T. Martin Towne: gospel songs for revival and Sunday school

About T. Martin Towne

Thomas Martin Towne was born at Coleraine on 30 May 1835, the son of Arad Towne, a vocal music teacher, and Tryphenia McCloud. Sources differ over whether the town was in Vermont or Massachusetts. He attended Williston Seminary at Easthampton, went to Hudson, New York, in 1855 and then Albany, taught at Ypsilanti and Detroit, and settled at Janesville, Wisconsin, before moving to Chicago, where he married Belle Kellogg. A doctor and teacher as well as a composer, he sang with the Continentals and died in Chicago on 4 April 1912.

His career ran through the songbook trade rather than the concert hall. He compiled or co-edited Good Will (1878) with Jairus M. Stillman, The International Lesson Hymnal (1878) with David Cook, Choir Anthems (1880), Anthems of Joy (1891) and Pentecostal Hymns around 1905, and wrote cantatas including The Message of Christmas. One of his most popular songs was a Civil War piece, Old Abe the Battle Eagle, from 1865.

The titles here are typical of the genre: an invitation in Unbar the Door of Your Heart Tonight, a warning in O Sinner, God Is Calling Thee, a children's song in Sing, O Sing, Little Ones Sing and a Christmas piece in Good Will to Men. No text authors are credited on the files. Eighteen of the 40 scores carry lyrics, all are filed as classical, and the whole group runs to only about 22 minutes, which is what short strophic hymns add up to.

Listening and playing notes

These are short strophic gospel songs, often with a refrain, so most of the interpretive work is in the words. Keep the tempo steady and let the refrain gain weight without a ritardando. Where a score is in four parts, the inner voices mostly move by step; tune them carefully instead of doubling the melody. Check the range before assigning verses, since several titles sit high for a congregation, and a transposition is usually more practical than a rewritten accompaniment.

Selected scores

1. Though Temptation, the Envoy of Wrath

   The most-viewed score here: a warning hymn in strophic verses, with no text author named.

2. Sing, O Sing, Little Ones Sing

   A children's Sunday-school song; the file's mixed capitalisation is tidied in the display title only.

3. Unbar the Door of Your Heart Tonight

   An invitation hymn built on the open-door image of Revelation 3:20.

4. Voyager over Life's Storm Fretted Sea

   A life-as-voyage hymn, and one of the longer titles in the group.

5. We Come to Worship Thee, O Holy One

   A worship opening addressed to God in the second person, suited to the start of a service.

6. O What Are You Doing for Jesus

   A revival appeal to the undecided, with a refrain.

7. Let Down Your Net Tonight, O Brother

   Its title borrows the fishing miracle of Luke 5 for an evangelistic invitation.

8. A song of love - T. Martin Towne

   A short sacred song; the catalogue gives no text author or hymnal source.

9. For Salvation Are You Praying

   A question-and-answer hymn in the revival manner, with a refrain.

10. All Around on Every Side There's Work to Do

    A Sunday-school worker's song; the file's apostrophe is kept.