestral interlude, with an instrumental introduction and coda. The first such work written in America was by Jeremias Dencke for a Moravian synod meeting in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It seems American churches made little use of vocal solo singing except in anthems, but here again the Moravians were an exception. They developed two types of solo song, the Geistliches Lied (spiritual song) and the sacred aria, popularly used in the home. Johannes Herbst (1735–1812) composed over 225 such solos for the girls’ school at Lititz, of which he was principal. The more complex sacred aria was often performed in the Moravian love-feast. Very little Moravian music for organ has come down to us because organs were scarce and most organists were expected to improvise in the service. “Even the Moravians, who held the organ in high repute,” concludes Dr. Music, “apparently considered it to be primarily an accompanying instrument” (p. 140).

The casual reader can have little awareness of the Herculean effort in research required to produce these informative essays. David Music has seemingly unearthed every pamphlet and book, every scrap of printed music and texts rescued and preserved from the Colonial era and just beyond. He has painstakingly studied these treasures and given us six non-technical essays that brilliantly and genially illuminate the antebellum period in the history of American church music. 

Part II

In Part II, Paul Westermeyer picks up the narrative from the beginning of the Civil War in 1861 to the end of the century in 1901. In the first paragraph of Essay 7, “Revivalism, Sunday School and Gospel Hymns, African-American Song,” he summarizes the stupendous technological progress achieved in America after 1861. Church music reflected optimistic attitudes, and revivalism gathered new steam. To describe its growth as a straight evolution from Civil War songs to ragtime, however, is too simplistic. H. Wiley Hitchcock distinguished two parallel streams of music in the era: “cultivated” (requiring effort and valued for edification) and “vernacular” (less self-conscious and valued for utility or entertainment) (Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction, 1969, 43-44). Westermeyer refines Hitchcock’s two broad streams by isolating seven disparate musical cultures: (1) African-American song; (2) shape-note hymnody; (3) Gospel hymnody; (4) more ecumenical perception of congregational song; (5) performance mentality; (6) congregational and choral participation with chant, polyphony, and the chorale as ideals; (7) Charles Ives as a symbol of the coming changes in 20th-century musical syntax. 

The essay begins with the revivalism of the Second Great Awakening (Dwight, Beecher, Cane Ridge, Kentucky, Nettleton, and Finney) and the reforms of Hastings and Mason, followed by the Sunday School hymnody of Bradbury and Bliss, with Van Horne, Harbaugh, and Philip Schaff representing liturgical and sacramental concerns of the Mercersburg Seminary, declining into the sweet Victorian nostalgia of Alice Nevin. The conflicts of Sunday school hymnody also affected Gospel hymnody, represented by Moody and Sankey and Fanny Crosby, among others. The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, through its music department, gave institutional and instructional embodiment to Gospel hymnody.

A discussion of African-American congregational song completes the essay, including Harry Burleigh, the Fisk Jubilee Singers, Richard Allen and his AME hymnal (“wandering choruses”), and Black Gospel’s affinity with ragtime, blues, and jazz. 

Essay 8 describes the influence of Anglicanism (Oxford Movement) on American church music and the “Men and Boy Choir Movement.” This naturally involved the Episcopal Church in America but actually extended beyond that. Westermeyer uses the phrase “Oxford-Cambridge Movement” in recognition of two famous Cambridge undergraduates, John Mason Neale and Benjamin Webb, who founded a Cambridge Camden Society. They studied architecture and came to the conclusion that organs and choirs, which occupy architectural space, should be relocated. That led to placing choirs in the chancel area. The organ soon followed, often divided into two halves. John Keble began the associated Tractarian movement at Oxford in 1833 with a sermon on “National Apostasy,” followed by John Henry Newman’s published Tract for the Times, which defended apostolic succession. The Tractarian movement ended in 1841 with Newman’s Tract 90, intended to explain the 39 Articles in the manner of the Council of Trent! Controversy followed. The great achievement of the era was Hymns Ancient and Modern, which had focus and breadth and became the model of the modern English hymnal. In the United States, vested male choirs became popular—and controversial—when they began to wear liturgical stoles for adornment, challenging a prerogative of the clergy. Other denominations were caught up in the movement. Opposition in America came swiftly from a group of laymen in New Jersey, who demonstrated at the General Convention of 1868, proposing that clergy not be permitted to wear vestments except “surplice, stole, bands, and gown.” Further, “candlesticks, crucifixes, and super-altars so called, bowing, making the sign of the cross, the elevation of the elements of Communion, and incense” were also to be prohibited. No official action was taken then,
or subsequently. 

Essay 9 describes the use of trained soloists, professional quartets, and orchestras, at first in wealthy churches such as First Presbyterian, Chicago, but later in urban churches nationwide. The Gilded Age, after 1880, encouraged such development, which led to the adoption of a concert mentality in the performance of church music, contributing to the popularity of Handel’s Messiah performances. The early churches in America had volunteer choirs of laymen to assist the congregation’s singing; by 1880 the professional quartet or octet performed for the congregation. By then service lists in some churches sometimes listed the Sermon, “like one more performance.” In such churches the very repertoire used reflected a heavy dose of 19th-century Romanticism: Dubois, Gounod, Guilmant, Merkel, Shelley, and Tours.

An interesting section on pipe and reed organs of the era and their literature sheds light on the increasing sophistication of church music. The large and important Boston Music Hall organ of 1863, built by the Walcker firm of Ludwigsburg. Germany, established a new European model almost unknown here. Aided by the newly formed American Guild of Organists (1896), higher standards of music-making were attainable. Dr. Westermeyer conveniently names and gives concise biographical notes on every significant organist, composer, and organ-builder of the era, essential information sometimes hard to access quickly, even on Wikipedia. The essay closes with the founding of important schools of church music on which our churches greatly depend. 

Essay 10 returns us to “The Roman Catholic Experience,” described geographically and culturally: France and the Solesmes movement, motu proprio (1903) and Pope Pius X, the authoritative Liber Usualis, the German Caecilian Society (John Singenberger) as a competing movement, and Irish Catholics described in 1870 as the “Immense Irish Silence” because of their perceived aversion to musical performance at church (“The Mass does not need music,” was an oft-repeated comment). Music publishing, performance in the parish, monastery, and convent, and widespread congregational reluctance to sing hymns complete the 19th-century picture. 

Essay 11 revisits church music “out of the mainstream.” White spirituals, Moravians, Mormons, the two German Confessional Renewal groups, Mercersburg German Reformed, and the Lutherans are described. A short sketch of the enigmatic contribution of Charles Ives, who challenged 19th-century musical assumptions and anticipated a 20th-century soundscape, brings the chapter to a climax. Recognizing the dilemma caused by his church music and his Danbury congregation’s inability to comprehend it, he quit his church job! Westermeyer comments, “The nineteenth century not only supplied the twentieth century church and its musicians with a rich musical heritage, it also presaged difficult challenges” (p. 247).

Essay 12, “Representative Music of the Period, Time-Line, and Summary” is mostly statistical and useful for reference. Choirmasters and organists will find many familiar titles and composers displayed, from Amy Marcy Cheney Beach to John Zundel. A most valuable timeline is provided, beginning in 1857 and continuing through 1901, providing handy dates for every significant milestone in church music of the era. A one-page summary reiterates the sevenfold streams or cultures previously defined and announces that the era set the terms of debate on church music for both 20th and 21st centuries. The concluding bibliography is comprehensive, up-to-date, and extremely useful.

As the 19th century recedes daily into the mists of the dim past, we church musicians—especially young ones—need a concise but reliable reminder of its greatness. Its enormous influence on our own era cannot be denied, however much it may be in some quarters resented. This book of carefully wrought essays is the finest possible source currently available. Extremely easy to read, it should be found on every organ console and every choirmaster’s desk. ν

John Moore Bullard is a native of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, brought up in Charlotte, where he was inspired by organist/choirmaster Eugene Craft, a student of Marcel Dupré in Paris. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Bullard studied organ with Jan Philip Schinhan and earned B.A. and M.A. degrees in English literature. At Yale University, he earned M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees (Biblical Studies) while serving as organist/director in local churches. In 1961 Bullard became Albert Outler Professor of Religion and College Organist at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, retiring in 2001 after 40 years.  For 65 years he continuously served mostly United Methodist Churches as organist/choirmaster. An active member of the American Guild of Organists since 1958, Dr. Bullard was elected dean of the Spartanburg chapter in 1965–67.

Sean Vogt attended Central College, Pella, Iowa, where he was a winner of Central’s Concerto/Aria competition, and named a Cox-Snow distinguished scholar. He also studied in London, serving as assistant organist/choirmaster at St. Cuthbert’s Church in Woodgreen. He holds master’s and doctoral degrees in choral conducting from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University and Michigan State respectively. While at Michigan State, he was the director of the 100-voice Men’s Glee Club, assistant conductor of the MSU Chorale, artistic director and conductor of the Steiner Chorale—a semi-professional choir based in Lansing—and was music director at St. Jude’s Catholic Church. He was also one of the featured conductors at the Oregon Bach Festival. In addition to degrees in choral conducting, Vogt worked on a doctorate in organ at the University of Iowa, holds a diploma in organ from the Haarlem Internationale Zomeracademie voor Organisten (The Netherlands) and a master’s degree in organ from SMU. He has given solo recitals at the National Cathedral (Washington, D.C.), St. Philip’s Cathedral (Atlanta), and Fourth Presbyterian Church (Chicago), and has performed for the American Guild of Organists’ education video series. Dr. Vogt has served on the faculty for the Leadership Program for Musicians serving small congregations, and as the American Choral Directors Association’s Repertoire and Standards Chair for Music and Worship for the state of Iowa. He is currently Department Chair and Director of Choral Activities at Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota.

Gloria in excelsis deo, et in terra
pax hominibus (“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to all people”), Luke 2:14, was likely the first carol ever heard, sung by the angels over the fields of Bethlehem. It would be more than a millennium before the next documented account of carol singing. In this case, it happened in Greccio, Italy, where St. Francis made the first Christmas crèche (crib) in 1223, in response to the Manichaeism1 of the eleventh and twelfth centuries—recreating the stable, even obtaining an ox and ass. People from around the village began to gather around St. Francis’s biblical re-creation. As a result, the people “poured out their hearts in praises to God; and the friars sang new canticles…”2
The dawn of the Protestant Reformation brought carol singing—amongst a myriad of other activities—to an abrupt halt. The Reformation during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries resulted in a fragmented church. The Lutherans viewed the feast of Christmas as a popish abuse. Since the Calvinist movement was quite popular, Christmas was consequently unpopular in England. Christmas Day was abolished by Parliament from 1644–1660; The Book of Common Prayer had no seasonal hymns. It was not until the Supplement to the New Version of the Psalms (1700) that interest in carols was rekindled. Only one Christmas hymn was included in the supplement: “While shepherds watched.”

A brief history of the carol
Interestingly, Christmas thrived more in secular society than it did in the church during this time. One of the first examples of music printing in England is an anthology from c.1530 that contained, among other things, carols by Ashwell, Cowper, Gwynneth, and Richard Pygott.3 Carols were primarily used in the home and private chapel. It wasn’t until later that they became a part of the parish church. This is likely why carols from plays (the ‘Coventry’ carol, being one example) and carols for domestic use appear to be in constant use. Two domestic carols from Poor Robin’s Almanac (1700) are as follows:

Now that the time has come wherein
Our Saviour Christ was born,
The larder’s full of beef and pork,
The garner’s filled with corn.4

And we do hope before we part
To taste some of your beer,
Your beer, your beer, your Christmas beer,
That seems to be so strong;
And we do wish that Christmas-tide
Was twenty times as long!5

For England, the eighteenth century was the “Golden Age of Hymnody” under Isaac Watts and the Wesleys. Hymns gained popularity over metrical psalms. The reason for the hymn’s popularity was that the congregation could finally have a participating role in the worship service. Carols became increasingly hymn-like to fit the current trend.
By the nineteenth century, thanks to the efforts of the Methodists a century earlier, carols began finding their way into many ecumenical books like Hymns Ancient and Modern (1861), the first universally accepted hymn book of the Anglican Church.6 A renewed interest in the past, coupled with the Oxford Movement,7 provided the opportunity for John Mason Neale, an Anglo-Catholic cleric, to promote the ancient texts and music found in the Piae Cantiones (1582). The Victorian revival of the carol produced numerous new books, some devoted solely to the carol: Some Ancient Christmas Carols (1822), Carols for Christmas-tide (1853–54), and Christmas Carols New and Old (1871) being just a few examples.
From the Piae Cantiones, which itself contained medieval carols, to the Victorian carol books, twentieth-century composers could now build on the carol tradition that dated back hundreds of years. John Mason Neale, in his preface to Carols for Christmas-tide, described the method that twentieth-century English composers would also follow:

It is impossible at one stretch to produce a quantity of new carols, of which words and music shall alike be original. They must be the gradual accumulation of centuries; the offerings of different epochs, of different countries, of different minds, to the same treasury of the Church.8

The notion of carol singing was heightened significantly with the service of Nine Lessons and Carols. Originating at Truro Cathedral, Cornwall, on Christmas Eve (1880), the service retells in scripture and song the Redemption story of Christ—moving from the mystery and wonder of Advent to the miracle and joy of Christ’s birth. The service was modified and introduced by Eric Milner-White, the newly appointed Dean of King’s College, Cambridge, in 1918. It is this modified service that has been adopted by scores of parishes in England and abroad. Since its initial broadcast in 1928, the service of Nine Lessons and Carols has been heard by millions of people all over the world. An order for the service can be found in the back of Oxford’s 100 Carols for Choirs. A look at this book also reveals a multitude of English composers who have made carol arrangements. Among the more well known are Holst, Britten, and Rutter.

Gustav Holst
It was the simplest of compositions by Gustav Holst (1874–1934) that would become one of his best-known: In the Bleak Midwinter (1905). Holst arranged the text by Christina Rosetti (1830–1894) while staying at a cottage9 in the Cotswold village of Cranham; it is also the reason why the tune is entitled Cranham. Just one year later, having gained significant popularity, his carol arrangement appeared in the English Hymnal (1906).
In the Bleak Midwinter is simplistic in that it is set like a standard four-part hymn: regular meter (4/4), homorhythmic, and functionally tonal harmonic motion. The choice of F major links Holst with the past, since F major was a common key in the Renaissance and Baroque eras for themes of a pastoral nature.
One way of preserving several items of importance is to collect them. Choir partbooks and the multiple compilations of carol books have accomplished the art of preservation. Holst did something similar, but on a smaller scale, when he wrote Christmas Day, a choral fantasy on old carols with accompaniment for orchestra or organ.
Dedicated to the music students of Morley College, the work is a compilation of four well-known Christmas carols: “Good Christian Men Rejoice,” “God Rest You Merry Gentlemen,” “Come, Ye Lofty, Come, Ye Lowly,” and “The First Noel.” With the exception of two simultaneous carols occurring at the same time, the rest of the work is homorhythmic throughout.
Much like Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols, this work by Holst opens with a soloist who sets the ambiance as if about to tell a story around a fire. The carols provide the form of the composition. Ascribing numbers to the carols—1) Good Christian Men Rejoice, 2) God Rest You Merry Gentlemen, 3) Come, Ye Lofty, Come, Ye Lowly, 4) The First Noel—the form is 1, 2, 1, 3 and 4, 1, 2 and 4, and 1. True to rondo form, “Good Christian Men Rejoice” always appears in the tonic key, E-flat major. The simultaneous occurrence of two carols also provides unique contrast to the homorhythmic sections. The orchestral accompaniment is equally accessible, having many of the same attributes of the chorus parts, making it appropriate for amateur ensembles.
Like many English composers, Holst was influenced by folksong. In regard to carol settings and collecting them, it was his Four Old English Carols (1907), for mixed voices and piano, that embraced the “tender austerity”10 inherent in the songs of the English countryside. Although inspired by folksong, these tunes were of Holst’s own creation. A Babe Is Born, Now Let Us Sing, Jesu, Thou the Virgin-Born, and The Saviour of the World Is Born make up this mini-collection.
The medieval text Jesu, Thou the Virgin-Born, the third carol from Four Old English Carols, was infused with plainsong and simple polyphony (largely homorhythmic). The use of both plainsong and polyphony in this particular work is not surprising, given the fact that Holst had been spending time copying Victoria and di Lasso motets for St. Paul’s Girls’ School.
As evidenced above, Holst seemed drawn to set multiple carols within one work. This mini-collection of carols is equally true in his Three Carols for unison chorus and ‘ad lib.’ orchestra. Holst was clearly thinking of the symbiotic relationship between music and people with this work. There are scarce examples of a significant choral work with orchestra that includes a unison chorus and an orchestra that can be made up of as many or few instruments as available (‘ad lib.’) and still be a viable work of art. “Holst was a conductor who allowed all genuine amateurs to play in his orchestra ‘if humanly possible’.”11 The three carols include the following: Christmas Song: On This Day, I Saw Three Ships, and Masters in This Hall.
There is one carol by Holst that does not exist in a set: Lullay my Liking for unaccompanied chorus. Like other carols, the text is medieval. Changing meters help accommodate natural text stress. With the exception of the chorus’s fourth verse, the other verses are sung as a solo, and the choir answers with the refrain “Lullay my liking, my dear Son…” This piece is also very accessible for an amateur chorus, as the refrain remains unchanged throughout the work.

Benjamin Britten
It was during the 1942 wartime months of March and April that Britten (1913–1976) wrote, while on board the ship that was taking him from America back home to England, A Ceremony of Carols.12 Scored for treble voices—three parts to be exact—and harp, the work is powerful in its simplicity.
One aspect of simplicity is the accompaniment of a single instrument, the harp. One of the first instruments mentioned in the Bible, the harp has been the symbol of the psalmists, the heavenly host of angels, and serenity. Britten was planning on a harp concerto around this time; harp manuals were just a few of the books he had on his nautical voyage. However, despite the pleasurable sonorities from the harp that audiences have enjoyed for decades, this was not the case initially. “The use of the harp as an accompanying instrument in this context was considered radical at the time of the première.”13
The simplicity is also instantly audible from the first and last movement. Plainsong settings form the musical pillars to the eleven movements. Here, Britten chose Hodie Christus natus est from the Christmas Eve Vespers to serve as a musical processional and recessional. The processional and recessional are both in A major, a key Bach often used for its Trinitarian symbolism in the key signature.
With such careful musical architecture, it is not surprising that the middle movement be solely devoted to the harp. In true pastoral fashion, the rhythm is a compound (12/8) meter. More interesting is the choice of key. Where the traditional pastoral key would be F major, Britten chooses the equidistant enharmonic equivalent, the tri-tone (C-flat major). The piece ends on the dominant F-flat, minus the third—a common medieval device.
A final aspect of simplicity is the choice of voices and the way they are set. The sound of a child’s voice, and their presence on stage, can create a sense of innocence and purity synonymous with simplicity. Musically, Britten was always careful when he wrote for children. Although the music often sounds complex, Britten generally used the technique of canon as a way to produce polyphony. What better way to produce the feeling of timelessness than with canon—where a melody could continue ad infinitum if need be? The most oft-performed extracted movement is This Little Babe, a perfect example of Britten’s canonic writing for children’s voices.

John Rutter
Perhaps the most frequently performed carol arrangements are those of John Rutter. Born in London in 1945, Rutter is arguably the most prolific and published composer of carols in the twentieth century, not only in England but also around the world. In Oxford’s 100 Carols for Choirs, nearly thirty carols are by him. There are simply far too many carols by Rutter to discuss here. However, some examples show his connection to the past while writing in a modern romantic language.
“Joy to the World” is one of the most common carols in the Western hemisphere. Rutter could not have chosen a carol with more links to England’s past than this one. The text is by Isaac Watts (1674–1748) and the original tune by Lowell Mason (1792–1872). Rutter modeled the accompaniment for the carol from the orchestral writing of Handel. Complete with descant, the Handelian orchestration to Lowell Mason’s tune on John Wesley’s text is one of Oxford University Press’s most rented carols during the Christmas season.
Rutter wrote several other carols for chorus with orchestra or organ: Wexford Carol, Jesus Child, Donkey Carol, Angel’s Carol, Nativity Carol, Star Carol, Candlelight Carol, Shepherd’s Pipe Carol, and others. It is arrangements like Candlelight Carol, which can be classified as both a carol and an anthem, that have made Rutter a wealthy man. They contain the qualities necessary for any carol—a verse followed by a refrain, or burden.
In addition, the melodies and their respective accompaniments tend to be very sweet-sounding and melodious. It is this latter trait that has brought Rutter fame and fortune. In this music one can hear the influence of Fauré-like orchestration, Vaughan Williams-inspired melodies, and the often-used flattened seventh that is so common in popular music.
Many of the above-listed carols are Rutter originals. As in Shepherd’s Pipe Carol, for example, both the music and the text are by Rutter. The same is true of Jesus Child, Donkey Carol, Angel’s Carol, Nativity Carol, Star Carol, and Candlelight Carol. Of the composers discussed thus far, none wrote as many original texts and tunes as Rutter. His contributions to the carol genre alone have brought significant attention to the choral world.

Herbert Howells
No discussion of the English carol would seem complete without mentioning A Spotless Rose by Herbert Howells (1892–1983). Herbert Howells wrote the piece,

After idly watching some shunting from the window of a cottage…in Gloucester which overlooked the Midland Railway. In an upstairs room I looked out on iron railings and the main Bristol-Gloucester railway line, with shunting trucks bumping and banging. I wrote it for and dedicated it to my Mother—it always moves me when I hear it, just as if it were written by someone else.14

With its parallel thirds and fourths, the piece evokes a sort of impressionistic quality. The irregular meters (3/4, 7/8, 5/4, 5/8, etc.) give the piece a fluidity of plainsong-like phrases not found in other carols. The fourteenth-century text also provides a subtly respectful timelessness to the piece. A Spotless Rose is mostly in four parts except at cadences where it breaks into five or, in the case of the final cadence, six parts. It is this final cadence that was much beloved by Vaughan Williams and Patrick Hadley. Since the work’s creation (1919), Howells received a postcard every Christmas thereafter from Patrick Hadley that contained the cadence and these words, “Oh Herbert! That cadence!”15

Summary
Holst, Britten, and Rutter represent the carol in their own unique way. Each had a distinct musical vocabulary that can be heard in their music. Some used the traditional approach of setting plainsong to their own time. Others, especially Rutter, have set melodies that are distinctly their own. Nearly every composer, it would seem, has taken a traditional carol and adapted a “modern” accompaniment to the otherwise traditional melody.
In terms of texts, it would be difficult to find an English composer who never set an already established text. From these examples, it is clear that the medieval carol is among the more popular. Rutter, although there are others not listed here, chose to write melodies and accompaniments to his own texts.
Carols functioned as a social outlet, as Poor Robin’s Almanac illustrates. Interestingly enough, although mention is made of Jesus, plenty is also made of food and drink. Like folksong, carols were for the people. It is for this reason that they continued to exist outside church walls.
Carols were also devotional. For those who had their own private chapel, one could find them being sung there. In the parish church, it would take the efforts of the Victorians to regiment them as part of the liturgical service. It would not be until 1918 that the entire world would be affected by the Nine Lessons and Carols service at King’s College, Cambridge, which is perhaps the most influential reason for the popularity of the carol today.
Besides being both social and devotional, carols have served as sparkling gems in choral concerts. Carols are “art music.” Like many things throughout history, it is the way in which something is used that gives it definition. It does not seem out of place when a carol is sung in a secular location or by a secular ensemble. They exist for the betterment of music as a whole. Therefore, in this case the carol would be more closely linked with the social classification. As a result, the carol is one of those enigmatic genres that exist both liturgically and secularly—neither side taking issue with the other.
The main reason why the carol can dually exist is its simplicity. There is nothing to muddy the waters and create controversy, even when the subject matter is based on religious/biblical themes. Composers throughout the twentieth century in England managed to evoke their own voice while remaining true to the inherent simplistic quality of the carol.
Holst’s simplicity came as a result of the element crucial to the carol: the people. He wrote for them. Simple melodies, textures, and accompaniments meant that nearly every amateur could be an integral part of the carol tradition. Through simplicity of text, voicing, and accompaniment, Britten created his own form of simplicity. Rutter’s simplicity is in the way the music sounds. It is so very easy to listen to (the same cannot necessarily be said about singing or playing them!).
Following the Victorian rediscovery (and regimentation) of the English carol dating from the Middle Ages, the carol tradition in England remained strong and thrived under several great composers: Holst, Britten, and Rutter among the more well-known. Through their carols, they presented the carol through use of traditional qualities (plainsong, medieval texts, and the like) while infusing their own musical language, aligning themselves in the great carol tradition. With the carol’s multiple characteristics, it was and remains an enigmatic genre that is social, devotional, and art music, separately and all in one. With the inception of what is perhaps the greatest advocate of the carol, the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols, English composers have provided the means for the carol genre to thrive, all over the world, for centuries and millennia to come. ■

William Dickinson is past Dean of the River Valley Chapter AGO.

For this year's conference, entitled "Let All the World . . . ," Delbert Disselhorst (head of the U of I organ department) and his committee engaged three presenters who are distinguished in their respective fields of endeavor: Martin Jean, associate professor of organ at the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music; Paul Westermeyer, professor of church music at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, director of music for the seminary, and director of the Master of Sacred Music program at St. Olaf College; and Carlton R. Young, currently visiting professor of church music at Tainan Presbyterian College and Seminary in Tainan, Taiwan; Dr. Young is emeritus professor of church music at Emory University's Candler School of Theology.

Thursday

The conference opened on Thursday afternoon with the first part of Paul Westermeyer's lectures entitled "Congregational Song as Global and Particular." Westermeyer advanced his thesis that congregational song is global--that "the church takes flesh in many different times and sings in the idioms of many different times and places." As he pointed out, any one hymnal has many examples of congregational songs that are both multicultural and global. Westermeyer further stated that congregational song is catholic (small c) in that the message emanates from all people and from all time periods. Congregational song is alien because God is the source of the message and that message will not touch everyone in the same universal manner. Dr. Westermeyer used chant as a perfect example of congregational song that is at once global, catholic and alien. Chant can be sung by anyone (global), stands above indigenous congregational folk song (catholic) and does not integrate with folk songs of any given people (alien). Finally, congregational song is about texts. The text must have meaning and must reflect the fact that congregational song is truly global. The text of congregational song will be called into question if it in any way infers that it is better than that of another culture.

Carlton Young completed the Thursday afternoon session with the first of his two-part presentation "Congregational Song in Global Perspectives," which covered the development of Christian global song from apostolic times (Palestinian-Hellenistic missional settings) to twentieth-century mission hymns. Dr. Young noted that "song became an important means of passing on the religious and social ethos and identity of one generation to another and for restating them in new languages and cultures." He traced the development of Christian evangelical hymns from Western (Roman) and Eastern (Orthodox) Christianity through the monastic period (Bernard of Clairvaux, Hildegard of Bingen, etc.) to the Roman Catholic Church's missionary effort, all of which he termed Global Phase One. Global Phase Two was the development of Christian evangelical song from the 16th-century Protestant Reformantion to Anglo-American evangelical hymns. Two important compilations during this period were The Whole Book of Psalms (London 1562) and John Wesley's A Collection of Psalms and Hymns 1737, which many hymnologists, according to Young, consider the first missionary hymnal. Dr. Young then discussed the consequences of both the "First Great Awakening" (1730 to 1750) and the "Second Great Awakening" (from around 1787 to the current times, at least in the South, in the minds of some commentators) and the resultant effects of the Euro-Anglo U.S. missionaries bringing the worship-song of their respective traditions, and linking these repertories to the development of Native American and African-American indigenous religious song. Young discussed the camp meeting movement that developed in the Second Great Awakening and how, in Reconstruction times, the Baptists moved away from the camp meeting format while the Methodists took it to new heights. Young then gave a short introduction to twentieth-century mission hymns, the discussion of which would be further developed in the second part of his presentation on Friday afternoon.

Following a dinner sponsored by the River Valley Chapter AGO on Thursday evening, conference participants attended a worship service at the First United Methodist Church in Iowa City. Martin Jean was organist and Paul Westermeyer gave the meditation. The cantor for this service was Dennis Ungs of the River Valley Chapter. The highlight of the service was the premiere of a hymn commissioned especially for this conference. The hymn, with text by Thomas H. Troeger ("Let the Truth Shine in Our Speaking") and music by Carlton R. Young, is named RAHN in memory of Frederick T. Rahn, Sr., whose family fund, the Frederick T. Rahn Memorial Fund, has been very supportive of the University of Iowa organ department for over 30 years (see sidebar).

Friday

Martin Jean opened the Friday morning session with his lecture "The Church at Sea: Navigating the Signs." The theme of Dr. Jean's presentation was that the canon of church music is expanding and that there is less time for the so-called "high art" (classical) tradition. Jean noted that in the reality of today's contemporary society, the debate continues as to just how classical church music can successfully continue to function. And, if the notion is that high-art, or classical, music has less relevance to today's more contemporary style of worship, then what is to become of the heritage of hundreds of years of classical church music?

The church, Jean feels, is no longer as homogeneous as it once was. Churches today are often made up of congregants with many different denominational backgrounds. And, often, today's congregations are made up of people who have not been long-time active members of the Christian faith. Therefore, today's church musicians are being forced to move beyond old assumptions of just what constitutes "proper" church music because so many of today's congregations are not wedded to a particular style of liturgy or liturgical music. To illustrate his point, Jean first played a videotape of a very large Assembly of God congregation in Georgia which uses a contemporary form of worship service and the so-called "praise" style of congregational song. Jean felt that this tape demonstrated how this style of music allowed the people to step into the mood of the service instantly. For his second example of an alternative style church worship service music, he discussed the use of the bluegrass religious music being used by a church in Minnesota. While admitting that the use of bluegrass music is somewhat unusual, he found the music to be incredibly beautiful and to be a type of church music that has to evaluated in more than a musicological vein--more than just notes on a page.

Jean concluded this lecture with the following pointers for church musicians who are being faced with changes in their church's changing style of worship and liturgical music: realize that the church today is made up of congregants from many different cultural backgrounds; listen to what is taking place in a particular situation, and don't dictate; bring your talents humbly and look for God in all types of music; develop a cooperative dialog with your pastor and then begin to educate the congregation through a number of venues such as adult forums, choir rehearsals, sermons and bulletin announcements.

The Friday morning session concluded with a recital by U of I undergraduate and graduate organ students. The recital began in the Krapf Organ Studio on the 1986 Taylor and Boody organ featuring performers Timothy Duhr, David Vanden Berg, and Hanna Lee. The concluding half of the student recital was held in Clapp Recital Hall on the 1971 Casavant organ with Sean Vogt, Eunjin Choi, Anna Eriksson, and Linda Hakken. Hakken was joined by baritone Stephen Swanson, percussionist Chris Foster and Tim Duhr, electronics, in Richard Felciano's Glossolalia (Psalm 150).

Paul Westermeyer opened the Friday afternoon session of the conference with the second part of his theme, "Congregational Song as Global and Particular." That congregational song is particular means that "the church takes flesh in a specific time and place and sings in the idiom of a specific time and place." Dr. Westermeyer began by citing three hymnals from German groups in the U.S. that relate to their time and place in spite of their presumed postures and perceived characters. For instance, the 1941 Hymnal was accused of being entirely German, but in reality was not. The service music was Anglican chant and though most of the hymn tunes were of German origin, 287 of the hymns were of Anglo-American heritage. Westermeyer pointed out that what the church actually uses may not be what is perceived to be in the hymnal. Perceptions don't make for the real world as we sing in the idiom of a given time and place even if we don't realize it.

Congregational song has a blurring reality to it as the text must be in our language or we would not be able to sing it. The distinction between what is global and what is particular is that the two mix with each other--some places are more in flux while others are more stable. There is always a moving stream--not a fixed point. There is a duration to the time of congregational song and the particularity of the song is indigenous. Indigenous song is a result of itice. Westermeyer noted that performance practice for each congregation is made up of the individual language of that congregation. He also feels that it should come as no surprise that i (incarnational) and that the church takes place among real people in a real time and place.

The particularity of congregational song protects the church from becoming a i. There is a temptation for the church to become a museum, but if, in fact, the church is a constantly moving stream, then it must sometimes cleanse itself. Dr. Westermeyer concluded with these three points: these are complimentary, not contradictory, realities; congregational song is intrinsic rather than extrinsic; congregational song cannot be forced, but is learned from the inside out. Finally, he noted that congregational song is inherently musical (to be human is to sing) and that it is authentic, not derivative.

Carlton Young concluded the Friday session with part two of his lecture "Congregational Song in Global Perspectives." Young called this session "Global Song Three" and began by discussing contextualization as it relates to the indigenous congregational songs of Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America and Asia. Young explained the term contextualization as the process whereby concepts, words and symbols from one cultural setting are received, embodied and expressed in the concepts, words, and symbols of a different cultural setting. In examining the African congregational song, Young noted three distinct characteristics of it as being the orality, communal nature and the sensuality inherent in it. According to Young, the hymns used by the African churches were developed by the Dutch Reformed, British Methodist, Anglican, the Church of Scotland and the Lutherans. The 1960s and 70s saw ethnomusicologists and their African students encouraging the use of indigenous music in African-style liturgies. Dr. Young then cited a number of examples of recent African Christian congregational songs and had the participants sing a stanza or two of each.

Christian worship music in the Latin American and Caribbean countries and islands goes back to the time of Columbus in the Caribbean islands and to the 16th and 17th century Roman Catholic missionary efforts in South and Central America and Mexico. The music of the islands features reggae and calypso rhythms. Young noted that it has only been in recent times that these songs have been collected, recorded and published, including Sing a New Song (1981) and Caribbean Praise (1999). The alabados (songs of praise) are the typical indigenous folk-hymns in Central and South America. Young stated that Protestant hymn writers have recently begun to compose hymns of liberation and hope and that popular dance rhythms, including the samba and tango, have been used in hymn tunes. He feels that Pablo Sosa (b. 1933) is one of the most influential composers of Latin American Protestant church music. Sosa is editor of the six-volume Cancionero Abierto (Open Songster) of 1974-90. Again, the conference participants were encouraged to sing a number of examples of Latin American and Caribbean folk hymns.

In the case of Pan Asian Hymnody, Young feels that the contexturalization of Asian Christian song is counter-cultural, in and out of the church. The E.A.C.C. Hymnal (1964) was the first attempt at compiling a collection of significant contextualized Christian song and, for the first time, featured a selection of pan-Asian religious song in one volume. Dr. Young noted that the successor to the E.A.C.C. Hymnal is the collection of pan-Asian Christian songs entitled Sound the Bamboo (1990) which includes a greatly expanded repertory and instructions for performance practices.

Young concluded his presentation with the following points for consideration: church musicians should offer Christ not only in Western-style music, but also in diverse tonalities, rhythms, scales and styles of the various cultures of the global family of God; the training of music ministers for service in this country and around the world should include the history, worship practices and music of non-Christian religions; finally, graduates of schools of music and of seminaries that prepare ministers of music should be "bi-musical"--they must be required to demonstrate that they can teach songs in a second language, understand and be able to perform blues and gospel songs and can arrange and teach congregational song in three styles: Latin American and Caribbean, Asian gamelan and African-American gospel. Young also suggests that these graduates be required to complete an onsite mission assignment in a non-Western culture.

Every Institute for Sacred Music Conference has included an organ recital in Clapp Recital Hall (Marilyn Keiser in 2000 and Gerre Hancock in 2001), and Martin Jean's concert on Friday featured a varied and eclectic program.

Saturday

The conference concluded on Saturday morning with Martin Jean's final presentation "Revisiting the Basics of Liturgical Accompaniment" and a panel discussion by all three presenters. Dr. Jean began by stating that as church musicians we must bring a humble approach to hymn playing. The church musician needs to keep in mind that the earliest congregational song was unaccompanied. The earliest reports of accompanied congregational hymn singing were in North Germany around 1630 or so. In England and Holland accompanied congregational song began in the 18th century. Jean quoted Nancy White (in "Philosophy of the Hymn"): "Briefly, the hymn is an idea-emotion, born of Christian experience, through the media of poetry and music; and in turn, transmitted through the media of poetry and music, it nourishes Christian experience."

Jean then presented what he feels to be eight principles of good liturgical music: it is doxological, profoundly scriptural, liturgical, participatory, traditional, eclectic, creative and, above all, aspires to excellence in concept and execution. The question as to what constitutes the ideal instrument for accompaniment (type of organ) is best answered by the fact that we as church musicians must use what we have at our disposal to the best of our ability. Jean noted that the early North German organs had very bright mixtures and heavy and loud pedal stops to counter the very loud congregational singing.

Jean outlined a number of techniques to use for better hymn playing. First, it is key to listen to just how the congregation sings hymns. Congregations can become easily fatigued and the organ can help by allowing a little extra breathing space between stanzas. He recommends using varied types of accompaniments such as no pedal, use of a solo line in the treble, tenor or bass parts, the use of varied registrations and the use of canons and alterations of voices for each stanza. He also advocates adopting a style of playing in which articulation is applied to the particular time in which the hymn was written.

The majority of the time given to the concluding panel discussion centered on what constitutes good and bad liturgical music. For instance, in answer to the question of what makes a text banal, Paul Westermeyer answered that beauty is not necessarily a universal given--there is such as thing as craft. He felt that the universal church will not tolerate banal texts or music over time. Martin Jean felt that there is a tendency for classically trained musicians to adopt somewhat of an arrogant attitude when it comes to alternative styles of liturgical music such as praise music--and if there is something to be said against popular praise texts and music, it should be done with humility. Martin Jean also felt that standards have been lowered to achieve higher congregant numbers for Sunday services, but, he would rather err on the side of being open to changes in the styles of liturgical music. Westermeyer feels that the either/or of folk vs. "high art" is a false dichotomy. Like the global and the particular, they are complementary, not contradictory, as the church has demonstrated by its practice of alternation: all is for all, though not all do all as is true of any healthy body. Carlton Young felt that the more that we try to suppress pop culture-related church music, the harder it will be to stop its use. He again stressed that the training of church musicians must include a strong emphasis on congregational song.

Once again, congratulations to Delbert Disselhorst and Brett Wolgast of the University of Iowa School of Music faculty and to T. Andrew Hicks and Robert Triplett of the River Valley Chapter AGO for their combined efforts in producing another very fine and enlightening Institute for Sacred Music Conference.

--William Dickinson

Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian organist-composer, church musician, pianist, choral conductor, and ethnomusicologist. He is the author of several books, including The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural Perspectives (2007), Intercultural Dimensions in Ayo Bankole’s Music (2007), and Joshua Uzoigwe: Memoirs of a Nigerian Composer-Ethnomusicologist (2007). Sadoh is presently Professor of Music at Talladega College, Alabama.

The arrival of the Christian faith in Nigeria around the mid-19th century introduced not only the Gospel of Jesus Christ, but also church music to one of the most populous African countries. At the turn of the 20th century, indigenous church musicians began to develop a repertoire of music for worship. The music included church hymns, chants for singing Psalms, versicles and responses, and choral anthems, as well as organ pieces. The pioneers of church music composition endeavored to write music that would be close to the cultural roots of the congregations through the incorporation of traditional music resources. Foremost among the first generation of composers was Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips (1884–1969), popularly referred to among Nigerian musicologists as the “father of Nigerian church music,” for his immense contributions to the development, growth, and stabilization of Christian music.

Short biography of Thomas Ekundayo Phillips

Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips was born in 1884 and he attended the Church Missionary Society Grammar School (CMS), Lagos. Phillips received his first organ lesson from his uncle, Johnson, who was an Anglican priest. At the age of eighteen he was appointed organist of St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Breadfruit, Lagos, and served in this capacity for nine years. In 1911 he proceeded to the Trinity College of Music, London, to study piano, organ, and violin, becoming the second Nigerian to receive professional training in music abroad and the first Nigerian to formally study organ in a school of music (Robert Coker was the first Nigerian to study European music abroad in Germany in 1871).1
Upon his return to Nigeria in 1914, Phillips was appointed to the position of organist and master of the music at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos.2 Phillips’ tenure marked a great transition and a period unparalled in the history of Nigerian church music. His accomplishments far outshone those of all his predecessors at the church. He led the Cathedral Choir to great heights within a short period of time, since the choir was established to be a model for other churches. The choir sets the musical standard for choral performance in the country. In this way, Phillips succeeded in revolutionizing church music in Lagos and in Nigeria as a whole.
Phillips embarked on a massive campaign to educate Nigerian congregations in the latest repertoire. First, he concentrated on an intensive training of his choir on sight reading, vocal production and blend, and modern techniques of chanting the Psalms. Second, Phillips established a musical journal of which he was the editor-in-chief. He used the journal to disseminate cogent information about sacred music to the Yoruba congregations in southwest Nigeria, including its role in worship and its relationship to the culture of the people. Third, Phillips wrote a treatise on the compositional devices of early Nigerian church music entitled Yoruba Music.3 In this monumental book, Phillips described methods that composers could use to create new forms of music that employ Nigerian indigenous music resources—such as melodies, scale, and rhythms—to which congregations could relate. Nigerian congregations tend to embrace and appreciate hymns, anthems, and instrumental works based on indigenous popular melodies and rhythms. According to Bode Omojola, Phillips’ views in his Yoruba Music are summed up in three salient points: 1) Yoruba music is often based on the pentatonic scale; 2) harmony rarely exists in Yoruba music; and 3) Yoruba music, like all other musical traditions, is undergoing an evolutionary process.4 Phillips’ book represents the first musicological research and documentation of African traditional music by a professionally trained native. His postulations and research findings were circulated among church musicians through public presentations such as lectures, conferences, and symposia. His Passacaglia on an African Folk Song for Organ and Variations on an African Folk Song for Organ are representative works based on the ideas from his Yoruba Music. Fourth, Phillips founded the Conference of Church Organists and other musical organizations such as the Association of Diocesan Organists, which was a forum for church musicians to interact and exchange ideas on various aspects of sacred music from congregational singing to choral training to organ playing.
Phillips frequently gave lectures, addresses, and demonstrations for the improvement of musical taste and development in the church. He wrote numerous articles on harmonium and organ playing as well as on the maintenance of these instruments. At his instigation, some of the sermons at the Cathedral Church of Christ during this period were directed towards enlightening the congregation on devotional and reverential singing. The historical background of some of the hymns was also incorporated into the sermons. All these efforts led to a tremendous growth in the musical standard of the choir and the congregation in Lagos State and other parts of the country. The Cathedral Choir rendered settings of canticles, responses, anthems, hymns, and diverse choral works by famous European and indigenous Nigerian composers.
When the church was to be elevated to cathedral status in 1923,5 the congregation decided to buy a bigger pipe organ. Phillips embarked on several concert tours at home as well as in London to seek funds for the instrument, and he was able to raise over half of the budgeted amount. Works performed by the choir during these tours included Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah, John Stainer’s Daughter of Jairus, and the Yoruba songs composed by Phillips. The money was used to purchase a three-manual pipe organ built by Abbot & Smith Co. in 1932.6 In 1964 Phillips was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree by the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for his contributions to the development of church music in Nigeria. Phillips also trained most of the prominent and internationally famous Nigerian musicians, such as Fela Sowande (organist-composer, 1905–1987), Ayo Bankole (organist-composer, 1935–1976), his son, Charles Oluwole Obayomi Phillips (organist and choir director, 1919–2007), and Christopher Oyesiku (singer, choral conductor, and broadcaster, 1925–).7 Thomas Ekundayo Phillips directed the music ministry at the Cathedral Church of Christ for 48 years (Trinity Sunday 1914 to Trinity Sunday 1962). He was succeeded by his son, Charles Oluwole Obayomi Phillips, who served as organist and master of the music from Trinity Sunday 1962 to Trinity Sunday 1992.8

Issues in Nigerian hymn composition

The art of hymn composition in Nigeria is confronted with several related problems. The first issue to be tackled by a hymn writer is that of ethnic diversity—who is your audience or which of the ethnic groups is your primary target? Nigeria as a nation is made up of three major ethnic groups: Yoruba in the southwest, Igbo in the southeast, and Hausa to the north. In addition to this powerful tripartite caucus, there is a large body of minority groups including the Edo, Urhobo, Isoko, Ishekiri, Kwale, Efik, Tiv, Ijaw, Ibibio, and Fulani. All these groups speak different languages and hundreds of dialects. When you move from one small town to another, you might neither be able to understand nor speak the language there, even though you are a Nigerian.
For illustration, I am a Nigerian born to a Yoruba mother, but my father is from Edo State in the midwest region of the country.9 As a result of being raised in Lagos, I am very fluent in the Yoruba language; however, I can neither speak nor understand the local dialect of my father’s ethnicity. Each time I go to Edo State, I communicate in English, a language common to all or most Nigerians.
It follows, then, that a hymn composer in Nigeria must always have a targeted congregation in mind when writing a new song for worship. If the composer wants his/her songs to be sung in the southwest region, the hymn must be in Yoruba. And if the primary congregation is situated in the southeast, the hymn must be in Igbo. Alternately, a wise composer who wishes to reach a larger body of Christ that cuts across ethnic barriers, would write the hymns in English. With this approach, all the ethnic groups within the nation may be able to understand the message of the hymns.
Ironically, this procedure may even create a greater problem because there are some churches that have adamantly adhered to conducting services in their indigenous language and would not accommodate songs in any other language. Among these churches, there are some educated people who could communicate well in English, and there are also those who cannot read nor write the English language.
For instance, there are several Igbo Anglican (Episcopal) churches in Lagos, a Yoruba community. The Igbo Anglican churches were founded by Igbo priests who were confronted with fierce oppositions in convincing ministers in Yoruba churches to create English services to accommodate non-Yoruba speaking natives. The Igbo priests made this move to prevent further loss of Igbo Anglicans to other denominations.10
The only places where English hymns thrive are the newly founded evangelical churches, chapels on college and university campuses, and a few denominational churches such as the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, where services are conducted mainly in English. These congregations have a larger population compared to small parish churches because they are pan-ethnic and globally intercultural in their modes of worship. In most of the evangelical churches, you will find Igbo and Yoruba as well as other minority ethnic groups worshiping together. On college and university campuses, English is the official language of instruction; accordingly, services are conducted in English at all worship centers including student fellowship meetings.
The second problem a hymn writer may have to grapple with is the translation of hymn texts. This may be in the form of translating English hymns to any of the indigenous languages or the translation of a particular local dialect to another within the country. In the first situation, the composer may find it difficult to translate certain English words that do not exist in Nigerian culture. For instance, we do not have snow, winter, hail, or ginger bread in the Nigerian cultural experience. Therefore, the hymn composer will experience difficulty in translating these words into an indigenous language and choosing descriptive words that can best convey the exact meaning to Nigerian congregations. In another instance, when words are translated from one language to the other, there may be too many syllables to be inserted into a single note, or there may be too many words within a phrase that would not fit into the melodic phrase.
The hymn writer is then confronted with the problem of choice: which words are more important to retain and which are less important, to be deleted. A Yoruba Christian song, Kokoro Ayo lowo Mi, when literally translated into English becomes “The Key of Joy in My Hands.” There are several problems with this translation. The Yoruba text has eight syllables and melodic notes to go with it, while the English translation has only seven syllables. The composer will have to create an additional English word to complete the sentence or she/he may try to force two notes into a single syllable of the text. The other problem with this translation is that of positioning the important English words under the strong accents such as the first or third beats of each measure. In other instances, after creating a literal translation of the hymn text, the composer still has to rearrange the words.
The third obstacle to be addressed in composing hymns in Nigeria is the issue of melodic choice. The composer will need to choose between pre-existing tunes such as folk songs, traditional songs that belong to specific cults, popular dance tunes, or original melodies. Folk songs are generally acceptable because their texts deal with simple social life experiences, whereas traditional songs that are devoted to specific deities or divinities may be difficult to persuade Nigerian congregations to sing. The church members were taught by the early foreign missionaries to believe that such cultic songs belong to the devil, and, because of this, they should refrain from incorporating them into Christian worship. These songs are well known to the people; engaging in the singing of those songs may bring back to their consciousness the images of traditional gods and goddesses that they have disowned for the true God of the Christian faith.
Popular band songs on the other hand are perceived to be too “worldly” and mundane for true worship in the church. The argument here is that juxtaposing such melodies with sacred texts may bring back memories of “worldly” experiences that do not bring glory to God and Jesus Christ. In Nigeria, there has been a long controversy and debate on the issue of employing popular band tunes played at night clubs to accompany sacred texts. The Christian community has vehemently opposed this practice at every seminar, symposium, and conference. An alternative available to the composer is to write original melodies that align with new text or pre-existing words.
The fourth major problem confronting a hymn composer in Nigeria is melodic construction. After overcoming the issues of ethnic and language diversity, translation barrier as well as choice of melody, the hymn writer will still have to contend with the issue of tonal aspects of indigenous languages. Because all languages and regional dialects have tonal inflections, the composer must be mindful of the melodic shape of each note assigned to every syllable. Any discrepancies between the melodic contours and indigenous language can adversely dislocate the intended meaning to be conveyed to the congregation.
Most Nigerian dialects normally have three to four tonal inflections. Yoruba language has three main tone patterns on its words: the low, middle, and high tones. Consequently, if the tonal inflection of a word is high, the melodic contour must correspond to it by rising; if the inflection is low or middle on the word, the melodic contour has to move in that direction. In other words, the melodic shape of words in Nigeria has to run parallel with the rising and falling pitches of the local dialects.
Among the Yoruba, the word Ade means crown, and its tonal inflections are middle and high. Hence, the appropriate notes for the two syllables can be re–mi, mi–so, la–do, or so–la. If the hymn writer chooses a melody in the opposite direction, the meaning of the text will change and it will not make sense to the Yoruba congregation. By choosing different tonal pitches, this word can mean ade (crown), ade (to cover), ade (to tighten), or Ade (the name of a person from a royal lineage). The composer of indigenous Nigerian church hymns will have to take into account this problem in order to write meaningful and logical songs for Nigerian congregations.
The fifth problem a Nigerian hymn writer faces is that of harmonic organization. Nigerian traditional music has a concept of polyphony. Indigenous harmonic usages can be observed in both traditional vocal songs and instrumental music. While there is a predilection for thirds, fourths, fifths, and parallel harmonies in the musical repertoire of traditional music, one can also hear the clashing of seconds in tone clusters among the Ijesha and Ekiti from southwest Nigeria. Interestingly, the concept of harmony is more pronounced in the southern regions of Nigeria, such as the Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Ijaw, Efik, etc. The northern Hausa-Fulani sings mostly in unison or what Kwabena Nketia calls “polarity,”11 which is a very strong influence from the Arabic culture. The reason for this might be twofold: 1) the southerners have a long history of harmonic singing in their traditional culture, in particular, the Igbo and Midwestern regions; and 2) the church music introduced by the early missionaries from America and England was restricted mainly to the south. Consequently, the foreign hymns in four-part harmony simply reinforced the concept of polyphony among the southern peoples. As one may recall, the colonial policy encouraged the northern Muslims to continue in their Islamic faith, while the southerners fully embraced the newly found Christian faith.12
The final problem confronting hymn composition and congregational singing in Nigeria is that of instrumental accompaniment. During the early stages of Christian worship in Nigeria, especially in the 19th century, congregational hymns were accompanied mainly with organ, harmonium, or piano in most churches. Unfortunately, native worshipers could not easily relate to nor embrace singing songs without movement. They were used to dancing, hand clapping, and all manner of bodily movements in their traditional culture. The singing of European or indigenous hymns with the exclusion of the dance experience created a major hindrance and stumbling block to congregational singing. This impasse created schisms and eventually led to the fragmentation of the early church in Nigeria into various factions and denominations. From this fragmentation evolved indigenous independent churches such as the Aladura (Prayer) Church in early 20th century, where traditional musical instruments were fully utilized to accompany congregational singing of hymns.
In Nigeria today, traditional musical instruments are employed in accompanying congregational singing at various indigenous churches and established traditional churches such as Anglican, Baptist, Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, and Methodist. Even European or American hymns are accompanied with indigenous drums, iron bells, sekere (shaking idiophone), and hand clapping. The only exception to this practice is to be found at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, where hymns are still accompanied only with the pipe organ and piano. The Cathedral Church is the only church in the country that strictly kept intact the European worship traditions in post-colonial Nigeria. The worship experience in the church is comparable to any of the British cathedrals such as St. Paul’s or Westminster Abbey. In addition to instrumental accompaniment, services have been conducted exclusively in English, from the inception of the Cathedral Church of Christ in 1867 to the present. The only occasions when other types of musical instruments and indigenous language is tolerated are during special services dedicated to the youth of the church or during diocesan events. Even in these specialized services, Western musical instruments such as trap drum set, electric guitar, and electric keyboard are mostly used in accompanying contemporary praise choruses from America and Nigeria. These instruments are used to play music that the youth of the church would like to hear and sing. The Standing Committee of the Cathedral Church approved the use of foreign instruments in order to keep their youth in the church and perhaps attract more young men and women to their congregation. Prior to this era, which began in late 1990s, the Cathedral Church was losing a lot of their young people to the newly founded contemporary churches where those instruments were being used to accompany modern praise choruses.
Therefore, a hymn writer in Nigeria needs to recognize the important issue of movement in worship. The composer is compelled to write songs that can align with percussion instruments and inevitably move the congregation to dance. In Nigeria, dance is visualized as an act of worship to God. We may ask at this juncture: how did Thomas Ekundayo Phillips solve the aforementioned problems in the hymns he wrote, and how did the congregations react to his compositions?

Selected indigenous hymns
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips wrote several songs of worship for the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, and other smaller parish congregations. His hymns are in both English and Yoruba languages. Although services were conducted mainly in English at the Cathedral Church, Phillips’ compositions in Yoruba language were permitted for rendition during special occasions such as choir concerts, synod services, diocesan events, and ordination of a bishop or archbishop in the church. Such events attracted people from various backgrounds, both the well-educated and the less-educated. As the church was located in a Yoruba state, the majority of the guests from other parishes were Yoruba; therefore, they felt more at home singing songs in their own language. Phillips’ music represents the first generation of Nigerian composers. Works in this era are quite simple, short, and tonal.
Phillips’ Versicles and Responses (Awon Adura Kukuru ati Idahun Won)13 was specifically written for worship in the smaller Yoruba parish churches in southwest Nigeria. It is a canticle of prayer sung in morning and evening worship. The performance technique of the song is the African “call and response,” with simple organ accompaniment. The priest (Alufa) sings the solo while the congregation (Ijo) responds in unison. The organist plays the first note of the opening solo and the priest sings his line a cappella, but the organ accompanies the congregational response. Since the Versicles and Responses is in Yoruba language, it cannot be sung at worship in other regions of the country. The melody is original and in five-note pentatonic scale (do–re–mi–so–la), which is commonly found in Yoruba folk songs. The vocal compass of the song is nearly an octave, making it easy for the members of the congregation to sing without straining their voices. While the melodic line employs a pentatonic scale, the organ accompaniment uses a free diatonic harmony with occasional tonicization of the dominant. The melodic contour mirrors the tonal patterns of the Yoruba text throughout the music. The translation of the first page of the Responses is as follows:

Priest: Oluwa, Iwo si wa l’e te (Lord open our lips)
Congregation: Enu wa yio si ma fi iyin Re han (Our mouths shall sing forth Thy praise)
Priest: Olorun, sise ki o gba wa la (Lord make haste to save us).
Example 1 shows the first page of Phillips’ Versicles and Responses.
Phillips wrote a very short Yoruba Vesper hymn for the closing of evening service, entitled Baba a f’ara Wa (Father, we surrender ourselves). This hymn is usually sung at the end of evening worship before the recessional hymn is sung. The organist plays the first chord as written in the score, then the congregation sings the entire song as quietly as possible. Apart from one sub-dominant note, the melody is in five-note pentatonic scale (do–re–mi–so–la), and its range is a seventh. The melodic shape of the hymn strictly mirrors the tonal inflections of the Yoruba text, and it is an original hymn. Consequently, by observing the compositional rules, Phillips was able to retain the intended meaning of the Yoruba words. The congregation sings in unison, but the organ accompanies with conventional four-part harmony and closes with a plagal cadence. The song is a prayer for God’s protection at night. Below is a translation of the Yoruba text:

Baba a f’ara wa
Si iso re l’ale yi
Dabobo wa ko pawa mo
Titi ‘le o fi mo, Amin.

Father we surrender ourselves
Under your care tonight
Protect and keep us safe
Until tomorrow morning, Amen.

See Example 2 for Phillips’ Vesper Hymn.
Yoruba Magnificat in C (The Song of Mary) is another evening hymn composed by Ekundayo Phillips. The text of this hymn is derived from Luke 1:46–55 in the King James Bible. It is a Yoruba hymn-anthem for four-part choir, congregation, and organ accompaniment. The hymn is commonly sung during a synodical or any other diocesan service that involves the Cathedral Church of Christ and other parishes in the community. Compositional technique combines monophony, polyphony, and contrapuntal devices. Structurally, the hymn-anthem is in three-parts: A) the congregation sings with organ accompaniment in C major; B) alternation of solo passages with full chorus in the key of G major; and A) full chorus with organ. Phillips maintains strict observance of parallel motion between the melodic shape and the Yoruba text. The original melody mirrors the contours of the inflection of the words. As regards tonality, Phillips uses the conventional diatonic scale for the melody, while the organ has more notes. Harmonically, there is a preponderance of thirds, fourths, fifths, sixths, and unison in the vocal lines. In addition, he uses all types of dynamics—mf, f, ff, cresc., dim., as well as rallentando, allargando, etc. Example 3 shows an excerpt from the Yoruba Magnificat in C.
Phillips wrote several Antiphons to Psalms with organ accompaniment. These short songs are all in Yoruba language and they are meant to be sung in unison before, during, and at the end of the Psalms. The melodies use tetratonic and pentatonic scales, and they are generally within the range of an octave. The melodic contours strictly imitate the inflections of the Yoruba words. The organ accompaniment is simple and often closes with either a plagal or perfect authentic cadence. The composer gives clear instructions on performance technique and at which points the antiphons are to be sung in the Psalms. Example 4 shows the opening page of the Antiphons to Psalms.
From Glory to Glory is a four-verse English hymn by Ekundayo Phillips, written in four-part harmony with short organ interludes inserted between all the verses except the final. This hymn is frequently sung at evening services and festive occasions at the Cathedral Church of Christ. In this hymn, Phillips keeps the melodic construction simple and the harmonization diatonic. He is not compelled to observe the Nigerian indigenous creative principles because of the English text. In fact, the harmony briefly tonicizes C in the third and fourth measures. However, the singing alternates between monophonic and polyphonic phrases. Phillips’ Yoruba hymns were well received and are still popular today in most Anglican churches in southwest Nigeria, especially Lagos. In fact, the current Cathedral Church of Christ Choir recorded some of Phillips’ hymns and anthems in 2006 to celebrate his musical legacy. From Glory to Glory is shown in Example 5.

Conclusion
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips indeed is the father of Nigerian church hymn composition. He laid a solid foundation for the composition of indigenous hymns through his numerous compositions and his book, Yoruba Music. He continually strove to encapsulate the theoretical framework of Yoruba traditional music in his compositions for the Christian church in Nigeria. In the area of tonality, he uses the popular five-note pentatonic scale, occasionally deviating from this method in songs such as From Glory to Glory, which is in English. Therefore, it would not be wrong to admit that Phillips adheres strictly to pentatonality in his Yoruba hymns, but uses the diatonic scale freely in composing English hymns. Phillips solved some of the problems in composing indigenous hymns by writing original texts and melodies. This procedure enabled him to successfully juxtapose the two entities in which the melodic contours consistently mirror the tonal patterns of Yoruba text in order to convey the intended meaning to his Yoruba congregations.
A large number of Phillips’ compositions are in Yoruba language, meaning that his targeted audience was the Yoruba congregations in southwest Nigeria. This corroborates the prevalent ethnic diversity among the Christian congregations in post-colonial Nigeria. Subsequent generations of composers rely on his research from well-documented field work on Yoruba music found in his book and his compositions. However, some modern Nigerian composers are making efforts to alleviate the issue of ethnic conflicts by writing songs in diverse indigenous languages as well as borrowing folk and popular songs from various ethnic groups in the country in their works. My new hymn book, E Korin S’Oluwa,14 is a major contribution towards uniting the vast ethnic groups in Nigeria. The indigenous texts are in Yoruba, Igbo, as well as English language, and pre-existing songs are borrowed from all the major ethnic groups in the country. I am but one of a growing number of Nigerians who have been touched by Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips, and so his efforts to build the musical life of the Nigerian church continue after his death.

Other articles of interest:

History of the organs of the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, Nigeria

Centennial of the Cathedral Church of Christ Choir, Lagos, Nigeria

Fela Sowande: Nigerian Musician Legend

Thomas Ekundayo Phillips: Nigerian composer

Thomas King Ekundayo Phillips

<p>Godwin Sadoh is a Nigerian church musician, composer,
pianist, organist/choral conductor and ethnomusicologist. He received his
Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance and composition from
Louisiana State University in May 2004, making him the first African to earn
the DMA degree in organ performance from any institution. His extensive
research on Nigerian church music, organ building, composers, African art
music, and intercultural musicology is published in The Diapason, The Hymn, The
Organ, Composer-USA, Living Music, Africa, Organ Encyclopedia, and Contemporary
Africa Database. His organ and choral works, as well as hymn book, E Korin
S'Oluwa: Fifty Indigenous Church Hymns from Nigeria, are published by Wayne
Leupold Editions. Sadoh's book, The Organ Works of Fela Sowande: Cultural
Perspectives (New York: Zimbel Press, 2005), will be in print in spring 2006.</p>

Fela Sowande's (1905-1987) centenary is being celebrated all around the
world with various types of music festivals in 2005. He was born one hundred
years ago into a musical family in Lagos, Nigeria. Although Sowande belongs to
the second generation of Nigerian composers, he can be regarded as the father
of modern African art music. The first generation of Nigerian composers comprised
mainly church musicians who wrote mostly hymns and choral pieces for worship.
It was Sowande who expanded Nigerian art music from the church arena to public
concert auditorium. He introduced art songs for voice and piano, sacred and
secular choral pieces as well as orchestra works to the repertoire of Nigerian
modern art music.

Sowande is also the father of the 'Nigerian organ school' because he
propelled the musical genre to an unprecedented height through his extensive
compositions and publications for the organ. There has never been any Nigerian
composer who has written such a significant body of organ works as Sowande. His
compositions for organ outnumbered his works for other genres. Today, Sowande
is the most celebrated Nigerian musician of international repute with his
career covering areas of music education, composition, performance, research,
broadcasting, as well as traditional religious practices.

Compositions

Fela Sowande composed for almost all the music media: voices and piano/organ
accompaniment, organ, and orchestra. He wrote three major works for orchestra:
Four Sketches for full orchestra (1953), African
Suite for string orchestra (1955), and the Folk
Symphony for full orchestra (1960). The
three works utilize Western conventional harmony, tonality, form, and
instrumentation. Elements of African traditional music in these pieces are
limited to the use of indigenous folksongs, ostinati, and selected Yoruba
rhythmic patterns. The Folk Symphony
is based on Yoruba melodies from Nigeria, while the African Suite is based on
melodies from both Nigeria and Ghana.

Sowande wrote several choral pieces of which the most popular in Nigeria are
Oh Render Thanks for SATB and organ,
Roll De Ol’ Chariot for SATBB and piano, Wheel,
Oh Wheel 
style='font-style:normal'>for SATB, and The Wedding Song
style='font-style:normal'> for SSA and piano. Oh Render Thanks
style='font-style:normal'>is a hymn anthem whose texts are derived from hymns
552 and 554 of the British Hymnal Companion. Sowande composed an original
melody for the combined five verses, which are clearly separated with organ
interludes. The first and the last verses are in full unison, while the second
and fourth verses are in four-part harmony. Verse three is a duet for double
tenor and double bass voices. Roll De Ol’ Chariot
style='font-style:normal'>and Wheel, Oh Wheel
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  are
both based on African-American spirituals. Wheel, Oh Wheel
style="mso-spacerun: yes">  is
a cappella and characterized by highly syncopated rhythms. The Wedding Song is
written for two sopranos, alto and piano accompaniment. The melody is borrowed
from a popular Yoruba wedding song with syncopated rhythms. The piano part
supplies a dance rhythm accompaniment to the vocal line. Structurally, the song
is divided into two parts. The opening section is a solo by the bride bragging
about the good qualities of the man of her dream. The second section is a
chorus for three vocal parts (SSA) in which the friends of the bride sing a
song of joy, adoration, and encouragement on her wedding day. Sowande's choral
works are generally characterized by vibrant lively tempos.

Sowande composed seventeen major works for organ. These pieces may be
broadly divided into three main categories for functional purposes in the
church: liturgical pieces, preludes and postludes, and concert pieces. Some of
these works could be placed in more than one group due to their stylistic
characteristics. Fantasia in D, Festival March, Plainsong
style='font-style:normal'>, and Choral Preludes on Yoruba Sacred
Melodies are not included in this
classification because the scores were not available to me at the time of
writing this essay.

Liturgical Pieces

There are nine organ works that are suitable for divine services, either for
the offertory, communion or any meditative aspect of worship. The contemplative
elements in these pieces include slow tempo, short duration, and simplicity.
The thematic materials of these works are mainly borrowed indigenous hymn tunes
from Nigeria and African-American spirituals; this aspect makes them more
appropriate for playing within worship.

The pieces are:

1. K'a Mura. London: Chappell, 1945.

2. Pastourelle. London: Chappell, 1952.

3. Yoruba Lament. London: Chappell, 1955.

4. Kyrie. London: Chappell, 1955.

5. K'a Mo Rokoso (unpublished score).

6. Supplication (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

7. Via Dolorosa (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

8. Bury Me Eas' or Wes' (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the
Negro).

9. Vesper (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

Preludes and Postludes

Six pieces fall within this category and are generally characterized by
moderate or lively tempos, and are of moderate difficulty. These pieces are
loud, moderate in length, sectional, and are mostly based on sacred themes from
the Yoruba church hymns and folksongs, as well as African-American spirituals.
They include:

1. Yoruba Lament. London: Chappell, 1955.

2. Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho. London: Chappell, 1955.

3. Obangiji. London: Chappell, 1955.

4. Prayer (Oba A Ba Ke). New York: Ricordi, 1958.

5. Supplication (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

6. Jubilate (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

Concert Pieces

Sowande wrote most of his organ works for concert performances. Ten pieces
are in this category. These pieces are vividly distinct from others because of
the high level of difficulty, and they are virtuosic, showing the technical
ability of the performer. These are large multi-sectional works, loud and
lively. The thematic materials are derived from Nigerian folksongs,
African-American spirituals and also hymn tunes composed by local organists and
choirmasters. Some compositional forms include fugue, three-part form, and
theme and variations. The titles are listed below:

1. Jesu Olugbala. London: Novello, 1955.

2. Kyrie. London: Chappell, 1955.

3. Joshua Fit De Battle of Jericho. London: Chappell, 1955.

4. Obangiji. London: Chappell, 1955.

5. Go Down Moses. London: Chappell, 1955.

6. Oyigiyigi: Introduction, Theme and Variations. New York: Ricordi, 1958.

7. Gloria. New York: Ricordi, 1958.

8. Prayer (Oba A Ba Ke). New York: Ricordi, 1958.

9. Laudamus Te (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>).

10. Jubilate (unpublished score from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'>). 

Yoruba Culture

Fela Sowande belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group of southwest Nigeria;
therefore, it should not be surprising to see elements of Yoruba music permeate
his compositions. Most of Sowande's works are based on melodies borrowed either
from Yoruba indigenous Christian songs or Yoruba folksongs. Some of the songs
are quoted verbatim, while others are slightly modified or varied. In any case,
his Yoruba audience in Nigeria has always been able to identify and relate to
the borrowed songs during concert performances. Indigenous rhythms featured in
Sowande's music are either ostinati or selected Yoruba rhythmic patterns such
as the popular konkonkolo rhythm (also
known as the West African time line) as exemplified in Laudamus Te
style='font-style:normal'> (from Sacred Idioms of the Negro
style='font-style:normal'> for organ). Most of the melodies employed in
Sowande's music are based on the five-note pentatonic scale commonly found in
Yoruba traditional songs.

The titles given to Sowande's compositions express symbolic and imaginary
ideas. The titles of his music have been influenced by the titles of the Yoruba
folksongs and indigenous hymn tunes employed in creating the music. His
experience in Yoruba folklore and mythology enhanced the shaping of the form
and character of the pieces. For instance, Obangiji, the title of one of his
organ works, is festive music meant to praise God the Almighty. Both the title
of the organ work and the original melody convey the same message--singing the
praise of God. Hence, the title informed the nature and character of the music.
In Via Dolorosa, from Sacred Idioms of the Negro, the composer paints the picture of the suffering and death of Christ
on Good Friday. The piece is based on a Yoruba Christian hymn normally sung on
Good Friday services at Yoruba churches in Nigeria. Sowande captures the
painful death of Christ with the expression mark at the beginning of the piece,
Lento con dolore, and the use of excessive chromatic passages on the manuals
and pedals.

Interculturalism

Three cultural groups played a major role in the life and music of Fela
Sowande: [1] the African/Yoruba cultural heritage from Nigeria, [2] European,
and [3] African-American cultures. Sowande was nurtured and brought up in these
cultures. He began his musical training in Nigeria as a choir boy and organist
apprentice at the Cathedral Church of Christ, Lagos, under the tutelage of
Thomas Ekundayo Phillips, and later went on to Great Britain to study music. He
was more of a university professor, performer and researcher in the United
States of America, where he spent the last thirty years of his life. Moreover,
Sowande was raised in a bicultural environment in Nigeria, where the Yoruba
traditional culture and English cultural values coexisted. Therefore, it should
not be surprising to witness the influence of indigenous African and foreign
cultures on Sowande's music.

It is interesting to observe that Sowande gives bilingual titles to some of
his compositions in English and Yoruba languages. For instance, Prayer (Oba
A Ba Ke) and Oyigiyigi:
Introduction, Theme and Variations on a Yoruba Folk Theme
style='font-style:normal'> for organ are representative of works in this
category. For those pieces based on Yoruba songs, Sowande often writes out the
Yoruba text of the song with its English translation in the composer's notes to
the music. In these compositions, we see the interactions of two major
languages. Another source of interculturalism in Sowande's music is the idea of
borrowing preexisting melodies from Yoruba culture in Nigeria, from Ghanaian
music, and from African-American spirituals. Melodies from Nigeria are present
in all his compositional genres, while a Ghanaian song is incorporated into his
African Suite. African-American
spirituals are employed mainly in his solo art songs, choral pieces and organ
works. Elements of Western classical music are vividly manifest in his choice
of tonality, 19th-century chromaticism, form, and instrumentation.

Nationalism

The wave of nationalism or cultural renaissance in Nigeria began in the mid
1940s and lasted until the independence of the nation from colonial governance
in 1960. This was a period in which the Nigerian elite united to revive the
traditional values and culture of Nigeria over the European imperialism that
was prevalent at the time. Indigenous playwrights, poets, dramatists, theater
artists, sculptors, fine artists, as well as musicians all embarked on a
massive campaign and incorporation of materials from their indigenous culture
into their works.

Hubert Ogunde, popularly known as the father of Nigerian 'Contemporary
Yoruba Theatre' wrote several operas and plays based on Nigerian legends,
myths, politics, socio/cultural life, dances, rituals, festivals, and
traditional musical styles. It is of interest to note that Fela Sowande started
composing major musical works around this period even though he did not return
to Nigeria until the early 1950s. Sowande's contribution to the Nationalist
Movement could be observed in his use of Yoruba traditional songs (either
sacred or secular), rhythms, and the titles given to his music. He was
commissioned by the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation to compose the Folk
Symphony for the 1960 Independence Day
Anniversary, although it was not accepted for performance. The work was later
premiered by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 1962. This
was also the period in which Sowande embarked on intensive research on Nigerian
traditional music as well as Yoruba folklore for the purpose of dissemination
through the radio system, documentation in books and archives for further use,
and as source materials for his compositions. He used the resulting materials
from his field research to enlighten the Nigerian populace about their own
culture that was being aggressively eroded by Western traditions and values.

Music Scholarship

Fela Sowande contributed immensely to the field of music scholarship through
several documented presentations at international conferences and academic
institutions about Yoruba folklore, Odu Ifa (Ifa divination), the theory and
practice of African music in general, music education in Nigeria, modern
African art music and its composers, as well as the Africanization of Black
Studies in the United States of America. For instance, Sowande presented a
paper, "Nigerian Traditional Music," at the University of Ibadan in
1962. In 1963, he presented a lecture titled, "The Teaching of Music in
Nigerian Schools," at the meeting of the Association of Church Musicians
at Methodist Boys' High School, Lagos. On May 5, 1965, Sowande delivered
another lecture, "The Development of a National Tradition of Music,"
at a seminar under the auspices of the Department of Music, University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. Five years after his erudite presentation at Nsukka, Sowande
read a paper titled, "The Role of Music in Traditional African
Society," at an international conference sponsored by UNESCO in Yaounde,
Cameroon, in February 1970. Sowande wrote and published short essays in
Composer, Africa, World of Music, and African American Affairs. Some of his
unpublished manuscripts include Oruko A Mu T'Orun Wa, The Yoruba Talking
Drum, Children of the Gods among the Yorubas, The Mind of a Nation: The Yoruba
Child, Aspects of Nigerian Music, The African Child in Nigeria,
style='font-style:normal'>and Black Folklore
style='font-style:normal'>.

Fela Sowande is highly respected by the entire caucus of art musicians in
Nigeria. Hardly any professionally trained musician from Nigeria can write or
talk about art music from that part of the world without giving due credit and
respect to Sowande, either by quoting from his literary writings or his
compositions. He laid a solid foundation for modern African art music upon
which subsequent generations are now building. Although in the third
generation, Ayo Bankole (1935-1976) deviated from the traditional conventions
and nationalistic campaign of Sowande, he certainly relied on Sowande's works
as a guide to set him on the right track. Bankole uses mostly 20th-century compositional
devices and tonalities such as 12-tone method and atonality in his organ
works. 

In the fourth generation, I came onto the scene of the 'Nigerian organ
school' to turn the clock back to Sowande's model. Before I started composing
for solo organ, I invested a considerable amount of time studying Fela
Sowande's organ works in order to develop my own personal style. All my
published compositions for organ (Wayne Leupold Editions unless noted
otherwise)--Nigerian Suite No. 1 for Organ Solo, Nigerian Suite No. 2 for
Organ Solo, Impressions from an African Moonlight, Twenty-Five Preludes on
Yoruba Church Hymns--as well as
The Misfortune of a Wise Tortoise for Organ and Narrator
style='font-style:normal'>and Jesu Oba for Trumpet and Organ
style='font-style:normal'> (Florida: Wehr's Music House, 2005), were all
influenced by Sowande's organ works.

Sowande's centenary is widely celebrated all around the world, in the United
States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Nigeria. The Grand
Festival took place in June 2005, in Lagos, Nigeria, where Fela Sowande was
born one hundred years ago. The festival featured presentations of scholarly
papers on the life, contributions, and music of the foremost Nigerian composer
as well as performances of his compositions.