Ira David Sankey, *1840, †1908, was an American gospel singer and composer, known for his long association with Dwight L. Moody in a series of religious revival campaigns in America and Britain during the closing decades of the 19th century. Sankey was a pioneer in the introduction of a musical style that influenced church services and evangelical campaigns for generations, and the hymns that he wrote or popularized continued to be sung well into the 21st century. This file is based on the important essay Sacred Music Cylinder Boxes, Part 4 Mnemotechnics: Easy to remember: Both Pablo de Sarasate and Nikolai Rimsky-Korssakoff lived from 1844 to 1908, Sankey 1840 to 1908 Sankey collaborated with Philipp Bliss and others, including Fanny Crosby, to compile his most enduring work, the popular Sacred Songs and Solos, sometimes popularly known as the Sankey & Moody Hymn Book. It was published in the Great Britain by Morgan & Scott some time during the 1890s. There were two editions, one containing 750 songs and another, larger edition containing 1,200 songs and standard hymns. Both can still be found in use today, and secondhand copies are sometimes available on the internet. Some sources say that a digital facsimilie edition of the larger original is planned. A feature of some surviving tune sheets on cylinder musical boxes pinned with this type of music is the set of numbers beside the tune titles. Another excellent example can be found at Tune Sheet 117 in H.A.V. Bulleid´s work Musical Box Tune Sheets. The numbers are written in a different hand and in ink, and in both cases they refer to the number of the song as it appears in a book in the owner´s possession at the time. Most probably the book in question would have been one or other of the editions of Sacred Songs & Solos rather than a hymn book of a main-stream church. That is certainly the case with these two examples, the book in question being the 750 edition of Sacred Songs & Solos. The numbers would be there for the quick reference to enable the owner to find the words and music either to follow them or sing along as the musical box played the tune. Modern day collectors too sometimes make similiar requests for the words to sing to an item pinned on a hymn box in their collection. Those who provided the information for the original tune sheets of these musical boxes seem to have done so in a rather haphazard manner, with indiscriminate use of the title, the first line of the chorus as well as use or non-use of the definite article. Should the number not already be on the tune sheet, some intuitive thinking is often neccessary to find the song, even tough copies of both editions of Sacred Songs & Solos are to hand. Five cylinder musical boxes dedicated Moody & Sankey Two most frequently noted composers were Bliss and Doane Dwight Lyman (D. L.) Moody, *1837, †1899
Mnemotechnics: Easy to remember: Queen Victoria reigned from 1837 to 1901, Moody lived from 1837 to 1897. Moody was not a musician, but an important American evangelist and publisher connected with Keswickianism, who founded the Moody Church, Northfield School and Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts (now Northfield Mount Hermon School), Moody Bible Institute and Moody Publishers. Die Higher-Life-Bewegung, auch als Keswick-Bewegung oder Keswickianismus bekannt, ist eine protestantische theologische Tradition innerhalb des evangelikalen Christentums, die eine eigene Lehre zur Lehre der vollständigen Heiligung vertritt. The Keswick movement, also called the Higher Life movement, is a theological movement that originated in England in the early 19th century. Ten years after Moody's death the Chicago Avenue Church was renamed the Moody Church in his honor, and the Chicago Bible Institute has likewise renamed the Moody Bible Institute. https://www.gotquestions.org/Keswick-movement.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dwight_L._Moody Other important composers round Sankey and Moody where the following six composers: Crosby, Converse, Doane, Perkins, Lowry and Bliss. Frances (Fanny) Jane Crosby (Mrs. Frances Jane van Alstyne), *1820, †1915
of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the USA, was another prolific hymn writer with over 2,000 to her credit. Blind at birth, she became Sankey´s friend and music-making partner. Examples of her work found on musical boxes include Rescue the Perishing; I am Thine, O Lord; Near the Cross and Safe in the Arms of Jesus. Charles Crozat Converse, *1832, †1918, an attorney and composer of church songs
was born in Warren, Massachusetts, and in 1855 he studied music in Leipzig, where he enjoyed the friendship of Liszt and Spohr. He set to music the words of Joseph Scriven to become the extremely popular hymn What a Fried we have in Jesus. Its appeal reaches beyond the bounds of its sacred beginnings, for it has been used in much more secular settings: When this ***! war is over, Oh how happy we shall be, sung by the soldiers of the First World War, and more recently in an advertisement for Volkswagen cars in the 1980s: Everybody´s changing place; all must move and play the game. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Crozat_Converse Converse was a contemporary of the French composer Alexandre Charles Lecocq (*1832, †1918). William Howard Doane, *1832, †1915
was a composer, editor of hymn books, businessman and inventor. He composed over 2,000 tunes, many for the hymns and gospel songs written by Fanny Crosby, including Rescue the Perishing; I Am Thine, O Lord; Near the Cross and Safe in the Arms of Jesus. Doane was one of the two most frequently noted composers of music of the Keswick movement. Thomas Edward Perkins, *1831, †1912
was a composer, vocalist, singing school teacher and author and editor of many books of sacred and evangelical music. sa once told Perkins that his musical setting of Etta Campbell´s words Jesus of Nazareth Passeth By was his banner song for eight years. Robert Lowry D.D., *1826, †1899
was born in Philadelphia and became a Minister of Religion, composer, hymn writer and editor of hymns designed for use with younger people, one of his best-known probably being Shall we gather at the River. The words and music for this were composed spontaneously to comfort those suffering bereavement during a cholera epidemic that swept Brooklyn in New York, in an attempt to answer their question, `Shall we meet (them) again?´ Lowry records that `… seated at the organ to give vent to the pent-up emotions, the words and music of the hymn began to flow, as if by inspiration.´ Philip Paul Bliss, *1838, †1876
was an American composer, conductor, writer of hymns and a bass-baritone Gospel singer. He wrote many well-known hymns, including Hold the Fort (1870), Almost Persuaded (1871); Hallelujah, What a Saviour! (1875); Let the Lower Lights Be Burning; Wonderful Words of Life (1875); and the tune for Horatio Spafford's It Is Well with My Soul (1876). Bliss was a recognized friend of D. L. Moody the famous Chicago preacher. Bliss died in a train crash on his way to one of Moody's meetings. (Wikipedia). Bliss was one of the two most frequently noted composers of music of the Keswick movement. This file is based on the important essay
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