A. J. Showalter: singing-school gospel songs

About A. J. Showalter

Showalter was born on 1 May 1858 at Cherry Grove, West Virginia, and trained at the Ruebush-Kieffer School of Music; he was teaching in shape-note singing schools by the age of fourteen. In 1880 he became principal of the Southern Normal Musical Institute, and in 1884 he founded the Showalter Music Company at Dalton, Georgia. He edited The Glad Evangel for Revival, Camp and Evangelistic Meetings in 1887 and later compiled The Best Gospel Songs and Their Composers (1904). He was an elder of the First Presbyterian Church in Dalton and died at Chattanooga, Tennessee, on 14 September 1924; he is buried at West Hill Cemetery in Dalton.

'Leaning on the everlasting arms' appeared in The Glad Evangel in 1887. Showalter wrote the tune and the refrain, taking Deuteronomy 33:27 as his text after two former pupils wrote to him of their wives' deaths, and asked Elisha A. Hoffman to supply the verses; his nephew Samuel Duncan is sometimes credited with part of the music. The hymn became a standard, and its use in the 1955 film The Night of the Hunter and in True Grit (2010) kept it in circulation.

The rest of the catalogue is the working repertory of a southern singing-school publisher: 'Walking in the king's highway', 'When the trumpet shall sound' (1895), 'The Lord's our Rock', 'Be a blessing' and settings of older hymns such as 'Sweet the moments, rich in blessing' and 'Savior, again to Thy dear name we raise'. Almost all are strophic with a refrain.

Listening and playing notes

Showalter's tunes were written for unaccompanied or lightly accompanied congregational singing in singing schools, so a steady beat and clear text matter more than nuance. 'Leaning on the everlasting arms' should move in two, with the refrain firmer than the verse and no rallentando before it. The part-writing is mostly homophonic, and the bass often walks stepwise under the refrain; keep that line audible. Where a title is a setting of an older hymn text, the tune rather than the words is Showalter's contribution.

Selected scores

1. Leaning on the Everlasting Arms

   Published in The Glad Evangel (Dalton, Georgia, 1887). Showalter wrote the tune and the refrain on Deuteronomy 33:27; Hoffman supplied the verses.

2. Peace, Be Still

   The catalogue's title is damaged at the front, but the piece is the Showalter setting of 'Peace, be still', sung to Mrs J. M. Hunter's 'Mid the billows of temptation'.

3. Savior, Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise (Showalter)

   John Ellerton's 1866 evening hymn in a Showalter tune; the bracketed name marks the setting, not the poet.

4. Walking in the King's Highway (Showalter)

   A marching hymn whose refrain gives the title, printed in Showalter's Gospel Songs No. 2 at Dalton.

5. O the Wondrous Love of Jesus

   A meditation on the love of Christ in the short, repeating phrases that singing-school classes could pick up by ear.

6. When the Trumpet Shall Sound

   Dated 1895 and set to a text by Mrs R. A. Evilsizer, on the last trumpet of 1 Corinthians 15.

7. I'll Be There (Garey)

   A heaven-meeting song; the name in brackets appears to be the text author, though the catalogue does not label it.

8. Sweet the Moments, Rich in Blessing (Showalter)

   Walter Shirley's 1770 hymn on the atonement, sung to a Showalter tune rather than to the older English melody usually paired with it.

9. The Lord's Our Rock, in Him We Hide (Showalter)

   Vernon J. Charlesworth's refuge hymn, set by Showalter; the bracketed name distinguishes it from other settings of the same text.

10. Be a Blessing (Oatman)

    Johnson Oatman Jr's exhortation to usefulness, given a refrain tune by Showalter for revival meetings.