-rounded the couplet with full lung power through all the repetitions, till the inevitable "glory, glory hallelujah" had the voice of every soldier in the fort. The song "took," and the marching chorus of the Federal armies of the Civil War was started on its way. Mrs. Howe gave it a poem that made its rusticity sublime, and the “Battle Hymn of the Republic" began a career that promises to run till battle hymns cease to be sung. Julia Ward was born in New York city, May 27, 1819. In 1843 she became the wife of Samuel Gridley Howe, the far-famed philanthropist and champion of liberty, and with him edited an antislavery paper, the Boston Commonwealth, until the Civil War closed its mission. During the war she was active and influential-and has never ceased to be so-in the cause of peace and justice, and in every philanthropic movement. Her great hymn first brought her prominently before the public, but her many other writings would have made a literary reputation. Her four surviving children are all eminent in the scientific and literary world. KELLER'S AMERICAN HYMN. Naturally the title suggests the authorship of the ode, but fate made Keller a musician rather than a poet and hymnist, and the honors of the fine anthem are divided. At the grand performance which created its reputation, the hymn of Dr. O. W. Holmes was substituted for the composer's words. This is Keller's first stanza: Speed our republic, O Father on high! Lead us in pathways of justice and right, Hail! three times hail, to our country and flag! "Flag" was the unhappy word at the end of every one of the four stanzas. To match a short vowel to an orotund concert note for two beats and a "hold" was impossible. When the great Peace Jubilee of 1872, in Boston, was projected, Dr. Holmes was applied to, and responded with a lyric that gave each stanza the rondeau effect designed by the composer, but replaced the flat final with a climax syllable of breadth and music: Angel of Peace, thou hast wandered too long! Spread thy white wings to the sunshine of love! Speed o'er the far-sounding billows of song, Angels of Bethlehem, answer the strain! Let the loud tempest of voices reply, Roll its long surge like the earth-shaking mainl But the glory of the tune was Keller's own. Soon after the close of the war a prize of $500 had been offered by a committee of American gentlemen for the best "national hymn” (meaning words and music). Mr. Keller, though a foreigner, was a naturalized citizen and patriot and entered the lists as a competitor with the zeal of a native and the ambition of an artist. Sometime in 1866 he finished and copyrighted the noble anthem that bears his name, and then began the struggle to get it before the public and test its merit. To enable him to bring it out before the New York Academy of Music, where (unfortunately) he determined to make his first trial, his brother kindly lent him four hundred dollars (which he had laid by to purchase a little home), and he borrowed two hundred more elsewhere. gone. The performance proved a failure, the total receipts being only forty-two dollars. Keller was $500 in debt, and his brother's house-money was But he refused to accept his failure as final. Boston (where he should have begun) was introduced to his masterpiece at every opportunity, and gradually, with the help of the city bands and a few public concerts, a decided liking for it was worked up. It was entered on the program of the Peace Jubilee and sung by a chorus of ten thousand voices. The effect was magnificent. “Keller's American Hymn" became a recognized star number in the repertoire of "best" national tunes; and now few public occasions where patriotic music is demanded omit it in their menu of song.* It is pathetic to know that the composer's one great success brought him only a barren renown. The prize committee, on the ground that none of the competing pieces reached the high standard of excellence contemplated, withheld the $500, and Keller's work received merely the compliment of being judged worth presentation. The artist had his copyright, but he remained a poor man. Matthias Keller was born at Ulm, Wurtemberg, March 20, 1813. In his youth he was both a musi *In Butterworth's "Story of the Tunes," under the account of Keller's grand motet, the following sacred hymn is inserted as "often sung to it:" Father Almighty, we bow at thy feet; Humbly thy grace and thy goodness we own. Trusting our souls on thy mercy alone; Breathe, Holy Spirit, thy comfort divine, Tune every voice to thy music of peace; God of salvation, thy glory we sing, Honors to thee in thy temple belong; Loud-pealing organ and chorus of song. -Theron Brown. cian and a painter. Coming to this country, he chose the calling that promised the better and quicker wages, playing in bands and theatre orchestras, but never accumulating money. He could make fine harmonies as well as play them, but English was not his mother-tongue, and though he wrote a hundred and fifty songs, only one made him well-known. When fame came to him it did not bring him wealth, and in his latter days, crippled by partial paralysis, he went back to his early art and earned a living by painting flowers and retouching portraits and landscapes. He died in 1875, only three years after his Coliseum triumph. “GOD BLESS OUR NATIVE LAND.” This familiar patriotic hymn is notable-though not entirely singular-for having two authors. The older singing-books signed the name of J. S. Dwight to it, until inquiring correspondence brought out the testimony and the joint claim of Dwight and C. T. Brooks, and it appeared that both these scholars and writers translated it from the German. Later hymnals attach both their names to the hymn.* John Sullivan Dwight, born, in Boston, May 13, 1813, was a virtuoso in music, and an enthusiastic student of the art and science of tonal harmony. He joined a Harvard musical club known as “The *For a full account of this disputed hymn, and the curious trick of memory which confused four names in the question of its authorship, see Dr. Benson's Studies of Familiar Hymns, pp. 179-190 |
