James Ramsey Murray: gospel songs and the Mueller tune

James Ramsey Murray is remembered for one tune and employed on dozens of others. The catalogue holds twenty-five scores, about fourteen minutes of music and 6,578 notated notes; twenty-three carry lyrics, and every entry sits at complexity index 0. Away in a Manger, his setting of the Christmas text, is third on the page behind The Coming of the Lord and The Little Missionary. The rest are the Sunday-school and gospel songs he wrote and edited in Cincinnati: Cling to the Bible, Over Jordan, Hold Out Your Hand, and Kobe, whose title names a Japanese city. All twenty-five are short, and none presents notation beyond the simplest level.

25Scores
14 minutesMusic (approx.)
6,578Notated notes
23Scores with lyric notation

About James Ramsey Murray

Murray was born in Andover, Massachusetts, on 7 March 1841 and studied at the Musical Institute at North Reading under Lowell Mason and George F. Root. During the Civil War he was in camp in Virginia, where in 1863 he wrote the song Daisy Deane to words by his cousin Thomas F. Winthrop; it became his first popular success. He later settled in Cincinnati, where he worked as a composer and compiler of songbooks, and died there on 10 March 1905 of Addison's disease. He is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery.

His collections include Pure Diamonds (1872), School Chimes (1874), Joyful Songs (1875), Heavenward (1877), Heart and Voice (1881) and Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (1887); with Frederic Woodman Root he also produced The Pacific Glee Book. Dainty Songs is the book that matters here, because it contains the first printing of the tune now called Mueller. Murray published it as Luther's Cradle Hymn, claimed the words for Luther, and put only his initials where a composer's name would go. Later compilers took him at his word, assumed he had arranged an existing melody, and by 1914 were crediting an otherwise unknown Carl Mueller.

The catalogue reflects that mix. Away in a Manger is the Mueller tune; The Coming of the Lord, The Good Old Christian Way, For Christ Is Our Endeavor and the rest are gospel songs from the same world of Cincinnati Sunday-school publishing. All twenty-five entries are at index 0 and average about thirty-four seconds, so this is a collection of single-stanza settings rather than extended works.

Listening and playing notes

These are congregational songs, and the test is whether a room of untrained singers can hold them without the organ doubling every line. Keep the pulse steady, the harmony plain and the refrain lighter than the verse so that repeated lines do not turn heavy. In Away in a Manger the melody is in the upper part and the accompaniment should stay under it. The part-writing is homophonic, so the tenor and bass carry the harmony and should not overpower the tune. Because most items last well under a minute, group them into sets rather than isolating one.

Selected scores

The Coming of the Lord
The most-viewed score on the page, a Second Advent hymn of the kind that filled American gospel songbooks after 1870.
The Little Missionary
A children's missionary song; the parenthetical surname distinguishes Murray's setting from another with the same title.
Away in a Manger
The tune known as Mueller, first printed in Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses (Cincinnati, 1887) under the heading Luther's Cradle Hymn.
The Good Old Christian Way
A revival song in the plain style Murray edited for: verse, refrain, and a tune a congregation can pick up at a first hearing.
Over Jordan
A heaven song about crossing the Jordan; the catalogued parenthetical may name a text author or a tune, and is not explained.
Cling to the Bible
A Bible-defence chorus titled by its full first line, the sort of piece that circulated widely in undated Sunday-school papers.
For Christ Is Our Endeavor
A short profession-of-purpose song, with the catalogue's lower-case rendering of 'christ' left uncorrected in the file title.
With His Dear and Loving Care
A providence hymn; this entry uses Murray's full middle name rather than the 'James R.' of most files.
Hold Out Your Hand
An invitation to the anxious, built around a single gesture rather than a doctrine.
Kobe
The title names the Japanese port city, which suggests a missionary piece; the catalogue supplies no text, author or date.

Questions about James Ramsey Murray

How many James Ramsey Murray scores are in the catalogue?

Twenty-five, about fourteen minutes of music and 6,578 notated notes. Twenty-three of the entries carry lyrics.

Is the Away in a Manger tune his?

The version here is: the melody known as Mueller, first printed in his Dainty Songs of 1887. The tune standard in Britain, Cradle Song, is W. J. Kirkpatrick's and dates from 1895.

Why is the tune sometimes credited to Carl Mueller?

Because Murray printed only his initials and described the text as Luther's. Later editors assumed he had arranged someone else's melody, and the invented attribution stuck.

What is Kobe?

A short gospel song whose title names the Japanese port city. The catalogue gives no text, author or date, so whether it was written for missionary use cannot be confirmed from the entry.