Herbert J. Lacey: Philadelphia gospel songs

About Herbert J. Lacey

Lacey worked in Philadelphia as a gospel-song editor, composer and compiler in the first decade of the twentieth century. His name appears on the title page of New Songs of the Gospel No. 2, published by Hall-Mack of Philadelphia and New York in 1905 with C. Austin Miles and Maurice A. Clifton as co-editors. He was also one of the compilers of The Tribute of Song, issued by Hall-Mack in 1904 alongside William J. Kirkpatrick and H. L. Gilmour.

Hymnary credits him with 49 tunes and traces his texts and arrangements across a run of gospel collections, from The Old Story in Song and The Bible School Hymnal to Favorites Number 4. He wrote words as well as music: the catalogue's most-viewed title is credited to him as author rather than composer, which is why the page mixes songs he set with songs he wrote.

The 21 entries are almost all short strophic songs with refrains, the standard shape of a Hall-Mack number: a four-line verse for soloist or choir, a repeated chorus, and a tag at the end. The complexity spread is modest, with six entries at index 0, eleven at 1 and four at 2, and the lyrics count of seven is lower than a gospel-song writer's page might suggest, in part because the field is not filled on every file. Titles are first lines rather than tune names throughout, so a search for a tune will not find them.

Listening and playing notes

Lacey writes for a room rather than a hall: the melody sits in the soprano, the harmony is diatonic, and the refrain is meant to be picked up by people hearing it for the first time. Keep the verses moving and let the chorus broaden slightly; the effect depends on that contrast. The tenor often carries a chromatic passing note worth pointing out in rehearsal. Because several titles run to a full sentence, speak the words before singing them: the accent pattern of a long first line, not the bar-lines, should decide where the phrase breathes.

Selected scores

1. I Was There When It Happened

   By far the most-viewed entry, and one the hymnals credit to Lacey as author of the words rather than composer of the tune.

2. I Am on My Way to Heaven

   A pilgrimage chorus with a marching refrain, the second most-viewed score in the collection.

3. The Lord Hath Declared and the Lord Will Perform

   A faith-promise text built on a promise and its fulfilment; Hymnary records it in The Bible School Hymnal.

4. O Lord in Me Thy Work Revive

   A revival prayer in the older eighteenth-century manner, asking for the work to be renewed rather than begun.

5. The Old, Old Gospel Story So Many Long to Hear

   A retelling of the gospel narrative in verse, one of several story songs in the collection.

6. Far, Far Have I Wandered

   A prodigal-song invitation, the kind of number that closed a Hall-Mack service.

7. He Waits for Thee with Wondrous Grace

   An invitation hymn that dwells on the patience of the Saviour rather than on the singer's need.

8. Never known to fail - Herbert J. Lacey

   A short trust chorus with a title that states its argument in four words, and one of the shortest entries in the collection.

9. There's a Place Just for You in the Work of the Lord

   A recruitment hymn for Sunday-school and mission workers, with a refrain addressed directly to the listener.

10. A Wandering Boy Was Aweary

    A narrative ballad in the rescue-mission idiom, of the sort that filled Philadelphia gospel songbooks of the 1900s.