Bilhorn's gospel songs: choruses for the revival tent

About Peter Philip Bilhorn

Peter Philip Bilhorn was born at Mendota, Illinois, on 22 July 1865, three months after his father's death in the Civil War. He grew up in Chicago, sang in German beer gardens as a teenager, and was converted at the Moody Church in the early 1880s under the evangelist George F. Pentecost. He studied with George F. Root and George C. Stebbins, and in 1885 founded, with his brother George, the Bilhorn Brothers Organ Company, which built a folding portable pump organ of about sixteen pounds for open-air campaigns. He wrote or compiled some two thousand gospel songs, issued them through his own Chicago house, and died in Los Angeles on 13 December 1936.

The catalogue is entirely short-form: 32 minutes spread over 62 items, so most pieces run to well under a minute of music and several are probably chorus-only extracts. Sweet Peace, the Gift of God's Love, copyrighted in 1887, is the song most often attached to his name, but it is not among the fourteen most-viewed entries here.

Several titles carry a surname in brackets, as in We walk by faith (wolfe) and Peace, be still! (beede). Those names look like the composer of the tune and the writer of the words; the catalogue does not say, and it files every entry under Bilhorn himself.

Listening and playing notes

Gospel choruses are built to be repeated, so keep the tempo steady and the words forward. The refrain is the point: do not slow into it, and let the last line lift rather than broaden. Four-part harmony should stay light, with the melody clear above the alto, and the accompaniment simple enough that the singers are not waiting for it. Where a verse is printed, sing it plainly and save the ornament for the refrain, which is what a congregation will remember.

Selected scores

1. We Walk by Faith

   The most-viewed score here; the bracketed name suggests the setting was taken from another hand and reprinted in a Bilhorn collection.

2. I've Cast My Heavy Burdens Down

   A refrain built on the Canaan image that runs through American gospel verse, and one of the longest titles in the catalogue.

3. Oh, the Best Friend to Have Is Jesus

   The chorus that hymnals credit to Bilhorn as author; it appears twice here, once under this title and once as The best friend to have is jesus.

4. Peace, Be Still!

   A storm-at-sea chorus; the bracketed name probably identifies the tune's composer rather than Bilhorn.

5. Living Where the Healing Waters Flow

   One of the revival choruses that mix the pool of Bethesda with the language of the campaign hymn.

6. If I Could Only Tell Him as I Know Him

   A testimony chorus, the sort of first-person number that filled the solo spots in a gospel service.

7. Redemption! Oh, Wonderful Story

   A redemption ballad in the Sankey manner, from the years when Bilhorn's songbooks were competing with Sankey's.

8. Lord, I Make a Full Surrender

   A consecration chorus, the standard invitation piece at the end of a revival meeting.

9. Christ, Our Rock!

   A short chorus on the rock of the Psalms, typical of the two- or three-stanza pieces in the collection.

10. Could I Tell It

    A witness chorus whose title has lost its capital in the catalogue; no source hymnal is recorded for it.