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The music on cobs #601-700, like the music on cobs #1-100, consists entirely of hymns and hymn tunes; however, while a substantial number of the pieces on cobs #1-100 are “mainstream” evangelical hymns which were widely known in the early roller organ era and many of which remain familiar and are still sung even today, the pieces on cobs #601-700 include only a handful of hymns of this type. This is partly because nearly half of the hymns on cobs #601-700 are foreign ones: cobs #604-608 are all very old German hymns, although they were given English titles and there is no indication on the cob labels that they are of German origin; cobs #636-642 are all “Spanish”, which, as we have noted in the case of the non-religious “Spanish” cobs, could conceivably mean that they contain tunes from Cuba, Mexico or Central or South America rather than Spain itself; and cobs #666-700 contain a mixture of additional German hymns (this time with titles given in German as well as English) and Norwegian hymns. As noted in the paragraphs below about the individual cobs in this latter range, the Norwegian hymns were for the most part derived from earlier German hymns, and many of the German hymn tunes—both those used for the Norwegian hymns and those on the German hymn cobs—are very old, dating in most cases from the seventeenth or even the sixteenth century.

The remaining cobs in this range (#601-603, 609-635 and 643-665), like nearly all of the cobs in the #1-100 range, contain either (1) English-language evangelical hymns or (2) hymn tunes that were used for such hymns and are identified by tune name, generally a single word such as “Saul”, “Sabbath” or “Autumn”. It is interesting to note that the hymns identified by title rather than tune name are grouped in a way that makes it clear that they came from particular hymnals of the day. The hymns on cobs #610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620, 621, 623 and 626 all appeared in an 1887 hymnal compiled by Daniel Brink Towner, Hymns New and Old: For Use in Gospel Meetings and Other Religious Services; the hymns on cobs #644, 645, 646 and 647 all appeared in hymnals compiled by Edwin O. Excell; and the hymns on cobs #649, 650, 651, 652, 654, 655, 657 and 659 all came from an 1871 hymnal, Pure Gold for the Sunday School, compiled by W. Howard Doane and Robert Lowry.

In the introduction to the section on cobs #1-100, Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete (“GH”), the 1894 compilation by Ira D. Sankey, James McGranahan and George C. Stebbins, was mentioned as “a wonderful single source of music and words to the great majority of hymns that appeared on cobs”, and of the 89 English-language hymns or hymn tunes on cobs #1-100 (that is, excluding from the 100 cobs the Finnish hymn (#64) and Swedish hymns (#74-77 and 94-98) and the song on #79, “I'm a Shepherd of the Valley”, which is not a hymn), 70 of them were in GH; by contrast, however, of the 14 hymns mentioned in the preceding paragraph that were in the Towner hymnal, only three, #613, 617 and 621, were also included in GH; of the 4 in the Excell hymnals, only one, #645, was in GH; and of the 8 in Pure Gold, only one, #651 (under the title “The Mistakes of my Life”), was in GH. Of the remaining 13 English-language hymns (as opposed to pieces identified merely by tune name) in the #601-700 numerical range, #601, 602, 603, 609, 630, 633, 634, 635, 643, 648, 653, 656 and 658, only the first 9 of them appeared in GH. Thus, a grand total of only 14 English-language hymns in the #601-700 range were included in the hymnal GH, a much smaller percentage than the percentage of the English-language hymns on cobs #1-100 that were included in GH. This highlights the differences in the origin and sources of the hymns in the two numerical ranges.

GH, as its title, Gospel Hymns Nos. 1 to 6 Complete, indicates, was a compilation from six separate hymnals in which there had been some duplication of hymns and which were published in 1875, 1876, 1878, 1882, 1887 and 1891, respectively. One might ask whether, in light of the fact that so many of the hymns and hymn tunes on cobs #1-100 appeared in GH, the hymnals in the Gospel Hymns series might have been a source from which the Autophone Company took music for inclusion on cobs #1-100, just as the Towner, Excell and Pure Gold hymnals appear to be the likely sources for the music on the three respective groups of cobs in the #601-700 range described above. While it is of course possible that the Gospel Hymns hymnal series was one of the sources the Company used, it certainly could not have been the sole source or even the source from which, for example, all of the pieces on the lowest-numbered cobs in the range were taken, as there are many hymn tunes identified only by one- or two-word names that appeared on cobs in the lower-numbered part of the #1-100 range that are not in GH, including one as low-numbered as #7, “Ariel”, one of the very earliest cobs to appear, as the cobs in the #1-100 range were issued in numerical order. Also, “The Shining Shore”, for example, the hymn on cob #10, again one of the lowest-numbered and, therefore, earliest cobs issued, did not appear in the Gospel Hymns series of hymnals until 1891, when it was included in No. 6 before being carried over into GH when that hymnal was compiled in 1894, and cob #10 would certainly have been issued well before 1891.

As to the dating of the issuance of the cobs in the #601-700 range, no tune on a cob in this range dates from any later than 1887 and it therefore cannot be ascertained from the dates of tunes whether this range of cobs was issued (either partially or completely) before any of the cobs in the lower-numbered ranges.

I was surprised at the great amount of information I was able to find about all the German and Norwegian hymns in this numerical range. I did not, however, attempt to identify the source or sources or the composers of the “Spanish” hymns, all of which have seemingly generic one- or two-word titles like the titles of many of the “Spanish” dance tunes in the #501-600 range. The only English-language hymns for which I was unable to locate information or published music were #648, “The Story Never Old”, and #653, “Pilgrim's Song”.

The cobs in this numerical range provide a good sampling of primarily lesser-known hymns that were popular in America in the early roller organ era as well as a variety of early German hymn tunes, some of them powerful and beautiful and a number of them with unanticipated, unusual meters and an ancient and in some cases mournful or lugubrious sound that is quite different from the typical sound of nineteenth-century American hymn tunes. Included, once again, are many appealing and harmonious arrangements of very pretty pieces that, when played, show off the roller organ well, and it is a pleasure to crank through them and listen to them!

A note on scarcity: Only five of the hymns in this range have a scarcity rating of “C” (“common”) and none has a scarcity rating of “VC” (“very common”) or “MC” (“most common”). On the other hand, while about third of them—33—have a scarcity rating of “S” (“scarce”), only two (#642 and 663) have a rating of “VS” (“very scarce”) and none of them has a rating of “N” (“no known copy”). As such, it is certainly possible, through perseverance, to collect a complete set of the cobs in this range.

#601 - To the Work, Scarcity: LC
This is another hymn the words to which were written by the extremely prolific blind Methodist hymn writer Fanny J. (Jane) Crosby (1820-1915) (see notes to cobs #72 and 384) and the music to which was composed by the comparably prolific Baptist layman and music editor W. (William) Howard Doane (1832-1915) (see notes to cob #30). Crosby wrote the words in 1869, Doane set them to music two years later and Ira Sankey published the hymn in 1875 in Gospel Hymns, the first volume of the six-volume collection that was ultimately combined to form GH. “The work” refers to the salvation of souls and the hymn is an exhortation to “toil on”. References: GH #576, MH, IS

#602 - Only a Step to Jesus, Scarcity: LC
This is still another hymn with words by Fanny J. (Jane) Crosby (1820-1915) (see notes to cobs #72 and 384) and music by W. (William) Howard Doane (1832-1915) (see notes to cob #30), and it appeared in the 1873 collection Royal Diadem, edited by Doane and Robert Lowry (see notes to cob #3). It is an invitation to confess one's sins and receive forgiveness and mercy. Ira Sankey, in his memoirs, tells how a prominent citizen who was not a Christian attended a religious meeting in a small town in the southern United States for only a few minutes and heard only this song, and it remained in his mind and led to his repentance and conversion. References: GH #66, MH, IS

#603 - Knocking, Knocking, Who is There?, Scarcity: LC
The words to this hymn were written by Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896), the Connecticut-born author and abolitionist best known for her 1852 anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin. The music was composed by songwriter, music teacher and music publisher George F. (Frederick) Root (1820-1895), remembered more for his Civil War songs than his hymns (see notes to cobs #10, 384 and 390). The person knocking at the door is Jesus and the listener is invited to admit Him. References: GH #648, MH

#604 - Thy Servant I Will Be, Scarcity: S
Cobs #604-608 all have English-language titles and no indication on their labels that the hymn tunes on them are foreign ones. All of the tunes, however, are associated with German-language hymns (and, in two cases, Norwegian- and Swedish-language hymns as well) and are very old: they date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Cob #604 contains an arrangement of “St. Theodulph”, the tune used for the well-known and still widely-sung Palm Sunday hymn “All Glory, Laud and Honor”. The tune is called “St. Theodulph” because Bishop Theodulph of Orleans, France, a contemporary of the Emperor Charlemagne, wrote the hymn in Latin that was translated into English more than a thousand years later by the scholar, author and Church of England clergyman John M. (Mason) Neale (1818-1866) as “All Glory, Laud and Honor”. The composer of the tune was Melchior Teschner (1584-1635), a Lutheran cantor and pastor from Fraustadt, Silesia, Prussia (now Wschowa, Poland). He composed the tune in 1613 to accompany a German-language hymn with the title “Valet will ich dir geben” (“I want to bid you farewell”) written in that year by Valerius Herberger, Lutheran pastor at Fraustadt, as a funeral hymn after many of the residents of the town were stricken by the plague. The word “valet” in the title is derived from the Latin word “valete” meaning “good-bye” or “farewell”. It is not clear where the English-language title given to the cob, “Thy Servant I Will Be”, came from. Is it possible that someone mistakenly thought that the word “valet” in the title of the German-language hymn meant “servant”, because “valet” in English means a manservant? References: 101MHS, GD

#605 - From Heaven I am Coming, Scarcity: LC
The hymn tune on this cob is another of German origin. It is attributed to the great German theologian and religious reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), who wrote a fifteen-stanza Christmas hymn, “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her”, that was set to the tune. One English translation, “From Heaven Above to Earth I Come”, by Catherine Winkworth, included, in its original form, all of Luther's stanzas and was published, without music, in 1855 in Winkworth's Lyra Germanica. Winkworth (1827-1878) was an Englishwoman who translated a large number of German hymns into English. The tune also appeared, with a different pinning, on one of the hymn cobs in this same numerical range (#666-700) that are identified as either Norwegian or German, #678, “Vom Himmel Hoch (From Heaven High—German)”. Reference: HU

#606 - Be Joyful, O My Soul, Scarcity: S
The hymn tune on this cob is another very old one. It appeared in the 1551 Genevan Psalter and is attributed to Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510-1572), the French-born Calvinist living in Geneva who was musical editor of the Psalter (see notes to cob #71). As the tune accompanied Psalm 42 in the Psalter, it is known by the name “Genevan 42” or simply “Psalm 42”. It is also known by the name “Freu Dich Sehr” because it was later used to accompany the German-language hymn “Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” (“Rejoice Greatly, O my Soul”). The tune has been used to accompany other lyrics as well and also appears, with different pinning, on cobs #76 (“Pask-Psalm (Easter Hymn—Swedish)”), 688 (“Jesu, dine dybe Vunder (Jesus, Thine Deep Wounds—Norwegian)”) and 751, “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum”.

#607 - It is Now Time, Scarcity: S
The hymn tune on this cob is another sixteenth-century German one. It appeared as the tune to accompany a hymn that has come to be known as “Nun Freut Euch” (“Now Rejoice”) or “Luther's Hymn” and that was attributed to “Martinus Luther” on page 27 of Geistliche Lieder, a 1535 hymn collection published by Joseph Klug, a printer in Wittenberg, Germany. The tune was later used for another sixteenth-century German hymn about last days being at hand, “Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit”, the lyrics to which have been translated a number of times into English beginning, for example, “'Tis Sure That Awful Time Will Come”, “The Day is Surely Drawing Near”, etc., in other words, using language similar to “It is Now Time”, the title that appears on the cob. The tune has been used to accompany other lyrics as well and also appears, with different pinning, on cobs #77 (“Midsommar-sang (Midsummer Hymn—Swedish)”) and 700 (“Hvad kan os komme til for nod (No Harm Can Come to Us—Norwegian)”). Reference: JD

#608 - Thank Almighty God, Scarcity: LC
The hymn tune on this cob, known as “Nun Danket”, is another very old German one. It continues in use down to the present day as the tune to the English-language hymn “Now Thank We All Our God” and is attributed to Johann Cruger (1598-1662), a Prussian-born choirmaster, teacher and editor in Berlin. Its German lyrics, “Nun Danket Alle Gott”, were written by Martin Rinkart (1586-1649) of Eilenburg, Saxony, a Lutheran pastor as well as a poet, dramatist and musician, and first appeared accompanied by the tune in Praxis Pietatis Melica, a hymnal compiled by Cruger that was published in many editions beginning in the 1640s. The English-language version of the lyrics is by the prolific translator of German hymns, Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) (see notes to cob #605) and appeared in her Lyra Germanica, 2nd. Ser. of 1858. References: HU, JD, 101HS

#609 - Carried by the Angels, Scarcity: LC
This hymn appeared in Gospel Hymns No. 5 (1887), which was subsequently incorporated into GH. The lyrics, by “El Nathan” (evangelist and hymn writer Major Daniel W. (Webster) Whittle, 1840-1901; see notes to cob #9), ask what will be the end of each of our lives after years on the hard pathway of burdens and burning tears of sorrow. The answer given is that followers of Jesus, though maybe poor on earth, can look forward joyfully to being “carried by the angels” to Paradise like the beggar Lazarus was upon his death in Jesus' parable of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:22). The tune was composed by Whittle's frequent collaborator, the tenor singer, song leader and hymnbook editor James McGranahan (1840-1907; see, again, notes to cob #9). Reference: GH #389

#610 - Move Forward, Scarcity: LC
Although this hymn, another exhortation to be diligent in evangelistic work, was not included in GH, it did appear in The Gospel Choir, a hymn collection by Ira Sankey and James McGranahan with a copyright date of 1885, and in Sacred Songs No. 1, an 1896 hymnal compiled by Sankey, McGranahan and George C. Stebbins, the same three individuals who had together produced Gospel Hymns No. 3, No. 4, No. 5 and No. 6, which were combined with the earlier Gospel Hymns and Sacred Songs and Gospel Hymns No. 2 of Sankey and P. P. Bliss to create GH in 1894. In both cases the lyricist is shown as “G. W. Crofts” and the composer as “D. B. Towner”. It also appeared in an 1887 hymnal compiled by Towner titled Hymns New and Old: For Use in Gospel Meetings and Other Religious Services (HN). Daniel Brink Towner (1850-1919), an important figure in the history of evangelical church music, was a prolific composer of hymn tunes as well as a choir director, teacher and singer. He was born in Rome, Pennsylvania, studied music first with his father and later with George F. Root (see notes to cobs #10 and 603) and George J. Webb (see notes to cob #48) and served as music director at Methodist churches in several states before meeting Dwight L. Moody at a campaign the evangelist conducted in Cincinnati in 1885 at which Towner trained the choir. Moody was so impressed with Towner that he invited him to join him in his evangelistic activities. Towner did so and continued the association for the rest of his life, serving as the first music director of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago from 1893 to 1919. As for the lesser-known George W. Crofts (1842-1909), the Omaha [Nebraska] Daily Bee of November 12, 1887 contained a lengthy article about him titled “The Poet Preacher” which reported that he was born in a primitive log cabin in Boone County, Illinois, began working as an apprentice printer and compositor in newspaper offices at a very early age, entered Illinois State University, Springfield, Illinois at age 19 to prepare for the ministry, began preaching in 1864, served for more than ten years at each of two churches in Illinois and at that time was pastor of the Congregational Church of Council Bluffs, Iowa. The article says that “Move Forward” was the most popular of his poetical works that were set to music and that it seemed to be a favorite of Dwight L. Moody and was sung regularly at his mass evangelistic meetings. According to the article, the circumstances of the creation of the hymn were as follows: shortly after Crofts arrived in Council Bluffs, he attended a mass meeting there at which Moody was to preach, when Moody came onto the stage he said to the singers and others seated in the hall “Move forward” and there was a spontaneous movement to the front, the next day Crofts wrote lyrics based on those words and they were immediately set to music by “Prof. Towner”, who was with Moody at the time. According to newspaper accounts, Crofts subsequently served as pastor of Congregational churches in Beatrice and West Point, Nebraska, and died in 1909. His tombstone in Walnut Hill Cemetery in Council Bluffs shows his years of birth and death. Additional references: HU, 101MHS

#611 - Some Sweet Day, Scarcity: LC
Although there is a hymn in GH (#371) with the title “Some Sweet Day, By and By” with words by Fanny Crosby and music by W. Howard Doane, its tune does not correspond to the tune on the cob; the piece on the cob is instead “Some Sweet Day” with words by Arthur W. French and music by Daniel Brink Towner, which appeared in Grateful Praise: A Collection of New Songs for the Sunday School, edited by J. H. Fillmore (Cincinnati, Fillmore Bros., 1884), with a notice at the foot of the page on which the hymn appeared “Copyright, 1883, by D. B. Towner”. (French's lyrics predated Towner's tune, because another hymnal, Songs of Glory-Land, edited by W. H. Burgett and John McPherson, dating from 1880 and also published in Cincinnati, had included French's lyrics set to a different tune by a “J. F. Kinsey”). The piece also appeared in Towner's 1887 hymnal HN. It is a simple hymn that expresses anticipation of going to Heaven “some sweet day”. As we have seen (see notes to cob #281), French (1846?-1916) was a Bridgeport, Connecticut newspaperman as well as a songwriter who ran advertisements that he was available to write lyrics to both secular and sacred songs. As for Towner (1850-1919), he was a prolific composer of hymn tunes associated with evangelist Dwight L. Moody and served for over 25 years as the music director at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago (see notes to cob #610).

#612 - Somewhere To-night, Scarcity: LC
This hymn is a “tear jerker” along the lines of “Where is my Boy To-night” (cob #23) appealing to the listener to renounce a life of sin: the singer says that somewhere a mother is weeping and praying for her child who “wandereth far away from God and right”. The piece appeared in the 1887 hymnal HN compiled by Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919; see notes to cobs #610 and 611). The lyricist's name is given as “Rev. R. M. Offord” and the composer's name is given as Towner. As the hymns on the preceding two cobs, also with music by Towner, were also included in the same hymnal, none of the three was in the much larger hymn collection GH and none of Towner's hymns appeared on any lower-numbered cobs, perhaps Towner's hymnal was the source from which the Autophone Company drew the three for inclusion on the roller organ. Robert M. (Marshall) Offord (1846-1924) was born in Cornwall in England, emigrated to New York in 1870 and was an editor for many years of the religious newspaper The New York Observer, in which a number of his hymn texts were published. He also served as pastor of the Second Reformed Church in Lodi, New Jersey from its inception in 1878, commuting from his home in Brooklyn, New York until a parsonage was purchased by the church for him in 1883. A year later, he gave up the pastorate to resume full-time editing work at the Observer and lived in Brooklyn and then in Passaic, New Jersey, where, in his later years, he was associated with a real estate company. He is buried at Cedar Lawn Cemetery, Paterson, New Jersey. Reference: JD, U. S. census and city directory entries (information about Offord); A History of the Classis of Paramus of the Reformed Church in America (New York, The Board of Publication, R. C. A., 1902) (contains details of the founding of the Lodi church and Offord's tenure there written by him)

#613 - Wait and Murmur Not, Scarcity: LC
This 1875 hymn was included in GH as #330. The lyricist is given as “W. H. Bellamy” and the composer as “Wm. J. Kirkpatrick”. It is an exhortation to wait patiently for eternal rest in Heaven and in the meantime not murmur (complain) about the burdens of earthly life. William J. (James) Kirkpatrick (1838-1921), a composer, musician, music director, editor and publisher, was another influential figure in evangelical church music who has not been previously discussed here. He was born in Duncannon, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, learned to play several musical instruments at an early age, moved to Philadelphia when he was 16 and pursued the trade of carpentry while furthering his musical studies, did his first music editing at age 20, served as organist and music director at various churches in Philadelphia and also worked at the same time for a number of years as manager of a furniture business. After some of the hymns with tunes by him were published and became popular during the 1870s, his reputation was established and there was a great demand for his services as a composer of hymn tunes. He then went on to compile and edit a large number of very successful and widely-sold hymnbooks, often collaborating with John R. Sweney (see notes to cob # 78), who lived in nearby Chester, Pennsylvania. Kirkpatrick also became a publisher himself and was President of the Praise Publishing Company in Philadelphia, which published many of his own works. Although “W. H. Bellamy”, the lyricist, is a more obscure figure, it appears that he was William Henry Bellamy, an Englishman who wrote a great deal of poetry as well as being a solicitor and who, according to a number of different references, was born in or about 1800 and died in or about 1866. After an American novel with the title The Wide, Wide World by “Elizabeth Wetherell” (a pseudonym of Susan Warner) was published in 1850 and became very popular, Bellamy and Charles William Glover, a violinist and musical director in London theatres as well as a composer, collaborated on an 1853 collection of songs based on passages in the novel with the title Lyrics from the Wide, Wide World, with words by Bellamy and music by Glover. One of the songs in it was titled “The Home Where Changes Never Come” and although Glover's tune was different from Kirkpatrick's the lyrics were very similar to those of “Wait and Murmur Not” as it later appeared in GH: the two main differences are that (1) the first three lines in the first verse in Bellamy and Glover's song are “'The home where changes never come'/Nor pain, nor sorrow, toil nor care;/Yes,'tis a bright, a blessed home” while the corresponding lines in the hymn as it appeared in GH are “O troubled heart, there is a home/Beyond the reach of toil and care;/A home where changes never come” and (2) Bellamy and Glover's song also did not have the chorus that was included in the GH version, beginning “O wait, meekly wait and murmur not”. The changes may have been made by Kirkpatrick, but many more hymnals include the hymn with Bellamy's 1853 lyrics intact but with Kirkpatrick's tune and the chorus than include the version in GH, so the changes in the lyrics may instead have been made by the editors of GH. The hymn was also included in Daniel B. Towner's 1887 hymnal HN with Bellamy's 1853 lyrics but no lyricist's name. References: BG, 101MHS, HU

#614 - Come, Spirit, Come, Scarcity: LC
This is another beautiful but forgotten old invocational hymn that leads one to ask, upon hearing it sung, why it has not survived in use down to the present day. It appeared in Daniel B. Towner's 1887 hymnal HN, in which the lyricist is shown as Mrs. Harriet Jones and the composer as Towner (1850-1919; see notes to cobs #610-613) and its copyright date is also given as 1887. It was not included in GH. Harriet E. (Rice) Jones (1823-1915), a Methodist, was born in Onondaga County in upstate New York and lived there for her entire long life. She received her only education in local schools but read widely and after her talent for writing poetry was discovered she was asked to furnish the lyrics for hundreds of hymns set to music by Towner and others. Reference: BG

#615 - Hiding in the Rock, Scarcity: S
Like the preceding hymns with tunes by Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919) (see notes to cobs #610-612 and 614), this hymn was not included in GH but appeared in Towner's 1887 hymnal HN. The lyricist is shown as “Rev. H. B. Hartzler”, the composer is shown as “Chas. H. Gabriel” and the arranger as Towner, who once again is also shown as the owner of the copyright for the hymn, with a date of 1887. The hymn is an affirmation of the singer's safety and security in God. Henry Burns Hartzler (1840-1920) was born in Pennsylvania and served as an Evangelical Association minister there for several years after being licensed by that denomination in 1869. He spent most of his career, however, as an editor of religious periodicals. He also wrote a considerable number of poems and hymns beginning at an early age, was associated with evangelist Dwight L. Moody and served for a time as chaplain and Bible teacher at Mt. Hermon School and Northfield Seminary in Northfield, Massachusetts, which Moody founded, and from 1902 to 1910 was a Bishop in the United Evangelical Church. Charles H. (Hutchinson) Gabriel (1856-1932) was a major figure in the world of evangelical hymns, although at the time he composed the music for the little-known hymn “Hiding in the Rock” he was still at an early point in his career, which extended well into the twentieth century. He grew up on a farm in Iowa, taught himself to play his family's home reed organ, became a teacher in singing schools when he was only in his teens and began writing songs and selling them for small sums of money. In time, he became established as both a lyricist and composer and it is estimated that, during his life, he was involved in the writing of more than 8,000 gospel hymns. He also edited a large number of hymn collections, many of which were published in the 1890s, and in the latter part of his life was associated with Homer Rodeheaver, evangelist Billy Sunday's song leader, and Rodeheaver's music publishing company, both as a composer of hymns that were used at Sunday's evangelistic crusades and as music editor of Rodeheaver hymnals. Additional references: The Encyclopedia of World Methodism (Nashville, The United Methodist Publishing House, 1974) (article about Hartzler), 101HS, 101MHS, BG

#616 - When My Saviour I Shall See, Scarcity: LC
This is still another hymn that did not appear in GH but was included in Daniel B. Towner's 1887 hymnal HN. No lyricist's name is given, just “Arr. P. H. Roslin”, and the composer's name is given as “P. Bilhorn”, who is also shown as the copyright owner for the hymn with a date of 1887. Peter (Philip) Bilhorn (1859-1936), a hymnwriter, singing evangelist and compiler and publisher of hymnals, was born in Mendota, Illinois and is buried in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California, with a tombstone that corroborates the years of his birth and death. HU, 101HS and 101MHS instead give his birth date as 1865 and HU adds that he was born only a few months after his father, a carriage maker, was killed in the Civil War, but this cannot be correct, in light of the year of his birth on his tombstone and the fact that he was listed in the 1860 U.S. Census as a very young child living with his parents in Mendota in that year. This sort of discrepancy makes me nervous because it calls into question the correctness of other details given about hymnwriters in books that I have regarded as authoritative; it is, however, possible that Bilhorn may have intentionally understated his age as he got older, and later U.S. Census records are further inconsistent with one another with regard to his age. According to the additional information about him in HU, 101HS and 101MHS, which also may not be completely accurate, when he was still in his teens he and his older brother founded a wagon and carriage works in Chicago and in his spare time he also performed publicly as a singer. After he was converted as a young man at a revival meeting he studied music, became a singing evangelist and traveled widely, accompanying himself using a small portable folding reed organ which he had invented and which he later manufactured and sold. He composed a large number of evangelical hymns, compiled and published hymn collections and was evangelist Billy Sunday's first song leader, before Homer Rodeheaver (see notes to cob #615). “P. H. Roslin” was apparently a misprint for “P. H. Roblin”, a pseudonym Bilhorn used by rearranging the letters of his name; in Bilhorn's own hymn collections, Crowning Glory No. 1, published by Bilhorn in 1890, and Bilhorn's Male Chorus No. 1, published by Bilhorn Bros. in 1893, “When my Saviour I Shall See” is included with the notation, as to the lyricist, “Arr. P. B.”, with no reference to “Roslin” or “Roblin”.

#617 - God be With You, Scarcity: C
The well-known and familiar closing hymn on this cob has continued to be sung in a number of Protestant denominations right down to the present day. The cob was one of the better-selling ones in this numerical range and is one of only five with a scarcity rating of “C” (“Common”). Many of the other hymns in this range that have been discussed so far were by prolific hymnwriters and composers who were important figures in the evangelical music world in the early roller organ era but were their lesser-known hymns rather than the more familiar hymns for which they are remembered; the lyrics to this piece, by contrast, were written by Jeremiah E. (Eames) Rankin (1828-1904), a prominent Congregational minister in Washington, D.C. who is remembered as a powerful preacher and later served as President of Howard University in Washington, but, apart from being the author of this very popular hymn, is not especially remembered as a hymnwriter, and the tune was composed by an even lesser-known individual, William G. (Gould) Tomer (1833-1896), who was a schoolteacher in his native New Jersey for many years but lived and worked for part of his life in Washington, D.C. and served as music director at a Methodist Church there and who was invited by Rankin to provide a tune to accompany Rankin's lyrics even though, according to Rankin, Tomer was “wholly unknown and not thoroughly educated in music”. The hymn was published in an 1880 collection with the title Gospel Bells, edited by John W. Bischoff (the organist at Rankin's church), Otis F. Presbrey (the Sunday School superintendent at Rankin's church) and Rankin himself; Rankin later wrote that the hymn dated from 1882, but he was apparently mistaken about this date. The hymn later appeared in GH as #340 and was frequently used at the revival meetings of evangelist Dwight L. Moody and his song leader Ira Sankey; this, of course, added to its popularity. It was also included in Daniel B. Towner's 1887 hymnal HN. References: 101MHS, HU, IS, MC, HH

#618 - Anywhere With Jesus, Scarcity: LC
This is one of the better-known hymns with music by composer, choir director, teacher and singer Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919) (see also notes to cobs #610-612, 614-615) and again appeared in his 1887 hymnal HN but not in GH. The writer of the lyrics is given as “Jessie H. Brown” and there is a notation at the bottom of the page “Copyright, 1887, by D. B. Towner”. The singer expresses confidence about being able to go anywhere without fear because of being led by Jesus. Jessie H. Brown (whose married name was Pounds following her marriage in 1896) (1861-1921) was born in Hiram, Ohio, was educated primarily at home as a child because of her poor health, began submitting pieces she had written to Cleveland newspapers and religious weeklies when she was in her teens, was invited by music publisher J. H. Fillmore to write some hymns for one of his collections and ultimately wrote the lyrics for over 400 evangelical hymns as well as for the inspirational song “Beautiful Isle of Somewhere” (not on the roller organ), which was sung at the funeral of President William McKinley following his assassination in 1901 and became a staple at funerals thereafter. “Anywhere with Jesus”, with a slightly different pinning, also appeared on cob #721, apparently because of an oversight on the part of the Autophone Company. References: HU, TS (article about Pounds including a photograph of her)

#619 - Trust and Obey, Scarcity: LC
This is another familiar and well-known hymn that has remained in use in some Protestant denominations down to the present day. Once again its music was by the great composer of evangelical hymns Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919) (see also notes to cobs #610-612, 614-615 and 618) and it appeared in his 1887 hymnal HN but not in GH. According to Towner, he was singing at a revival meeting in Brockton, Massachusetts conducted by evangelist Dwight L. Moody when a young man stood up to give his testimony and said “I am not quite sure—but I am going to trust, and I am going to obey”. Towner wrote down this sentence and sent it, with the details surrounding it, to a Presbyterian minister named John H. Sammis and Sammis first wrote what became the refrain of the hymn and then completed the verses, Towner set Sammis' lyrics to music and the resulting hymn was first published shortly afterwards in HN. Sammis (1846-1919) was born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Logansport, Indiana when he was in his early twenties and, after working for a time in business and as a Y.M.C.A. secretary, felt called to the ministry, attended seminary, was ordained as a Presbyterian minister when he was in his mid thirties and served churches in a number of Midwestern states before moving to California and becoming a faculty member at the Bible Institute of Los Angeles. He wrote over 100 hymns, the best-known and most enduring of which is “Trust and Obey”. References: 101MHS, HU, IS, TS (article about Sammis including a photograph of him)

#620 - Draw Me Closer to Thee, Scarcity: LC
This hymn is also known by the title “Closer to Thee, my Father Draw Me”, which is the first line of the first verse, and it is still another hymn that appeared in Daniel B. Towner's 1887 hymnal HN but not in GH. The hymn also appeared as early as 1877 in a hymnal with the title Jasper and Gold, edited by Tullius C. O'Kane (see notes to cob #20) and published in Cincinnati, and also in 1878 in Spiritual Songs for Gospel Meetings and the Sunday School edited by Elisha A. Hoffman and J. H. Tenney and published in Cleveland. In each case the lyricist is given as “Mrs. E. W. Chapman” and the composer as Tenney. In the three verses the singer addresses God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, respectively, asking to be embraced and purified. Anzentia (known as “Angie”) Igene Perry Chapman (1849-1889) was born in Michigan, was the wife of Edwin Willard Chapman, a traveling Free Methodist preacher, and wrote a number of hymns that were published in hymn collections of her day. J. H. (John Harrison) Tenney (1840-1918) was born in Rowley, Massachusetts, northeast of Boston, the son of a farmer and shoemaker who was also a choir leader; learned to read music and compose tunes at an early age; began contributing compositions to musical publications; became both a hymn composer and lyricist; edited over thirty hymn collections; served as a church organist and choir leader; and was a deacon in a Congregational church in Linebrook, Massachusetts, not far from his birthplace in Rowley. His tombstone in Linebrook Cemetery gives his name as “J. Harrison Tenney” and confirms his birth and death years; his death record listed his occupation as “farmer”. References: U.S. Census records for 1850, 1860, 1870 and 1880 including entries for Mrs. Chapman, and Michigan marriage record showing her marriage in 1868 at age 19 to Edwin W. Chapman (whose occupation, “Minister of the Gospel”, was for some reason crossed out in the record and replaced by “Farmer”) (In these records, Mrs. Chapman's unusual first name is spelled in a number of different ways!), BG (information about Tenney)

#621 - Seeking for Me, Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in GH (1894), as #280, as well as in HN (1887). In GH, the lyricist's name is given as merely “A.N.” and the composer's name is given as “E. E. Hasty”; in HN, no lyricist's name is given and Hasty's name again appears as the composer. The hymn appeared as early as 1878 in a hymn collection with the title Good Will, edited by T. Martin Towne and J. M. Stillman and published in Chicago, again giving no lyricist's name, and, although the hymn is no longer widely sung today, it ultimately appeared in over 100 other hymnals. One later hymnal that included the piece, The Standard Church Hymnal, edited by C. C. Cline and published in Cincinnati in 1888, shows “E. E. Hasty” as lyricist and “Emerson E. Hasty” as composer, and another hymnal, Songs for Christ and Church, edited by William Fletcher McCauley and published in Dayton, Ohio in 1892, gives “E.E.H.” as lyricist and “Elmer E. Hasty” as composer. A hymnal with the title Welcome Songs, edited by T. Martin Towne and David C. Cook and published in Chicago in 1894, gives “E.E.H.” as lyricist and “E. E. Hasty” as composer, and as Towne was also involved in the editing of Good Will, mentioned above, the earliest hymnal I have found in which the hymn appeared, deference should probably be given to him that Hasty was the lyricist rather than, as GH said, someone with the initials “A.N.”. An unexpected source of information about Emerson (not Elmer) E. Hasty (1840-1914) is a biographical article about him in Vol. V, No. 6 of The Bee-Keepers' Review, published in Flint, Michigan in 1892, as Hasty was a noted beekeeper in addition to being (as the article notes) the author of this hymn and he wrote a piece about beekeeping for that issue of that publication. According to the article, Hasty was born in Maine 52 years earlier, was brought to Ohio as a young child, was involved in beekeeping from an early age, regretted not going to college and attempted to make up for it through private study, and also regretted not entering the ministry but was much more devoted to “pushing the cause of Christian truth in the world” than he was to his bees. The article adds that he considered “Seeking for Me” his greatest musical work. His tombstone in Joy Cemetery, Ottawa Hills, Ohio confirms his birth and death dates.

#622 - Lebanon, Scarcity: LC
On this cob we once again have a hymn tune that is identified only by the tune name rather than by the title or opening line of a hymn sung to the tune. The tune was composed by John Zundel (1815-1882), who was born in Germany and first served as an organist and bandmaster in St. Petersburg, Russia before emigrating to the United States in 1847. For many years he was organist at Plymouth Church, the Congregational church in Brooklyn, New York at which the great opponent of slavery and fiery preacher Henry Ward Beecher was pastor, and he collaborated with Beecher and Beecher's brother Charles in producing the 1855 Plymouth Collection hymnal, in which the tune “Lebanon” first appeared. In the hymnal it was linked, as it most frequently is, with the lyrics “I Was a Wandering Sheep” by the Scottish minister, religious leader and prolific hymnwriter Horatius Bonar (1808-1889). Bonar's title for his hymn was “Lost but Found” and it first appeared in his Songs in the Wilderness in 1843. References: MC, HU, HH

#623 - The Garden of the Lord, Scarcity: S
This is another hymn with music by composer, choir director, teacher and singer Daniel B. Towner (1850-1919) (see also notes to cobs #610-612, 614-615, 618-619) and appeared in Towner's 1887 hymnal HN with the notice “Copyright, 1885, by D. B. Towner”. It had also appeared previously in the 1885 hymnal The Gospel Choir, edited by Ira D. Sankey and James McGranahan, two of the editors of GH, but did not appear in GH. The lyricist's name is given as “Mrs. C. L. Shacklock” and the singer asks whether you are working in the Lord's garden here on earth and will reap a rich reward at the setting of the sun for faithful toil and service. Mrs. Shacklock wrote lyrics for a large number of hymns that were published in hymn collections of her day, including some other pieces with music by Towner. A footnote in an 1888 book with the title Woman in Sacred Song. A Library of Hymns, Religious Songs and Sacred Music by Woman. (Eva Munson Smith, ed., Oakland, California, Arthur E. Whitney; the title does use the word “Woman” rather than “Women”) says that Mrs. Shacklock lived in Cresco, Iowa, and was the author of over 400 songs. An obituary article in the Iowa Plain Dealer of January 13, 1887 reported the death of Caroline L. Shacklock, wife of Joseph, in Cresco at the age of 55 and said she had been a resident of Cresco for only a few months, had been “connected with various leading newspapers” including the New Orleans Times-Democrat, the Mobile Register and the Chicago Times, and was a “favorite contributor to many other journals” as well as to publications of Sunday School promoter and pioneer David C. Cook. The article added “many of her beautiful songs have been set to music and sung into the hearts of the children. Her select songs and stories sparkle with original wit and humor and betray a high order of literary talent”. The article also said that she had been a consistent member of the Episcopal Church for 35 years. She had formerly lived in Indiana; in the 1880 U. S. census, Joseph and Caroline Shacklock, husband and wife, were listed as both being 51 years old (which is not consistent with her being 55 at the time of her death in 1887) and living in La Porte, Indiana, where Joseph worked as a jeweler and Caroline's occupation was “housekeeping”, and she was listed as having been born in New York and he in England.

#624 - Duane Street, Scarcity: S
The pretty and stirring hymn tune “Duane Street” dates from 1835 and was written by George Coles (1792-1858), a preacher who was also an accomplished flautist and who emigrated from England to the United States as a young man and settled in New York, where he served as an editor of the Christian Advocate. Duane Street is a street in the lower part of what is now the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Coles was associated with the New York Conference of the Methodist Church and HH and MC note the use of this tune in the 1905 and 1935 versions, respectively, of The Methodist Hymnal with lyrics by the eighteenth-century hymnwriter John Cennick, “Jesus, my All, to Heaven is Gone”. The same lyrics had also been linked with the tune much earlier and appeared together in, for example, The Christian Melodist (William Gunn and Thomas Harrison, eds., Louisville, Kentucky, Morton and Griswold, 1850). Cennick's lyrics, however, are linked with Coles' tune in only a small proportion of all hymnals in which the lyrics have appeared and, on the other hand, Coles' tune has been linked with a number of other hymns, none of them familiar except for the Doxology (“Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow”), for which it has been selected, in a small number of cases, as an alternative to the much more familiar “Old Hundredth” (cob #71). Coles is not remembered for any other hymn tune.

#625 - Saul, Scarcity: LC
The tune on this cob is an abbreviated arrangement of the funeral march or “dead march” from the oratorio “Saul”, by classical composer George Frederick Handel (1685-1759). It has been used as the tune for a funeral hymn under the tune name “Saul” (Carmina Sanctorum (Roswell Dwight Hitchcock, Zachary Eddy, Lewis Ward Mudge, eds., New York, A. S. Barnes & Co., 1886)), “Dirge” (Songs for the Sanctuary (Charles S. Robinson, ed., New York, A. S. Barnes & Co., 1867)), “Funeral Dirge” (The American Vocalist (D. H. Mansfield, ed., Boston, Thompson, Bigelow and Brown, 1849)) or “Interment” (The Gospel Psalmist (J. G. Adams and S. B. Ball, eds., Boston, Universalist Publishing House, 1861)), in each case linked with lyrics beginning “Unveil thy bosom, faithful tomb” by English hymn writer Isaac Watts (1674-1748).

#626 - Walk in the Light, Scarcity: LC
This is another hymn that was not included in GH but appeared in Daniel B. Towner's 1887 hymnal HN. The lyricist's name is given there as Bernard Barton and the composer's as J. H. Burke. Like “We're Marching to Zion” (see notes to cob #100), this hymn originally had no chorus and was sung at a slow tempo to a different melody (most frequently the tune “Manoah”, on cob #35) and an evangelical hymnwriter, in this case Burke, composed a new tune for it with a quicker tempo and added a lively chorus (which in this case is longer than the verse itself). Bernard Barton (1784-1849) was an English Quaker who found time to write a great deal of poetry during forty years of working as a bank clerk. His poem that became the original portion of “Walk in the Light” first appeared in his Devotional Verses, published in 1826, one of a number of collections of his poetry that found their way into print. J. H. Burke (1855-1901) was a gospel singer and song leader who was associated with evangelist Dwight L. Moody and also traveled widely in the same capacity with Scottish evangelist John McNeill. An 1894 book titled A Month with Moody in Chicago: his Work and Workers by Henry Marvin Wharton (Baltimore, Wharton & Barron Publishing Co.) included a brief biography and a photograph of Burke and reported that he was born in Ireland in 1855, came to the United States in 1873, joined Moody's church in Chicago, became a song leader first for the Y. M. C. A. and then with evangelists including Moody and Major Whittle, and went to Scotland in 1890 at the request of Moody and Ira Sankey and joined McNeill in his evangelistic endeavors in the British Isles for a year and a half. Reference: MH #378 (the original hymn, before Burke's alterations), HU, HH, MC, The McHenry [Illinois] Plaindealer, November 28, 1901 (article about Burke's death at his home in Wheaton, Illinois, confirming the years of his birth and immigration to the U.S.), Record of Christian Work (monthly periodical published by Fleming H. Revell Co., Chicago, New York and Toronto), October, 1894 issue (article about visit by McNeill and Burke to Hobart, Tasmania)

#627 - Sabbath, Scarcity: S
The hymn tune “Sabbath” was written by the prolific Lowell Mason (1792-1872) (see notes to cob #2), sometimes called “the father of American hymnody”, specifically to accompany the 1774 hymn “Safely Through Another Week” by John Newton (1725-1807) (see notes to cob #37), the English reformed slave trader who became an Anglican pastor and wrote hundreds of hymns, the best known of which is “Amazing Grace”. References: MC, HU, The New Sabbath Hymn & Tune Book (New York, Mason Brothers, 1869) (later edition of an 1859 hymnal that had been co-edited by Mason; the 1869 edition, unlike the 1859 edition, linked the tune “Sabbath”, identified by that name, with Newton's lyrics and attributed the tune to Mason)

#628 - Balerma, Scarcity: S
This pretty and simple hymn tune has, over the years, been used with a variety of different lyrics, but there is no one familiar hymn especially associated with it. It is attributed to a Scottish choir director who was a weaver by trade named Robert Simpson (1790-1832), whose arrangement of the tune (which is sometimes spelled “Ballerma”) was found among his papers shortly after his death and was published the following year in a collection of sacred music. The tune does not appear to have been an original composition by Simpson, however; instead, it appears that he adapted it from a tune by a French-born violinist, orchestra conductor and classical composer in London who wrote primarily operas and concert pieces named Francois Hippolyte Barthelemon (1741-1808). Barthelemon composed his tune to accompany a ballad with the title “Durandarte and Belerma”, and the name “Balerma” for Simpson's adaptation of the tune presumably comes from the name “Belerma” in the title of the ballad. The same ballad tune by Barthelemon was also taken and used, essentially unchanged, as the hymn tune “Autumn”, which appeared on cob #631. Some sources attribute “Balerma” directly to Barthelemon rather than to Simpson despite the fact that Simpson's apparent adaptation of Barthelemon's ballad tune created a tune very different from it, as can be seen by comparing “Balerma” to “Autumn”. “Balerma” appeared twice (to accompany hymns #242 and #260) in the 1905 Methodist Hymnal. References: HU; MC; James Love, Scottish Church Music: Its Composers and Sources (William Blackwood and Sons, Edinburgh and London, 1891)

#629 - Marlow, Scarcity: S
The original version of this old hymn tune was written by the English clergyman and composer of sacred music John Chetham (1665-1746) and appeared as accompaniment to Psalm 133 in his Book of Psalmody, first published in 1718. It was later arranged by the prolific American hymn tune composer Lowell Mason (1792-1872) and the melody in the version that appeared under the name “Marlow” in Masons' Sacred Harp, Lowell Mason and [his brother] T. B. Mason, arrangers and composers (Cincinnati, Truman & Smith, 1835), corresponds to the tune on the cob. The hymn with which the tune has most frequently been associated is “Am I a Soldier of the Cross” by the prolific English hymnwriter Isaac Watts, (1674-1748), although the tune “Arlington” (on Grand cob #2105) is used more frequently for that hymn.

#630 - The Prodigal Child, Scarcity: S
This is one of the relatively few hymns in this numerical range that appeared in GH. The lyricist was Ellen M. (Maria) H. (Huntington) Gates and the composer W. (William) Howard Doane. Mrs. Gates (1835-1920) was born in Torrington, Connecticut, lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey and later in New York City and, in addition to writing hymns, wrote non-religious poetry, some of which was published in periodicals such as Harper's Monthly and The Century Magazine. Doane (1832-1915), whose name has arisen frequently in discussions of previous cobs, wrote a very large number of hymn tunes and participated in the preparation of dozens of hymn collections (see notes to cob #30). “The Prodigal Child” is sometimes referred to by the first line of its first verse, “Come home! Come home! You are weary at heart”. References: GH #627, JD, MC, 1870 and 1880 U.S. Census records showing Mrs. Gates as living in Elizabeth, New Jersey in those years and 1900, 1910 and 1920 U.S. Census records showing her as living in the Borough of Manhattan, New York City, in those years.

#631 - Autumn, Scarcity: S
As noted in the discussion of “Balerma” (see notes on cob #628), the hymn tune “Autumn” was taken, essentially unchanged, from a tune by Francois Hippolyte Barthelemon (1741-1808), a French-born violinist, orchestra conductor and classical composer in London who wrote primarily operas and concert pieces and who composed the tune to accompany a ballad with the title “Durandarte and Belerma”. “Autumn” has been used as the tune for dozens of hymns, but the hymn with which the tune has probably been most frequently linked is “Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus”, by John Bakewell (1721-1819), an English lay preacher and follower of John Wesley. It has sometimes been claimed that the tune was played by the orchestra on board the Titanic as the ship sank in 1912, but this was apparently based on a statement by a wireless operator on the ship who survived the sinking and was later interviewed and who may have been referring not to the hymn tune (which he would most likely not have known by the name “Autumn”) but rather to a waltz tune popular at the time that had the French word for “autumn” (“automne”) in its title. Reference: HH (biography of Bakewell), 1905 Methodist Hymnal #271 and MH #166 (two instances in which “Hail, Thou Once-Despised Jesus” was linked with the tune “Autumn”)

#632 - Leighton, Scarcity: S
This unusual hymn tune is attributed to Henry W. (Wellington) Greatorex (1813-1858) (see notes to cob #35), who was born in England, emigrated to the United States as a young man and served as organist at churches in Hartford, Connecticut, New York City and Charleston, South Carolina. He compiled A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, Chants, Anthems and Sentences, sometimes called simply the “Greatorex Collection”, published in 1851. In addition to “Leighton”, the Collection included the hymn tune “Manoah” (cob #35) and Greatorex's well-known “Gloria Patri No. 1”, which is still widely used. In the alphabetical index to the Collection, Greatorex indicated which tunes were his own compositions by including his initials, “H. W. G.”, after their titles; “Leighton” as well as “Gloria Patri No. 1”, but not “Manoah”, were so marked as his. There is no one familiar hymn especially associated with the tune “Leighton”. In GH, the tune was used for a hymn with the title “Laborers of Christ, Arise”, by Lydia H. (Huntley) Sigourney (1791-1865). The name given for the tune, however, was not “Leighton” but “Ahira”, although the tune was correctly attributed to Greatorex. In the 1905 Methodist Hymnal, “Leighton” was linked with a hymn published in 1781 beginning “My soul, be on thy guard” by an English pastor named George Heath. Incidentally, Greatorex's birth year is sometimes incorrectly given as 1811 or 1816, but the record of his baptism at St. Marylebone Parish Church in London on February 2, 1814 includes his date of birth as December 24, 1813. Additional references: HU, MC, HH, JD

#633 - When Jesus Comes, Scarcity: LC
This is another hymn with both words and music by the great hymnwriter, singer, song leader and hymn book editor P. P. (Philip Paul) Bliss (1838-1876) (see notes to cobs #12 and 27). According to Ira Sankey, it was written by Bliss in 1872 after he overheard two friends talking about the return of Jesus to Earth and the joy and comfort it gave them that it might occur at any time. After he thought about this subject for a few days, both the words and music reportedly came to him spontaneously and he wrote out the hymn immediately in the same form in which it was ultimately published. Although this story of the origin of the hymn has been repeated in a number of places, the date of 1872 appears to be incorrect, as there is, in the U.S. Library of Congress collection (MN), a copy of a single page of sheet music for the hymn that looks like it might have been removed from a hymnbook and it has on it both a printed copyright date of 1871 and a hand-stamped date of December 4, 1871. The hymn was included in Bliss' collections The Joy and Sunshine for Sunday-Schools, both dating from 1873. References: GH #37, IS

#634 - Shall we Gather at the River, Scarcity: C
This cob is another of only five in this numerical range with a scarcity rating of “C” (“common”), reflecting the fact that the hymn on it was at least formerly very well-known and popular. Both the lyrics and music were written in 1864 by Baptist minister, hymnwriter and hymnbook editor Robert Lowry (1826-1899) (see notes to cob #3) while he was pastor of the Hanson Place Baptist Church in Brooklyn, New York and it appeared in the collections Happy Voices (published by the American Tract Society, New York, 1865) and Bright Jewels for the Sunday School (edited by Lowry, 1869). As in “The Sweet Bye and Bye” (cob #1), the lyrics anticipate the joy of being in Heaven, “With its crystal tide forever/Flowing by the throne of God”. The hymn was written by Lowry hastily at a time of widespread death because of a raging epidemic and casualties during the American Civil War. In the following year, when Sunday school children were assembled on Children's Day in Brooklyn, it was sung by more than 40,000, and, IS says, “There was not a child from the gutter or a mission waif who did not know it”. Ironically, however, despite the fact that it was the most widely popular of all his hymns, Lowry said “It is brass band music, has a march movement, and for that reason has become popular, though for myself I do not think much of it”. References: GH #669, IS, BG, JD

#635 - Happy Day, Scarcity: C
This cob is still another of only five in this numerical range with a scarcity rating of “C” (“common”), again attesting to the onetime popularity of the hymn on it. The words to the verses were written by Philip Doddridge (1702-1751), an English nonconformist minister, theologian, teacher and author who wrote nearly 400 hymns. The refrain was added later and the tune to the refrain, at least, is said to be an adaptation of a secular piece, “Happy Land”, by Edward F. (Francis) Rimbault (1816-1876), an English musician, composer, scholar and writer. It is unclear who wrote the words to the refrain and who composed the tune to the verse, but the full tune (verse and refrain), similar, but not identical, to the tune as it appears on the cob was published with the full lyrics just as they later appeared in GH in an 1854 collection, The Wesleyan Sacred Harp, ed. by W. McDonald and S. Hubbard (page 15, “second hymn” to the tune). Because “Happy Day” was frequently sung in Skid Row missions, it was parodied by substituting for the first verse “O happy day that fixed my choice/On Thee, my Saviour and my God” the lyrics “How dry I am! How dry I am!/ Nobody knows how dry I am”, generally sung (sometimes accompanied by hiccupping) by a drunkard or a chorus of drunks. References: GH #543, MC, HU, HH (in which it was called “one of the best revival hymns ever written”), 101MHS

#636 - Saudades (Spanish), Scarcity: LC

#637 - Certeza (Spanish), Scarcity: S

#638 - Mundo Feliz (Spanish), Scarcity: S

#639 - Chamanda (Spanish), Scarcity: LC

#640 - Caridade (Spanish), Scarcity: S

#641 - Memorial (Spanish), Scarcity: LC

#642 - Exultacao (Spanish), Scarcity: VS

#643 - Coming To-day, Scarcity: LC
This is another hymn with lyrics by the very prolific blind Methodist hymnwriter Fanny J. (Jane) Crosby (1820-1915) (see notes to cobs #72 and 384). The tune is by John R. (Robson) Sweney (1837-1899) (see notes to cobs #78 and 451), the music teacher and choir director in the Philadelphia area who also wrote a large number of hymn tunes and edited many hymnals. The hymn's message to sinners is that Jesus is seeking and calling them and they are urged to “Come to Him quickly, say to Him gladly, Lord, I am coming, coming to-day”. Reference: GH #513

#644 - Come to Me, Scarcity: S
This obscure hymn did not appear in either GH or HN, but was included, with a copyright date of 1881, in an 1885 hymnal with the title The Gospel in Song, both edited by E. O. Excell and published by him in Chicago. It had apparently also appeared in an earlier Excell hymnal with the title Sing the Gospel, which was one of two of his hymnals that were combined with some new material to produce The Gospel in Song. The lyricist's name was given as “Mrs. J. C. Yule” and the composer's name as Excell himself. E. (Edwin) O. (Othello) Excell (1851-1921) was another influential figure in evangelical church music who has not been previously discussed here. He was born in Ohio, the son of a German Reformed pastor; in his early years worked as a plasterer and bricklayer as well as a singing school teacher; was associated, as a singer, song leader and choir director, with a number of evangelists including the Southern revivalist Sam Jones and, late in Excell's life, the English-born evangelist Gipsy Smith; wrote, composed or arranged over 2,000 hymns; and headed a music publishing company in Chicago that published a large number of hymn collections that sold many millions of copies. “Mrs. J. C. Yule” (Pamelia S. Vining (1825 or 1826-1897)) was the wife of James Colton Yule, a Canadian professor, and wrote a memoir about him that was included in a book relating to him titled Records of a Vanished Life published in Toronto by the Baptist Publishing Co. in 1876. The lyrics to “Come to Me”, without the chorus (which was presumably added by Excell) were published in an 1881 book of poems by Mrs. Yule, Poems of the Heart and Home (Toronto, Bengough, Moore & Co.), under the title “ 'Come Unto Me' ”. References: HU; 101HS; Ontario, Canada death record for Mrs. Yule on March 6, 1897 at the age of 71

#645 - In the Shadow of His Wings, Scarcity: LC
This hymn appeared in GH as #306. The lyricist is given as Rev. J. B. Atchinson and the composer is given as E. O. Excell (1851-1921) (see notes to the previous cob; like “Come to Me”, this hymn was included in Excell's 1885 collection The Gospel in Song). The hymn celebrates the rest, peace and joy to be found in the shadow of God's wings. Jonathan B. Atchinson (1840-1882) was a Methodist minister who was born in Wilson, Niagara County, New York (where he is also buried), enlisted as a musician in the Union Army during the American Civil War, was licensed to preach in 1869, served as editor of several Sunday school publications in addition to being a church pastor in New York and Michigan and wrote the lyrics to a large number of hymns. He was also a Sunday school music enthusiast and had collected copies of every Sunday school singing book published in the previous fifty years (over 500 volumes). Reference: Minutes and Register of the Twenty-Seventh Session of the Detroit Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church (Detroit, Methodist Publishing Company, 1882) (memoir of Atchinson)

#646 - Safe to Land, Scarcity: LC
This obscure hymn, which is not in GH or HN, is another with music by E. O. Excell (1851-1921) (see notes to cob #644). It appeared in the 1887 hymn collection Triumphant Songs, edited by Excell. The lyrics express confidence that Jesus will bring the singer safely to land through the billows of life's dark sea. The author of the lyrics is given as Mrs. Emma Pitt (1845 or 1846-1919), who wrote the lyrics to hundreds of hymns, many of them intended for children, and compiled and published two hymn collections, Gospel Light for the Sunday School (1884) and Buds and Blossoms for the Little Ones (1889). The back cover of the latter book reads “Emma Pitt, Publisher of Sunday School Music, Christmas and Easter Carols, 631 N. Carey St., Baltimore, Md.” U.S. Census records for Baltimore for 1880 include an Emma Pitt, widowed, age 34, born in Maryland, with four children, occupation “keeping house”; in the records for 1910 she is shown as age 65, occupation “own income” and living with her youngest child Lela. Tracing her through Baltimore city directories, she is listed at the N. Carey St. address from 1889 through 1896, then at 628 N. Gilmor from 1897 until 1914. She is not listed in the 1915 directory, but reappears in the 1916-1918 directories at 3708 Springdale Avenue. An obituary article about her, describing her as a “writer of hymns”, appeared in the March 16, 1919 edition of the Baltimore Sun stating that her funeral service would be held at the Springdale Avenue address.

#647 - Will You Meet Me, Scarcity: LC
This hymn did not appear in either GH or HN, but was included in an 1882 hymnal with the title The Ark of Praise, edited by John R. Sweney (see notes to cobs #78, 451 and 643) and published by John J. Hood in Philadelphia. The lyricist as well as the composer was given as E. (Edwin) O. (Othello) Excell (1851-1921) (see notes to cobs #644-646) and it was followed by a notice “Copyright, 1881, by John J. Hood”. It was also included in Excell's own 1885 collection The Gospel in Song. The full first line of the hymn is “Will you meet me in the morning, on that bright and golden shore?” and it is once again a piece anticipating being reunited with loved ones and meeting Jesus at the time of one's death. It is an unusual hymn in that the tempo of the chorus changes from 9/8 to 12/8 time.

#648 - The Story Never Old, Scarcity: S
I have not yet located any information about this hymn.

#649 - Stand on the Rock, Scarcity: S
This hymn, also known by the title “Firmly Stand!”, with words by C. (Christopher) R. (Rubey) Blackall (1830-1924) and music by W. (William) Howard Doane (1832-1915) (see notes to cob #30), appeared in the 1871 hymn collection Pure Gold for the Sunday School, compiled by Doane and Robert Lowry (see notes to cob #3). The hymn urges that we stand on the rock of Christ and thereby be secure in times of strife. Blackall was born in Albany, New York and was a medical doctor who served as a surgeon during the U.S. Civil War before he turned to writing hymns and writing and editing Sunday school publications. He wrote more than 100 hymns. References: TS, Pennsylvania death certificate for Blackall reporting his death in Philadelphia at the age of 93

#650 - My Sabbath Home, Scarcity: LC
This is another hymn with words by C. (Christopher) R. (Rubey) Blackall (1830-1924) and music by W. (William) Howard Doane (1832-1915) that appeared in the 1871 hymn collection Pure Gold for the Sunday School, compiled by Doane and Robert Lowry (see notes to the previous cob). According to Baptist Hymn Writers and their Hymns by Henry S. Burrage (Portland, Maine, Brown Thurston & Company, 1888), one day while Blackall was in Doane's study, Blackall picked up a piece of music in manuscript form and asked Doane to play it, and, after hearing the tune, Blackall wrote the lyrics to “My Sabbath Home” to go with it. In these lyrics, the singer expresses the joy and affection the singer feels toward Sunday school.

#651 - At the Door, Scarcity: S
This is still another hymn that appeared in the 1871 hymn collection Pure Gold for the Sunday School (see notes to the previous two cobs). The singer, a penitent and weeping sinner, confidently anticipates knocking at the open door and being admitted by Jesus. There is no lyricist's name given and the composer's name is again given as “R.L.”, referring to the co-compiler of the hymnal, the Baptist minister and prolific hymnwriter and hymn book editor Robert Lowry (1826-1899) (see notes to cobs #3 and 634). Later hymnals (including GH, in which the hymn appears under the title “The Mistakes of my Life”) credit the lyrics to Mrs. Urania Locke Bailey (1820-1882), also known as “Una Locke”. There is a brief biography of her in the 1888 book Woman in Sacred Song. A Library of Hymns, Religious Songs and Sacred Music by Woman. (Eva Munson Smith, ed., Oakland, California, Arthur E. Whitney; the title does use the word “Woman” rather than “Women”) (see also notes to cob #623). Bailey was born in Gill, Massachusetts, and died in Providence, Rhode Island, and, according to Smith, she “was the author of many touching hymns”, of which “The mistakes of my life have been many” (the first line of “At the Door”) was perhaps one of her two best-known. A collection of Bailey's poems was published in the year of her death with the title Star-Flowers and it includes, under the title “The Open Door”, the poem on which the lyrics to the hymn “At the Door” were based (A comparison of the poem to the lyrics of the hymn in Pure Gold shows that Lowry made some minor changes in the wording, dropped one verse and added the chorus). Although the hymn is essentially forgotten today, Ira Sankey, in IS, said that it “was much used and became very popular at our meetings in Great Britain” (that is, the very successful and widely-attended evangelistic meetings the evangelist Dwight L. Moody conducted there with Sankey as song leader).

#652 - Little Children, You May Come, Scarcity: S
As this is still another hymn that appeared in the 1871 hymnal Pure Gold for the Sunday School, that hymnal was very likely the Autophone Company's source for the tunes it put on this cob and the previous three cobs. The composer's name is once again given as “R.L.” (Robert Lowry (1826-1899), the Baptist minister and prolific hymnwriter and hymnbook editor and the co-compiler of Pure Gold (see notes to cobs #3 and 634) and the lyricist's name is given as Julia A. Mathews. Julia A. (Anthon) Mathews (1835-1881) was the author of a number of works of Christian moralistic fiction for children as well as, to a lesser extent, a hymnwriter. She was an unmarried daughter of a prominent minister in New York City and lived there and later in Summit, New Jersey. References: New York City baptismal record showing Mathews' date of birth as October 20, 1835 and New Jersey death record showing her date of death as August 7, 1881.

#653 - Pilgrim's Song, Scarcity: S
I have not yet located any information about this hymn.

#654 - The Bright Forever, Scarcity: S
This is another hymn that appeared in the 1871 hymnal Pure Gold for the Sunday School (see notes to cobs #649-652). The lyrics were once again written by the very prolific blind Methodist hymnwriter Fanny J. (Jane) Crosby (1820-1915) (see notes to cobs #72 and 384) and the tune was composed by the also prolific hymn tune composer Hubert P. (Platt) Main (1839-1925), one of the principals of the hymn book publishing firm Biglow & Main (see notes to cob #58). The lyrics are once again an enthusiastic anticipation of “the bright forever”, meaning Heaven.

#655 - They Gather One by One, Scarcity: LC
This is still another hymn that appeared in the 1871 hymnal Pure Gold for the Sunday School (see notes to cobs #649-652 and 654). It is again a hymn anticipating life in Heaven, to which “the saints” of Earth are gradually going, one by one, as they die. The music is once again by W. (William) Howard Doane (1832-1915) (see notes to cob #30), the co-compiler of the hymnal, the lyrics are by Josephine Pollard and following her name is the notation “Written for this work”. Pollard (1834-1892) was born in New York City and lived there for her entire life. In addition to writing more than 100 published hymns, she was the author of a number of books for children, both religious and secular, and a poet, some of whose poetry was published in periodicals of her day. A collection of her poems for children with the title Elfin Land, beautifully illustrated in color, was published in 1882. Reference: Frances E. Willard and Mary A. Livermore, American Women: Fifteen Hundred Biographies with Over 1,400 Portraits, Rev. Ed. (New York, etc., Mast, Crowell & Kirkpatrick, 1897) (biographical article about Pollard including a photograph of her)

#656 - Gathering Home, Scarcity: C
There is a hymn with the title “Gathering Home” with lyrics by Mary Leslie and tune by W. A. Ogden that was included in GH as #220, but it is different from the piece on this cob. Instead, the tune on the cob is by Isaiah Baltzell (1832-1893), who also wrote the simple lyrics that go with it. These lyrics anticipate meeting “the true and the faithful” and “the pure and redeemed ones” and seeing “our blessed Redeemer” when we “all gather home in the morning”; the words “gathering home” do not appear except as the title. Although forgotten today, the hymn was at one time apparently quite popular, as this cob was one of the better-selling ones and one of only five in this numerical range with a scarcity rating of “C” (“common”). Baltzell, born in Maryland, was a United Brethren pastor and a singer and song leader who wrote words and composed tunes for a large number of hymns and also edited a number of hymnals beginning in 1859. “Gathering Home” appeared in his hymnal Golden Songs for Bible Schools and Social Worship (Dayton, Ohio, United Brethren Publishing House, 1874). Reference: BG

#657 - Hold On, Scarcity: S
This pretty and cheerful hymn is still another that appeared in the 1871 hymn collection Pure Gold for the Sunday School (see notes to cobs #649-652 and #654-655). The lyrics, by John P. Ellis, encourage the plowman to hold onto the plow faithfully and continue the work. The composer's name is once more given as “R.L.”, that is, the co-compiler of the hymnal, the Baptist minister, hymnwriter and hymn book editor Robert Lowry (1826-1899) (see notes to cobs #3 and 634). Ellis (1816-1896) was a longtime resident of Flushing, Queens, New York, who was in the stationery business in New York City, was active in temperance causes and wrote many poems and hymns that were published in newspapers and hymnals. Interestingly, he also held patents for a window sash lock and waterproof safe. References: Obituary article about Ellis in the September 9, 1896 edition of The Brooklyn Daily Eagle, New York death certificate for him, U.S. Census records showing his residence in Flushing in 1860 (“stationer”, age 40) and 1880 (“bookbinder”, age 59), Annual Reports of the U.S. Commissioner of Patents for 1866 and 1868

#658 - The Beautiful Vale, Scarcity: LC
A hymn with the title “Beautiful Vale of Rest”, by the familiar collaborators Fanny Crosby (lyrics) and W. Howard Doane (music), appeared in the 1868 hymnal The Silver Spray; a New and Choice Collection of Popular Sabbath-School Music, compiled by Doane, but Doane's tune does not correspond to the tune on this cob, although Crosby's lyrics are of the right meter to be sung to the cob tune. A year later, a hymnwriter and publisher named Asa Hull took Crosby's lyrics, changed only a few words, and added his own tune to accompany them which is the same as the tune on the cob. The resulting hymn was published in Hull's 1869 hymnal The Pilgrim's Harp under the title “The Beautiful Vale” with the notations “Words arranged.” and “Music by A. Hull”. Hull (1828-1907) lived in Philadelphia at the time The Pilgrim's Harp was published and relocated to New York City in about 1876. An article in the Wilkes-Barre [Pennsylvania] Times of November 21, 1904 (presumably reprinted from a New York newspaper, as there was a very similar but more abbreviated article in The New York Times of November 15, 1904) noted the celebration of Hull's fiftieth wedding anniversary at his home in Brooklyn, included a photograph of him and his wife, and said that he had been born in New York State, had lived for the past twenty-eight years in New York City and had begun publishing his works in 1859. The article added that he was “the pioneer writer of Sunday School music” and “Since the death of William B. Bradbury he has been the senior publisher of this class of music”. He died in Philadelphia on March 10, 1907. References: Philadelphia death certificate giving his birth and death dates, listing his occupation as “composer” and stating that his father was born in New York and his mother in New Hampshire; 1854 Massachusetts marriage record showing his marriage to his wife Emma in that year and listing him as a 26-year-old clerk; 1870 U.S. census records showing him, Emma and their two daughters living in Philadelphia; Philadelphia city directories for 1867 through 1877 listing him first as a stationer at 240 South 11th Street (the address given for him in his 1869 hymnal The Pilgrim's Harp) and later as a stationer, then printer, then publisher at 909 Race Street (the address that appears in hymnals published by him in the 1870s), then finally, in the directory for 1877, with simply the occupation “music” at a different Philadelphia address; 1880 and 1900 U.S. census records showing Hull as then living in New York City (in the 1900 directory in the borough of Brooklyn) with the occupation music publisher, and giving his wife's name as Emma; and Brooklyn city directories through 1906 giving his occupation as publisher and his home address as the same as the one at which his fiftieth wedding anniversary was celebrated. I give all this information because there has been some confusion in other sources between the hymnwriter and publisher Asa Hull and another Asa Hull who was roughly a contemporary of his, was also born in New York State about three years earlier than him and overlapped with him as a resident of New York City, resulting, unfortunately, in the wide dissemination of incorrect information about the Asa Hull with whom we are concerned. The other Asa Hull, according to 1880 and 1910 U.S. Census records, was a child of parents both of whom were born in Vermont; lived in Shelter Island on Long Island east of New York City in 1880 and in New York City thereafter; and was a retired real estate agent whose wife's name was Sarah rather than Emma. A New York City death record for this other Asa Hull reported his death in 1917 and his burial in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn.

#659 - Glory to Jesus, Scarcity: LC
This hymn is yet another that appeared in the 1871 hymn collection Pure Gold for the Sunday School (see notes to cobs #649-652, #654-655 and #657). The name of the composer is once more given as “R.L.”, that is, the co-compiler of the hymnal, the Baptist minister, hymnwriter and hymn book editor Robert Lowry (1826-1899) (see notes to cobs #3 and 634). The author of the words is given as Annie S. (Sherwood) Hawks (1835-1918), the housewife in Brooklyn, New York with a talent for poetry who was a member of Lowry's congregation at the Hanson Place Baptist Church there and wrote over 400 hymns, including the much better-known “I Need Thee, Every Hour” (cob #3). Reference: TS (article about Hawks including a photograph of her)

#660 - Silver Street, Scarcity: LC
With this cob we return again to a series of cobs containing hymn tunes that are identified only by tune names rather than by the titles or opening lines of hymns sung to the tunes. While there is conflicting information in different sources about who the composer of “Silver Street” was and when it was composed, according to MC the tune was included (under the name “Falcon Street” and with a refrain that was later dropped) in Isaac Smith's A Collection of Psalm Tunes in Three Parts, published in England in about 1770, and Smith (c. 1735-c. 1800) was a clerk to a congregation of Dissenters in London and led them in their singing of psalms. Although the tune has been used for a number of different hymns, the words probably most often associated with it are “Come, Sound His Praise Abroad”, written by the prolific English hymnwriter Isaac Watts (1674-1748) who, like Smith, was a Dissenter rather than a member of the established Church of England. Watts based the hymn on the 95th Psalm and it was included in his 1719 Psalms of David. Additional references: MH #22, 1905 Methodist Hymnal #3

#661 - Sicily, Scarcity: S
This hymn tune, also known as “Sicilian Mariners' Hymn”, was arranged from a Sicilian melody. The tune also appears, with different pin configurations, on two other cobs, #11, under the name “Sicilian Hymn”, and #759, under the name “O Du Frohliche, O Du Selige” (a German Christmas hymn which has been translated into English with the title “O Thou Joyful, O Thou Wonderful”). Although the tune has been used for dozens of different hymns, the hymn most commonly sung to it is “Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing” (by the Baptist minister John Fawcett, 1740-1817). References: MH #26, MC.

#662 - Migdol, Scarcity: S
This is another hymn tune that has, over the years, been used for a number of different hymns, but there is no one familiar hymn especially associated with it. It has, for example, been used as one of a number of alternate tunes for the hymn “Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun”, by Isaac Watts (1674-1748), although the tune much more frequently used for that hymn is “Duke Street” (cob #5). “Migdol” is another tune by “the father of American hymnody”, the prolific Lowell Mason (1792-1872) (see notes to cob #2), and appeared in his 1839 collection The Modern Psalmist, accompanying the lyrics “Soon May the Last Glad Song Arise”. The tune name is marked by an asterisk in the indexes at the back of the collection to indicate that it is one of Mason's own tunes, that is, that it was either “arranged, adapted, or composed for this work, or taken from other recent works of the Editor”. Reference: JD (noting attribution of the lyrics of “Soon May the Last Glad Song Arise” to a “Mrs. Vokes”, about whom essentially nothing is known); David R. Breed, The History and Use of Hymns and Hymn-Tunes (Chicago, etc., Fleming H. Revell Company, 1913) (calling the question of the identity of Mrs. Vokes “the greatest enigma in all hymnody” and adding “No one knows anything about the writer, nor has it been solved whether the name was a true name or only a nom de plume.”)

#663 - Louvan, Scarcity: VS
The hymn tune “Louvan” was composed by Connecticut-born Virgil Corydon Taylor (1817-1891), who served as a church organist in Hartford, Connecticut and other cities and edited several song collections including Taylor's Sacred Minstrel(1846), in which the tune appeared with his initials identifying him as the composer and lyrics beginning “There's nothing bright, above, below,” by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (see notes to cobs #62 and 149). The lyrics that most often accompany the tune, however, “Lord of All Being, Throned Afar”, were written in 1848 by Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809-1894), a medical doctor and professor of anatomy and physiology at Harvard who was also a highly esteemed author and poet and wrote a small number of hymns. References: HH, MC

#664 - Cambridge, Scarcity: S
This unusual hymn tune is another one with which no familiar hymn is associated. It is attributed to John Randall (1715-1799), an English organist and composer who was a graduate of Cambridge University and later professor of music there. In 1794 he published A Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes, which included “Cambridge”, said to have been an original tune by him. The tune is sometimes called “Cambridge New”, perhaps to differentiate it from the slightly earlier and more commonly encountered hymn tune, also with the name “Cambridge”, written by English Presbyterian minister Ralph Harrison and dating from 1784. Reference: DN

#665 - Lanesboro, Scarcity: S
This is still another hymn tune with which no familiar hymn is associated. According to SH, the tune was arranged and adapted by Lowell Mason (1792-1872) (see notes to cob #2), whom SH calls “the father of American choir singing”, from a piece by William Dixon (1750-1825), an English composer, writer and teacher who was also a music engraver and publisher. The tune appeared in Mason's The Boston Handel and Haydn Society Collection of Church Music without any mention of Dixon and linked with the lyrics “Early, my God, without delay” by Isaac Watts, the hymn with which the tune has most frequently been associated. The opening bars of the piece as it appears in the 9th edition of Mason's Handel and Haydn Society collection (1830) correspond to the opening notes on the cob, which was a change from the 8th edition (1829). Additional reference: GD

#666 - Lover den Herre (Praise the Lord—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
Ludvig Mathias Lindeman (1812-1887) was mentioned in the Introduction to the section dealing with cobs #501-600 as one of the most significant figures in the world of Norwegian music in the nineteenth century. It was noted that he was an organist, music teacher and composer who collected thousands of Norwegian folk songs and published a number of collections of them. In addition, he was interested in church choral singing, wrote a number of hymn tunes and compiled a Koralbog (“choral book”) (“LK”) that was approved by royal decree for use in Norwegian churches in 1877 and included every Norwegian hymn on the roller organ (cobs #666-671 and 685-703). In an index at the end of the book he included information about the origins of the tunes, many of which were quite old and of German origin but some of which (indicated in the index as “Af Udgiveren” = “By Publisher”) were by Lindeman himself. “Lover den Herre” is a Norwegian version of the familiar German hymn “Lobe den Herren”, known in English by the opening line of its lyrics “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, the King of Creation”. Lindeman noted the German origin of the hymn and dated the tune to 1668, which is when it appeared in an edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica edited by German composer Johann Cruger (1598-1662). The German lyrics were by German teacher, preacher and hymnwriter Joachim Neander (1650-1680) and appeared in his Glaub- und Liebesubung, published in Bremen in 1680. The hymn was #80 in LK. Additional references: MC, JD

#667 - Sode Jesu, vi er her (Sweet Jesus, We are Here—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn appeared as #129 in LK (see notes to previous cob). Lindeman noted that it was a Norwegian version of the German hymn “Liebster Jesu wir sind hier” and that its tune was by German organist and composer Johann Rudolf Ahle (1625-1673) and came from his Neue geistliche Andachten, Muhlhausen, Germany, 1664. There is a Norwegian-American hymnal that was published in the same year as Lindeman's Koralbog (LK), Psalmebog, udgiven af Synoden for den Norsk Evangelisk Lutherske Kirke i America (Decorah, Iowa, Synodens Verlag, 1877) (PU), that includes the complete lyrics, without music, of most of the Norwegian hymns on the roller organ and in many cases also includes information about the authors and translators of hymns that supplements the information in Lindeman's notes about the origins of their tunes. According to PU, the German hymn “Liebster Jesu wir sind hier” was written by German pastor and hymnwriter Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684), and according to JD the hymn first appeared in his Altdorffisches Gesang-Buchlein in 1663. Additional reference: MC

#668 - Hjertelig mig nu laenges (Now I Wish With All My Heart—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #87 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman noted that it was taken from the German hymn “Herzlich thut mich verlangen” with tune by German organist and composer Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612), “Nurnberg, 1601 (1613)”. The two dates given by Lindeman for the tune are explained by the fact that it originally appeared in Hassler's 1601 Lustgarten Neuer Deutscher Gesang linked with a love song and was first used as a hymn tune in 1613 in a work titled Harmoniae Sacrae accompanying the lyrics “Herzlich thut mich verlangen”. It was later harmonized by the great German classical composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) and appeared in his “St. Matthew Passion” and it is the tune used down to the present day for the well-known English-language Passion hymn “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded”. The lyrics to the hymn “Herzlich thut mich verlangen” were written by German pastor Christoph Knoll (1563-1650), reportedly as a hymn for the dying during a period of plague in 1599, and were first published in 1605. Additional references: HU, MC, PU, JD

#669 - Vor Gud han er saa fast (Our God is Always True—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn appeared in LK as #137 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman noted that it was a Norwegian version of the familiar German hymn “Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott” with both lyrics and music by the great German priest, theologian, religious reformer and hymnwriter Martin Luther (1483-1546). Lindeman added that the hymn was first published in “Geistliche Lieder, Wittenberg, J. Klug, 1529”. Another version of the tune appeared on cob #677 with the German title. The best-known English-language version of the hymn, “A Mighty Fortress is our God”, of which there are several variants, is nearly universally known and is still widely sung. Additional reference: JD

#670 - Hvo veed hvor naer er min Ende (Who Knows how near is My End—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn appeared in LK as #48 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman said that it was a Norwegian version of the German hymn “Wer weiss wie nahe mir mein Ende”, “Hamburg, 1690”. It is a hymn for the dying and the lyrics to the German version of it were written, apparently in 1686, by Countess Emilie Juliane of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt (1637-1706). The tune appeared in a 1690 hymn collection published in Hamburg, Musikalisch Handbuch der geistlichen Melodien, linked with different lyrics. Frederik Rostgaard (1671-1745), a Danish scholar, linguist and poet who became a high-ranking government official, was the translator of the hymn from German. Additional references: JD, Johannes C.A. Zahn, Vierstimmiges Melodienbuch zum Gesangbuch der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirke in Bayern (7th ed., Erlangen, 1875) (includes the German hymn with its music as hymn #172 and provides information about the 1690 publication of the tune), PU, DB (information about Rostgaard)

#671 - Hvor salig er den Lille Flok (How Blessed the Little Band—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn appeared in LK as #47 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman included for it the notation “Udg.”, meaning that he composed the tune himself, but Lindeman's tune is not the same as the tune on the cob. The hymn also appeared, however, with the same lyrics as in LK but with the tune on the cob in the Koralbog, first published in 1865, of Knud Henderson, who was born in Norway, was brought to the United States when he was in his early teens, and lived in Chicago and Wisconsin. Although Henderson's Koralbog was silent as to the origin of the tune, the 1880 Koralbog of Erik Jensen of Jefferson Prairie, a Norwegian-American settlement in the Town of Clinton, Rock County, Wisconsin, included two different versions of the hymn, the first (#56) with Lindeman's tune and the second (#180) with the tune on the cob, which was described as a Norwegian folk melody. The author of the lyrics of the hymn was Niels Johannes Holm (1778-1845), who was born in Denmark and was a leader of the Moravian sect in Christiania (Oslo), Norway at the time he published his hymn in his collection Harpen (1829). Additional reference: DB (information about Holm)

#672 - St. Bride, Scarcity: LC
It is not clear why this mournful-sounding hymn tune was included on the roller organ by itself between a group of Norwegian hymns and a group of German hymns. Although it sounds like some of the more lugubrious of the German and Norwegian hymn tunes in this numerical range, it was composed by an Englishman, Samuel Howard (1710-1782), who received a doctorate in music at Cambridge, served as organist at St. Bride's Church in London and composed both religious and secular music. The tune is not associated with any one especially familiar hymn, but has probably been used most frequently with the hymn “Give to the Winds thy Fears”, which is a translation by John Wesley (1703-1791), the founder of Methodism, of a portion of the German-language hymn “Befiehl du deine Wege” by German pastor and hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) (see also notes to cob #675). “Give to the Winds thy Fears”, however, has been sung to a number of other tunes, just as the tune “St. Bride” has been used for a number of other hymns. References: JD, HH, October 1, 1905 issue of The Musical Times (London), containing an article about the tune and Howard that concludes “[like] other old-time composers he is now known by one production—one that he regarded least, perhaps—his simple hymn-tune 'St. Bride's'”.

#673 - Suche wo du Willst (Seek Where You Will—German), Scarcity: LC
The German hymns in this numerical range, like the Norwegian ones, are for the most part very old, many dating from the seventeenth and in some cases even from the sixteenth century, during the early years of the Reformation and the time of Martin Luther himself. Although I have not found any reference to a hymn with the title or opening line “Suche wo du Willst”, there is a hymn with the similar title “Such', wer da will, ein ander Ziel” (“Seek, whoever will, another way”) with a tune that corresponds to the tune on the cob. The lyrics were written by German hymnwriter Georg Weissel (1590-1635) in 1623 to be sung upon the occasion of his inauguration as pastor of a church in Konigsberg. The tune had been written ten years earlier by his friend from his student days, German composer and kapellmeister Johann Stobaeus (1580-1646), to accompany different lyrics. Weissel's lyrics and Stobaeus' tune appeared together in a five-part motet in Preussische Festlieder, published by Stobaeus in 1642. References: JD, AD, discussion of this hymn in Liederkunde zum Evangelischen Gesangbuch, Heft 17 (Gottingen, Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 2012)

#674 - Allein Gott in der Höh (God Alone on High—German), Scarcity: LC
This is another very old hymn. It is a German version, by Nicolaus Decius (died 1541), of the Latin hymn “Gloria in Excelsis” and appeared, in Low German, in a 1525 Gesangbuch (hymnal) a copy of which was preserved in the Rostock [Germany] University Library. Decius was a German monk who became a follower of theologian and reformer Martin Luther. The tune associated with it is also attributed to Decius and appeared with lyrics in High German in Valentin Schumann's hymnal Geistliche Lieder, published in Leipzig in 1539. Other versions of the tune with different pinnings appeared on cob #96, “Min Karlek Star till Gud Allena (My Love to God Alone—Swedish)”, and cob #684, “Allein Gott in der Hoh' (Alone on High is He—German)”. Reference: JD

#675 - Warum sollt' ich mich denn grämen (Why Should I Mourn—German), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was written by German pastor and hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676), who, JD said in 1907, “ranks, next to Luther, as the most gifted and popular hymn-writer of the Lutheran Church”. The German composer Johann Georg Ebeling (1637-1676) set 120 of Gerhardt's hymns to music and published them in two parts of 60 each, one in 1666 and one in 1667. Ebeling's tune to this hymn became one of the three most popular in the collection. References: JD, Theodore Brown Hewitt, Paul Gerhardt as a Hymn Writer and his Influence on English Hymnody (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1918)

#676 - Jetzt singt und seid Fröhlich (Now Sing and be Glad—German), Scarcity: LC
This very old Christmas hymn of unknown authorship originated as a “macaronic”, that is, a poem with some words in Latin and some words in another language (in this case German), with the title “In dulci jubilo singet und sit vro”. The tune associated with the hymn is accordingly known as “In Dulci Jubilo”. According to JD, a version of the hymn entirely in German beginning “Nun singet und seid froh” appeared in 1529 in Josef Klug's hymnal Geistliche Lieder, which also included Martin Luther's “Ein Feste Burg” (see notes to cobs #669 and 677). Just as Luther's hymn continues to be sung down to the present day in an English-language version, “A Mighty Fortress is our God”, the even older German Christmas hymn continues to be sung in an English-language version, the well-known carol “Good Christian Men, Rejoice”.

#677 - Ein' Feste Burg ist unser Gott (A Firm Mountain is our God—German), Scarcity: LC
This is another version of the nearly universally known German hymn that has been translated into English as “A Mighty Fortress is our God” (see also notes to cob #669, which contains a Norwegian version). According to JD, the hymn was first published in Klug's Geistliche Lieder in 1529 and both the lyrics and the music of the hymn were by the great German priest, theologian, religious reformer and hymnwriter Martin Luther (1483-1546).

#678 - Vom Himmel Hoch (From Heaven High—German), Scarcity: C
This is still another hymn that dates from the sixteenth century. Both the lyrics and the tune are again attributed to German theologian and religious reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546), who wrote a fifteen-stanza Christmas hymn, “Vom Himmel hoch, da komm ich her”, that was set to the tune. Cob #605 contains a similar arrangement of the tune with a slightly different pinning. There, the piece is identified by only the English-language title “From Heaven I Am Coming” with no indication of its German origin. Reference: HU

#679 - Nun Jauchzet All' (Let us all Rejoice—German), Scarcity: LC
There is a seventeenth-century Advent hymn with the title and first line “Nun jauchzet, all ihr Frommen”, with lyrics by German poet Michael Schirmer (1606-1673) and music by German composer Johann Cruger (1598-1662) (see notes to cob #666) that were published together in 1640 in Cruger's hymnal Newes vollkomliches Gesangbuch. Cruger's tune, however, is different from the tune on the cob and Schirmer's eight-line-per-verse lyrics, with a meter of 7.6.7.6.6.7.7.6, could not be sung to tune on the cob, which has only four lines and a meter of 7.6.7.6. The tune on the cob is instead associated with the Christmas hymn “Lasst uns alle frohlich sein” and both the hymn and its tune have been attributed to sixteenth-century German choirmaster Urban Langhans. The hymn appeared along with the tune in a 1632 hymnal, the “Ander Teil” (“other part”) of the Dresden Gesangbuch. Langhans' hymn has been translated into English as “Let Us All with Gladsome Voice” by English hymn translator Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) (see notes to cob #605) and appeared in her Chorale Book for England in 1863. It has also been translated as “Let Us All in God Rejoice”. Thus, the English title the Autophone Company gave for the cob, “Let Us All Rejoice”, was accurate, but the German title it used, “Nun Jauchzet All'”, which translates as “Let Us All Shout”, was very likely an error because of the totally different hymn with this title. Reference: JD

#680 - Nun Danket Alle Gott (Rejoice All in God—German), Scarcity: LC
The pretty hymn tune on this cob is different from the familiar tune attributed to Johann Cruger and associated with the hymn “Nun Danket Alle Gott” by Martin Rinkart (see notes to cob #608, on which Cruger's tune appeared under the English-language title “Thank Almighty God”). In fact, Rinkart's hymn, with a meter of 6.7.6.7.6.6.6.6, could not be sung to the tune on this cob, which has the unusual meter of 8.7.7.7.7.7. Instead, the tune on this cob has been used to accompany “Wir glauben all an einen Gott, Vater, Sohn und heilgen Geist”, a hymn by German pastor and hymnwriter Tobias Clausnitzer (1619-1684) (see notes to cob #667) first published in 1668 that was translated into English as “We All Believe in One True God” by English hymn translator Catherine Winkworth (1827-1878) (see notes to cobs #605 and 679) and appeared in her Chorale Book for England in 1863. Clausnitzer's hymn, which is a paraphrase of the Apostle's Creed, appeared with the music to the tune on the cob in the Neu-verfertigtes Darmstadtisches Gesang-buch, a hymnal published in Darmstadt, Germany in 1699. Therefore, as in the case of cob #679, the title the Autophone Company used for the cob appears to have been erroneous. Additional reference: JD

#681 - Ich Habe nun den Grund gefunden (I've Now Found the Rock—German), Scarcity: LC
A hymn by this name was written by German pastor and hymnwriter Johann Andreas Rothe (1688-1758) and was first published in Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf's 1727 hymn collection Christ-Catholisches Singe- und Bet-Buchlein. The tune frequently associated with that hymn, however, “O dass ich tausend Zungen hatten”, by Johann Balthasar Konig, dating from 1738, is not the tune on this cob. Instead, the tune on the cob is another tune with the same meter, dating from 1690, that was used for a different German hymn, “Wer weiss, wie nahe mir mein Ende”, the same hymn that was translated from the German to provide the lyrics to the Norwegian hymn on cob #670, and the tune on this cob is a different version of the tune on cob #670. Thus, as in the case of cobs #679 and 680, it appears that the Autophone Company may have made an error in the title it gave to this cob. Reference: JD (information about Rothe and his hymn)

#682 - Wach auf, mein Herz (Arise, My Soul—German), Scarcity: LC
“Auf, auf, mein Herz mit Freuden” is the correct and complete title for this Easter hymn by German pastor and hymnwriter Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) (see notes to cobs #672 and 675). It appeared along with the tune on this cob in the 1648 edition of Praxis Pietatis Melica edited by German composer Johann Cruger (1598-1662) (see notes to cobs #608 and 666). The version of the tune on the cob is abbreviated in that the hymn consists of eight lines per verse and the first two lines of the melody are repeated to accompany the third and fourth lines of the verse. Reference: JD

#683 - Verlass mich Nicht (Leave Me Not—German), Scarcity: LC
Most of the tunes on the German and Norwegian cobs in this numerical range so far have dated from the seventeenth or even the sixteenth century. The tune on this cob, by contrast, is of more recent origin. The German hymnwriter Christoph Christian Hohlfeldt (1776-1849) wrote a poem with the title “Gebet” (“Prayer”) that begins “Verlass mich nicht! O du, zu dem ich flehe”. After it appeared as item #149 in his book of poetry Harfenklaenge (2nd Ed., Dresden and Leipzig, 1836), a number of composers set it to music, including the great German lyricist, composer and choral conductor Franz Abt (see notes to cob #103). The tune on the cob, however, was composed by a little-known Swiss composer and choral conductor named Christoph Schnyder (1826-1909) to accompany Hohlfeldt's hymn and the hymn and tune appeared together in Schnyder's song collection Liederbuch fur Mannerchore, published in Zurich in 1862. References: JD, Othmar Fries, “Luzerns Musikleben im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert” (1959 article in the Swiss periodical Der Geschichtsfreund: Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins Zentralschweiz giving the years of Schnyder's birth and death but noting the dearth of other biographical information about him)

#684 - Allein Gott in der Höh' (Alone on High is He—German), Scarcity: LC
The Autophone Company, perhaps through oversight, issued two different cobs, #674 and #684, both with the same title, containing two different versions of this hymn tune. As noted in the paragraph about cob #674, the hymn is a German version, by Nicolaus Decius (d. 1541), a German monk who became a follower of theologian and reformer Martin Luther, of the Latin hymn “Gloria in Excelsis”, and it appeared, in Low German, in a 1525 Gesangbuch (hymnal) a copy of which was preserved in the Rostock [Germany] University Library and, in High German, along with the tune, which is also attributed to Decius, in Valentin Schumann's hymnal Geistliche Lieder, published in Leipzig in 1539. Still a third version of the tune appeared on cob #96, “Min Karlek Star till Gud Allena (My Love to God Alone—Swedish)”. Reference: JD

#685 - Af Hoiheden oprunden er (From High there Flows—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #2 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman noted that it was a Norwegian version of the German hymn “Wie schon leuchtet der Morgenstern”, by Ph. Nicolai, published in Freudenspiegel, 1599. Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) was a Lutheran pastor who wrote a devotional work titled Freudenspiegel des ewigen Lebens that was published in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1599 and included three of his hymns, one of them this one. The hymn was written by Nicolai during a period of plague in 1597 and he reportedly “rose in spirit from the distress and death which surrounded him” and “there welled forth from the inmost depths of his heart this precious hymn…He was so entirely absorbed in this holy exaltation that he forgot all around him, even his midday meal, and allowed nothing to disturb him in his poetical labours till the hymn was completed” three hours after midday. The original version of this spontaneously-written hymn consisted of seven stanzas, each of ten lines. Nicolai also composed the tune, another version of which appeared with the German title on cob #707. The translator of the hymn from German was Hans Christensen Sthen (c. 1540-1610), a Danish pastor and hymnwriter. References: JD, PU, DB (information about Sthen)

#686 - Den store hvide Flok vi se (The Large, White Band we See—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #13 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman noted once again, as to the origin of the tune, “Udg.”, meaning that it was his own composition. The lyrics were written by Hans Adolf Brorson (1694-1764), a Danish pastor and later bishop who was also a noted hymnwriter and translator of German hymns into Danish as well as a compiler of hymn collections. The hymn appeared in Svane-Sang (“Swan Song”), published in 1765 following his death. The “large, white band” is a gathering in Heaven of a multitude who came through tribulation on Earth and who were cleansed by Jesus' blood and now stand, arrayed in white, before God's throne. Reference: JD (information about Brorson)

#687 - Et lidet Barn saa Lystelig (A Little Child so Happy—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This Christmas hymn was included in LK as #21 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman noted that it was taken from a German hymn, “Der Tag der ist so freudenreich”, which in turn came from an earlier Latin hymn, “Dies est laetitiae”. He added that the hymn was in “Ein new Gsb., Behmen, 1531”, and was likely from the 14th century. According to JD, Ein New Geseng Buchlen was a hymn collection of the Bohemian Brethren that dated from 1531 and was edited by Michael Weisse (c. 1480-1534). JD also noted that a version of the German hymn had been included two years earlier in the Gesangbuch published by Josef Klug in 1529 and edited by Martin Luther and that that version had been the basis for several translations of the hymn into English. A Danish version of the hymn was rendered by Claus Mortensen Tondebinder (1500-1576), a Danish evangelical preacher who has been called “the father of Danish hymnology” based on his having compiled a book in 1528 containing translations of hymns by Luther as well as other hymns, both translated and original. Additional references: PU, JD (information about Mortensen)

#688 - Jesu, dine dybe Vunder (Jesus, Thine Deep Wounds—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
As noted in the paragraph on cob #606, which contains another version of the tune on this cob, the tune appeared in the 1551 Genevan Psalter and is attributed to Louis Bourgeois (c. 1510-1572), the French-born Calvinist living in Geneva who was musical editor of the Psalter (see notes to cob #71), and as the tune accompanied Psalm 42 in the Psalter, it is known by the name “Genevan 42” or simply “Psalm 42”. It is also known by the name “Freu Dich Sehr” because it was later used to accompany the German-language hymn for the dying “Freu dich sehr, o meine Seele” (“Rejoice Greatly, O my Soul”). The Norwegian hymn “Jesu, dine dybe Vunder”, sung to the same tune, was included in LK as #61 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman confirms that its tune was taken from the tune to the German hymn “Freu dich sehr o meine Seele”. His notation continues “opr. 'Wie nach einer Wasserquelle' (1543), 1555; 'Comme un cerf altere brame'. Davids Ps. 42, Cl. Goudimel 1573,” all of which is a reference to the hymn tune's above-mentioned use to accompany Psalm 42, which begins (in the King James Version of the Bible) “As the hart [deer] panteth after the water brooks” (French: “Comme un cerf altere brame aprŠs le courant des eaux”, German: “Wie nach einer Wasserquelle ein Hirsch schreyet mit Begier”). In addition to appearing on this cob and on cob #606, “Be Joyful, O my Soul”, the tune appeared on cob #76 (“Pask-Psalm (Easter Hymn—Swedish)”) and cob #751, “Tantum Ergo Sacramentum”. As for the lyrics, according to PU there was another German hymn dating from 1644 by the German poet and hymnwriter Johann Heermann (1585-1647), “Jesu, deine tiefe Wunden”, which was translated by Danish clergyman and hymnwriter Niels Christensen Arctander, whom PU describes as “amanuensis [assistant or secretary] to Bishop Kingo, died 1701”. Thomas Hansen Kingo (1634-1703) was a Danish pastor (and later bishop), hymnwriter and hymnbook editor who prepared a 1689 hymnal with the title Danmarks og Norges Kirkers forordnede Salmebog (“The Authorized Hymnal of the Churches of Denmark and Norway”); his assistant, Arctander, is apparently remembered only as the translator of the one hymn. Reference: JD (information about Heermann, the German version of the hymn and Kingo)

#689 - Jesu, din sode Forening at smage (Jesus, How Sweet to Commingle with You—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #63 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman noted, as to its origin, merely “Pontoppidans Psb. 1741”. This is a reference to Den ny Salmebog (“The New Hymn-Book”) which was published (in 1740 rather than 1741, according to JD and other sources) by the Danish author, theologian, historian, antiquarian and bishop of Bergen in Norway Erik Pontoppidan (1698-1764). Peder Jacobsen Hygom (1692-1764), bishop of Aarhus in Denmark, an associate and supporter of Pontoppidan, translated the hymn into Danish from a German version of uncertain authorship and his translation was included in the 1740 Pontoppidan hymnbook. The hymnbook also included many hymns by Hans Adolf Brorson (see notes to cob #686). As for the tune, it has been attributed to Johann Balthasar Konig (1691-1758), a German composer who was a protege of the great classical composer Georg Philipp Telemann and who included a version of the tune, under the German name “Sollt mich die Liebe des Ird'schen bethoren?”, in his 1738 choral collection Harmonischer Lieder-Schatz. Additional reference: NB (information about Pontoppidan), DB (information about Hygom), GD (information about Konig)

#690 - Op alle, som paa Jorden bo (Up All who Dwell on Earth—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #116 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “'Lobt Gott ihr Christen alle gleich', Die Sontags Evangelia, durch Nicolaum Herman, Nurnberg 1560 (1554)”. Nicolaus Herman (d. 1561) was a choirmaster and organist in Joachimsthal, Bohemia who published a hymnbook with the title Die Sontags Evangelia in 1560 that included his German-language hymn “Lobt Gott, ihr Christen alle gleich”, which he wrote in about 1554 and for which he also composed the tune; Herman's hymn, however, is apparently the source for only the tune of “Op alle” and the lyrics come from a translation into Danish of another German-language hymn, “Nun danket all und bringet Ehr”, by German hymnwriter and pastor Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676) (see also notes to cob #675). References: JD, Salmer pa dansk og tysk, Deutsch-Danisches Kirchengesangbuch (Copenhagen, Det Kgl. Vajsenhus' Forlag, 2015)

#691 - Zions Vaegter, Haever Rosten (Watch of Zion, Lift Your Voice—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #142 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “'Wachet auf ruft uns die Stimme', Phil. Nicolai, Frankf. a. M. 'Freudenspiegel' 1599”. As was said in the notes to cob #685, Philipp Nicolai (1556-1608) was a Lutheran pastor who wrote a devotional work with the title Freudenspiegel des ewigen Lebens that was published in Frankfurt-am-Main in 1599 and included three of his hymns. One was indeed “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme”, which JD called “a beautiful hymn, one of the first rank”, adding “The melody appeared first along with the hymn, and is also apparently by Nicolai, though portions of it…may have been suggested by earlier tunes.” According to PU, the hymn was translated into Norwegian by Magnus Brostrup Landstad (1802-1880), a Norwegian pastor, hymnwriter and folklore collector who edited the 1869 hymnal Kirke-Salme-Bogen. According to John Dahle's Library of Christian Hymns (3 vols., Minneapolis, 1924-1928), Landstad translated the hymn during his student days after acquiring a used copy of Nicolai's Freudenspiegel almost by chance when he wandered into a building where an auction of books was taking place and that book happened to be in the package that was at that moment offered for sale. In reading it, he found Nicolai's hymn particularly appealing and prepared a translation that has survived in use, essentially unchanged, as “Zions Vaegter”. Additional reference: NB (information about Landstad)

#692 - Af Dybsens Nod jeg raabe maa (I May call from the Depth of My Misery—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #1 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “'Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir', Kapelmester Joh. Walter, Gsb. Wittenberg 1524; Strassburger Kirchen-Ampt 1525”. Johann Walther (1496-1570) was a German “kapellmeister” (director of music), choirmaster and musician who spent three weeks with the great priest, theologian, reformer and hymnwriter Martin Luther (1483-1546) at Luther's house in Wittenberg in 1524 helping with the adaptation of old church music for use in Lutheran services and working on the hymnbook Geystliche Gesangk Buchleyn, published in Wittenberg in that year, containing 32 German hymns, 24 of them by Luther, including “Aus tiefer Noth schrei ich zu dir”, which Luther based on Psalm 130. The tune associated with it, according to JD, is possibly also by Luther. The Strassburger Kirchenampt was a book containing liturgy and hymns published the following year in Strasbourg that also included the hymn. According to PU, the hymn was translated into Danish by Claus Mortensen Tondebinder (1500-1576) (see notes to cob #687), the Danish evangelical preacher known as “the father of Danish hymnology” because his 1528 hymnbook was the earliest in Denmark and Norway.

#693 - Ak, vidste du, Som gaar I Syndens (Oh! if you, who is Fettered with Sin, only Knew—Norwegian), Scarcity: S
This hymn was included in LK as #5 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “'Mein Freund zerschmelzt', Joh. Anastasius Freylinghausen, Halle 1704”. Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen (1670-1739) was a German theologian, pastor and hymnwriter whose hymnbook Geist-reiches Gesang-Buch was published in Halle in 1704 and included the German-language hymn “Mein Freund zerschmelzt”. The author of this hymn, however, was not Freylinghausen himself but his fellow German hymnwriter Christian Friedrich Richter (1676-1711). The lyrics of the Norwegian-language hymn “Ak, vidste du” come from “Ach! vidste du, som gaaer I Syndens Lenke” by Hans Adolf Brorson (1694-1764) (see notes to cobs #686 and 689), the Danish clergyman, hymnwriter and translator of German hymns into Danish. The hymn was included in his 1739 collection Troens Rare Klenodie. Reference: JD

#694 - Du Hoje Fryd for rene Sjaele (Great Happiness for Clean Souls—Norwegian), Scarcity: S
This hymn was included in LK as #15 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “Breitendich's Koralb. 1764”. Frederik Christian Breitendich (1702-1775) was a Danish organist and harpsichordist whose Koralbog was published in 1764, containing hymns arranged for the organ to accompany congregational singing, including hymns from the Pontoppidan Salmebog (see notes to cob #689). According to PU, the hymn lyrics originated in a German version by German historian, pastor and hymnwriter Gottfried Arnold (1666-1714) and were rendered in Danish by the hymnwriter and hymn translator Hans Adolf Brorson (1694-1764) (see notes to cobs #686, 689 and 693). References: DB (information about Breitendich), JD (information about Arnold)

#695 - Far Verden Farvel (To the World Farewell—Norwegian), Scarcity: S
This hymn was included in LK as #23 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “Zincks Koralb. 1801”. H.O.C. (Hardenack Otto Conrad) Zinck (1746-1832) was a German-born Danish composer, musician, theatre choir director and church organist whose Koral-Melodien til den Evangelisk-christelige Psalmebog (“Choral Melodies to the Evangelical Christian Hymnbook”) was published in 1801 and contained tunes to go with hymns in a hymnal issued several years earlier. PU attributes the hymn merely to “Kingo”, meaning that the lyrics were by Thomas Hansen Kingo (1634-1703) (see notes to cob #688), the Danish pastor (and later bishop), hymnwriter and hymnbook editor. Kingo's lyrics appeared as “the eleventh song” in his 1681 work Aandelige Sjunge-Kor, Part II. Incidentally, it is curious that the single verse of lyrics that Lindeman included along with his music for the hymn in LK is totally different from the lyrics as they appeared in Kingo's work and also in PU (which was published in the same year as LK); the opening words of the hymn, “Far Verden far vel”, do not even appear anywhere in Lindeman's verse! References: DB (information about Zinck)

#696 - Fryd dig, du Kristi Brud (Rejoice, You Bride of Christ—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
This hymn was included in LK as #27 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's longer-than-usual notes as to its origin read “'Auf meinem lieben Gott', Barth. Gesius, Frankf. a. d. O. 1605; J. H. Schein 1627. Oprindelig en verdslig Vise, Nurnberg 1578.” Bartholomaus Gesius (1562-1613) was a German musician and composer who lived in Frankfurt an der Oder and compiled a work with the title Christliche Haus- und Tisch-Musica, published in 1605. Gesius' tune for “Auf meinem lieben Gott” is said to have been taken from a secular composition with the title “Venus, du und dein kind” by a Flemish composer and church musician, Jacob Regnart (d. 1600), which appeared in a collection of Regnart's songs published in Nuremberg (Nurnberg), apparently in 1574 with a second edition in 1578. Another German composer and church musician, Johann Hermann Schein (1586-1630), included the hymn “Auf meinem lieben Gott” with his setting of the formerly secular tune in his 1627 hymn collection Cantional oder Gesang-Buch. The words “Oprindelig en verdslig Vise” in Lindeman's notes are merely a reference to the tune's origin as a secular piece. As to the lyrics, PU merely says “Gammel Dansk” (old Danish). The tune also appeared, in a slightly different Swedish version, on cob #97. References: AD (information about Gesius), JD (information about Schein), GD (information about Regnart and the use of his secular composition)

#697 - Guds Godhed vil vi Prise (God's Goodness Will we Praise—Norwegian), Scarcity: S
The tune and the lyrics of this hymn come from two different sources. The hymn was included in LK as #33 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to the origin of its tune read “'Von Gott will ich nicht lassen', christl. u. trostl. Tischgesange, durch Joach. Magdeburgium, Erffurdt 1572. Opr. Verdslig.” Joachim Magdeburg (born 1525; living in 1583) was a German pastor who compiled a hymnbook with the title Christliche und Trostliche Tischgesenge published in Erfurt, Germany in 1572 that included the hymn “Von Gott will ich nicht lassen” with lyrics by German educator, pastor and hymnwriter Ludwig Helmbold (1532-1598), written by Helmbold in Erfurt during a time of plague in 1563. The notation “Opr. Verdslig” (oprindelig verdslig = originally secular) means that the tune was adapted by Magdeburg from a melody used for a non-religious piece. The lyrics of the Norwegian hymn come from a different German hymn sung to a similar tune, the New Year's hymn “Helft mir Gottes Gute preisen” (“Help Me to Praise God's Goodness”) by German professor, poet and hymnwriter Paul Eber (1511-1569). PU lists Eber as author of the hymn and then adds the name “R. Katholm”, because it was translated from German into Danish by Danish professor and pastor Rasmus Katholm (c. 1540-1581). The lyrics to the hymn in PU are different from those in LK (in which only the first verse of lyrics is included). Still another version of the hymn with the same title but lyrics considerably different from those in either LK or PU was written by the nineteenth-century Danish pastor, poet, scholar, theologian and hymnwriter Nicolai Frederik Severin Grundtvig (1783-1872). References: JD, DB (information about Katholm)

#698 - Herre, jeg har handlet ilde (Lord, I have done Wrong—Norwegian), Scarcity: S
This hymn was included in LK as #37 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to its origin read “'Herr ich habe misgehandelt', af J. Cruger, Leipzig 1649”. Johann Cruger (1598-1662) (see also notes to cob #666) was a German composer who edited a hymnal with the title Geistliche Kirchemelodien, published in Leipzig in 1649, and it included the penitential hymn “Herr ich habe misgehandelt” by Johann Franck (1618-1677), a German lawyer and official in his native town of Guben who was also a hymnwriter. PU lists Franck's name as the author of the hymn followed by “B. C. Aegidius”. Berthold Christian Aegidius (Gjodesen) (1673-1733) was a Danish priest and hymnwriter who translated Franck's hymn from German. The translation appeared in Aegidius' Flensborger-psalmebog of 1717. References: JD, DB (information about Aegidius (indexed under “Gjodesen”))

#699 - Hvad er det Godt i Jesu Arme (How good it is in the arms of Jesus—Norwegian), Scarcity: LC
The tune and the lyrics of this hymn once again come from two different sources. The hymn was included in LK as #43 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to the origin of its tune read “'Wie wohl ist mir o Freund', J. A. Freylinghausen, Halle 1704”. As noted in the paragraph about cob #693, Johann Anastasius Freylinghausen (1670-1739) was a German theologian, pastor and hymnwriter who compiled a hymnbook, Geist-reiches Gesang-Buch, published in Halle in 1704. It included the German-language hymn “Wie wohl ist mir, O Freund der Seelen” by German translator, educator and hymnwriter Wolfgang Christoph Dessler (1660-1722). PU includes a version of the hymn as translated from the German in which the first line, “Hvor godt er det i Jesu Arme”, is different from the first line of the version in LK (“Hvad er det godt i Jesu Arme”, the same as the title of the cob); otherwise, the first verse of the PU version is very similar to the first verse of the LK version (the only verse of the hymn that was included in LK). PU attributes the hymn to “U. B. v. Bonin” and “Brorson”, meaning that the lyrics to the Norwegian version of the hymn came from a different German hymn, “Wie gut ist's doch in Gottes Armen” by Ulrich Bogislaus von Bonin (1682-1752), a German hymnwriter, and that von Bonin's hymn was translated into Danish by Hans Adolf Brorson (1694-1764) (see notes to cob #686), the well-known Danish hymnwriter and translator of German hymns into Danish. Reference: JD, AD (information about von Bonin)

#700 - Hvad kan os komme til for nod (No Harm can come to us—Norwegian), Scarcity: S
This hymn was included in LK as #44 (see notes to cob #666) and Lindeman's notes as to the origin of its tune read “'Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit', Joseph Klug, Wittenberg 1535”. Another version of the same tune appeared on cob #607 with the title “It is Now Time” and still another version appeared on cob #77 with the title “Midsommar-sang (Midsummer Hymn—Swedish)”. As was noted in the paragraph about cob #607, the tune was used to accompany a hymn that has come to be known as “Nun Freut Euch” (“Now Rejoice”) or “Luther's Hymn” and that was attributed to “Martinus Luther” on page 27 of Geistliche Lieder, a 1535 hymn collection published by Joseph Klug, a printer in Wittenberg, Germany. The tune was later used for another sixteenth-century German hymn about last days being at hand, “Es ist gewisslich an der Zeit”, the lyrics to which have been translated a number of times into English beginning, for example, “'Tis Sure That Awful Time Will Come”, “The Day is Surely Drawing Near”, etc., in other words, using language similar to “It is Now Time”, the title of cob #607. The lyrics of the Norwegian hymn, however, came from a different German hymn, “Was kann uns kommen an fur Not”. PU gives as the author of the lyrics to that hymn “A. Knopken” and, in parentheses, “Dav. Ps. 23” [Psalm 23], referring to Andreas Knopken (c. 1490-1539), a German-born pastor who had to flee to Riga in Latvia because of his support of the Reformation and who played an important role in furthering the Reformation in that country. He wrote a number of hymns based on the Psalms and his hymn “Was kann uns kommen an fur Not” was based on the 23rd Psalm. Reference: JD (information about Knopken; a number of other references give his birth year as in or about 1468)