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The Illingworth Moor Singers' Book: A Snapshot of Methodist Music in the Early Nineteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 April 2011
Extract
Congregational song occupies a central place in the history of Methodism and offers an insight into the theological, doctrinal, cultural and educational principles and practices of the movement. The repertoire, performance styles and musical preferences in evidence across Methodism at different points in its history reflect the historical influences that shaped it, the frequent tensions that emerged between local practices and the movement's hierarchy and the disputes that led to a proliferation of breakaway groups during the nineteenth century. The focus of this article will be the implicit tension between the evidence of local practice contained within the Illingworth Moor Singers' Book, which forms part of the archives at Mount Zion Methodist Church and Heritage Centre, near Halifax, UK, and the repertoire and performance practice advocated by John Wesley in the latter part of the eighteenth century. While the study of a single, locally produced collection cannot be regarded as representative of wider practices, it is nonetheless useful in highlighting the need for a more nuanced approach to the history of Methodist music, which takes account of local circumstances and practices.
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References
1 Illingworth Moor Singers' Book (n.p., n.d., rebound 1823).
2 Bradley, John, ‘200 Years of Methodism: Mount Zion, Ogden 1773-1973’, (n.d.) www.mountzionhalifax.org.uk/Bicentenary1773-1973/MZ%20Bicentenary.php (accessed 22 Sept. 2009).Google Scholar
3 Wesley, John, Select Hymns with Tunes Annext: Designed Chiefly for the use of the People called Methodists (London, 1765 [1761]);Google ScholarSacred Harmony, or a Choice Collection of Psalms and Hymns, Set to Music in Two and Three Parts for the Voice, Harpsichord & Organ ([London], 1790 [1781])Google Scholar.
4 As the early pages of the volume are not paginated, there is no indication of whether there was a comparable list of male singers. The substantial size of the group, and by implication of the Society as a whole, is underlined by the expansion of the site, including the erection of a Sunday School in 1820. ‘Illingworth Moor Methodist Church’ (2009), illingworthmoor.org.uk/history.htm (accessed 22 Sept. 2009).
5 Ibid.
6 The complete book presumably contained more tunes, as pp. 41-8 are missing from the manuscript at Mount Zion.
7 The HTI database contains all hymn tunes printed anywhere in the world with English-language texts up to 1820, and their publication history up to that date. The Hymn Tune Index (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, n.d.), hymntune.library.uiuc.edu/ (accessed 22 Sept. 2009).Google Scholar
8 This trend began with the inclusion of a single ‘set-piece’, ‘The Voice of my Beloved sounds' in the second edition of Sacred Melody (1765), which was also included in the first edition of Sacred Harmony (1781). The term ‘set-piece’ refers to a through-composed setting of a metrical text; the term was commonly used in relation to Anglo-American sacred music in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Crawford, Richard, ‘Set-piece’, in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, ed. Root, Deane L. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/25514 (accessed 22 Sept. 2009)Google Scholar.
9 The Works of John Wesley Volume 7: A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, ed. Hildebrandt, Franz and Beckerlegge, Oliver A. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1983 [1780]).Google Scholar
10 Temperley, Nicholas, ‘Methodist Church Music’, in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/47533 (accessed 22 Sept. 2009).Google Scholar
11 Butts, Thomas, Harmonia-Sacra, or A Choice Collection of Psalm and Hymn Tunes (London: Thomas Butts, [1754]).Google Scholar
12 Miller, Edward, The Psalms of David for the Use of Parish Churches. The Words Selected from the Version of Tate & Brady by the Revd George Hay Drummond (London: W. Miller, [1790]);Google ScholarMiller, Edward, Dr Watts's Psalms and Hymns (London: For the author, [1800]);Google ScholarSacred Music (London: For the author, [1800])Google Scholar.
13 HTI source: MillWDH (c. 1803). J.M. Black suggests that Edward Miller and his son collaborated on this project: ‘In David’s Harp he collaborated with his son, a Methodist clergyman, in adapting and composing about 300 tunes to Wesley's selection of hymns.’ J.M. Black, ‘Miller, Edward’, in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, www. oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/18688 (accessed 22 Sept. 2009). The full title of the volume is David's Harp: Consisting of about Three Hundred Tunes adapted to Mr Wesley's Selection of Hymns, One hundred of which tunes are originals composed expressly for this work by Edward Miller Doctor in Music and his son W. E. Miller with an appendix containing pieces for the practice of societies of singers, also adapted for domestic use on the pianoforte on a Sunday evening. London: printed for R. Lomas at the New Chapel, City Road, and may be had at Broderip and Wilkinson in the Haymarket, or of any Music or Bookseller in the Kingdom. Although undated, the HTI notes: ‘According to the Leeds Mercury (Supplement, 3 April 1886), a ms. note on the flyleaf of one copy states that the book was pub. in 1803. Broderip & Wilkinson (sellers) date 1798-1808.’ HTI source: MillWDH.
14 Miller, William, ed., ‘Preface’, David's Harp, iv.Google Scholar
15 Ibid. i.
16 Ibid. iii.
17 Ibid. iv. The curious phrase ‘Methodist body’ suggests institutional approval for the collection without indicating the source of this authority. It is most likely a reference to the Methodist Conference, an annual gathering of elected representatives set up by John Wesley in the eighteenth century.
18 Rider, Charles, A Selection of Hymn Tunes for the use of the Sunday School in Elm Street, Manchester, 2 vols ([Manchester]: [Charles Rider], [1820-]).Google Scholar
19 No known copy of the first edition of the first volume survives; the expanded first volume and second volume are catalogued as sources #SHT1 1b and #SHT 2 in the HTI. The HTI editors note that vol. 2 contains tunes known to have been first published in 1820 and argue that the numbering of the volumes suggests that #SHT1 1b was printed after #SHT 2, as the latter's numbering follows on from the number of tunes known to be in #SHT1 1a, whereas there are several extra tunes in #SHT1 1b.
20 This tune first appeared in the Rev. Harrison's, RalphSacred Harmony (London: For the author by T. Williams, 1784)Google Scholar as ‘Blackbourn’; subsequent instances of the tune label it either in this form or, like Rider, as ‘Blackburn’; there is no recorded use of the corrupted spelling found in the Illingworth Moor Singers' Book. HTI Tune 4446. The contents page of the Illingworth Moor Singers' Bookhas the correct spelling ‘Blackburn’.
21 This tune is a further example of the influence of Rider's collection in terms of nomenclature; Rider labels it ‘Uffingham’ whereas Wesley uses the title ‘Bradford’. The version used by Rider and replicated in the Illingworth Moor Singers' Book is HTI Tune 598a, while Wesley uses the longer, more elaborate version 598b.
22 Sources for 18 tunes could not be identified using the HTI.
23 Nicholas Temperley, private correspondence with the author, November 2008.
24 Wesley, John, A Collection of Tunes, set to Music. As they are Commonly Sung at the Foundery (facsimile reprint of 1742 edition, ed. Spinney, Brian F.) ([Bristol], 1981).Google Scholar
25 Charles Wesley made much use of longer verse structures than the three popular four-line forms. Many of his hymns are written in verses of six or eight lines. See Baker, Frank, Charles Wesley's Verse: An Introduction (London: Epworth Press, 1964)Google Scholar.
26 See above, n. 4.
27 Watson, and Trickett, , eds, Companion to Hymns and Psalms (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing House, 1988): 218.Google Scholar It was also printed in the first volume of Rider's A Selection of Hymn Tunes for the use of the Sunday School in Elm Street, Manchester.
28 Singleton, Tony, ‘Thomas Clark of Canterbury, 1775-1859’, WGMA Articles, www. wgma.org.uk/Articles/Clark/article.htm (accessed 6 Nov. 2008).Google Scholar
29 The HTI identifies tunes by their melodic profile, which provides a reliable indicator of the melody-bearing part for most items in the collection. However, no records could be found for 15 of the tunes; in these cases, the attribution of the melody-bearing voice is necessarily subjective.
30 Drage, Sally, ‘John Fawcett of Bolton: the Changing Face of Psalmody’, in Nineteenth-Century British Music Studies, vol. 2, ed. Dibble, J. and Zon, B. (Aldershot: Ashgate: 2001): 59-69, 61.Google Scholar
31 Ibid.
32 Singleton, ‘Thomas Clark’.
33 Lightwood notes that he ‘was a cloth worker by trade, and an amateur musician of considerable fame in his day. His life was spent in the adjacent villages of Illingworth and Ovenden, which lie about two miles from Halifax.’ Lightwood, James T., The Music of the Methodist Hymn-Book, Being the Story of Each Tune, with Biographical Notices of the Composers (London: Epworth Press, 1938): 59Google Scholar.
34 Temperley, Nicholas, The Music of the English Parish Church, 2 vols, Cambridge Studies in Music (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979): vol. 1, 164.Google Scholar
35 The Methodist Hymn Book, with Tunes (London: Methodist Conference Office, 1933).Google Scholar The Deed of Union brought together the Wesleyan, Primitive and United Methodist Churches, which were the three principal bodies to emerge following the many secessions that afflicted Methodism from the end of the eighteenth century onwards.
36 The version of this hymn tune in the Methodist Hymn Book(1933) appears in the more conventional SATB form with the melody in the top voice; this rearrangement removes the parallel fifths, but the editors also reharmonized parts of the tune to achieve greater momentum and variety.
37 Temperley, Nicholas, ‘Anglican and Episcopalian Church Music 6. English Parochial Music, 1549-1830’, in Grove Music Online, Oxford Music Online, www.oxfordmusiconline. com/subscriber/article/grove/music/46765 (accessed 22 Sept. 2008).Google Scholar
38 Miller, William, ‘Preface’, David's Harp, iii.Google Scholar
39 Nicholas Temperley, ‘Methodist Church Music’.
40 Wesley, John ‘Directions for Singing’, in Select Hymns with Tunes Annext: Designed Chiefly for the use of the People called Methodists, 2nd ed. (London: [s.n.], 1765).Google Scholar
41 Wesley, John ‘Thoughts on the Power of Music’, The Armenian Magazine 4 (1781): 103–7.Google Scholar