Howard E. Smith: the Connecticut organist behind Love Lifted Me

About Howard E. Smith

Smith was born in Connecticut on 16 July 1863 and died at Norwalk on 13 August 1918. Hymn indexes describe him as a church organist in the state, but the churches he served, his training and his denomination are not securely documented. Almost everything else known about him comes from a recollection by James Rowe's daughter, Louise Rowe Mayhew, recorded in 1955: a small man whose hands were badly knotted with arthritis, who nonetheless played the piano while Rowe paced and hummed ideas for him to try.

That collaboration produced Love Lifted Me at Saugatuck, now part of Westport, in 1911 or 1912. The song was copyrighted in 1912 by Charlie Davis Tillman, who soon sold it to Robert H. Coleman; it reached print in Coleman's Select Gospel Songs of 1916. Its tune is usually called SAFETY, and the hymn has since appeared in hundreds of hymnals.

The catalogue's other titles are mostly short gospel settings: Jesus Saves, I Know Who Pilots Me, We Are Under Marching Orders and a group of invitation and children's songs. Few of them have the documented history that Love Lifted Me has, and several survive only because a hymnal editor reprinted them. The files carry no publication dates.

Listening and playing notes

These tunes were written to be learned in one hearing, so the phrasing should stay square and the refrain should lift without hurry. The harmonies are mostly primary chords, which makes blend and diction the real work: consonants carry the text, and the inner parts should not thicken the accompaniment. Love Lifted Me depends on a gentle swing in the refrain, not on speed. Where a score is a single stanza, resist adding repeats that the page does not mark.

Selected scores

1. Jesus Saves! Jesus Saves!

   Hymnary credits Smith with a tune for this standard gospel text; the catalogue files it under his name with the exclamation intact.

2. Love Lifted Me

   The 1912 setting of James Rowe's text, tune SAFETY, and the one piece by which Smith is still known.

3. I Know Who Pilots Me

   A James Rowe text, 'When angry waves about me roll', set by Smith; the catalogue carries no date.

4. We Are Under Marching Orders

   A missionary marching song whose refrain draws on the Great Commission.

5. I Was Sinking Deep in Sin

   The opening line of Love Lifted Me, catalogued separately; compare the first page before ordering both.

6. In the Name of Our God We Will Set Up Our Banners

   A setting of Psalm 20:5, in the assertive idiom of the gospel march.

7. There's a Still Small Voice Now Speaking to You

   An invitation hymn that calls on the image of Elijah's still small voice.

8. 'Tis the Mighty Rock of Ages

   A Rock of Ages gospel song, distinct from Toplady's hymn and its older tunes.

9. I Will Live for Jesus Day by Day

   A short consecration song, one of the many brief pieces that make up the catalogue's 44 minutes.

10. O Thou Bleeding Lamb of God

    A communion hymn addressed to the Lamb, in the direct language of the revival songbook.